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She shifted, and the urge to strip off my pants and join her hit me heavy…
That was until I saw her cringe.
It was just slight, but her face had definitely screwed up a bit. She had her hair in the bath, and it passed over her shoulder when she looked at me. She held her body. “Thatcher?”
An ache hit her face, and when that cringe on her face deepened, I left that door so fucking quick. I got by her side. “What’s wrong?”
Aspen shuddered, and the race in my chest doubled, quadrupled. She was basically in the fetal position, hugging herself. Did her stomach hurt or something?
“What is it?” I urged, my hand hovering over her. All she did was shift, and the movement ripped a flash of pain across her beautiful face. My fingers brushed her cheek. “Snowflake, what’s wrong? Is it your stomach?”
Alarm bells hit that I may have hurt her or something tonight too. We had gotten rough after a few more rounds last night, and though I’d kissed her, cleaned her up, and massaged her before we’d both fallen asleep, I was new to the aftercare thing. That was me being an asshole with my previous partners, but I was used to normally quick fucks and moving on.
Aspen wasn’t a quick fuck, and the thought that I’d hurt her… or seriously injured her really rattled me when she did try to get up. She moved just a bit in the water and fell back in, sliding under the bubbles a little. Immediately, I went to reach for her, but she winced so goddamn hard, I recoiled instantly.
I hadn’t even touched her.
I’d put not one hand on her, but that didn’t seem to matter with the visible pain that lanced her face. She bit her lip, and when tears pressed through her dark lashes, I thought I’d physically throw up.
“Thatcher,” she gasped, her voice strained, pained. She gripped her arms. “Thatcher, I think I need to go to the hospital.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Thatcher
I ended up driving Aspen to the campus hospital. We were in Winchester, but that was only a town over from campus. They also didn’t have a hospital in the country town, so I had no fucking choice but to drive her all the way back to campus.
I had to carry her. She couldn’t even walk let alone make it out of the chateau to my car. I also had to put her in my shirt because we couldn’t even get her dress on. It’d been bad.
She’d been in so much pain.
I didn’t know in what way. I just knew everywhere I touched her even trying to pick her up resulted in a wince or cringe. I felt like my touch burned her, but I didn’t have a choice considering she couldn’t walk.
I tried to ask her what was going on in the car, my hands clammy and my own voice strained, but she was so uncomfortable I didn’t want to make things worse. I ended up keeping things deathly silent, nothing but my heavy breathing in the car and Aspen’s occasional soft pants and moans through her pain. Hadn’t I been drawing out her soft sounds only hours before? Loving them…
“Can we get some fucking help!” I shouted the moment we were in the hospital. Aspen was in my arms like a damsel, and I cradled her. “Someone!”
People weren’t moving fast enough for me, and fucking finally someone got to us. They questioned Aspen on a bunch of stuff she could barely answer since she was in so much physical pain, and eventually, I had to bark at someone to stop asking so many fucking questions and just help her.
They put her in a wheelchair.
Seeing that nearly broke me. That she couldn’t even move enough to make her way anywhere on her own. I wanted to carry her wherever she needed to go, but once the hospital staff found out I wasn’t family, they were removing her from my arms and taking her. I’d gotten lots of looks considering I was only in my costume jacket, pants, and no shirt. They were lucky I managed to get that on and my shoes. Aspen still had my ruffled shirt on, but I didn’t give a shit about everyone’s looks.
I just wanted to know what was going on.
They kept me waiting in the emergency room, pacing. I felt like I was there for hours before someone said my name.
“Thatch?”
It wasn’t the someone I expected to see. I thought I’d see a doctor first who was there to finally tell me something.
But if it wasn’t a doctor, I was glad to see a friend.
I hadn’t expected to feel gratitude upon seeing Wells, but the moment he waltzed through the emergency doors, I was up and feeling not as panicked. Maybe it was seeing a familiar face… I didn’t know, but I was happy to see him.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, more than fucking shocked. I mean, I put in my friends’ group text thread I was taking Aspen to the hospital, but I hadn’t done it to get any of them to come. I’d left the chateau out of nowhere and just wanted them to know where I was. I’d been gone hours before that, but they also knew I was with Aspen.
