Page 57 of Demo

Paige could only move back a few inches from him. Her eyes went wide as she looked at the mess around and under them. Her body started to shake and it wasn’t until he saw the suppressed smile on her face that he realized her body was shaking from laughter, not shock. “Oh God!” she burst out, arms around her middle as if she was trying to keep her laughter in. “Areyouokay?”

“Peachy,” he growled out. He couldn’t fault her for laughing. The whole thingwaspretty funny, but he had a hard time joining her when his shoulder felt like it was being held over an open flame.

“I’m sorry,” she tried to stifle her amusement. Her eyes were concerned as she gave him a once over. “Is it your shoulder?”

Reluctantly, he nodded. This wasnothow he wanted the first time they made love to have ended. Though no one could claim it wouldn’t be memorable.

Paige moved to her knees, seeming unaware or unconcerned with her nudity. Despite the pain coursing through him, Demo took in his fill of her lovely body. “I’m not laughing at you, I promise,” she assured him.

“Careful,” he cautioned as she moved around. Just because no larger pieces hadn’t penetrated the mattress and impaled them like a shish kebab didn’t mean there weren’t smaller splinters or shards around. He didn’t want Paige to get stuck and injure herself.

She ignored his warning. “Can you sit up? Do I need to call for help?”

Fuck. No.

Since there was no other alternative, Demo gritted his teeth and used his right hand to balance himself as he rose. The pain was immense but survivable. He just needed to remember how to breathe, dammit. What wouldnotbe survivable would be having Paige call for help and have either his brothers or an ambulance witness him splayed out on the floor in a virtual cradle of the broken massage table with a used condom still hanging off of his dick.

Knowing his brothers, pictures would be taken before any help would be administered.

Demo wasnothaving them see Paige naked either. He didn’t care if he trusted them with his life or hers. There were some things that were for his eyes only.

With Paige’s guiding hand, Demo was able to shift his weight and hips enough to sit up. One of the table legs was still mostly upright. He had no idea if it was sturdy enough, but he needed the support.

Paige shifted around to his left side and started to examine his arm. Demo tried to hold in the grunts of pain, but every uncontrollable twitch felt like a hot poker being jammed into his joint.

“You know,” she said drily as she ran her witchy fingers over his skin, “if you wanted free treatments, you could have just asked. Seducing me seems a bit extreme.”

Demo grunted out a snort. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

He glanced at her. Paige was holding his arm out, pressing it back against her chest as she carefully and expertly rotated his shoulder joint.

There was a pause in which one could have heard a pin drop—and then both of them started laughing.

It took some time,but eventually they were able to get themselves up and dressed. The table itself was a complete goner. If it wasn’t for his injured shoulder, Demo was pretty sure Paige would have smacked his arm when he suggested they take a selfie in front of it to memorialize the first time they’d had sex.

“Men!” she scoffed before heading off to the back room to find a broom.

Demo pulled out his phone and summoned two prospects to bring a truck. The club could use the frame for tinder during their bonfires. It wasn’t like Paige would be able to glue it back together.

When she reentered the room with a broom, dustpan, and someTerryrags—for reasons Demo had no clue—he turned his phone around to show her a massage table he found online. “Is this like what you had?”

Her eyes narrowed on the phone. “I don’t need you to buy me a replacement table. It would be a business expense anyway?—”

Demo raised an eyebrow and stopped himself from informing her that he wasveryaware of what did and did not count as a business expense. “I’m not asking if this is what you need as a replacement. I’m asking if this is like what you had.”

Suspicious, she looked closer at the phone. “Thereabouts. Obviously mine didn’t have a stainless steel frame. That one,” she nodded at the phone, “is a little wider too.”

“Excellent.” Demo turned the phone back around. He was only able to use his right hand at the moment. Paige had a heating pad currently attached to his left shoulder and some minty cream. In an hour, she planned on using her needles of witchcraft to relieve some of the tension but wanted to apply heat first. “And…ordered.”

Paige rounded on him from where she’d started sweeping up splinters. “Demo! I told you, I don’t need you to buy me a replacement table!”

“I didn’t,” he said in all innocence. “I learned my lesson about buying you things without talking to you first.”

“Then why did you just buy me a new massage table? The stainless steel ones are a lot more expensive.”

“Yeah. Some of those mechanical ones were like fifteen hundred!” he exclaimed. “Thankfully, the one I got was only around four hundred and is even foldable. It’ll be at your house in a few days.”

“What—” Paige paused. “My house? Why would you have a new massage table go to my house?”

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