Page 9 of Bodied

“You can’t say that for sure. Maybe your stalker decided to back off because I was there.”

“I’ve never had a stalker on my morning run,” Lauren muttered.

“Correction. You’ve never had a bad stalker. A good one wouldn’t get caught.”

“Hilarious.” She rolled her eyes, and tried to ignore the throbbing of her ankle.

When they got back to her apartment building, she handed Wesley her key card and he carried her into the elevator. The concierge barely looked at them. “If I’m going to be doing this often, it might be a good idea for me to have my own key,” Wesley said after the elevator doors closed on them.

“Not a chance,” Lauren said. “Nice try, though.”

He shook his head like she was little more than a stubborn child and continued carrying her all the way to her apartment.

When he set her down on her couch, he leaned over her to examine her thigh. “Um… excuse me,” she said.

He ignored her. “These pants are ruined, right?”

“Obviously.”

Without any warning whatsoever, he put one hand on either side of the tear and ripped her pant leg the rest of the way down. Lauren was too shocked to speak. “The cut’s not too bad,” he said. Then he moved down her leg to her ankle. “This is starting to swell up, though. You’ll want to get an X-ray to ensure it’s not broken. Either way, we should control the swelling.”

“You don’t have to stick around, you know. You’re just a bodyguard, not an ER.” She said it, but she hardly meant it. Deep down, she wanted him to stay. The fact that he hadn’t shamed her or mocked her for sneaking out was making her appreciate him more. He so easily could have gloated or rubbed her humiliation in, but he didn’t.

To her relief, he said, “Don’t be ridiculous. I’d do this even if I wasn’t getting paid. You shouldn’t put weight on your foot right now. Someone’s got to help you.”

Lauren sank back into the couch, too conflicted to speak. She had always been hyper-independent as a coping mechanism. Without a real father in her life and with a practically absent mother, she’d had to make her own way in the world. Help felt like weakness. Logically, she knew it wasn’t, but she couldn’t seem to make herself feel any other way.

“Do you have any towels you don’t care about?” Wesley asked from her kitchen.

She told him where to find everything he would need, and he returned to her with an old bath towel, a bowl of soapy water, and a bag of ice. He lifted her injured leg to slip the folded-up bath towel under it, and she couldn’t help blushing. Then he positioned the bag of ice over her ankle, and started washing the wound on her thigh. Lauren gulped hard. The feeling of being taken care of was almost more than she could stand. And it was making her see him in a light she really, really didn’t want to be seeing him in.

When her wound was clean, he bandaged it, and then he took hold of one of her wrists and turned her hand palm up. “These need to be cleaned, too,” he said, eyeing the scrapes on her palms.

“Uh-huh,” she muttered. Her cheeks were surely bright red by now.

“I’ll take you to urgent care in a minute,” he said. “But I don’t think you need any stitches.”

The last thing Lauren wanted to do was get into a car. Her ankle hurt so much that she didn’t even want to move. “I don’t want to go just yet. Do you mind getting me some painkillers and something to do? The painkillers are in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.”

He cocked his head. “And what sort of thing do you want to do?”

She thought about it. She hadn’t really planned this out, but after a few moments of contemplation, she knew exactly what she wanted. “I want to watch a movie.”

“Where’s your phone?”

“Not on my phone,” she said. “On the TV, like I used to when I was a kid. I need a comfort movie. Under the screen, in the cabinet, you’ll find my childhood favorites.”

He went rummaging under her large flat screen for some DVDs. “Wow,” he said.

“Don’t start.” She knew exactly where he was going with this.

“So many princess movies.” He turned and grinned at her. “Princess.”

Lauren glared at him. “Well, I was going to try to choose the least objectionable one, but now I’m inclined to bother you more. So break outThe Princess Bride, my number one, most favorite movie of all time. Now that’s a comfort watch.”

He shook his head and pulled out the movie for her. “You think you’re punishing me with this movie, but I enjoyed it as a kid, too. So maybe I’ll just stick around and watch it.”

“Maybe you should.” She crossed her arms like she was being stubborn, but it was all an act. She’d had the worst morning ever, and her best friend was definitely still working, so she had no one to call. The last thing she wanted to do was sit by herself in pain. Anyway, she was starting to enjoy Wesley’s company, if only in an ironic way. “Huh…” She thought a moment. “Wesley. I mean, if you’re calling meprincess, maybe I should start calling youfarm boy.”

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