“Does it hurt?” Aurora asked, but Mason didn’t respond.

Seeing this, she went to find a nurse to ask about pain relief methods. When she returned, she knelt beside him and gently applied ointment to his wound. The cool sensation of the medicine on his burned skin made Mason open his eyes.

Feeling her soft breath as she blew on the wound to ease the sting, he suddenly became aware of an unexpected reaction elsewhere in his body. To avoid embarrassment, he ...