“Quit stomping around. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine! When I’m not here, he needs to step up to the plate and look after you, for fuck’s sake. I shouldn’t come home to find you half dead while he’s off doing God knows what.” He picked her up and carried her to the bathroom, stripped off her sick-soured clothes and put her in the bath.
“I was hired to look after him, Rodrigo, not the other way around, remember?”
“We’re not talking about any ‘who hired who for what’ bullshit.” He found her body wash and cleaned her with his bare hands, reassuring himself she was okay. He washed her hair while she griped at him then left her soaking in the tub while he changed the bed and started some laundry.
When that was done, he dried her off and blow-dried her hair, then held it out of the way while she emptied her stomach into the toilet. He carried her to bed after that, dressed her in a pair of her clean flannel pajamas and sat with her, talking quietly, while they waited for Dr. Liu.
Severin strode past, glancing in as though he was afraid to.
“Come here!” Rodrigo snapped.
Severin froze just past the doorway, his footfalls going silent as the dogs milled around, looking confused.
“Excuse me, puppy?” Severin strolled into the room, and the temperature seemed to suddenly drop. “Were you speaking to me?”
Rodrigo opened his mouth to take him to task for leaving her alone when she was sick, but the dangerous glint in Severin’s eyes made him pause.
“When I’m away,” he began carefully, “you have to watch out for her.”
“I was going to call the doctor but she told me not to.” He shrugged, but under the nonchalance of his gaze was a wariness. He glanced at her, then away, rubbing his hand against his dirty T-shirt. “She’s not a child.”
“As her dominants, her health is our responsibility. As people who love each other, we take care of each other.”
The muscle in Severin’s jaw ticked. “All I manage to do is make people die or leave, Ro. I don’t know how to do this.” He gestured vaguely at Minnow, still not looking at her. “Playing Florence Nightengale isn’t my forte, but hey, it looks good on you.” He clapped Rodrigo on the shoulder and gave him a condescending smirk.
“Don’t be a prick.”
“You’re the one who chose me, little puppy,” he said, baring his teeth. “You don’t like me the way I am, you know your way to the fucking door.” He stalked off, leaving Rodrigo glaring after him.
“He’s worried,” Minnow said, voice lacking inflection. She was probably too tired to be annoyed.
“If something like this happens again, you call me and I’ll send Mayte or my mother. Even Fidel would be more helpful. Hell, Loïc would have done better.”
“Shh.” She frowned at him, looking fiercer than he’d expected her to have the energy for. “He offered to call the doctor and he kept the dogs busy. When he gets sick, he hides and wants to be alone, so why would he even think I’d want to be taken care of?”
“I don’t care if you don’t like being taken care of or not. It’s what dominants do.”
“Are the BDSM police coming to take his Dom card? He is what he is, Rodrigo. The only way you can change a man is if he wears a diaper, and that’s not my kink.”
He sighed and sat on the bed beside her. “I get worried leaving you two alone out here when I’m gone. Maybe I should hire someone to help keep an eye on things.”
“A pretty girl you can call your own?” she asked, arching a brow at him.
“Maybe you’ll like her,” he teased.
Minnow burst into tears.
For a moment all he could do was stare at her. What on earth?
“Whoa, whoa, Min. I was joking.”
She sobbed, burying her face in his lap. Minnow crying outside of a sexual context made him want to find someone to punch. He stroked her hair and shoulders. Was it his imagination, or was she bonier than before he left? Fear slithered through him. What if there was something really wrong with her? This emotional outburst wasn’t like her – especially not over a joke.
“Every time you leave I always wonder. I think of all the women who try to hang all over you at those parties and I just keep thinking how you could have any of them.”
“Other than the pre-nup thing, I’m not sneaky or a liar. Why would I jeopardize this? Us?”