Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77959 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77959 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Nothing.”
“You’re getting ready to cry,” he points out, and I pull in a breath through my nose to fight the tears back.
“I think I broke my toe.” I squeeze my eyes closed.
“What?” He frowns, studying me.
“I think I broke my toe,” I repeat, and he takes a step closer to the bed.
“I was gone maybe fifteen minutes. How did you break your toe in that time?”
“I stubbed it when I was jumping into bed,” I admit, opening my eyes as he pulls the blanket off me. I yank my foot away from him when it looks like he’s going to prod at it, and his eyes meet mine.
“Let me look at it, baby.”
“Don’t touch it,” I say through a panted breath. The idea of him touching it is enough to make me scream out in pain.
“I won’t touch it,” he agrees, and I slowly slide my foot back toward him. Picking it up he lifts my leg off the bed and carefully twists it this way and that while looking at my second toe.
“It hurts bad.”
“You’ll be okay.”
“Do I need to go to the hospital?”
“No, just ice every twenty minutes and a couple of pain pills,” he says, carefully placing a kiss to the top of my foot before setting it down on the bed.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. I’ll get some ice and aspirin,” he says, propping my foot up on a pillow. “Why were you jumping into bed?”
“It’s just something I do sometimes.” I shrug, and his eyes narrow. “Fine, I was looking at your computer . . . the pictures on your slide show,” I add quickly, not wanting him to think I was going through his computer. “I heard you coming in and I . . . I didn’t want you to think I was snooping through your stuff.”
“I’m not sure it’s snooping when I leave the thing out and open, but I am sure you’re accident-prone and should probably keep that in mind when doing crazy shit.”
“I wasn’t doing crazy shit,” I defend as Muffin wanders into the room and lays her head on the side of the bed near my hip.
“I’m not going to argue with you about it. I’ll be back.”
“I’m not arguing,” I mutter under my breath. He shakes his head and leaves the room, coming back a few minutes later with a glass of water, two red-and-blue pills, and a bag of ice. He hands me the pills and water; I take them quickly while he goes to the bathroom and comes back out with a towel that he wraps the ice in before placing it on my foot. “Thank you,” I whisper as he kisses my forehead before stands back up.
“Any time.” He smiles as I lean my head back against the headboard and watch him pull off his shirt and kick off his sneakers. “Go lie down, girl,” he tells Muffin, who has walked over and leaned into him. Dropping my gaze to her, I watch her walk across the wood floors and lie down on a dog bed in the corner of the room that I hadn’t noticed before. The thing looks expensive—it’s thick, maybe seven inches deep, and more than big enough for her, with black corduroy material along the outside edge and plush, soft-looking gray material on the top. “You got Muffin a bed,” I say, watching her turn in circles before plopping down with a groan.
“Yeah, she’s not sleeping in bed with us, and I know there are times she wants to be in here, so I’m compromising with her.”
“You’re compromising with her,” I repeat in awe. He got my dog a bed for his place, he has pictures of us together as the screen saver on his computer, he told me that he wasn’t letting me go. Studying him, I wonder if he might not be falling a little in love with me, too.
Chapter 10
SURPRISE . . . NOT SO MUCH
LEVI
Waking suddenly to heavy pounding coming from the front door of my apartment, I vow to shoot the motherfucker who’s ruining my morning. My first morning with Fawn after making her mine, the first morning of having her naked in my bed, the first morning I can slide into her. “Fuck,” I snarl as that thought leaves my head and the pounding gets louder. Throwing the blanket off, I get out of bed, wondering how the hell Fawn is sleeping through this shit, then, looking down at her sleeping form, I smile. Her wild hair is spread out across my pillow, her hand tucked under her cheek; the sheet only covers one creamy thigh. The other leg is crooked at the knee. I might or might not be the cause of her exhaustion. I couldn’t keep my hands off her last night. Every time I woke up, I took her, just to remind myself that she was real, that she was with me, and that she was mine.