Page 37 of Love, In Balance

She looks up.

I’ve managed to make her smile. Our eyes meet and we look at each other for a few seconds before she responds.

The tension between us is nothing I’ve felt before. It’s distracting.

“ObviouslyI’m not going to give youmyclothes, you big dummy” she says whilst giving my chest a little tap “I think I have some spare tucked away from when Reed came over to help me decorate. Long story, but I bought everyone clothes to paint in so they wouldn’t get their clothes messy. Reed left his here.Luckily. Also, you don’t need to help me Quin. You can just relax your hand. I won’t be long”.

She’s so adamant about me not helping, but she’s not winning this.

“Lista, I’m making sure you’re ok. You werealsocovered in glass, and I’d rather stand here and help you, than risk you being injured”.

We stand in silence until each shard is removed from her.

We walk into her room, and she slowly starts unbuttoning my shirt.

Notat all how I imagined this evening to go.

And if I did imagine this scenario, it wouldnotbe because I was covered in glass.

“I’m sorry. This is so weird, but your hand is hurt, and you need this shirt off”, she says apologetically.

She’s stood so close to me; I can feel the warmth of her breath on the skin of my abdomen.

She gently pulls my shirt open and then peels it off of me, slowly.

She has to lean closer and reach up to get my shirt off, over my shoulders and down my arms, since our height and builds are so different. I can see that she’s trying not to look at my body, but her eyes trace the tattoos on my right arm. I can feel heat rushing through my body with her this close.

“Holy shit Quin, I know Edward said you had bruised and broken ribs, but I didn’t realise how bruised your abdomen would be” she says as she gently runs her slightly calloused fingers across my bruises. It’s heavenly.

“How do you feel now? It looks so sore” she says.

I take her hand that’s on my bare abdomen and gently graze my thumb over it.

“I’m ok now Lista”. Blood rushes through my veins and I’m so tempted to pull her into me. The tension is sweet, but when we both realise that we’ve been silent for a while, touching each other, we snap out of it.

She looks down and then back up to me, running her fingersacross my arms to feel for glass.

“Do you feel any shards on your skin or are you ok?” she asks me.

“No all good” I say, although wishing there was some way to prolong this moment between us.

She grabs some clothes from inside the bottom drawer and passes them to me.

“If you turn around, we can both get changed. Then we can sort our glass covered clothes if that’s ok?”.

Turning around and removing my trousers, knowing she’s undressing behind me is immense. I really did not expect this evening to end up like this.

“That’s fine Lista. As long as you feel comfortable with me being in the room”.

She looks at me reassuringly.

“I trust you Quin”.

The trousers she has given me fit ok.

They’re men’s dark grey jogging bottoms. They’re a little on the small side, which I gathered, since Reed is slimmer than I am, but it’s better than my clothes being full of glass.

I’m a little worried the trousers are a quite... figure hugging in the dick region, but there’s not much I can do right now.

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