Read Online The Wells Brothers: Luke by Angela Verdenius - Free Book Online Page A

the
early nineteenth century!”
    Straightening, Mikki moved the
torch beam over the rest of the dressing table.
    Then  it happened.
    Something brushed her shoulder, a
presence at her back, a deep whisper in her ear.  “What are you doing?”
    With a scream she spun around, the
torchlight flashing across a big body right in front of her, an arm reaching
out, a laugh starting - which got choked off as she instinctively swung her leg
upward.
    Her knee slammed between two very
solid thighs, there was a muffled squawk and the figure dropped to the floor.
    Heart pounding, Mikki leaped back,
her backside slamming into the dressing table which, miracle of miracles,
considering how old it was, didn’t break.  Something to be said for the good
workmanship of the day.
    “What on earth…?”  Running up, Elspeth
trained the torchlight on the man writhing at their feet with his hands
clutched between his thighs.  “Luke?”
    “Oh Jesus!”  Horrified, Mikki
dropped to her knees beside him, touching his shoulder.  “Luke?  Are you all
right?”
    In answer, he rocked on the floor,
eyes scrunched shut, lips peeled back from his teeth in a grimace of pain.  No,
that’d be agony.  She bit her lip at the expression on his face.  Definitely
agony.
    Oh shit, she’d kneed Luke in the nuts . 
    “Oh no.”  Elspeth knelt at his
back, rubbing uselessly in a vain attempt at trying to comfort him.  “Mikki,
what happened?”
    “He was just there.  I swear, I
wouldn’t have done it if I’d known it was him.”  Wringing her hands in dismay,
she bit her lip while staring down at his face.  “He looks white.  Does he look
white to you? He looks white to me.  Like really sickly pale. And geez,” she
bent close to peer at his face, “he’s sweating.”
    Oh man, that couldn’t be good.
    “You hit him in the family jewels,
Mik, what do you expect?”  Elspeth continued rubbing his back.  “Shhh.  Oh sweetie,
it’s okay.  Shhh now.”
    Luke just groaned.
    “Should we try to get him up?”
Mikki queried helplessly.
    “I don’t know.”  Elspeth was
biting her lip as hard as Mikki.  “Maybe we should call an ambulance?”
    “Oh my God!  Do you think I
crushed his nuts that bad?”  Involuntarily, her gaze went to his crotch.  “No
blood.  Oh thank God, no blood.”  On the heels of relief, another thought
struck.  “It’s internal, isn’t it?  He could be bleeding internally!  Aunt, go
and ring an ambulance, go and-”
    “Stop,” Luke said weakly.
    “Maybe get some Aspirin or
something so he doesn’t clot inside and it travels to his heart and - oh
shit !  He might stroke out!  He might-”
    A big hand slammed down onto her
thigh and squeezed.  “Stop!” Luke barked out.
    Relief shot through Mikki, the
same echoed on Elspeth’s face as they both looked down at him.  That irate bark
was promising, but one look at his face showed the same pain reflected.  But
he’d stopped rocking.  One hand, however, was still firmly clamped on his
abused genitals.
    She cringed.  Geez, she’d done
that, completely emasculated him.
    The grip on her thigh tightened,
long fingers digging in as Luke opened his lids a crack to glare up at her
through pain-filled eyes.  “No ambulance.  No Aspirin.  No anything, you got
it?”
    “But, dear,” Elspeth said
soothingly, “you’re hurt and we don’t know how bad.”
    “I’ll be fine.”
    “Maybe we should look and-”
    Horror joined the pain on his
face. “No!”
    “Be reasonable,” Mikki pleaded. 
“You might have gone from a packet of whole nuts to crushed nuts.  We’ll just
peek, I swear.”
    “You-” releasing her thigh, he
jabbed a finger up towards her face - “have done enough.  No peeking.”  He
turned his head enough to glare up at Elspeth.  “From either of you.”
    Consumed with guilt, Mikki
recommenced worrying her bottom lip.  “Luke, I am so sorry.”
    “Oh, you will be,” he muttered,
his hand again landing heavily