Soldiers instantly surrounded her and she put up her hands, opening her bag so they could see that it was only filled with medical supplies. “We only come here to help the victims,” she explained, pointing to Dinan and Loan. “They’re professional negotiators and medics who are trying to help. Please don’t arrest them.”
The soldiers looked to the larger man for guidance. When he nodded his head, the soldiers backed up and rounded up the others. The man who threw the knife was placed in a different vehicle from the others and whisked off to some unknown detention facility.
Isla could see that the knife wound was deep and already blood was seeping out and soaking his shirt. “Can I come closer and help you?” she asked cautiously, the night making it hard to see the man’s face so she couldn’t read his expression. “I don’t care what your political affiliation, I’m just here to help you tend to the wound.” Why did the man look so familiar?
The man put his hands on his hips and stood there staring at her for a long moment. Finally, he waved her closer and Isla was stunned that he could have so much movement with the knife still sticking out of his shoulder.
When she was closer, she realized that she knew this man! He was the one who had been at the wedding, the one who had noticed her shoes!
He smiled as soon as she recognized him and her body started tingling with excitement, and something she couldn’t easily define.
“At least you’re wearing the same shoes this time,” his deep, husky voice said as she got closer.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to think only about the wound and making sure he didn’t lose too much blood. “You disappeared earlier today. I guess you had more important things to do than sit around and eat delicious food?” she quipped, smiling nervously up at him while she tried to get a better look at his knife wound. “Will you let me tend to that? You’ll still need to get to a doctor, but I can at least stop the bleeding.”
Sheik Hussan El-Hamin watched as the beautiful woman dressed from head to toe in black approached. His soldiers were wary of this woman, but Hussan had been looking for this team for months, wondering how they got into the center of all the crises so easily. He’d had no idea that a woman was part of the team. And a woman who was royalty at that!
He’d first gotten word of her benevolent team about a year ago but they were so stealthy and aware of every movement the police were going to do. He was impressed by their work and didn’t mean them harm. Just the opposite in fact. He wanted to hire them on full time, to give them the government protection they deserved. People who could organize like this and make such a difference, create so much good will with the local populations, they could be a huge asset to his country and help everyone get back to where they were a decade ago, before this ridiculous war tore the country apart.
“What are you going to do?” he asked as he looked down at her, seeing the fear in her lovely eyes and trying to figure out how to dissipate that nervousness. She was definitely a tiny little thing, barely reaching his shoulder although he knew that he was tall for a man. She smelled good too, he thought ridiculously. Not like perfume though. She just smelled…..good. He couldn’t really put a definition to the scent but it turned him on, making his body react.
Isla looked up at him and suddenly she was more than nervous. A flash of terror washed over her and she was stunned by its intensity. She didn’t understand why or what had caused it though. She’d helped dozens of others, male and female who were in need of emergency medical attention. Why was this man’s knife wound so intimidating?
He recognized the increased fear and wasn’t sure what had caused it. Nothing really had changed, but he sensed that something inside of her had shifted. “Are you okay?” he asked softly, ignoring the soldiers that were efficiently moving around the area.
Isla looked up into his dark eyes, then back down again. “Yes,” she whispered. “Would you mind sitting down? You’re a bit taller than I’m used to.”
Hussan almost smiled, but he complied by moving over to one of the chairs set up on a patio dining area. This brought the knife wound to her eye level and, to his benefit, it brought his eyes closer to her breast level. She had a lush figure and he would enjoy exploring those soft, luscious curves. Leisurely, he thought. He’d like to enjoy her with no distractions. No interruptions. Except her soft sighs, just like the one she let escape as her shaking hands moved up to grasp the knife.
He raised an eyebrow at her shaking fingers as she gripped the hilt of the knife. “Want me to do that?” he offered, mildly concerned that her nervousness might create more problems with the knife than he already had.
She smiled wanly, but shook her head. She didn’t want him to pull it out, afraid the angle at which he pulled could cause additional damage. “Actually, if you could sit very still, I’ll get this out in jiffy.” She grasped the rough handle, then looked into his eyes a moment before she tugged the blade out of his muscle. With deft fingers, she tossed the blade to the side, reached into her bag and pulled out antiseptic, cleaning the wound as thoroughly as possible. She tore more of the black tee shirt so she could see the wound better, then efficiently started to bandage him up. Once she was moving, her nervousness was gone. She was completely absorbed in the task of helping the wound to stop bleeding and eliminating as much of a possible threat of infection as she could while doing field work.
She was cleaning the surrounding skin with gauze and iodine as she examined the wound and the torn muscle. “You’re going to need stitches,” she said as she pulled the edges closer before applying the bandage.
“You can do that here, can’t you?” He didn’t know why he said that. He could be flown by helicopter to his personal physician and be sewn up by a doctor in less than an hour. There was just something about this woman. He didn’t want to lose her closeness. If she stitched him up, he could spend a few more minutes in her company, looking at her soft skin, her breasts that his palms itched to hold and feel and smell her soft, tempting scent.
She started to shake her head, about to explain that a doctor could do a much better job but he stopped her. “You have the supplies right there. Go ahead. I don’t want it infected. And since you’re here and my doctor isn’t, wouldn’t it be better to stitch it up before anything happens?’