Page 37 of Drive To Survive

EVERLY

“Just a little more, Everly.”

I turned my face to the side. “I’ve had enough.”

Nico sighed and set the bowl of half-finished chicken soup on the nightstand. “You are the most stubborn female I’ve ever had the misfortune to come across.”

I smiled, but it was weak given the flu had ravaged my body. The fever had finally broken last night. I recalled snippets since Nico brought me to his home, but honestly, for the vast majority of the last few days, I’d been completely out of it. Apparently, according to Nico’s doctor friend, I’d come down with a particularly virulent strain, especially considering the flu season had barely begun. Because of how much it’d knocked me, she’d taken a blood sample, and it’d come back that I had an iron deficiency, which explained why I’d felt a bit run-down for a few weeks.

“I want a shower,” I said, pulling at my nightgown. “I feel icky.”

“You look icky,” Nico said with a crooked grin.

“I might be too weak to retaliate now, but that won’t last forever, and I have a long memory.”

He chuckled. “I’ll look forward to that day whenever it comes.” Folding back the covers, he slipped his hands under my knees and around my shoulders.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

“Taking you for a shower.”

I shoved at his chest, but it was like a fly trying to move a boulder. “You are not watching me shower.”

He strode into the bathroom and set me down on top of the toilet seat. “It’s either shower with me in the room so I can make sure you don’t fall and crack your head wide open, or no shower for you. Your choice.”

“No,” I insisted.

As attracted as I was to Nico, something I’d made no secret of these past few weeks, we’d only kissed once, and that had come from a place of anger. I was not ready for him to see me naked.

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll change your sheets while you shower, but I’m leaving the door open.” He grinned at me. “I wouldn’t worry, anyway. I’ve already seen you naked.”

My mouth popped open. “What?”

“I had to undress you and change your nightwear regularly. You probably don’t remember.” He winked. “But boy, I remember.”

Heat rushed to my face, and I growled. “Just keep your eyes to yourself, okay?”

His smile widened. “Yes, ma’am.”

I pulled my nightgown over my head and stepped into a shower stall bigger than my entire bathroom.

Nico’s seen me naked.

Pushing embarrassment to one side, I lowered my head and groaned with pleasure as hot water ran down my back. I felt a touch dizzy, but nowhere near bad enough to ask for Nico’s help. I braced my hand on the wall to steady myself and picked up the shampoo bottle, only then realizing it was my brand. My bottle. Nico must have packed it on the day he brought me here.

My skin tingled at the idea that he cared enough to bring me and Rhett to his home and spend the last few days watching over me while the fever raged. If he hadn’t turned up at my house when he did, I wasn’t sure how I’d have coped, especially as the illness took hold. I could hardly have asked Dorothy to keep Rhett all this time, and I’d been in no fit state to take care of him.

The day Nico kissed me, I’d stormed out in anger over what I perceived to be some kind of pity kiss, but today in particular, I’d seen the way he looked at me, the way his eyes tracked every move I made. I might not have a huge amount of experience with men—Paul had been my first serious boyfriend and the only man I’d slept with—but I knew enough to recognize when a man found a woman attractive.

What I still didn’t understand was what had changed? Why had Nico kissed me that day after making it clear he wasn’t interested?

I guess there was only one way to find out for sure: ask him.

After five minutes of standing under the scalding spray, I felt a lot more human. I wrapped my hair in a towel and swathed myself in another. I opened the shower door and stepped back into the bathroom, then peered into the bedroom. Nico had his back to me while he stuffed a pillow into a fresh pillowcase.

“I survived,” I called out.

He glanced over his shoulder. “Feeling better?”

---