Page 109 of Love in Fine Print

Her face scrunched up in disgust. “I’m not going to soak in my own filth.”

I wanted to argue with her, but I knew there was no point, so I carried her up the stairs. When we got into the bathroom, I gently set her down and made sure she was steady. Her hand rested on my shoulder as she lowered down to sit on the toilet and began petting Dolly while I started the shower. As soon as the water came on, I heard Dolly hightail it out of the room. Golden retrievers were supposed to love water, but she wasn’t a huge fan of baths.

When I turned around, I saw Olivia trying to take off the blue plastic ID bracelet. “Do you have scissors?” she asked.

I reached down, grabbed two sides of it, and split it in half.

“Wow.” Her large amber eyes shined up at me. “That was hot.”

I had no clue if she was teasing me or not. Either way, it showed me that she was feeling better. If she was being sarcastic, she was feeling better, and if she had found something I did attractive, then that also showed me she was feeling better.

I checked the water and turned toward her. “You ready?”

She nodded with a little smile. “Thanks.”

Olivia had a rare talent of being able to say a lot with a single word, and that single word had just communicated that she was dismissing me.

“I’m not leaving you alone in here.”

“I’ll be fine. They wouldn’t have let me come home if I wasn’t.”

She might be stubborn, but she was not going to win this one.

“I’mnotleaving you alone in here,” I reiterated.

Either she was too weak to put up a fight, or she realized this was one battle she wasn’t going to win because her shoulders slumped. “Fine.”

I slid down the zipper of the hoodie that Trevor had brought to the hospital and pulled off her shirt. Her hands rested on my shoulders as I slid her sweats and panties down her legs and she stepped out of them.

Her arms leaned on mine as I helped her into the shower and got in behind her.

Her head whipped around. “What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you.”

Her eyes widened. “You…you have clothes on.”

I did have clothes on, and they were getting soaked. But I wasn’t going to take the time to get them off. I needed to get her clean and in bed and then I’d deal with my wet clothes.

“After you got all hot and bothered when I Hulked out and ripped off your hospital bracelet, I don’t trust you to behave yourself.”

She chuckled, and the sound served to heal some of the rough edges that the last twenty-four hours had put on my soul. “Really.”

“Yep. No funny business, lady. You just got out of the hospital.”

She laughed again but I noticed her cheeks get pale. I sat her on the bench and grabbed the wand. After wetting her hair, I poured shampoo in my palm and then massaged it into her scalp. After rinsing it off, I squeezed conditioner into my hand and worked it through her hair. Then, I grabbed her loofa and body wash and went to work cleaning her off.

I did my best not to get distracted by the full mounds of her breasts, the hourglass curve of her waist to hips, or her toned thighs, but my cock was rock hard behind its zippered jail.

Olivia kept her eyes closed and rested her head against the tile as I used the wand to rinse all the suds off her perfect body and conditioner out of her hair. After turning off the water, I wrapped her in a towel and picked her up. Her arms wrapped around me as she nuzzled her head into the crook of my shoulders.

“I missed you,” she whispered against my neck as I carried her to bed.

My chest ached at the sweet vulnerability in her voice.

“I missed you, too.” When we got to the bed, I lowered her down, and the towel was still wrapped around her.

Then I made quick work of grabbing some underwear, sweats, and a t-shirt from her drawer. Once she was dressed, I got a dry towel and laid it on the pillow so it would soak up some of the moisture in her hair.

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