Page 107 of Petite Fleur

I tighten my arms around her, holding her against me and the heating pad against her. “No, ma fleur. I would never hurt you, you never need to be scared around me.” I promise her.

I need her to believe me on this.

I don’t care if I have to pray to whatever fucking God exists, I need her to know and trust that she’s safer with me than she’ll ever be with anyone else.

Chapter 41

Leon Aldon

It’s been a couple of days since Maeve and I’s night on the couch and things have felt a little better at home since then.

She even fell asleep on me that night and I didn’t have the heart, desire, or stupidity to move her. Instead, I pushed the tray aside, turned off the TV, and clung to my girl while we both slept.

Sure, I woke up to a fucking disaster after one of us knocked the tray of the couch, but it was worth it. Besides, that’s what hardwood floors are for.

I cleaned up the mess while Maeve slept and felt grateful that she didn’t wake up to see it; she’d likely feel terrible for causing the mess.

She didn’t even want me to clean the towels, she was worried about me handling blood, but little does she know that I’m far too comfortable with blood.

I even stayed home the next day to be with her again.

She was still bleeding pretty heavily and dealing with some severe cramps, so it felt more than worth it to take care of her again.

I brought her pre-packaged food, laid her against me, gave her the remote, and spent our entire day in bliss.

She even had the confidence to ask me for some pretzels while we watched some goofy ass animated movie about a robot at the end of the world.

I gotta admit it was pretty cute, both the movie and her needing me.

Today, however, we’re in my study while she does her finals.

I know she’s ready for this, she’s been studying like crazy and even quizzing herself when she thinks I’m not paying attention, but she’s understandably nervous.

Despite her nerves, she’s been polite with the professor who is assigned to monitor her, making small talk when she’s allowed and even explaining her entire situation to her.

That impressed and worried me. She told the professor that she was accidentally given gluten at a restaurant and is still very sick.

She confidently lies that her doctor is worried about the structure of her bones and is encouraging her to stay inside as much as possible until she gets the chance to get a bone density test done.

I don’t like that she lied so well, it worries me that this is a real fear for her and something she’s likely already endured. Now I’m worried and feeling guilty that I may have permanently damaged her body.

She seems okay now, but I’ve looked up the lasting effects of a celiac being fed gluten and causing a reaction, I could have caused her infertility!

I could have ruined our chance of children as well as her life!

I can never make that mistake again.

I sit back and work on patient notes on my phone while she uses my laptop for finals, but I look up at her periodically while I work to make sure she’s doing alright. When the professor calls out that she has a five minute break between finals, she hops up and heads into the restroom while I head into the kitchen to grab her a snack and some water.

I know if she were in class right now, she'd only be taking an exam or two a day. She’d have plenty of rest time between tests, but right now she’s being pushed through every final in a day.

She’s going to have to take all nine exams in one day with only a small break between each one and I’m almost positive that by the time she’s done, she’s going to be exhausted and have a headache.

So as a precaution, I grab her blue light filtering glasses that she swears are a lifesaver when she’s on her computer for too long.

When I walk back into my study, Maeve is just sitting down from her bathroom break, so I sit the water and the bowl of fruit I’d cut up for her on the seat next to her on the couch and pull her glasses out of my shirt collar a moment later.

She looks up at me and smiles, a genuine smile and it makes me realize that I’d wage wars just to see that smile every morning.

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