Page 287 of Branded
He slipped the piece between my parted lips, taking advantage of me speaking, and I bit down, the juicy, ripe fruit bursting to life on my tastebuds.
I chewed, swallowed. “Cas?—”
He simply dipped the slice into the peanut butter, scooped up a dollop, and shoved the fruit into my mouth again.
Another bite.
The tart and sweet interspersed with the creamy nuttiness of the peanut butter.
God, it had been a long time since I’d had something like this, and while it was a simple snack, it was delicious and filling and?—
I couldn’t lie.
What I like most about it was that Cas had made it for me. I liked that he was feeding me.
I should stop him, should feed my damn self.
But for some reason, I didn’t…or couldn’t…or…
Maybe tonight I didn’t want to take care of myself.
Just for tonight.
Thirteen
Cas
It took everything in me to not kiss the juice that had turned her mouth into a glistening temptation, to not lean in and taste the mix of tart and sweet on her tongue.
She was hungry.
That was the only thing that stopped me from kissing her a few minutes before, from kissing her in that moment—the fact that her stomach had rumbled, that she was hungry. She worked too hard and barely took breaks and I hardly saw her eat. Plus, she was hurting and needed the medicine. And to take it, she needed something in her stomach.
So, I kept feeding her apple slices dipped in peanut butter.
Because I couldn’t make the cuts disappear.
But I could get food in her belly, soothe her hunger. I could do that one small thing for her.
She was just finishing the final slice of apple coated in peanut butter when the door to the kitchen pushed open and her boss and a cop walked in. Matt’s eyes narrowed at me as the police officer strolled toward us, pad and pen in hand, expression serious.
I hated that the softness that had crept into Jules’s body immediately disappeared.
She was tense, her body going stiff next to me, and—ah, the hell with it—I slid an arm around her shoulders and drew her against me. Something her boss really didn’t like, considering that the other man’s scowl was fierce and intense and?—
“Can you tell me what happened?” the officer asked.
Jules recounted her interaction with Chelsea (and seriously, for fuck’s sake, how was the other woman so fucking dumb?). But any amusement that I might have felt—and it was damned limited in the first place—dissipated when I heard how Jules had gotten those marks.
Chelsea was a fucking bitch.
So, I sat there seething as the officer finished with the statement. I figured that I was going to have to convince her to press charges, but she didn’t argue when the officer asked, just agreed, and held out her arms so that pictures could be taken of the marks.
Which meant she’d straightened away from me, stood so that I couldn’t hold her any longer.
But she’d let me hold her for a time.
So that was…something—it was more than something. It was…right.
