‘Huh?” Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion.
I avoided answering by picking up my phone and hitting dial. Voicemail. I shot off another text.
“I told you he is fine.” She stood and stretched, trying to play it cool, but I could sense her worry as well.
“I understand that you may feel that way, but that’s my husband out there. I can’t help but worry.”
Why? That was the real question. Because you’re falling for him. But, damn it, my internal voice was spot on. I was falling for my damn husband, and the whole idea no longer repelled me. Hell, it even excited me just a bit.
Shit. I needed help. Therapy. Intervention. Something to stop me from this downward spiral that Royal had pushed me into. If I wanted to stop and I wasn’t positive I did, then I most definitely needed an outside force to halt this descent.
“What’s it like?” I blinked a few times, forgetting for a second that the shy girl sitting on the bed in front of me existed.
“Excuse me?”
“What’s it like to have a man like Royal worshipping the ground you walk on?” She elaborated on her original question as I glanced at my phone for the hundredth time this minute alone. One more text wouldn’t hurt? Right?
I looked up from my phone toward her. “I wouldn’t say worship.”
“Oh, he does.” She nodded her head enthusiastically. “Even when you aren’t looking at him, he watches you like you’re a fresh cannoli ready to eat.” I wondered if she even realized she had two men watching her in the exact same way.
“It can be a bit . . .” I struggled for the right word, “exhausting,” I finally finished. Having a man worship you was exhausting, especially when you weren’t positive you actually wanted the worshipping.
“Well, I think it’s fantastic,” she added, a dreamy look in her eyes. “I’ve always dreamed of having a man look at me like that.” I could facepalm right now, the poor sweet, naïve girl didn’t realize she had not one, but two men looking to devour her innocence.
I walked to the window and cursed. Now there was a whole dramatic production of people over there and a crew working on the fire. “I can’t stand just sitting here and waiting.”
“Before I came here, I talked to Dot. She told me no news is good news when it comes to her boys,” she confessed.
“So, you are worried?” I probed.
She finally released tension she apparently was holding and flopped back to lay on our bed. “God, I’m terrified.”
I did an internal laugh. I knew there was no way she could be immune to men that look that delicious. Not that I was attracted to them, but one didn’t fail to notice attractive men, even when they had one of their own. The thought that I actually owned Royal made my heart beat faster.
She sat up again, her hair falling in a curtain over her face. “Honestly, I don’t want to worry about them. They own me. But I can’t help but worry about those big oafs anyway.”
Girl. Same. “Have you called them?”
She rolled her eyes. “Like twenty times. Each.”
“Do you believe they are fine?” I asked as her big eyes watched me.
“I do believe one won’t go down without the other following.” She shrugged.
“That wasn’t what I asked.” I sat down next to her, my fingers playing with her long hair.
She groaned. “Fine. I think they are fine. They are too damn stubborn not to be. But I would appreciate confirmation that all body parts are intact so then I could continue on not caring.”
Yeah. Right. Not caring. I couldn’t even hide the smirk I felt forming. “Good Luck with that.”
“I need more than just luck,” she admitted. “Like . . . like . . .” There was a pause as an idea formed in her head. “Like a makeover.”