I didn't flinch. I'd learned, in another life and this one, that flinching was a currency people like Caspian collected and spent against you later.
I finished smoothing the salve over Ryan's knuckles with the same unhurried care as before, then rose to my full height, putting myself between the two men without seeming to try. "You're still here."
"I forgot my gloves." Caspian's gaze moved past me to Ryan, lingering on the bruises he himself had put there, and something like satisfaction flickered across his face before he smoothed it into wounded innocence. "Forgive me. I didn't realize I'd be interrupting something so... intimate."
"You're not interrupting anything," Ryan said, standing despite the ache in his ribs, "except your own exit."
"I wasn't speaking to you, slave."
"He has
