Page 29 of Jump Start

The closer I got to the accommodation, the more the nausea built. This was it. The plain, nondescript trailer on wheels at the apex of a racetrack would be my final resting place.

I burst through the door and headed straight for the bathroom, which was, as expected, grim. And that was putting it lightly.

Later as I lay curled around the base of the toilet with my hair stuck to the tiled ground, I heard the door to the accomodation open. Shit, how long had I been in there?

“Harps?” Thomas called from the other side of the door. I caught sight of his hands first as they curled around the doorknob in the bathroom. “Is it safe to come in?” His voice echoed off the bathroom walls.

“Define safe,” I moaned, hoping to go for sarcasm, but wasn’t sure it landed.

“Well, am I going to get any surprises if I come in?” He was not helping the tone of the situation, to say the least.

I smiled against the cold floor. “No surprises, but I am concerned that we’ve only had sex twice and that this may ruinit for you.”

He chuckled from the other side of the door, before slowly walking into the small room. I noticed he was still in his race suit, sans helmet.

“Oh, Harps.” The wide smile on his face dropped when he saw me. “I saw Holly after I finished the race and she said you looked a little green, so I ran here.”

Thomas knelt on the floor beside me and placed his hand on my cheek. “You’re hot,” he said.

I smiled. “Tell me something I don’t know, Jackson.”

My response caused a slight smirk. “You can’t be that sick, or you wouldn’t be giving me shit.” He took hold of my elbow and slowly peeled me off the floor, limb by limb.

As he propped me up against the wall, I felt another bout of nausea build. My body wanted to go straight back down onto the floor.

“Nope,” he said, holding my neck and cheek up straight with one hand while taking his phone from his pocket with the other. “Chris, mate, Harps is really sick. Can we get Rog down here now? Mmhmm, yep, great. Thanks.” Then he hung up and turned to me.

“Okay, the team doctor will be here soon, and we’ll work out what’s going on.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know what’s going on. I have an alien inside me,” my voice cracked as I spoke. I felt green.

“That would explain a few things,” Thomas replied as he placed a cold towel on my head. His race suit clung to his arms in a way that had always turned me on, even before I knew him well.

“You look so sexy,” I said closing my eyes.

“Great, now you’re hallucinating,” his voice trailed off as I drifted to sleep, somehow still sitting up straight.

***

“Shit!” I yelled as I shot up in bed like a rocket, causing Thomas to drop the book he was reading.

“Bloody hell. What is it?” he asked, sitting up straight and placing his hand on my shoulder.

“I don’t know. What happened?” I asked, surveying the room for clues and coming up empty-handed.

Thomas took a breath. “The team doctor came by and gave you some anti-nausea tablets and you passed out. Food poisoning, he thinks. You’ll be right.”

I scrunched my eyebrows together, still feeling dazed. “She’ll be right. I better thank Chris as well.” As I reached for my phone, Thomas snatched it out of my hands.

“Tomorrow. You need to rest,” he said softly as he gently lay me back down on the pillow.

I looked up at him and realised it was the first time I’d seen this expression on his face:concern. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have believed he could feel such a thing toward me. Now, after having him hold me, kiss me, and know me from the inside, I knew that he was capable of much more.

Sometimes, I wondered how life felt for a man, always being told to be strong, manly, brave, and to never show weakness. Just as for women, we needed to be good, quiet, thin, and accommodating. All ideals, of course, that were thrown out the window when you were unapologeticallyyourself.

“I can hear the wheels turning in your brain.” Thomas’s sarcastic voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I smiled and rolled over to nestle into the nook between his shoulder and chest, which was quickly becoming my favourite place to exist.

***

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