She was pretty feisty and she was also clearly bleeding from somewhere, but when he looked around, he noticed the sink was about six feet away. Without thinking, he reached out to touch her shirt only to get his hand smacked again.
“What is wrong with you? I just said don’t touch me!” This time, she jumped to her feet and started to walk away when he heard something crunch and then she screamed again.
Like a full-on horror movie scream.
Looking down, he saw she’d stepped on some glass and immediately put two and two together—the red stain was wine and that was her wine glass.
Shit.
Scooping her up in his arms, he side-stepped the glass and quickly carried her up the stairs toward the house. He had a first-aid kit up there and knew they needed to clean up her foot fast.
“Put me down!” she cried and then really started to cry from the pain. “Where are we going? I need to go to the emergency room!”
And while Austin didn’t doubt that, he knew it was better for them to get it cleaned up first.
Storming into the house, he ignored all the construction debris and sprinted up the stairs two at a time because the master bathroom here on the main floor was completely gutted. Plus, the entire downstairs was a dusty mess and not the best place to try to clean an open wound. She clung to him as she continued to sob, but at least she wasn’t yelling at him or swatting him away.
Kicking the bathroom door open, he gently placed her down on the vanity countertop and immediately turned on the water in the sink. Glancing down at his hands, he saw they were filthy, so he quickly washed them before directing her to put her foot in the sink.
“Isn’t that going to sting?” she asked, her voice trembling.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe? Doesn’t matter, we’ve got to clean it and see what we’re dealing with.” Once she did as she was told and he heard her hiss, he knew there was more to do. “Wait here. I’m going to get my first-aid kit.”
“Where am I going to go?” she mumbled under her breath and he fought the urge to smile.
Yeah, she was definitely feisty.
As he ran down the stairs, Austin prayed she wasn’t going to need stitches. Even though the glass was hers and technically not his fault, he was still partially responsible. If he hadn’t thrown the sink and scared her, she wouldn’t have fallen in the first place.
Grabbing the kit, he muttered a curse and raced back up the stairs. She was exactly where he’d left her, and she glared at him when he walked back into the room.
It was the first time he was actually looking at her face and…wow. His heart kicked hard in his chest and for a second it felt like he couldn’t breathe.
She was beautiful.
Dark eyes, dark hair, full pink lips, and Austin swore that even though she was glaring at him, he’d give anything to kiss her and see if those lips were as soft as they looked.
“Uh…here,” he said softly. “Let’s take a look at your foot and see what we’re dealing with.” When she nodded, he carefully lifted her foot from the sink and examined it.
It was small. Delicate. And her toes were painted a pale shade of pink. She had tiny ankles and his hands looked almost comically large holding her foot. When he examined the bottom of it, however, he saw one cut and not much else.
“Okay,” he said, forcing a smile on his face. “I’m going to have to sort of…poke around and see if I feel any glass. Right now, there’s only one slice I can see, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t small slivers of glass embedded in there.”
“Oh, God…” she groaned. She closed her eyes and her head fell back and Austin did his best to just focus on the task at hand and not on the way her breasts were straining against her shirt or how he could see her pulse beating rapidly along the slender column of her throat.
“First, I’m going to use the tweezer to pull out this one that’s in the cut and then I’ll check the rest. Okay?”
She nodded.
Austin always had a steady hand, but he saw a slight tremor as he removed the piece of glass from the ball of her foot. Once it was out, he glanced up at her. “You okay?”
Another nod.
His thumb slowly caressed the sole of her foot from her heel to her toes and back again several times. When it seemed it was still only the one gash, he put her foot back down and grabbed a towel for her. “I have a magnifying glass down in my toolbox. Let me go grab it and make sure I didn’t miss anything.”
“Was there a lot in there?”
“Honestly, it looks like just the one spot and I didn’t feel any more glass in it. After I look at it with the magnifier, we’ll pour some peroxide in it and clean it out and I think you can avoid getting stitches.”
She sagged with relief and Austin raced from the room again. When he came back, he found her examining her foot and she was definitely calmer. Looking up at him, she said, “I think you’re right. It stings, but I can’t feel anything in there.”
“Did you step all the way down on the glass?”
“No. Once I realized what I’d done, I jerked my foot away. At least…that’s what I think I did.”
Nodding, he offered her another tentative smile. “May I?” he asked, motioning to her foot. When she nodded, he picked it up again and examined it with the magnifier for several minutes because he didn’t want to risk missing anything. When he was satisfied there wasn’t any other glass embedded anywhere, he guided her foot back to the sink and grabbed the peroxide from under the vanity. It was something he always kept on hand because he knew cuts were bound to happen on a daily basis on a job site and he was thankful he had it right now.
She hissed again when he liberally poured it on the cut and saw her bite her lip while they waited for it to do its thing.
Within minutes, he had her bandaged up and was putting the kit away. When she hopped off the vanity and went to walk out of the bathroom, he stopped her. “You can’t walk down there.”
Her dark ponytail swung around like a whip when she turned back to him. “Why not? I’m leaving,” she stated, frowning at him like he was an idiot.
“It’s filthy down there,” he retorted, using the same tone and look she was giving him.
“So…what? I’m supposed to stay up here until you’re done renovating? No thank you. I’ll be going now.”
She went all of one step before she cried out in pain. Austin automatically swung her up in his arms again and carried her down the stairs while she let out a long breath and rolled her eyes. “You know, I’m getting a little tired of you manhandling me.”
“Yeah, well, believe it or not, I don’t care.”
He swore she mumbled something under her breath, but he didn’t catch it. Once they were outside and down on the sand, he contemplated his next move. Her foot was bandaged but obviously it still hurt. “Um…where’s your shoes? Are they down by the water or out by your car?”
“They’re in my house.” Wiggling in his arms, she said, “Seriously, can you just put me down?”
“Where’s your house? Because you can’t walk in the sand with your foot like that. You barely made it one step without crying. Plus, there’s a chance of sand getting under the bandage and into the cut…”