Chapter 74
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I stopped a yard from the bed, concern lacing my voice. “Alpha Gideon, how’s your wound?”
An awkward silence settled, and all I could do was wait for him to speak.
Alpha Gideon was reading, his lashes lowered, not sparing me a single glance since I’d knocked.
A minute dragged by like an hour.
His long, pale fingers turned a page leisurely, the motion almost elegant.
“Vivian, don’t you think your concern is a bit late?”
My already stiff smile froze solid.
I scrambled to explain.
“I wanted to visit earlier, but the hospital was swarming with people. I didn’t want to stir up gossip, so I
figured I’d wait until you were discharged.”
“Gossip?”
Alpha Gideon’s dark eyes finally lifted.
“What makes you so sure your presence would make anyone think we’re anything but professional?”
My face went blank.
It was the same vibe as that day on the golf course, when he’d coldly humiliated me for my outfit, warning me
not to try seducing him with my looks.
My cheeks burned like they were on fire, hot and stinging.
“I…” I fumbled, mortified, unable to argue back. “Sorry, I overthought it. It won’t happen again.”
“I disturbed your reading. I’ll go.”
I stumbled toward the door, nearly smacking into the frame in my flustered retreat.
Alpha Gideon’s gaze stayed cold as he watched the door close.
After a moment, he snapped the book shut, tossed it aside, and leaned back, rubbing his temples.
Irritation flickered across his features as he closed his eyes.
He let out a self-mocking chuckle.
Childish.
I hurried from the bedroom toward the entrance.
“Leaving already?”
Frank jogged over from the living room, surprised.
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“He’s reading. Didn’t want to bother him, so I’m heading out, Frank,”
I said quickly, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace.
Frank didn’t stop me, just said, “Come back anytime.”
I bolted.
Frank sighed.
At dinner, as he ladled soup for Alpha Gideon, he muttered, “She left with red eyes. Probably crying at home
now.”
Alpha Gideon froze, setting his spoon down. “Are you criticizing me?”
“No way,” Frank said, placing the soup beside him.
“I just don’t get why you’d make her cry and chase her off after taking a knife for her.”
Alpha Gideon went quiet.
He picked up his fork, toyed with his food, then set it down.
He repeated the motion before finally asking, “She really cried?”
Frank smirked.
“Why don’t you go downstairs and check?”
Alpha Gideon’s face stayed blank.
He stood, not touching his food, and headed to his bedroom, muttering,
“What’s the point of babbling?”
Frank stifled a laugh.
Now he’s blaming me?
I curled up on my couch, hugging a pillow, lost in thought-sighing one moment, brooding the next.
The warm, fuzzy feeling from learning Alpha Gideon ad my back against the Quinns.
His saving me, protecting me, didn’t mean we were equals.
A boss was a boss.
He could be kind, even gentlemanly, but cross his authority, and he turned sharp and aloof.
If I got hurt over it, it just proved I’d misread my place.
I needed to stay sharp.
No more thinking his kindness meant he was approachable-or worse, had feelings for me.
It took an hour to sort through it all.
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I got up, cooked a bowl of noodles in the kitchen, but only managed a few bites before my phone rang.
It was Frank.
. Frank was usually Alpha Gideon’s mouthpiece.
I answered. “Hey, Frank.”
“Vivian, you free tonight?”
“Uh…”
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“Here’s the deal: Alpha Gideon needs help changing his bandage. Elliot’s out, and my mate just called me
home. Can you step in?”
My heart sank mid-sentence.
I’d just left, still stinging from embarrassment. I wasn’t thick-skinned enough to brush it off.
“Frank, can’t someone else do it? Like a healer?”
Frank paused.
“Alpha Gideon’s all bark, no bite. He thinks highly of you, likes you a lot.”
He meant to comfort me, but to me, it sounded like: He values you as his assistant, so do your job.
If he hadn’t been stabbed saving me, if he hadn’t saved my life before, I would’ve quit on the spot with a cold laugh.
“Fine, I’ll come up after dinner,” I said.
I lost my appetite, hung up, and psyched myself up before heading back upstairs.
At Alpha Gideon’s bedroom door, I took a deep breath and knocked.
“Come in,” came his usual icy voice.
I stepped inside, closed the door, and flashed a practiced smile, standing at the foot of the bed. “Heard you need your bandage changed.”
Alpha Gideon glanced at my forced grin, pausing silently. “Yeah.”
“Where’s the med kit? I’ll get it.”
“There,” he said, pointing to the dressing room.
I grabbed the kit, set it on the nightstand, and laid out the supplies.
Then my eyes landed on him, and my brain short-circuited.
I’d just realized a problem.
His wound was near his lower back.
He was in a robe.
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Did I need to lift it, pull it down, or… take it all off?
“Weren’t you gonna change my bandage?”
Alpha Gideon’s voice was calm, almost teasing.
“Take off the robe,” I said, throwing caution to the wind.
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