Page 77 of Grand Love

Nothing. For the longest time I don’t get a thing back from him and I end up going to bed, completely knackered after a busy and chaotic first day.

My chin throbs as I lie back in my bed, and I wonder if it will scar. Why am I such an idiot? I should have left him to it, he wasn’t hurting me. I managed to cause a scene and injure us both.

My phone chimes with a text and I reach for it quickly to silence it, not wanting to wake Ellis.

Mase: I have ice.

Nina: Is it painful?

What a stupid question. Of course, it’s painful.

Mase: Is water wet?

I smile wide, feeling my dimple pop. If he is cracking jokes, then he forgives me.

Nina: I really am sorry.

Mase: I know you are.

Mase: Do you offer rehabilitation services at the gym?

Nina: I think Henry is trained in rehab. I can ask???

Mase: I don’t want Henry.

My stomach dips.

Nina: I’ve heard he is very good with his hands. They call them healing hands.

Mase: Are you not good with your hands?

Is he flirting with me?

Mase: What is it you do exactly?

Linger, pretend I know what the hell I’m doing. It’s been a day!

Nina: I PT.

Mase: So you could help me.

Nina: No.

Mase: Why?

Because I’d end up a puddle on the floor, or there would be a literal puddle on the floor if watching him today is anything to go by.

Nina: I don’t want to mix my homelife with work.

I don’t expect the words he sends back, and they gut me.

Mase: I’m not your home anymore. So that’s not a problem.

My smile drops and the force of it falling snaps me out of my bubble. Holding in the side button, I shut off my phone and slide it onto my bedside table. It probably wasn’t meant as a jab, but it sure feels like a punch to the gut. In just a few short minutes he had me eating out the palm of his hand, waiting on the edge for the next text.

My heart seems to want something that’s obtainable, and for me to give in to that need for him, I’d have to knock through the walls I’ve built solidly around it.

The trouble is, I’m learning that Mason has built his just as high.

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