Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
STELLA
This morning marked the third day of being a guest in West’s house, and while my ribs still hurt like a mother, it was a serious improvement over the days before.
I was able to get away with taking the wrist brace off for a couple hours throughout the day, the bruises were starting to turn from deep, angry purple to an ugly greenish-yellow around the edges, indicating healing, and the split on my lip was completely closed.
I was feeling a thousand times better than I had the day before, so I decided it was time I repaid West’s kindness.
In the past few days, he’d insisted on taking time off work so he could be here for me if I needed anything.
I wasn’t sure a more thoughtful man had ever existed, at least not in my lifetime.
He cooked three meals a day, and brought me a pain pill every time my expression started to draw up because I was stubbornly trying to fight it on my own.
I had to admit, these past couple days had been pretty nice.
Too nice. It was something I could easily get used to if I didn’t watch it.
As it was, trying to remind myself was getting harder and harder.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to pay him back for all his kindness.
When I’d woken up earlier, I’d made the bed the way it was supposed to be made, and went about straightening up the bathroom, picking up the clothes on the floor near the hamper and putting them inside.
Wanting to do something more than just tidy things up, I looked beneath the sinks for cleaning supplies and stumbled on something I hadn’t been expecting.
“No shit,” I breathed, reaching into the cabinet and pulling out the box of condoms from underneath that had the word ‘Magnum’ in big bold letters.
Of freaking course the man was packing. Because it would have been a cruel joke from God if he hadn’t been.
“What are you doing?”
At West’s voice, I gave a startled yelp and threw the box as hard as I could across the bathroom. “What?” I asked, trying to sound casual as my heart threatened to beat right out of my chest and onto the bathroom floor with a thud.
He looked to the condoms and back to me, his expression neutral, but his eyes dancing with humor. “I was wondering when you’d get around to snooping. I was surprised you hadn’t done it by now, honestly.”
“I wasn’t snooping!” I defended, my tone making me sound like a guilty liar. “I was looking for cleaning supplies.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to clean up. As a thank-you for everything you’ve done for me. It’s lame, I know, but I don’t really have any other way of paying you back.”
He extended a hand to help me up from my crouched position in front of the vanity. “Stella, you don’t have to pay me back for anything. I’m happy to help.”
This guy really was too much. It was getting easier and easier to forget all my problems when I was with him.
He was funny and considerate, clever, smart, and just all around amazing in pretty much every way.
Sure, he could be bossy and a bit of a pain in the ass, but no one was perfect.
I could be a pain in the ass as well, and a lot more often than he was.
Truth was, all the good of him outweighed the bad by tons.
No matter how determined I was to keep those walls of mine fortified against the beating they were taking due to West’s kindness, it was damn near impossible.
“I know, but I can’t just sit here day after day and do nothing. Especially when you’re doing so much. I need some kind of purpose, West.”
Reaching up, he tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, then he gently rubbed the pad of his thumb beneath the bruise that ringed my eye, careful not to touch the tender flesh. “Your purpose right now is to heal. That’s it. Now come on, breakfast is ready.”
My stomach let out a growl as he took my hand and started leading me out of the bathroom.
He walked right past the box of condoms, not even sparing it a glance, pretending he hadn’t busted me with them right before I chucked them.
I knew he did that for my benefit, to keep me from feeling embarrassed.
Just another example of how awesome he was.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t wondering about .
. . it. Most specifically, if he knew how to use that magnum to its full potential.
When we got to the kitchen two bowls were already sitting in front of the stools West and I had eaten at the past two mornings, full of sweet-smelling, steaming oatmeal, with fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries.
As had become routine for us, I hopped up onto my seat as West moved around the kitchen, pouring each of us a cup of coffee and doctoring mine to perfection.
All the while, Rollie’s routine was to wedge himself between the two stools on the off chance either of us dropped anything and plop down to continue his morning snooze.
I opted against the pain pill this morning, feeling much better than I had been, and together, we tucked into our breakfast. He’d said that first night he wasn’t much of a cook, but so far, everything he’d made me was absolutely delicious, and the oatmeal was no exception.
He’d added cinnamon and sugar to flavor it, and the berries added a nice texture and tartness that had me devouring every bite in record time.
“Oh, I ordered this for you the other day,” he said, putting an end to the companionable silence between us.
I looked up from licking my bowl clean, literally, to the box he slid across the counter to me. “What’s that?”
“It’s a new phone. I know your sister said something about bringing you another, but I went ahead and took care of it.”
“West, I—” I swallowed at the sight of the all-too-familiar logo on the box. “That thing is hundreds of dollars more than my old phone. It’s like four upgrades at once. You didn’t have to do that.”
He shrugged, spooning up more oatmeal. “It’s not a big deal.”
That was part of the problem. What he considered to be “not a big deal” was huge to me.
First he’d been adamant about covering the cost of my ER visit, and now this.
I’d never had someone show me so much kindness before, and it was getting harder and harder to resist. If he wasn’t so damn genuine, if that instinct I had to spot a liar hadn’t remained so quiet, I almost would have thought this was all an act simply to get into my pants.
But it wasn’t. This guy was way too damn good to be true.
I carefully pulled the box to me and lifted the lid, staring in awe at the phone inside. The screen was black, but the sides and back were a pretty rose gold color. It was, hands down, one of the nicest things I currently owned.
Feeling a bit misty-eyed, I clutched the phone to my chest and sniffled, trying to get control of my emotions before looking back at him. “Thank you,” I croaked.
He reached over, cupping my cheek in his large palm and running his thumb beneath my bottom lip. “Don’t mention it, sweetheart.”
He returned to his breakfast a second later while I pulled out the instruction manual on the phone to try and get a feel for it.
“Oh, and I’ll have Xander set it up for you when we go into the office later this morning.”
I dropped the tiny pamphlet back into the box and turned to him. “Sorry. What?”
“I have to take care of some things in the office today, so we have to go in.”
Panic started clutching my chest, squeezing the air out of my lungs like a wet towel being rung out. I tried to sound calm and casual as I said, “Okay, well then you go ahead and go, and I’ll just hang here with Rollie.”
“That’s not going to work.”
“Of course it will. I feel a million times better,” I told him, leaving out the fact I was still nowhere near normal.
I hopped off the stool and rounded the island, taking my bowl to the sink and giving it a rinse before depositing it in the dishwasher beside me.
“I’m more than capable of taking care of myself. ”
I could feel his shrewd gaze on me the whole time. “It has nothing to do with you being able to take care of yourself, grift.”
It had gotten to the point that I didn’t really mind the nickname anymore.
In fact, every time he used the endearment, I felt a little excited flutter in my belly.
Grabbing the dish towel draped over the handle of the oven door, I dried my hands and returned my attention to him.
“If it’s not about me being able to take care of myself like a grownup, what’s it about? ”
“It’s about you not being safe,” he answered, the words bringing back to mind everything I’d been putting on the back burner for the past couple days.
The threat of O’Brien was always in the back of my mind, but at least when I was here with West, I’d been able to pretend for a little while that my life wasn’t a complete and total clusterfuck.
“As long as O’Brien’s out there, I’m not leaving you alone.
At least not until I can be sure you’re safe. ”
“I’m perfectly safe here,” I insisted. It was like the two of us had been living in a bubble the past two days.
A bubble in which I easily forgot that my face looked like it had been in a fight with a brick wall and lost terribly.
The last thing I wanted to do was go out in public looking like this.
“O’Brien doesn’t even know you. He’s got no clue I’m staying here, so this is the absolute safest place I could be. ”
“That’s not a risk I’m willing to take. You’re coming with me.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I gave him a hard look that would usually have Spencer or my dad quickly changing their tune. That look was what won me almost every argument in the Ryan household. “Am not.”
Humor danced in his gold and fire eyes, his brows raised close to his hairline. Clearly my look had no effect on him whatsoever. “Are too.”
My sister hadn’t been wrong when she called me stubborn, and the more someone tried to get me to do something I didn’t want to do, the harder I dug my heels in.
Poor Rollie was sitting off to the side now, his head swiveling back and forth as he watched our childish little exchange like it was a tennis match. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are,” he replied, sounding almost as stubborn as I did. “Your safety isn’t up for discussion. You’re coming. End of story.”
Oh, the story wasn’t even close to being finished. I lifted my chin smugly. “No, I’m not. And you can’t make me.”
“Come on, stop pouting. It’s not like I didn’t warn you.”
I refused to look at West, and I did not, in fact, stop pouting. I’d been in the passenger seat of his truck for five minutes so far, on the way to Alpha Omega, and I hadn’t broken my pout for a single second. I was also in the middle of a pretty damn good silent treatment, if I did say so myself.
“I just want to keep you safe,” he continued. “It’s not like I’m trying to be a bully.”
I knew that. I wasn’t completely irrational.
At least not all the time. But Serenity had been right a few nights ago when she told him I won every argument by being stubborn and totally unbending, so the fact I’d lost this one to the only person on the planet who’d ever caught me lifting a wallet stung my pride a bit, and I wasn’t quite finished nursing my grudge yet.
“It won’t be all day. Just long enough for me to handle some shit I haven’t had a chance to do the past couple days.”
“What shit?” I asked before I could catch myself. Damn it. Looked like the silent treatment ended before it had a chance to get really good. This man was throwing me way off my game. He had me acting like a newbie, for crying out loud. The handsome bastard.
“Work shit,” he answered.
“Well that’s not vague or anything,” I grumbled. “Is this some of the super-secret spy stuff you do?”
I could see one corner of his mouth hook upward. “You could say that.”
Guess that was all I was getting on that subject. “I still wish you would have let me stay at your place.”
“You have nothing to worry about,” he assured. “You’re going to like everyone there. You’ll see.”
And that right there was the problem. Liking them wasn’t what I was worried about.
It was them liking me, or more to the point, not liking me, that had me so stressed.
He’d talked about the guys he worked with enough for me to get the distinct impression they were tight in a way that was more than just co-workers.
The way he sounded, it was as if the bond he had with them was the same kind of bond he formed with the men he served with in the Marines.
They were family in a way that was thicker than blood.
As much as West and I seemed to be drawn together, I was under no illusion that I was good enough for him; I absolutely wasn’t. And I was afraid that would be obvious to all the people he worked with the moment I walked through the door.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked, breaking the silence that had filled the truck. “Usually what you’re feeling is written all over your face, but I’m having trouble reading you right now.”
Shifting in my seat to face him better, I asked, “You’ve been so concerned with my safety, did you ever stop to think that maybe the guys you work with won’t exactly be thrilled to have a criminal hanging around the offices?”
He cast me a look I couldn’t quite read. “You really think I’d bring you with me if I thought that was going to be an issue?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to throw back at him that he was still a stranger, and I couldn’t make that assumption, but the words wouldn’t come.
I might have only known West for a handful of days, but claiming that neither of us knew the other was a lie I could no longer tell myself.
Our situation might not have been typical, but there was no denying I felt like I knew this man better than I had any of the ones I’d been in steady, long-term relationships with.
And because of that, I trusted that I wasn’t about to walk into anything bad.
Because I knew down to my bones he’d never put me in a situation like that.