Brother Quote by Josie Litton

““It isn’t so terrible. You did a good job of stitching.” She continued to examine his work. “There will be a scar, of course, but not much of one I think.” “I regret there will be any,” he said gruffly. With a fresh length of cloth, he rebandaged her arm. By the time he was done, she felt oddly shaky yet unwilling to move away from him. He dropped his hands but continued standing very close to her, so near that she could feel the warmth of his body. She tried not to stare at his chest but that left her to focus on the powerful column of his throat and above to the chiseled line of his jaw, which appeared to be clenched. “This may not have been a good idea,” he murmured. Their eyes met. Her toes curled, as though they clung to the very edge of a precipice. On a thread of sound, she said, “Which part? My coming to London, trying to see you, stowing away, getting hurt? Or perhaps we can say it was not a good idea for Royce to set out for Akora to begin with? We could lay all this at his door.” Alex tried very hard not to smile. She watched the struggle he waged and knew the moment he lost. His grin, for all that it was reluctant, was also quite devastating. She wondered if he knew it. Quietly, he said, “It seems we will have to find your brother and tell him how badly he has behaved.” “Now that is a very good idea.””

— Josie Litton