Mastered (The Enforcers 1)

Remembering something he’d written in his note just made her feel even guiltier. He’d told her to stay in and rest and to have his man take her shopping list out to get what she needed. His exact words had been, I was hard on my angel last night.

She sighed. He’d merely been taking care of her and it had been sweet. And she’d been a complete bitch, taking it the wrong way and bristling over the ridiculous fact that she couldn’t even run to the market without a major security operation being launched.

She owed Drake an apology. A sincere one and not something designed to tell him what she thought he wanted to hear in order to placate him.

“Evangeline?”

Silas’s worried tone cut into her silent reverie.

“Are you hurting? He’s numbed the area, so you shouldn’t feel anything when he sets the sutures, but if you do, you are to let us know immediately.”

The doctor looked up from where he was preparing to stitch her knee up, concern in his eyes. “I can give you a shot for pain. I plan to give you a shot of antibiotics and give you an ointment to apply three times a day. I don’t think an oral antibiotic is warranted in this case; however, if you notice any redness, tenderness or swelling in the area and especially if you feel unwell and are running even a slight temperature, I want you back here immediately so we can put you on antibiotics.”

She offered a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. Truly. I don’t feel anything at all. I don’t need pain medication. I’m sure some ibuprofen will more than suffice if it hurts later. I was too busy thinking of all the mistakes I’ve made today to even register any discomfort in my knee. It kind of sucks when you realize you’ve been a sulky child, finding any ridiculous reason to be pissy.”

She said the last with a sigh and her lips turned down into a frown.

Silas’s frown was more of a scowl, surprising her, because for the first time there was none of the gentleness she’d come to associate him with.

“Admittedly my acquaintance with you has been short, and we’ve not spent much time together, something I hope will be remedied when Drake loosens the leash he currently has you on.” Brief amusement replaced the scowl in his eyes, letting her know he was teasing her with the last of his words. “But the very last thing I would ever attribute to you is sulkiness or childishness. You are exceedingly honest and sincere, two qualities that have fallen by the wayside in society, unfortunately. Furthermore, you are completely unaware of the many good qualities you possess and seem baffled when someone pays you a compliment, as you are doing right now as I speak, judging by the look in your eyes.”

She flushed because she was precisely that.

“No one has ever given me compliments until recently,” she murmured.

“Then you clearly don’t associate with the right people, and I’m willing to bet either the people you are exposed to are envious or, if they are men, they want very much to get a hell of a lot closer to you and you likely have no clue of that either, which angers them and is a blow to their fragile male ego.”

“Okay, you have to stop,” she said, becoming more uncomfortable by the minute.

But he didn’t. He reached out with one finger and lifted her chin so she was forced to look at him and no longer avoid his gaze.

“What you are, Evangeline, is special. And if you ever disparage yourself in my hearing again, I’ll turn you over my knee myself and spank that perfect ass until you promise me to forget all the negative words you have in your vocabulary when they come to describing yourself. Are we understood?”

Holy fuck! Oh shit. Now she was once more using words that would mortify her mother and cause her to wonder where she’d gone wrong in Evangeline’s upbringing since she’d been taught that no true lady ever used such vulgar language.

Her eyes were wide as she stared at Silas, no longer needing his hand to force her compliance. She saw the dominance glittering in his eyes as clearly as she saw it in Drake’s. How had she missed it before now? Gentle and kind, my ass. Silas, Drake and, well, all of Drake’s men, were dominant, almost surly, alpha males, but in the space of those few words Silas had so smoothly dropped on her, she saw a man who was likely far more dominant than the others. Perhaps even Drake, and that was incomprehensible to her.

She could now see the scary side that the others evidently saw and experienced on a daily basis, and here she was naïvely forming her assumptions based on two brief meetings when he’d acted the consummate gentleman.