Chapter 21
“Zoe?” Trevor said as he shut the front door behind him.
Seconds later, Toby came running out of Zoe’s apartment to greet him, carrying that damn pink princess toy that Trevor hid a half-dozen times by now, but the damn dog still managed to find it.
“Hey, buddy,” Trevor said, shifting the grocery bags in his other hand so that he could reach down and pet the dog. “Where’s our girl?”
Toby released the toy so that he could bark in the direction of Zoe’s apartment.
He gave the dog one last pat and walked into Zoe’s apartment, frowning when he didn’t find her.
She usually wasn’t too hard to find after work.
She was either reading, watching television, or running around their apartments cleaning.
He put the bags down and grabbed the new baby pink leash Zoe bought last week.
“You want to go for a walk?” Trevor asked even as the dog stood up on its hind legs and tried to jump into his arms. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, chuckling as he clipped the dog leash to his, God help him, matching baby pink collar and took the dog for a quick walk.
He swore if one more person called his dog “a pretty girl” again, he was going to spank Zoe’s ass.
Ten minutes later, he was walking into Zoe’s bedroom carrying the bags with Toby on his heels.
It didn’t take him long to realize that Zoe wasn’t in her bedroom.
The soft sobs he heard coming from the bathroom clued him into her location and tore at his heart.
Why did she affect him like this? Trevor wondered even as he headed for the bathroom.
“Zoe?” he said softly.
“Go,” a soft sob, “away.”
Sighing, he pushed the door open and walked inside, not all that surprised to find her sitting in the tub with her knees drawn up to her chest. When she saw him, she tried to avert her gaze as she wiped the tears away with the back of her arm.
“What’s wrong?” Trevor asked, placing the bags on the floor next to the tub as he knelt down in front of it and pushed a wet strand of hair behind her ear.
“I’ve just had a very bad day and want to get some sleep now,” Zoe mumbled, sounding truly miserable.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Trevor asked, turning the faucet on to add fresh hot water to her bath. He picked up the large pink plastic cup she kept by the tub and rinsed her hair as she sat there, resting her chin on her knees.
She shrugged.
“I heard you took quite a fall today,” Trevor said, squirting some shampoo into his hand.
“It was just an accident,” she said, sniffling.
He didn’t believe that for a damn second, but he bit his tongue. Screaming at her wouldn’t help, besides, it would kill him if he was the reason for her tears. So, for a few minutes, he didn’t say anything as he took care of her.
Without a word, he drained the tub and held up one of the extra-large, fluffy towels she liked. She gave him a small trembling smile as she stood up and allowed him to wrap the towel around her.
“Why don’t you sit right here?” Trevor said softly, leading her over to the chair by the bathtub. “I’m going to take a quick shower and then we can talk, okay?”
Worrying her bottom lip as more tears streamed down her beautiful face, she gave him a reluctant nod.
He turned his back on her as he quickly stripped, knowing she probably wouldn’t appreciate the hard-on he was sporting at the moment.
She was so damn exhausted, and he knew that it was his fault, but they had another matter he’d ignored for way too long that they needed to deal with tonight.
After a quick shower, Trevor wrapped a towel around his waist and sat down on the edge of the tub.
Zoe sat on the chair, looking so damn miserable that it made his chest ache.
Shoving away useless feelings that wouldn’t help either one of them, he reached into one of the bags and grabbed the two small bottles of orange juice, glad to find that they were still cold.
“Here,” he said, passing her one of the bottles.
“I’m not thirsty,” she said with a small shake of her head.
He simply ignored her refusal and pressed the bottle in her hand before he grabbed the small turkey grinder he’d picked up for her and handed it to her. When she tried to refuse, he decided the bullshit was over.
“Eat it,” he said softly.
When she shook her head again, he met her eyes. “I know you passed out today, Zoe. I also know that you’ve been starving yourself for the past few months,” Trevor said, not bothering to soften his words.
She worried her bottom lip for a minute before she responded. “I’m not starving myself. I just count calories.”
“You’re starving yourself, Zoe. You don’t eat meat. You’ve cut everything your body needs out of your diet and you’re losing weight too damn fast,” he said, praying for patience because if this didn’t work, he had no idea what the hell would.
She looked down at the drink and sandwich in her hands. “I don’t like being fat,” she mumbled sadly.
Cursing softly, Trevor moved to kneel on the floor in front of her. When she refused to meet his gaze, he gently cupped her chin and raised her face.
“Hey, you’re not fat, Zoe. You’re curvy and sexy as hell, but you’re not fat,” he said firmly. “But you are starting to scare the hell out of me and if you don’t start eating, I don’t think we can continue this.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously on him as she processed what he’d said. “You’re cutting me off?”
“If you keep up this bullshit diet,” Trevor said, shrugging as if the idea of going without her luscious little body didn’t bother him.
She considered him for another minute before she said, “You’re bluffing.”
“Am I?” Trevor asked, feigning disinterest. “I’ll just have to go somewhere else,” he said, knowing damn well that wouldn’t be happening. Until he was done with her, and he wasn’t even close to being done with her, she was his and no one else would do.
“Okay,” Zoe said, wiping away the rest of her tears that he noted had thankfully stopped flowing, “if that’s what you want, I guess I’ll have to look elsewhere as well.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously on her. “What exactly does that mean?”
She gave him a little shrug and an innocent expression that he wasn’t buying for a second.
“You’re saying that if I end this arrangement that you’ll start one with another man?” he asked with barely controlled rage. He didn’t like the thought of her with another man.
Not at all.
He glared at her for another moment, waiting for her to falter in some way, but when she just sat there looking innocent, he snapped.
“Fine! But you’re going to start eating, Zoe, or I swear I’ll spank your ass!
” he said, noting the gleam of anticipation in her tired eyes at his words and remembered who he was talking to. “And not in the good way either.”
“Fine,” Zoe sighed heavily. “I was already starting to rethink my diet anyway,” she grumbled, toying with the sandwich wrapper but not opening it and eating it, he noted.
He reached out and took the sandwich and juice back, placing it in the bag with the rest of the food and stood up, holding his hand out to her. “Come on.”
Her eyes widened almost comically as she looked between him and his hand. “I know we have an agreement, but I really am tired,” Zoe said, sounding close to crying again.
“Shh,” Trevor said soothingly, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead as he took her hand into his. “Come on,” he said, giving her hand a gentle pull.
After a slight hesitation, she allowed him to lead her into the bedroom where he quickly pulled on one of the pair of jeans he’d left at her place and found her a pair of panties and one of his Yankees tee-shirts.
With an exasperated roll of her eyes and a cute little smile, she took the shirt and pulled it on.
“Come on,” Trevor said, grabbing her hand once again and pulling her towards the door.
“Where are we going?” she mumbled around a small yawn.
“I thought we’d watch a movie with our dinner,” Trevor said, leading her down the stairs, into the hallway, and into his apartment. He didn’t bother shutting the door behind him since he knew that it would only make Toby cry. The dog wouldn’t accept anything less than full run of the entire house.
“Have a seat and I’ll be right back,” he said, placing the bag on the coffee table. After making sure that she did as he’d asked, he ran upstairs and grabbed a pillow and one of the large quilts that his grandmother made for him and headed back downstairs to find Zoe already starting to doze off.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Trevor said, tossing the pillow and quilt at the opposite end of the couch. “You need to eat, Zoe.”
“God, you’re bossy,” she mumbled, but he didn’t miss the look of anticipation on her face or the way she licked her lips. Poor thing, he thought. He really couldn’t imagine living on nothing but green veggies and sticks, but somehow, she did.
Maybe he should have picked up a couple of steaks with the works, he thought and then quickly dismissed the idea. Zoe would have balked at breaking her diet like that. Once she realized that she could still eat regular food by making healthy choices, she’d be fine.
“Here you go,” Trevor said, grabbing her sandwich and drink from the bag and setting it down in front of her.
“I grabbed you a turkey, no cheese, extra veggies and fat-free mayo on wheat. It’s healthy food and it won’t leave you starving, Zoe,” he explained, hoping that she wouldn’t give him much of a fight because at this point, he was willing to pin her to the ground and force-feed her.
She’d lost too much weight to be healthy and worst of all, she was making all of his favorite curves smaller. He fucking loved those curves and he’d be damned if she denied him what he wanted. Plus, she really was making him nervous.
Not that he really cared or anything.