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“Neither do you.”
“My brother made you laugh,” he said casually.
Oh, my heart. It wouldn’t surprise me if Aiden heard it thrashing wildly where he sat.
“He said something funny.” When Aiden pinned me with a searching look, I simply raised my eyebrows. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“You still haven’t told me your favorite food.”
His smile was slight and sexy. “I called Paige when you were sleeping.”
As a distraction technique, it was really effective. My mouth fell open. “You what?”
Aiden finished unwrapping my wrist and turned it carefully. But he had no choice but to release my hand when I sat up. My legs swung in front of him on the floor, so I tucked them up crisscross underneath me.
“Why would you call her? The whole point of coming here was so no one knew.”
“No,” he countered, “the point of coming here was so that you didn’t have to go to the hospital. She heard about the tree from Molly and called you multiple times.”
“So you unlocked my phone and called her back?”
An eyebrow rose on his forehead imperiously. “Technically, Emmett unlocked your phone.”
I gave him a withering look. Amazing how knuckle-stroking-almost-orgasms only went so far when he took it upon himself to tell Paige about something without asking. My chin rose a notch. “You had no right to do that.”
“I didn’t have your permission, no.” He got on his knees, hands braced on the edge of the mattress, bringing his face closer to mine. “But whether I had the right is debatable. You are in my home with a head injury, and the worst thing I could imagine as a parent is if something awful happened and I didn’t know.”
My withering look softened into something a little less … withery because he wasn’t wrong.
“She wasn’t mad,” he told me. “They switched to the first flight out this morning. I think they’ll be here after breakfast.”
My shoulders slumped. “I didn’t want to worry anyone.”
“I know.”
Carefully, I flexed my fingers, turning my hand back and forth so I could see it in the light. It was swollen but not terribly. The bruising would be ugly, but I was so fortunate. Anya was so fortunate.
“But maybe,” he said, “it’s okay to let people worry about you every once in a while. It doesn’t mean you’re a burden. It sure as hell doesn’t mean you’re weak because that is the last thing you are.”
I almost swayed in his direction. Once Logan and Paige got me and Emmett, once we pulled out of his driveway, I probably wouldn’t see him for a few days. Certainly not like this.
In general, I wasn’t an impulsive person. I was decisive, and that was different. It didn’t take me long to decide about … anything, really, because I always had the sense of which course of action made the most sense.
At this moment, I knew I was going to touch Aiden because I couldn’t not touch him.
“I think I’m done sleeping,” I said quietly. I inhaled slowly, and he was so close—even though I was staring at my hand, and he was staring at me. It felt safer that way, to keep my gaze off his. With my good hand, I slid my fingers over his, and relished in the way he breathed out. Aiden’s hand was so much bigger than my own. It would span so much of my body with those fingers fanned out.
As I moved my fingertips over his knuckles, I couldn’t help but wonder if it had the same effect on him as it had on me.
Instead of fighting the impulse that tugged my body toward him, I let it flow through me. A hot sweep of power had me turning my head and resting my forehead against his temple. Underneath my palm, his fingers curled up into a tight fist. The muscles in his forearms flexed, and he breathed out of his nose, a short puff of air that sounded loud in my ears.
And that big man, who caused such big feelings, he didn’t move away. Neither did I.
I slid my hand up his forearm, curled my fingers around his shifting muscle and sinew, until I felt the hard knot of his elbow, the tight, hot curve of his bicep underneath his skin. My teeth dug into my bottom lip when I saw, through heavily weighted eyes, the way his jaw flexed and bunched.
Grab me.
