“Why? I’m not your responsibility,” he says, shooting my earlier words back at me. I wince slightly, realizing how cold they must have sounded to Cole after he’d just finished telling me he was sorry he wasn’t there for me after my fall.
Well dammit, he has no one else and I plan to be here for him whether he likes it or not.
I grab a cloth from the closet, run it under the cold water, and sit cross-legged beside him. I put my hand on his forehead to check for fever. His skin is clammy, his eyes sunken into the sockets, and it physically hurts me to see him like this.
“I don’t want you to see me like this,” he says, like he’d just read my mind.
“Too bad.”
“I want you to leave, Nina,” he says, putting more force in his voice, but he’s so weak it comes out strained. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can, but now I’m taking care of you. So shut up and get over yourself already.”
“That mouth of yours,” he murmurs, and despite the situation, we both grin at the reminder of what we’d done only hours earlier. I pat his forehead with the cool cloth and he moans. “Fuck, that feels good. But you need to get some rest.”
“I’m fine, now just relax and let me take care of you.” I dab his head some more, then run the cloth over his neck and shoulders. “This is my fault, anyway. So I deserve to be awake with you.”
Eyes glassy and dazed seek out mine. “How is it your fault?”
Really? Like he doesn’t know. “I seduced you and I probably shouldn’t have. You need rest and relaxation, not me ‘throwing myself’ at you.” I do air quotes around the words we’d used in our sexy banter.
One corner of his mouth turns up, and he squints at me in the dim light. “And here I thought I was the one who’d seduced you.”
“Nope, I was the one who said we should hate fuck.”
He groans. “Yeah, but I’d been thinking about fucking you since…well, since you showed up at my door and asked me for help.”
A giggle I have absolutely no control over rips from my lungs. I have no idea why I’m laughing. It’s an odd reaction in the face of his admission, but I can’t seem to help myself. Maybe it’s knowing how much he wanted me, maybe it’s relief that he hadn’t run out under the cover of darkness. Either way, it’s inappropriate; so is the closeness I feel with him as we sit here in the dark on the bathroom floor.
Careful, Nina, you’re here for hockey lessons and a little sex. Nothing more.
He grins. “That’s funny?”
“No, I just get giddy when I’m tired.”
“I remember. I used to hear you and Jess laughing late at night when I stayed over. I always wondered what you guys were laughing at.”
“Probably you.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“And how much of an ass you were,” I add for good measure.
“You can leave anytime now,” he says, but he’s smirking at me, and he’s resting one hand on mine, his thumb caressing my wrist. Does he even know he’s doing that?
It’s hard to believe the chemistry between us, the way we instantly wanted each other after not seeing each other for the last few years. Then again, I’d be telling a big-ass lie if I said I’d never noticed him before. God, how many times did he walk around our house half naked? I hated it.
Oh, how I hated it.
“Stop talking and just relax,” I say.
He puts his hand to his stomach, and his fingers curl as his entire body tenses.
“Shit, Nina, I’m going to be sick again. You need to leave.”
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Like hell I’m leaving him like this. I hold the cloth to his head as he leans over the toilet and heaves.