Page 5 of Bear
With her teeth clenched together, she groans, “It’s that bad?” She cranes her neck around, trying to see into the mirror behind her.
“There are a few spots along your spine that look a little raw. It could use some antibiotic ointment and a couple of bandages.” I dip my head down, catching her chin in my hand at the same time, brushing my lips over hers. My heart is a wild stampede of horses in my chest. The way this girl makes me feel is unreal. “Gonna grab a few things to fix you up. I’ll be right back.”
I duck across the hall to my room, taking a moment to breathe. This entire situation is fucked. I’m going to wring Mason’s neck. I grit my teeth as I sort through the medical supplies in my bathroom drawer, gathering what I need. I don’t even fucking know how to handle him. I hope Duke was able to fucking deal with it without them getting into it again, because I’m not going to be there to tear them apart this time. If that’s how they decide to handle things, then they’re going to have a good go at each other.
I take a moment in the hallway between our rooms to listen, but I hear nothing, so I continue back to Lennon.
She’s crawled into bed but is sitting up with a sheet drawn to her chest, waiting for me. I set a small pile of bandages on the nightstand and sit down behind her. “I should have thought about this earlier.”
“It’s okay. I’ll live.” She turns her head, offering me a small smile. “I’m made of sturdy stuff.”
“That you are.” I shake my head, chuckling a bit as I open a package containing an antiseptic wipe, then slowly and carefully blot it over the first open spot on her skin.
She immediately pulls in air between her teeth, and her back arches, trying to get away.
“Sorry. Does this help?” I lean in and blow over the spot. “I do this to my knuckles when I bust them up.”
She nods. “Yes. Thank you. I should have guessed you’d know what to do.”
I grunt a bit, thinking about the fact that I have something important to talk to her about, considering I’ll be seeing my father for fight night.Fucker.I work my way down her back, cleaning four different abrasions on her skin. I turn, picking up the bandages and begin to open one after another, applying a dab of the ointment and placing them over the wounds. “Let’s wait and see what the rope mark on your neck looks like tomorrow before we do anything. I know it probably stings, but it’s not open, just roughed up.”
“Okay.”
I stand, heading to her dresser. “Which drawer has T-shirts? Got anything oversize or loose around the neck?”
From behind me, she murmurs sleepily, “Yeah. Second drawer down. There should be something.”
I dig around for a second before coming up with a good option. I turn and hold it up so she can see it.
“That’ll work.”
All of a sudden, not only does she sound exhausted, but she looks it, too. “Arms,” I murmur as I return with the shirt. My chest tightens. Why the fuck does the act of helping her dress almost seem more intimate than taking her clothes off? I shake my head, laughing internally at myself as she holds her arms up, poking them into the sleeves before I finish by pulling it over her head. I must be the only fucking college-aged dude who turns down a girl coming onto him and then sticks around to fucking help her get dressed. This is how I know I’m in big fucking trouble. This girl is going to rip my heart out if I let her. With that thought in my head, I carefully sweep her hair out from under the collar as she pulls the shirt down over herself.
“Thank you. You’re really good at taking care of people.” Her smile is disarming, hitting me right in the gut, despite the fact that I know she’s about to fall asleep sitting up.
I nod. “I try.” Clearing my throat, I pull the sheets down so she can get situated in the bed. Without much inner debate, I turn off the light, then circle the foot of the bed and get in on the other side. I lie flat on my back, and Lennon doesn’t hesitate more than a second before she turns over and tucks her body into my side, resting her head on my shoulder. She fits just right, here at my side, and it’s odd, but… I breathe easier with her near me. And especially after the last twelve hours, I hardly want to let her out of my sight. Fuck, I’m so screwed.
I let way too many minutes pass by, staring at the ceiling and inhaling Lennon’s scent before I break down and whisper, “Are you still awake?”
She shifts in my arms. “Yeah. I’m so tired, but I can’t shut my brain off. Why, what’s up?”
I hesitate. “Tomorrow night. Or, shit, I guess it’s tonight at this rate. Anyway, I have somewhere I have to be.”
She props herself up on her elbow. Her eyes glitter like diamonds in the dark. “Can I come?”
Huffing out a small laugh, I give her a perplexed grin. “I’m surprised you want to go anywhere with any of us after what you just went through, and I actually do think you’d like it, but…”
“But what?”
“My dad will be there.”
“Oh.” Her mouth snaps shut.
I stare steadily into her eyes. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me exactly what happened, but I intend to talk to him. Whatever he said upset you, and that’s why you took off from the VIP suite in the first place, leaving you open to getting assaulted afterward.”
A breath shudders out of her, and her gaze drops to my chest. “I don’t—” Her face is unreadable. She shakes her head. “The words don’t so much matter, it was just mostly some crap about me living with a bunch of guys. Insinuations. And then, he spouted some more BS when he put his arm around me.” Her lips press together. “I hesitate to say this because he’s your father, but I got the idea he could make even the most innocuous sentence dirty in some way.”
She’s not wrong. And rather than push Lennon after the day she’s had, I’ll ask the bastard to his face. Fucking asshole perv. I have plenty of ideas as to what he might have said to her. My eyes crash shut. “It’s a fight, by the way.”
