Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
Bennett
W hen I enter Cat’s room with help in tow, she looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind. After she slams the bathroom door, of course. She’s still in the bathroom in her very vulnerable state.
“Were the instructions that fucking difficult?” she screams through the door. “I said Kindra, not Grim and Rosie!”
“Hey, keep it down unless you want the entire mansion to come in here.” I look back at the elderly couple and mouth, Sorry , then turn back to the closed bathroom door. “Rosie was a medic for a bit in some war or something, so I figured she could help you out.”
“I guess it beats heading to the fucking hospital.” Cat groans.
Rose tries to step around me, and I let her pass, but I step in front of Grim when he tries to follow her.
I place a light hand on the old man’s frail shoulder. “Hang on. There’s no fucking way you’re looking at her asshole. You have to stay out here.”
“I have no desire to look at such things,” he says with a disgusted scowl. “Rose needs a voice, however, so if I cannot go, she cannot go.”
The bathroom door squeaks open just far enough to reveal Cat’s head. “I would actually prefer that no one look at any thing on my body. Thanks. Can’t she just tell me how to pull it out?”
I look at Maudlin Rose. She shakes her head and grabs Grim’s hand, then does something with her finger on his palm.
“She says . . .” He looks at her for confirmation, and she repeats the motions on his hand. “She says no.”
“Why?” Cat whines.
“Don’t panic, kitten,” I say. And then I kick myself for talking sweet in front of other people, especially when Grim looks like I just ejected a horde of bees from my cock. “Oh, fuck off. You make googly eyes at Rosie all the time.”
His cheeks flush, and I try to brush back my own embarrassment. Then again, if I want Cat—if I really want her—this is something I’ll have to get used to.
“As you two can see, we are . . .” I fumble for the words, but Cat saves the day.
“We’re exploring a connection,” she says.
Rose clutches her hands beneath her chin and smiles down at Cat. It’s all very sweet, aside from the fact that Cat has a fairly large poultry appendage protruding from her ass. Well, not so much protruding as peeking, I guess.
“Can you help her or not?” I ask Rose.
The woman holds up a finger and goes to the bed. When she sees the massive wet spot, her eyebrows rise and she offers us a round of applause. Then she grips one of the pillows and pulls the white casing away. She lays that on the bed—careful to avoid the wet spots—and begins folding it until it’s a long, thin strip. Satisfied, she returns to me and Grim.
After draping the cloth over his shoulder, she motions for his hand, and he provides it. From this angle, I can see her hands more clearly. She alternates between signs, touches, and eye movements to get her point across, and he hears her, loud and clear.
Grim nods at her and turns to me. “She will blindfold me so that I do not see your mistress, and she will communicate with the patient through me. Does this satisfy you?”
No, not really. Even the thought of Grim being in the same room as Cat when she’s in a vulnerable position?—
“Yep, that works,” I say.
My clawing need to save her overrides my fierce need to possess her. Especially when I look down and see the way she’s panicking on the inside. The girl is great at hiding it, but she can’t hide it from me. Not now. And not ever again.
Once Rose secures the blindfold around Grim’s narrow head, we all file into the bathroom, careful to step over the prone patient. Cat stares at the ceiling, probably dissociating.
I kneel beside her and take her hand in mine. “Hey, I’m really sorry,” I whisper, but not low enough, apparently, because Grim’s jaw falls open.
He hurries to close it, but I saw, and his shock doesn’t surprise me. Pet names and apologies aren’t in my wheelhouse, and this isn’t a side of me most people see. Hell, I didn’t even know it was in me in this capacity. It feels kind of gross, but then I look at her and it just feels kind of . . . good.
Fuck it.
I clear my throat and brush away the little strands of hair that always seem to fall across her perfect face. “I’m sorry. This is my fault, and if you never want to fuck me again, I completely understand.”
“Can we do this after we close down the KFC joint between my fucking legs?” Cat asks.
Grim shifts on his feet. “KFC is not turkey. It is chicken.” He must feel my glare, because he raises his hands and says, “Rosie speaks these things, not me.”
I look at Rose, but she doesn’t crack a smile. She just gets on her knees in front of Cat as if she’s about to deliver a fucking baby. When Grim doesn’t sit beside her, she gives his gray slacks a light tug, and he feels around until he finds her. He plunks down a little too close to Cat’s leg, but I just grit my teeth.
Let her get some help, jackass .
“Ow, you’re squeezing me,” Cat says, and I realize she’s correct. I’m squeezing the fuck out of her hand. When did that happen?
Rose pats Cat’s knees and motions for her to spread her legs. Cat closes her eyes and pouts before doing exactly that. Rose purses her lips and blinks down at the disaster zone.
“What? Is it bad?” I ask.
She feels for Grim’s hand and relays a message.
“It is certainly not good .” He waits as she finishes her missive. “But this is not bad.”
Cat and I breathe a collective sigh of relief.
“Where is the lubricant for your genitals?” Grim asks. “Rose believes she can ease it out with digital penetration and anterior—” Another pause. “No, I misheard her. In terior manipulation.”
“Oh, fuck. I’m gonna pass out,” Cat says.
I place my other hand over hers, sandwiching her tiny palm. “Look at me, kitten. You aren’t gonna pass out. You’re one of us, remember? We don’t pass out when shit gets hard.”
“ We also do not shove turkey parts up our bottoms, but here we are,” Grim mumbles.
I let it slide.
“Grim, the genital lubricant is in the top drawer of the nightstand,” I say without looking away from Cat’s eyes. “White tube, blue writing.”
“Not sure how I am supposed to find it when I have been forced to forego one of my senses, but I will manage.” He stands and feels around for the door.
“I’ll be right back,” I whisper to Cat.
She nods up at me.
“Sit down, old man,” I say as I pass Grim, and he toddles back to his spot beside Rose. “You need any gloves?” I call over my shoulder.
A beat passes, and Grim says, “She brought her own, thank you.”
I fetch the lube and hand it to Rose, then sit beside Cat once more. She’s handling this really well, all things considered. Meanwhile, I feel like a complete asshole. I asked her to trust me, and she did. Then I went and fucked it up. She’s probably waiting until she can walk before she lays into me.
Once Rose slides her slender hands into a pair of sterile gloves—they came in their own little single-use baggie and everything—she holds her hands out so that Grim can apply the lube. Grim having no sight and Rose having no voice creates a bit of a barrier, so I snatch the tube away from him on his fifth try to find her hands.
She scowls at me, unable to use Grim’s voice to tell me how she really feels as I dump some lube onto her gloved fingers. She’s got the body language thing down, though, because her message is crystal.
How fucking dare you belittle Grim . That’s what that look says.
“Um, what’s she doing now?” Cat asks. “Whoa, that’s uncomfy.”
Rose sits back and looks at the ceiling, and I think I know why she’s so frustrated.
“Try to talk to me,” I say to Rose. “I know I don’t understand you as well as he does, but I’m not a complete moron.”
She tilts her head toward me with a deadpan stare.
“See!” I shout. “I know exactly what you’re saying. You just said, ‘Yeah fuckin’ right.’”
Rose’s eyebrows rise, and she gives me another look.
“Now you said, ‘Hmm, pretty good.’”
With a sigh of defeat, Rose nods her head and looks at me. Then she begins to speak.
Her hands rise, and she clenches them in fists. At the same time, she tightens her jaw and pinches her lips together until they are a thin line. Her entire body is rigid. Then she shakes her head emphatically, then mimes blowing out a breath and?—
“Relaxing,” I say. I look down at Cat. “She wants you to relax.”
Rose nods, sending her short gray curls into a hurricane around her head. After raising her hand in a thumbs-up, she moves between Cat’s legs once more. Reaching down, she shakes her head.
“You have to stop tensing up, kitten,” I say.
Cat scoffs. “That’s easy for you to say. You aren’t the one with a turkey leg the size of John Coffey shoved up your ass. You aren’t the one who is about to give birth to birdzilla! You did this to me!”
One thing is for certain. I’m getting a fucking vasectomy after this trip.
Rose mimes the motions for relax again, but Cat is too far gone. A fresh droplet of sweat speeds down her temple, and her hands have gone clammy. There’s only one thing left to try before we have to give up and admit we’re beaten.
“Cat, do you remember that special drink I gave you on the island?”