“I remember,” she said, pushing her bitterness aside, because so many other things had been happening at the time her status was revealed to the whole city. A serial killer had been on the loose, Deacon on his trail. The man had been after Faith, and after discovering that Faith and Deacon were lovers, had abducted Dani and Greg to lure her to him. “That was a busy week.”

His gaze darkened. “That bastard hurt you.”

“Not really. He busted my lip, but it healed. He hurt Deacon a lot worse.” Her older brother had nearly died when he’d been stabbed while taking the killer down. She sighed, remembering her younger brother’s terror. “Greg still has nightmares about it. He was abducted along with me.”

“I know.” Diesel’s eyes were still dark, anger glittering in the chocolate depths. He looked . . . dangerous. It gave her an unwelcome thrill. “The bastard tried to use the two of you to force Faith into surrendering herself to him.”

And it might have worked, but for Faith’s quick thinking. Dani owed a lot to her sister-in-law.

She forced herself to smile. “We’re all okay, though. Greg saw a therapist for a long time, and the nightmares seem to be more infrequent.”

“And you?” he asked, so seriously that it made her heart hurt. “Did you have nightmares?”

Dani’s smile faded. “Sometimes I dream that I’m trying to stop Deacon’s bleeding but he dies anyway. I thought I’d lose him for sure that night.” But most nights she dreamed of Adrian, his body lying broken on the rocks.

“But you’re a damn good doctor,” Diesel said gruffly. “Which is why I can’t believe your family would want you to quit. Don’t they understand how HIV is transmitted?”

She studied him carefully, remembering the night she had been stabbed outside the clinic. Diesel had been there, watching over her. He’d been the one to carry her into the ER, her blood all over him.

“Do you?” she asked. “Because you never freaked out when I bled all over you. You never even asked me if my levels were detectable.”

He blinked, his anger abruptly gone. In his eyes she saw a sweetness that hurt her heart even more than his caring about her nightmares.

She had to look away. I don’t deserve that sweetness. I’m going to hurt him.

“I know how it’s transmitted,” he said quietly. “I was a little rattled when the doctors put me in a decontamination room, checking me for open wounds. I didn’t know about your status until then. But I figured that you wouldn’t have been endangering your patients if your levels were detectable.”

Swinging her gaze back to his face, Dani sucked in a breath. “Really?”

“Really.” He sipped at his tea and made an appreciative sound. “This is good.”