Matt huffed over my “little” word choice. When Matt’s face, which had been trained on the ground, lifted, his eyes met mine, which were aimed on him. Not Jacob. Him. The corner of his mouth twitched, but he tamed his smile. Probably a good idea since Jacob was watching him, his hands braced around the chair’s armrests like he was capable of ripping them off.
Suddenly, Matt’s face changed, his gaze sweeping a bit lower. Pushing off the desk, he grabbed one of the towels from his collection and started toward me. Jacob rose from his chair but stayed where he was.
Matt shook out the towel, blocking me from Jacob’s view, then draped the towel over my shoulder. Subtly, his gaze lowered to the spot on my chest just above the barrier of my cover-up where a slightly bruised red mark was showing. The same mark he’d given me here in my hotel room, when I’d known exactly who he was when I put my hands on him.
“Wouldn’t want you ruining another piece of clothing,” he said in a normal voice, shooting me a wink as he tucked the towel down a little lower.
Behind him, I could make out Jacob starting to pace, moving closer with every turn. He didn’t like Matt being so close to me. He didn’t like Matt talking to me or touching me or being the only one who could help me in this instance.
When Matt tucked the towel back from my temple a bit more, his jaw set as he inspected my cut again. “Take a seat. That’s going to require more than a couple stitches, but I’ll go as quickly as I can.” He pulled the desk chair out for me then adjusted the table lamp so it was aimed in my direction. “Here, take a few of these.”
He shook a few pain relievers into my hand and handed me a bottle of water after I’d tossed them into my mouth. Jacob came around beside us, still pacing as he watched the scene like he was helpless.
Matt didn’t seem to notice Jacob as he pulled things out of his messenger bag, his hands moving with the kind of speed and precision only a surgeon’s would, I guessed. I had a flash of what those hands felt like on me, and my body instantly reacted to it. I had to shift in my seat and look away from Matt and his hands to keep from blushing in front of both of them.
“How did you fall?” Matt asked, rolling up his sleeves as he started for the bathroom to wash his hands. His gaze cut to Jacob when neither of us said anything right away.
“I fell backward. My heel caught on a rock or a root or something,” I said, waiting for him to come back, hoping he’d believe it was as simple as that. From the look on his face when came out of the bathroom, he didn’t.
Matt’s hand gently tipped my head back against the chair, turning it so my cut was facing him. Jacob rolled his head a few times, popping his neck.
“You make a habit of hiking backward?” Matt’s brow carved into his forehead as he cleaned the cut. Every time I cringed from the sting, he winced with me.
“Sometimes. When I’m feeling crazy.”
“Are you going to tell me what really went down, or leave me to fill in the blanks?”
I wasn’t sure if he was talking because he really wanted to know that badly or as a way to distract me from what he was doing, especially now that he was starting to numb the area around my gash. Needles and I weren’t exactly simpatico, as Matt had figured out years ago when I’d come back from my eleven-year-old doctor appointment feeling like a pincushion and looking like I’d just been through hell. Ever since, he’d come with me to all of my doctor appointments that involved needles, from blood draws to my annual flu vaccine. He found some new way to distract me each time, either by running some funny video on his phone or making faces at me.
As my silence stretched into the next minute, Matt glanced at Jacob, waiting for an answer.
Jacob lifted his chin. “I don’t know. Are either of you going to eventually tell me what ‘really went down’ on this island before I got here, or is swept under the rug going to be the way of all of it?”
“Not the time, Jacob. Not the right damn time.” Matt’s head turned back toward me, the skin between his brows deepening as he finished numbing my temple. To his credit, I barely felt a thing after the first initial poke.
“I don’t know. We’re all three here, not going anywhere too soon. Seems like the right damn time to me.” When Jacob looked over Matt’s shoulder to see what was happening, his forehead creased, remorse filling his face before he had a chance to turn away. “You two had separate rooms, right?”
Matt’s teeth ground together, his mouth staying shut as he disposed of the needle and gathered what he needed to sew me up.
“That’s right,” I answered, figuring this was about as basic of a question as I could expect from Jacob on this topic.
Jacob rolled his head again. “Yeah, except I checked with the front desk and this room wasn’t checked out until the second night.” He turned so he was angled toward me. “So that means you must have both shared the cabin.”
“The first night we did.” Matt came into the conversation then, his voice as even as I’d ever heard it. His eyes flickered to mine once, something in them telling me it would be okay. It might have been foolhardy and na?ve, but I believed him. Somehow, Matt found a way to make everything okay. “It was late. I took the couch.”
Jacob nodded, his gaze wandering from Matt to me, like we somehow had every answer he was looking for. “Was this before or after Cora knew you were you?”
“What the hell does that matter?” Matt’s head turned over his shoulder, a lethal expression forming.
Jacob lifted his shoulder as he backed into the wall behind him. “Because it does. Say you guys got it on but Cora thought you were me—she’s not to blame. I can forgive her for wanting to have sex with her husband on their wedding night.” His nostrils flared as he sucked in a breath. “But I will kill you, Matt, if you put your hands on her like that. I will end you if you fucked her when she thought she was with me.”
The corners of Matt’s eyes creased as he set the first stitch. Again, I barely felt a thing—even when he was doing something painful, it was impossible for Matt to hurt me.
“So you’d prefer the possibility that we made love knowing exactly who the other was?” Matt asked.
Jacob shoved off the wall, his eyes blazing. “Tell me. Look me in the eyes and tell me. I’m tired of you messing with me. Smirking in my face. Strutting around like you screwed my girl.”
Matt was taking slow, purposeful breaths. That was the only indication he gave that Jacob was getting to him. The whole time, his hands never wavered, his gaze intent, his whole fa?ade focused.
“I’m a little busy stitching up your girl.” He didn’t pull his tone as he continued. “That ‘looking you in the eye and telling you what either did or didn’t happen’ thing is going to have to wait.”
“Fine. Don’t look me in the eye. Just tell me.” Jacob had managed to wrestle himself back against the wall, but his body was twitching from what I guessed was adrenaline and emotion.
“You’re making an awful lot of assumptions. Throwing around a lot of accusations at the person you say you love most in the world.” Matt kept working, not blinking as he fixed me.