I smiled.
And, for the first time, I realized that the cuteness in my bed was there to stay.
Until she healed. After she healed. I was keeping her.
Because if she could make me smile at a time like this, then she was a keeper.
CHAPTER 10
You can be a good person with a kind spirit and still tell people to go fuck themselves when needed.
-Catori to Laric
CATORI
It was four days after the ‘incident’ as I liked to call it, and I was bored.
So, so, so bored.
At first, being at Laric’s was great. He took care of me. We had a lot of fun watching movies. Then, sadly, Monday rolled around and Laric started to work.
I didn’t know what exactly he did, and when I asked him on the times he came home to check on me, or even came home for the night before he started working with the dog, he never had a truthful answer.
That was why, when I’d woken up this morning and Laric told me that he was taking me to therapy where they would start working with me on my shoulder, I’d been so doggone excited.
I mean A, he was actively going to spend time with me, and B, I was getting out of his cabin.
I now thoroughly understood the term ‘cabin fever.’
“Are you mad at me?” I all but blurted the moment we pulled out of the driveway.
He turned and looked at me, his green gaze intense. “No.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Because…” I hesitated. That night that I’d gotten home from the hospital? I didn’t remember any of it. Not a single bit. Did I say something to make him uncomfortable? My face flushed bright red. “Did I say something inappropriate? If I did, I’m really sorry.”
Because holy God, if I’d said something inappropriate about his penis, or the way he masturbated on screen, I was going to just die. I’d literally expire right then and there.
He turned back to the road, his head shaking. “No. You didn’t say anything inappropriate. Why?”
Because you’ve been acting like I had some sort of contagious disease and staying away from me and I’m bored!
“Umm.” I hesitated. “I just, I guess. You’re being very standoffish. And I realize now that I didn’t ask if you’d be there to keep me entertained or anything. But I’m bored. I don’t have anything to do all day. There’s no television—I mean, who doesn’t have television? And, just sayin’, but I feel really weird doing anything other than sitting on the couch since it’s your house and not mine. I don’t know. I’m blabbering. But I’m really worried that I’ve stepped over some imaginary line I didn’t know I shouldn’t cross. And I also know that you don’t really know me, and I don’t really know you, but I find you really attractive, and I hope that I didn’t say anything that might or might not have offended you in some way. I now see the error in my ways.”
“I have a laptop that I watch shit on. It’s on top of the entertainment center. No password to get in.” He paused. “The error in your ways?” he asked, his voice tinged slightly with amusement.
I licked my lips. “I sometimes say stuff when I’m on pain meds. Don’t react well. I probably should’ve mentioned that. I’m sorry that I was gross.”
He laughed then, his foot pressing down a little harder on the gas pedal, making the truck move forward while also making the muscles in his legs flex.
I’d never been attracted to a big man like Laric before. I mean, I’d always tended to gravitate to leanness and a runner’s build. But Laric did things to me with his big, tree trunk legs, and his extra thick chest, as well as his biceps that looked to be about the size of my thighs.
I wished I could see him unclothed.
That day, when I’d witnessed him in his house, masturbating on the computer screen, I’d only gotten just the barest hint of skin besides his big, beautiful cock and his arms.
I got a hint of chest hair, but that’d been it.
“You didn’t say anything that I didn’t need to hear,” he admitted, eyes pinching slightly at the edges.
Oh, boy.
“What did I say?” I asked, voice sounding stricken now.
The way he’d worded that meant bad things for me.
“You didn’t say anything.” He paused. “At least about me. Not in a derogatory way or anything, so you can stop worrying about that.”
I blew out a breath of relief.
“Okay.” I paused. “But if you ever need to get what I say off your chest, I’m here. I’m willing to take the brunt of it if it means that you’re not mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you,” he told me as he accelerated even faster down the road, heading toward the rehab place. “I swear. Nothing you did offended me in any way.”