Page 13 of No Apologies
Chapter Three
“Come on, time for bed.”
Colt shifted to his knees and leaned over her. She didn’t wrap her arms around him and he frowned. She’d closed her eyes again and he couldn’t stop himself from stroking her cheek one more time before he focused on the task at hand. He draped her arms around his neck as best he could and got a good grip on her as he pushed to his feet.
Her head lolled and he groaned, “Come on, angel. I need your help. Hold onto me.”
Skylar moaned but her eyes stayed shut, “Hmm?”
“Put your arms around me and hold on.”
She did as he asked though her grip was so loose he wasn’t sure it really helped. Carefully, he turned them around in the small bathroom and squeezed through the doorway. She nuzzled his chest with her cheek as he walked them to her bedroom and he swallowed a moan of his own.
He was holding Skylar and he couldn’t even enjoy it. Couldn’t enjoy her seductive scent wrapping around him. Couldn’t enjoy how light she felt in his arms, as if she was made to fit there. She was sick he reminded his twisted thoughts as he carried her towards her bedroom. She was sick and he had no right to enjoy holding her, now or ever.
“Colt?”
He glanced down and realized she was looking up at him from those heavy-lidded eyes, “Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me.” He twisted sideways to enter her bedroom, “We’re friends, right? Friends help each other out when they’re sick.”
“Yeah. Friends.” She mumbled half-heartedly and he bit his tongue.
God, he hoped they were still friends. She was mad at him but she didn’t hate him, did she? No, theywerefriends damn it. Hell, she was one of his only friends. His best friend. Even if she was pissed at him. Even if he had no idea why she would want to be friends with a bastard like him. They were friends and he was grateful for getting to have that much of her in his life.
“I’m still mad at you.”
He smiled when she read his mind, “Yeah?”
“Yeah. You’re still an asshole.”
“No arguments there, angel.” He stopped at the side of her bed and shifted her slightly, “Here you go, watch your head.”
He deposited her down onto the bed and she let him. She didn’t try to hang onto him and whether that was because she was so weak or because she didn’t relish being in his arms as much as he did having her there, he would never know. He gently put her on her bed and then stepped back to find her looking up at him with that dazed expression again.
“What?”
“You called me angel.”
The air in his lungs hardened and his throat tightened, “I… uh… did?”
No. He couldn’t have. He hadn’t meant to. He was always very careful not to actually call her that out loud. It was what he called her in his head, because that was what she was to him. She was an angel, pure and good, a light in the darkness. But he’d never let the thought pass his lips, knew it revealed far too much, that he wouldn’t be able to take it back.
“Uh huh.” Her exhausted smile tipped up again, “You did.”
“I… well…”
“You’ve never called me by any nicknames before.”
He raised an eyebrow, surprised she’d noticed that, and played dumb, “Sure I have, I call you Sky all the time.”
“No, you never call me by endearments. You use them with everyone else. Jemma. Billie. Rachel. Every woman I’ve ever heard you talk about is baby or sweetie or honey but you never call me any of that.”
There was a question in her statements that she didn’t voice but he heard it nonetheless. Just like he heard the hurt she couldn’t keep out of her tone. It only proved his point. He’d hurt her without even meaning to. He wasn’t good for her and she needed to be protected from him.
He couldn’t tell her that he’d never called her by any of those silly nicknames because that was what he called other women, women that didn’t matter to him. He could never have called Skylar the same thing he called those others but she’d only felt excluded. Left out. Unimportant. In truth, it was because she was the only one that was special to him.
