:o Hello again bunnies! Enjoy the new chapter, it's gonna take me a bit longer to get chapter 7 up cos I've hardly written any of it and I'm busy back at college now. But I'll get it here eventually, promise!

Hope you lot like tattoos… ;)

Chapter 6: Heroics

In my en-suite bathroom I perched on a chair and let Kurtis rifle through my cabinet for medical supplies. I told him that I was perfectly capable of dressing my own wounds, but he ignored me and ordered me to sit down and keep still. In the bright electric light we were able to see the damage more clearly. Kurtis knelt on the floor and gently wiped away the blood, a cloth in one hand, the other hand holding the back of my knee to keep it steady. His attentiveness soothed me, and I found myself thinking less and less about the attack on the house and more and more about the sensation of his fingers on my skin. While he tended to me, he explained that I'd been cut by the glass from the cabinet, as I suspected, but only superficially. The main wound appeared to have been caused by one of the attacker's bullets, which had grazed the side of my thigh and drawn a lot of blood but luckily missed doing any more harm. He extracted a couple of fragments of glass from my cuts with tweezers, which I admit made me wince, and then started to apply a bandage. I thought back to the madness of those few moments. I remembered Kurtis calling my name before I dived for safety, him firing at the intruder while the intruder fired at me.

"You saved my life," I told him, trying to keep my voice even. He looked up from the bandages and held my eye for a few long moments, then smiled a little smile and said, "Just think of it as repaying a favour." I felt myself flushing at this remark, but wasn't sure why. Maybe I just didn't feel that it was right to compare one event to another like that. Just because I'd helped him out before, it didn't mean I couldn't be grateful.

"No, Kurtis, you saved my life several times over tonight. I didn't even hear anyone in the house. He could have murdered me in my bed if you hadn't woken me. And if you hadn't been covering my back downstairs –" I faltered. What did this mean? I probably would have been dead without him. But I'd never come that close before, had I? Was I losing my touch, my reflexes? I felt helpless, and a little foolish. Kurtis reached up and stroked away a loose lock of hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear. "Hey," he said, "I'd be dead without you, too, you know." I stared into those beautiful blue eyes, wondering again if he could read my mind. If anything could make me feel like more of a fool it would be him seeing into my thoughts, discovering how vulnerable I felt in his presence.

 "All done," he said, standing up. I was disappointed that the moment had ended, and his hands had left my skin, but tried not to show it. I scanned his body as he walked across the room back to the cabinet to return the unused bandages, taking advantage of the light. I was a little disheartened that he seemed to have escaped the fight without a single scratch, so I couldn't offer to return the favour and play doctor. I had half glimpsed tattoos on his back in the dark bedroom before, but could study them more clearly now. A black design crept across the skin of his back and shoulders, creeping around his left side and disappearing somewhere under his waistband. The shapes and symbols seemed vaguely familiar, but were not Celtic or Indian or anything else I could put my finger on. Perhaps they had something to do with the Lux Veritatis. They were beautiful, and so was his body, and I longed to run my fingers over the tattoos, trace every meandering pattern and see where it took me. I closed my eyes, breathed deep, and tried to clear my head. I had to stop behaving like this when there was so much else to worry about. I opened my eyes again to catch him standing by the washbasin studying me as scrupulously as I had him moments before. Horribly aware of my half-dressed state, I got up and tried to shift his attention.

"Thanks for patching me up," I said lightly. "Sadly, my oak paneling doesn't heal as fast as I do." He smiled, but looked at me seriously again.

"So. What now? I vote that we get some sleep before we do anything else. I'm pretty jet-lagged. Plus it's tiring, being such a hero and all." His expression didn't even flicker as he said that last part, but I knew he was teasing me.

"Don't get too used to me being the damsel in distress," I said wryly. "No doubt I'll be saving your skin again before too long." I put extra emphasis on the word again, enjoying the game.

He sighed and looked at me pityingly. "You do realise I was only pretending to be so badly injured to give you the satisfaction of saving me. It can't be easy, being a woman in a man's world."

I tried to scowl but it kept turning into a smile. This was fun. "I suppose you're right," I replied. "But it can't be easy being a boy in a man's world, either."

"Hmm. Touché," he said softly. Surely he wasn't backing down that easily. But he seemed serious again now. "Listen, Lara, about what I said before. After the banquet. I'm sorry."

I looked back at him wondering how much I should make him suffer. "Apology accepted," I said after a pause. "It would be a little churlish of me to hold a grudge after you saved my life."

He shrugged. "Yeah, well, I was rude. It's got nothing to do with me how you… conduct your business."

I marveled at his nerve. He wasn't really apologising at all. He went to pass me in the doorway but I put out an arm to stop him. "What you said was out of order. You were wrong." My voice was cold.

He looked at my outstretched arm, smiling slightly, then leaned closer to me, and lowered his voice as though letting me in on a secret. "I know."

I dropped my arm and let him past. Damn him, he'd done it again, and managed to have the last word. I was speechless. Earlier I had been thinking that he really knew nothing about me, but he certainly knew how to wind me up. From my bedroom door I watched his gorgeous decorated back as he retreated down the hall to his room. He had to be the most infuriating man who ever lived. So handsome and yet so bloody difficult.

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Let me know what you think! The plot thickens next chapter… Dun dun DUHHH!