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“You need something for the pain? Pretty sure I have some Tylenol.”
Lifting his arm, I put it around me, and snuggled closer to him.
“Nope, this is all I need.”
“Then I got you covered. Oh, by the way, your parents called.”
“Okay, what time are they bringing Shawn home?”
“Tomorrow,” he answered with a short laugh. “When I told them you were still sleeping, your mom said they’d let you rest.”
“I’m sure them keeping him is strictly for my benefit.”
I closed my eyes, enjoying the soft strokes of his fingers on my arm.
“I bet you and Macy could do that.”
“Do what?”
“This flipping thing.”
I opened my eyes to see what he was talking about. One of the house flipping shows was currently on. “I have no idea how to do construction, and Macy doesn’t like getting her hands dirty.”
“Right, but the design stuff. These people have a crew.”
“Are you trying to get me to work so I stop being a freeloader?”
“What? No. You just have an eye for that sort of thing. Look at what you did to this place. And I like you being a freeloader. Means I can have you pay your rent in sexual favors.”
“Or I could just pay off the mortgage, and you can pay me back in sexual favors.”
I expected some flirty comeback, but I got silence. Mal
stopped stroking my arm and said nothing for at least a good thirty seconds.
He sat up and pulled away from me. “I know you’re just messing around, but I don’t want that to be a real thing.”
“Oh, so you can charge me that way, but I can’t do the same? Double standards much?”
He didn’t return the smile I gave. In fact, the look on his face was anything but playful.
“The mortgage.”
“Oh. Why not? I mean, isn’t that what people look forward to doing, paying off their house and owning it outright. Why wouldn’t you want that?”
“I don’t want you doing it.”
I sat back against the sofa and folded my arms across my chest. “And why not?”
Malcolm pinched the bridge of his nose and took a long inhale. “Because,” he began slowly. “I would rather do it myself.”
It was my turn to take a slow breath. That familiar unsettling knot began to form in the pit of my stomach. “So, all that talk about this place being for us was just that? Talk? What you really want is to have some sort of way to lord it over my head that this is yours.”
“What the hell are you talking about? No. I told you day of closing you could go on the title, and that can be done at any moment, just say the word.”
“Then explain to me why, if we have the means to own it, I’m apparently not allowed to take care of it.”
“Because he’s tainted enough, and I don’t want anything from that bastard associated with my house.”
