Once he finished with the downstairs, he wheeled the chair to the bottom of the stairs and put the locks on.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking you upstairs,” he said.
She held her hand up as he went to pick her up. “No, not happening. You can’t.”
“I can’t what?”
“You can’t lift me up. I won’t let you.”
He put his hands on his hips as he looked at her. “Why the hell not?”
She looked down at herself. “Look at me, Bull. You cannot lift me. I am far too heavy for you to do this.”
He had heard enough. Lifting her in his arms, he heard her scream.
“If you wriggle, there’s a chance I’m going to drop you.”
“Oh, God, you’re going to drop me. This is insane. I’m too big for you to lift like this.”
She was … slightly heavy, but he didn’t mind.
Bull carried her upstairs and placed her into the wheelchair that he’d left upstairs.
“You got a second wheelchair?” she asked.
“Yes. I won’t be carrying you up and downstairs for long. I’m having one of those electric chairs installed so I can put you in that for safety reasons, and then carry you all the way upstairs to this chair. I have thought of everything here.”
He went to move behind her, but she grabbed his hand.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me.”
The moment she was well and had no need for assistance, he was going to remove it all. Bull had a whole lot of plans when it came to Maddie. He just needed to have a little more patience to implement them all.
Chapter Eleven
“I’m here, Maddie. I’m here.”
Maddie jolted awake to Bull leaning over her. She stopped thrashing as she looked into his green eyes. He must have turned on the light because she had fallen asleep in the dark. She had been at his house for a few days, and each night, it had been the same. She woke up with him close, almost shaking her awake.
Tears filled her eyes as he helped her to sit up. He perched on the edge of the bed. She put a hand to her racing heart, trying to calm herself down.
The nightmares made no sense. She hadn’t experienced them quite as badly at the hospital.
Alone in this room, she felt the fear crushing her, which she hated because she hadn’t been aware of what was happening. She had never seen the attack coming. She could only recall the pain and the few words telling her she had it coming.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“You don’t need to apologize.” He rested his hand on her thigh.
“I think … maybe I should find a place so you can get some sleep or something.”
“Not happening,” he said. “You think this bothers me?”
“Me waking you up screaming, yeah, I think it does.”
He laughed. “No, it doesn’t. This isn’t the worst way I’ve been woken up, believe me.”
Her gaze landed on the scar next to his lip and wondered what had.
“Yeah, that wasn’t so much fun, and I’d take you screaming the house down over this,” he said, pointing at his lip.
“I didn’t mean to stare.”
“You don’t have to keep apologizing.” He stroked her thigh. She liked his touch so much. Even as her heart raced from fear, another feeling worked its way up, taking over. “Do you want me to get you anything? Hot chocolate? Water? Vodka?”
She laughed. “No alcohol. Er, I don’t suppose you would … stay with me?”
“Yeah, sure.” He glanced around the room, then got up off the bed and moved toward the chair.
“No. No. I meant … here.” She put her hand on the bed. “With me.”
“You want me to sleep with you?”
“You’re right. I shouldn’t be asking. I’m so sorry.”
“Maddie, I don’t like to repeat myself.”
She looked at him, a little confused, and then it dawned on her what he meant. “Right, you don’t like to repeat yourself. You noticed how you keep saying that?”
He didn’t answer.
“Yes, I’d really like for you to sleep with me in this bed, if you don’t mind, that is,” she said. She was almost afraid to ask if he did.
“No problem.” He got to his feet, rounded the bed, and climbed in beside her.
“I’ve never shared a bed with a man before.” The truth just blurted out before she could stop it.
“Then it’s an honor to be your first.”
She couldn’t help but wonder what other firsts he was going to be.
Get your head out of the gutter. It’s not going to happen, not with how badly you look.
She tried to stop her mother’s voice from echoing through her mind, but it was pointless. “No one is going to want a fat woman in their bed. You need to learn to lose the weight, Maddie. It’s bad enough that you’re not pretty like all of those other girls.”
“Hey!” Bull cupped her face. “Where did you go?”