Forty-Six
H er bags were in my room, and she was in my room, and I fucking wanted her again already.
“Want a shower?” She nodded, crouching down to dig through her bag for something. I leaned down, and grabbed her arm, pulling her back to her feet.
“I got everything you need, babe.”
She pointed at her bag, as she pulled against my grip.
“My toiletries are in there, and my clothes.”
I led her to the bathroom, pointing out my soap and towels.
“Everything. You. Need.”
“My toothbrush?”
Okay, I’ll concede that point, but no more.
“Fine, you can bring that, but that’s it.”
“None of my bodywash or shampoo?”
I shook my head, gripping her chin to stare at her nice and close.
“I want you only smelling of me now, babe. That means you use my stuff now, not yours, and I’ll get you a t-shirt to wear if you must, but I’m just as happy for you to stay naked.”
She rolled her eyes but started undressing, so I dug her toiletry bag out of her stuff, and retrieved her toothbrush, and her girly razor, because I couldn’t guarantee mine wouldn’t carve up her skin, but already I was planning to replace mine with something we could share in future.
While she was showering, I dragged the bedding off the bed, and dug out some fresh sheets. It was too hot for anything other than a light sheet over us anyway. I wanted the room to be as pleasant as possible for her though, because it wasn’t nice and elegant like her house. It was a guy’s room, and it needed to feel like home for her too.
Shit, should I be getting flowers and stuff? Maybe I was getting too far ahead of myself, and anyway, what would the guys say next time they visited? Call me a pussy? Tell me I’m whipped? Was I? Was that what was happening now?
The bathroom door opened and she appeared, with a towel wrapped around her head and my t-shirt covering too much of her damn body. Oh, and she smelled like my shampoo. My bodywash. I think it soothed the territorial beast inside of me, because if she smelled so much like me, the others would know she was mine, right?
She glanced around, at the freshly made bed, the open windows, and the way I stood there in just my boxers looking awkward.
“You did all this for me?”
I nodded, rubbing my hand over my buzzcut hair, feeling like a bashful fucking schoolboy.
“I uh… I’ll just use the bathroom. You can get in, if you want, or not… oh, yeah, Jesus… you might want a drink. Want me to get you a drink first?”
Lissa stepped closer and took my hands, squeezing them lightly.
“Relax, Ice, it’s just me, and I’m not company. I’m yours. You don’t need to change anything to please me.”
I swallowed, glancing around me, still seeing the room as too masculine for her to be happy here. Too simple. Too… me.
“I… we can make the place nicer for you, Lissa. I want you living here with me, but it’s a man’s room. It’s… it needs to be better.”
She smiled. “I think this is the right moment to mention something else Reacher said. Something he wanted me to tell you.”
Oh hell. I waited, my heart drumming in my chest as I waited for some new rule or restriction, or something that meant this still wasn’t real yet.
“He said to tell you ‘you’re whipped’ .”
I stared at her for a moment, struck dumb, while a huge smile bloomed on her face.
“Did I say it right?”
I burst out laughing, as her words finally sank in, and relief followed swiftly. Reacher, that bastard . I dragged Lissa closer, and kissed the smile off her face, or I tried, but it just kept returning. It turns out I kinda liked it there anyway.
Lissa
W e woke in the morning wrapped around each other, and it felt like I’d never known anything else. Waking up with Ice again was as amazing as falling asleep in his arms. His insistence that I use his bathroom products meant that I fell asleep with his scent firmly filling my senses, and woke up the same way.
“Come here, babe.” He clearly wasn’t ready to get up, dragging me back over his chest, and promptly falling asleep again.
When I next woke up, he was easing out from under me, and when I reached for him, he let out a pained hiss and shook his head. He was holding his arm stiff again, which told me all I needed to know.
“Want me to get your pills?”
Ice shook his head. “It’s okay, babe, go back to sleep. I’ll read or something until you get up. I can’t sleep now.”
I slid out of bed, and followed him to the kitchen, carefully hugging him from behind, pressing my face against his warm back.
“I’m sorry, Ice. Maybe I shouldn’t keep encouraging you to chase me, and do the other rough stuff.”
He tensed in my hold, and let out a string of curses, before he rested a hand over mine.
“For fuck’s sake, please don’t stop doing that. I love it, and I think I kinda need it. That makes me some kind of fucked up asshole, I know.”
I rubbed my face against his shoulder blade, then pressed my lips gently against it, because it was the one hurting him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Jesus, for what? This isn’t your fault.”
I moved, letting him turn to face me.
“I mean for touching your shoulder right now. I don’t want to cause you more pain.”
Ice dragged me against him, wrapping his other arm around me, his lips touching my forehead.
“I don’t think there is a ‘more pain’ right now, but it’s okay. I need to learn to deal with it, you know, without… uh… what was it you so eloquently called it? Oh yeah, a chemical crutch. You want a coffee?”
I dragged him away from the counter, and ‘accidentally’ groped his ass as I moved past him to take over.
“I’ll make it, please go and sit down.”
Ice touched my hair, and then suddenly he was gripping it tightly, pulling my head back toward him.
“Just so you know, darlin’, I fully intend to make you pay for groping me at some point. Might even let you enjoy it, if you’re a good girl.” His whispered words made desire coil inside me, and I barely bit back the moan that very likely might have turned into words. Words like ‘god yes’, or ‘do me now’, or something else equally needy.
I shuddered in his hold until he winced again, and backed off.
“Sorry, babe. I can’t hold you right now, but I will, I swear. Fucking shoulder.” He leaned back against the counter, and lowered his head, one hand gripping the spasming shoulder.
“Let me find your pills.”
“There aren’t any now, but it’s okay, I just need to bear it until it goes away.”
“Why didn’t you buy more pills, Ice? You can’t go through this without help.”
He glanced up at me then, his eyes tormented as the pain wracked his limb.
“Doc told me they’re a risk, because I’m a fucking addict. Basically, my weakness for drugs means I can’t risk taking anything strong enough to maybe help with my pain. Ironic, isn’t it? I took drugs to try and bear the agony, and now I’m forced to suffer with it, because I can’t risk using again.”