Page 10 of Bodied

He hit play and headed for the painkillers. “I wouldn’t if I were you.”

She chuckled under her breath. Oh, this was going to be fun. “Farm boy,” she called after him. “Fetch me some painkillers.” She waited for hisAs you wish,or at least some sarcastic version of it… some twist. How clever was he anyway?

Apparently, he wasn’t clever at all. He brought her a couple of pills with a glass of water. “Here you go.”

She took it from him with an irritated sigh. “Really?”

“Really.” He sat down across the couch from her, about an inch from her feet, and Lauren couldn’t help remembering the way he tore her pant leg to get to her wound. Her clothes may as well have been tissue paper as easily as he destroyed them.

She sank further into the pillow behind her and fought her oncoming blush. Twenty minutes into the movie, she decided to try again. Maybe he’d just forgotten his lines. “Hey, farm boy,” she nudged him with the toes of her good foot. “Fetch me a snack.”

He barely even looked at her. “What kind?”

All her blushing had given way to pouting by now, and his attitude wasn’t helping. She’d set him up for a good in-joke twice. They could have bonded over it or something! But he seemed to lack the slightest sliver of a sense of humor.Boring. She asked for cheese and crackers, which he brought her without another word. Why were the hot ones always so devoid of personality?

When the credits were finally rolling, she decided to give it one last try. She gave him a sly smile. “Farm boy, fetch me some fresh pants so I don’t have to go to urgent care in these ripped ones.”

Wesley stood. “Do you have a preference?”

She frowned. “Something comfortable, I guess. Seriously, you can’t even humor me one time? I thought it was funny. Your name is Wesley, after all. I mean this scene practically writes itself, doesn’t it?”

“Okay. One, I’m not a theater kid. And two, your painkillers are hitting you too hard.”

He wasn’t entirely wrong. She’d taken some of the prescription painkillers she had left over from having her appendix out, and she was feeling less than perfectly sober. “So? Does that have to mean you can’t be any fun either?”

“Clearly, you weren’t paying attention to your own favorite movie.” He left to get her a pair of pants from her bedroom.

She called after him. “Why would I have to pay attention to something I practically have memorized?”

When he returned, he handed her the pants with a head shake. “If you have it memorized, then you already know why I’m not going to finish your joke. What does the line really mean, princess? I don’t say that sort of thing until I mean it.”

She took her pants from him and started removing the ones she had on before he could even turn his back on her. “You take yourself way too seriously.”

“I guess I do.” There wasn’t an ounce of shame in his voice.

When Lauren was finished changing into her unripped pants, he lifted her from the couch and carried her to her door. She grabbed her coat on the way out, and remembered to lock her door. Wesley never let her feet touch the ground.

CHAPTER5

WESLEY

For the last several days, Wesley had been comfortable enough to show up to his job on time. There was no chance Lauren was going to sneak out to go jogging with her ankle in the condition it was in. The urgent care visit had gone well enough — her ankle wasn’t broken, just twisted, but it was twisted bad. She had to keep weight off it for a week or two and was stuck using a single crutch to get around. As sorry as he felt for her being injured, it sure did make his job easier.

But of course, there’d be no sleeping in for Wesley. His phone rang at seven a.m. Normally, he would have ignored it, but the ring indicated a client, and he was in no place to ignore a client. When he saw the screen, he had a moment of panic. It was Lauren, and why would she be calling him at this hour? He couldn’t think of any reason that didn’t involve her being in trouble.

He answered immediately. “Lauren?”

“Hey, farm boy.”

All the adrenaline he had just built up drained away and left him feeling like a congealed blob of gravy. “God, Lauren, I thought you were dead. Why are you calling right now?”

“Because you’re up at this hour, right? I mean you showed up so early when we went for my jog. I just assumed you’d be up.”

He collapsed into a chair with a heavy groan. She was trolling him, obviously. He told himself not to take the bait. “Okay, so now that we’re even, what do you need?”

“There’s a screening I’ve been invited to attend. It’s this afternoon, so I don’t have much notice, but I want to go. You’ll have to go with me… according to your own rules.”

“That’s true.” He waited for her to go on, but she seemed to be hesitating.

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