Born of Ice

It was the kindest thing anyone had ever said about her. Holding those words close, she pushed herself away from the door and went to put ice on her swollen cheek. She’d barely reached her new cooling unit when she heard a light knock on her door.

She went to open it and found Devyn standing in the hallway, looking contrite.

Why? What did he have to apologize for?

“You need something, Captain?”

Devyn savored the deep contralto of her voice that made him even harder and more desperate for her. Damn, I am drunk. He held up his med kit. “I wanted to take a look at your cheek. Make sure they didn’t crack the bone.”

“It’ll be okay.”

“I’m a doctor, Alix. I want to see it and there’s no arguing with me.”

Alix blinked in confusion at his words, not sure she’d heard him correctly. “What?”

He gave an arrogant nod. “Certified and schooled in human, Andarion, Hyshian and Trisani medicine and surgery. I can go get the degree if you really want to see it. Now let me in.”

She stepped back, awed by yet another discovery where he was concerned. “Why would a doctor be a runner?”

He didn’t answer as he moved her to sit down on the chair beside her bed. Pulling a scanner from his bag, he ran it over the throbbing side of her face. She could smell the alcohol on his breath, but unlike with her father, she couldn’t tell he was drunk. He seemed completely sober.

Devyn tried not to think about how soft her skin was under his fingers as he gently tested the swelling on her cheek. It wasn’t broken, but they’d given her one hell of a bruise. He ground his teeth against the burst of anger that wanted him to tear them apart over it. “I should have killed those bastards.”

“I don’t think they’ll forget their encounter with you anytime soon.”

He didn’t respond as he ran his hand over her split lip. “Did they knock any teeth loose?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t have that much blood in my mouth.”

His rage darkened. The fact that she knew what to look for and that she wasn’t sobbing over what had been done to her made him wonder how many times she’d been hurt like this in her past. Obviously it was nothing new.

“If you want, I will go back and kill them.”

One brow shot up. “I don’t . . .” Alix caught herself before she finished that sentence. She’d started to say that she didn’t want him to go to jail because of her and yet, that was what she was about to do to him.

The hypocrisy stung her.

“You don’t need that trouble,” she finished weakly.

“All right. But if you change your mind, let me know and we’ll get ’em.”

“Just how drunk are you?”

He flashed a devilish grin at her. “Enough that Vik wouldn’t let me launch the ship.”

She was completely amazed by that. “You really can’t tell you’ve had any drinks at all.”

“Yeah, I know. I get that from my dad. At least that’s what my mom tells me. I’ve actually never seen my father take a drink. But my entire family swears he was raging alcoholic for many, many years.”

Like her father . . . only his father had been kind to his child. “What made him stop drinking?”

Devyn returned the scanner to his bag. “He loved my mother more than the bottle and he told me once that he never wanted to take the chance on doing something stupid while drunk that might cause him to lose her.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. My parents have the kind of marriage that everyone dreams about. Even after all these years, they’re still like two teenagers stealing kisses and holding hands.”

“And they love you.”

“Yeah, I’m really lucky and I know it. Both of my parents had a hard upbringing and I cut my teeth on the horror stories of their pasts.” He paused to look at her. “It’s difficult sometimes to reconcile the stories I hear from others about them and their reputations with the reality of the parents I know and love.” He smiled. “I’ve seen grown men wet themselves at the mere mention of my mother’s name and all I can think is this is the woman who wiped my nose and played cuddles with me as a kid. You know? And then my dad . . .” He let out a long breath. “I’ve heard the stories, but I’ve never seen him lose his temper with me, not even when I set the house on fire as a kid and burned up a significant portion of his ungodly expensive art collection.”

She gaped at that. “He didn’t kill you?”

Devyn shook his head. “I was sitting with the firefighters, terrified of the ass-whipping I knew was due me. When I finally saw my dad arrive and come running, I just knew he was going to bust me wide open, right? I know you remember that feeling of ‘Oh, shit, I’m screwed’ from childhood whenever you did something really stupid and believe me, nothing was dumber than setting our house on fire. I wanted to run so bad, but I was too scared to even move. Then he grabbed me up and held me against him until I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t think he was ever going to let me go. He was so grateful I hadn’t been hurt that he never even mentioned what I’d done to the house or his art. It was an accident on my part, but to this day, I feel like shit over it.”