Page 103 of Seduction in Spades

A few minutes later, the light shuts off, and I make out his shadow crossing the room. He sits on the edge of the bed. “Mind if I take this side?”

We’ve never talked about sides before. Usually, our time in bed is spent rolling around. Him on top. Me on top. Sideways. Bent over the foot of the bed. The two times we slept together, he took the side closest to the door.

“Sure.” I scoot over and pull back the covers.

His body heat warms me from head to toe. “Come here.” He tugs me close, and I rest my head on his chest. My arm crosses over and brushes across something. A bandage, I’m guessing.

It’s subtle, but Nolan jerks. He takes my hand in his and rests it on his stomach.

“Nolan?”

“Sh. Go to sleep.” He presses a kiss to my temple, and within seconds, I hear the soft cadence of his breathing.

Typical guy. Asleep in seconds. Safe and secure in his strong arms, it doesn’t take long for me to follow in slumbering bliss.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Oh my god!”

Avery’s screech has me bolting upright. I grab my side and wince. I must have torn my stitches during the night, but it was worth it having Avery’s body spooned into my front.

“Nolan! You’re hurt.” She steps out of the bathroom holding my dark-gray undershirt. “It’s soaked with blood.”

“It’s notsoaked.” My clothes from Saturday and Sunday? Those were soaked. Once Hugh stitched me up Saturday night, the bleeding slowed, but I tore through the stitches that night, and he had to redo them on Sunday.

I wanted to come up then but was worried about scaring Avery with the amount of blood my wound was still leaking. The wait killed me, but this was what I wanted to avoid.

“What happened?” She drops my shirt and rushes to my side of the bed. Carefully, she lifts my T-shirt and gasps. “Oh my god.”

I drop a look at my side. The knife wound will leave an impressive scar that I’ll end up covering with a tattoo if it’s too much for Avery to see. The bandage covers the stitches, but my left side is entirely black and blue.

The broken rib will heal in time. Not my first rodeo. I don’t need to worry Avery with that detail though.

“Just a flesh wound. My stitches must have popped during the night. It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?” She stands and paces the bedroom. “You’ve been gone for four days, my brother checked us in under your name, and you and Ryder have been pretend texting about your romantic getaway so you have an alibi, and you come back in the middle of the night with clothes soaked in blood and stitches in your side, and you tell me it’s no big deal?”

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