Iron Dominance Read Online Free Page A

lean down and kiss that full mouth, to feel her whimper beneath him.
    “Are you done looking?” A blonde lock fell across her eye, and she tossed her head, switching it away. “I think I can manage this placement of electrodes. Show me.”
    That she’d try, he didn’t doubt.
    The doctor stepped up and spoke. “No. You can’t. The cuts aren’t where you can see them properly. Here, sir.” He handed one electrode to Theo. “A row along each cut, please. Five a side should do it. Make sure each goes in full depth.”
    The electrode tip was a tiny pin; from there the wire trailed to the machine.
    Theo showed the tip to Claire. If he let her try to do this, the chances were she’d mess up the placement, and it wasn’t worth the risk. Her cuffed hands hovered at her waist, ready, he felt sure, to lunge and grab the electrode if he did something she disliked.
    He sighed. “The parts on this machine aren’t easily replaced. I’m going to secure your hands to the headboard until this is done.”
    Anger flared in her eyes. “No.”
    “Think. I have several men out there who take my orders. I could have them hold you down. Or we can simply give up, and you’ll have to heal at your own pace and maybe risk infection. Galvanic healing works, but it will be painful this first time. I’ve seen the doctor have to restrain men, veteran soldiers, to get this done. Choose.”
    He banked on that intelligence he’d seen in her. She wouldn’t want his men holding her, and that left—
    “Very well.” Slowly she put her hands above her head.
    So tempting, to watch the rise and shift of her breasts. No. This wasn’t easy for her. It had to be done and he’d do it without sidetracking. A pity though. When hadn’t he thrilled at the idea of a woman restrained to the headboard by cuffs? Mentally, he shook his head at himself.
    He stood. “June, the key, please.” He caught the tossed key, unlocked the cuffs, and relocked them with the joining chain threaded behind the metal lattice of the headboard, feeling the trembling of Claire’s muscles as he did so.
    “I’ll be as quick as I can.”
    He carefully folded back the dress, just enough to see the three sutured wounds. Puffy, red, maybe some infection starting, and fresh blood leaked where falling had jarred the edges. The cuts were about six inches long. He’d forgotten the extent of the injury. Still, one treatment would do wonders.
    “Ready?”
    “Yes.”
    The first electrode pierced her skin, and she grunted at the pain, jerked on the cuffs. He watched her expression, waiting a moment until he saw her nod.
    “Good girl.” That drew a glare. Touchy . Jabbing her infected wound with a pin was okay, but calling her “girl” made her look as if she wanted to stick something sharp into him? Curiouser and curiouser.
    As the doctor handed him electrodes, he slipped the pins, equally spaced, under the skin at each side of one laceration. “Doctor. Turn it on, please.”
    Green current sizzled for a minute across the first wound. He shifted the electrode tips, treated the second, then the third cut. Apart from gnawing her pretty lip and a few sharp intakes of breath, Claire didn’t move.
    She rose in his estimation yet again. None of the ladies, or likely even the lords he knew, would have borne this so stoically. Before he released her hands, he brushed the lock of hair from her brow. “Well done.”
    The startled, bemused look she shot him pierced his heart as surely as an arrow. His blood thumped fiercely. Here was a puzzle he wished to solve. A man’s touch unsettled her? He’d thought her a sexual companion. The more he saw of her, the less likely that seemed. Who and what was she?
    * * *
    The next day he returned to administer the galvanic treatment. The doctor, irked by all the goings on, begged off attending, though June stayed as a chaperone, sunken in her chair, observing without interfering.
    Claire lay on the bed wearing a blue dress this time—one a