“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Relaxed.” Even the word seemed drawn-out, my limbs melting into the mattress. His bemused grin told me the pills were working their magic, perhaps even better than I’d realized. “And also like I have to pee. Will you help me?”
“I’m not going to wipe your ass, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“You wish.” I laughed, rolling slowly toward the side of the bed. I wasn’t even bothered by his snarky tone.
My movements were sluggish, my limbs heavy. I pulled my robe over me, covering everything.
“You good?” He stood beside me, his eyes sweeping me as if preparing for my imminent fall.
I nodded, but my head felt heavy as well. “Yep.” I pushed to stand, and Ethan was there to steady me.
“Just take it slow.” His calm tone was the type I’d use on a skittish horse, and his words and the way he’d said them made me laugh. “What’s so funny?”
“I don’t think I have much of a choice.”
After he’d escorted me back to my room, I surprised both of us by grabbing his hand. “Stay. Please?” I asked. “Just for a little while.” When he continued to hesitate, I said, “I don’t want to be alone.”
Finally, he relented, though the tension in his shoulders told me he wasn’t happy about it. “May I?” He indicated the empty spot next to me on the bed.
“Sure.” He moved to sit, but then I spotted the boots. “No shoes, though.”
He toed them off and joined me. The mattress dipped beneath him, the old metal headboard squeaking and protesting, which only made me laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“You’re the first boy I’ve ever had in this bed.”
He glared at me. “Who are you calling a boy?”
I glanced over at him, taking him in from his feet up to those denim-clad thighs to the bulge in his jeans and higher still. Up his defined chest beneath the olive-green Henley until I finally met his eyes.
“Ooh. Such a macho man,” I teased, scrunching up my face.
He tucked his hand beneath his head. “Those muscle relaxers must be good.”
“Why do you say that?”
“No reason.” He stared at the ceiling, so I nudged him with my elbow. “Geez.” He clutched his side, feigning injury. “I just meant that you were actually being nice for once. And you invited me into your bed. You must be drugged.”
“Who says I wouldn’t invite you into my bed otherwise?” My eyes widened. Had I really just said that aloud?
The muscle relaxers combined with Meghan Hart and—let’s be honest—the clean scent of Ethan had my imagination shifting into overdrive. I found men attractive—sure. But in the past, sex had been kind of a take it or leave it thing. The sex portrayed in romance novels seemed…unrealistic, as much as I enjoyed listening to them. Or maybe it was me. Maybe I was the cold, frigid bitch my college boyfriend accused me of being.
But with Ethan, as much as I wanted to deny it, parts of me were awakening, tingling. And I didn’t think it had to do as much with the prescription as the man. Though I sure as hell didn’t know what to think about that.
Chapter Eight
Who says I wouldn’t invite you into my bed otherwise?Her words played on a loop in my head, and I wondered if they were the truth or the effect of the muscle relaxers. I brushed it off as the latter.
“Why have you been so nice to me today when you clearly don’t like me?” she asked.
“You needed help.”
“So?” She tilted her head, her curls spilling over her shoulder. “I don’t know that any of my friends back in Boston would do the same.”
“You need better friends.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What do you like so much about Boston anyway?”
