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Chapter 9
This wasn't exactlyhow I'd intended to get her to spend the night, but there was no way I'd leave her to sleep in her truck in this state. When I carried Cody into the hotel, the staff looked at me sideways. Then, when I asked someone to press the call button for the elevator, the guy was brave enough to ask if she was my girlfriend. Yeah, I lied. Told him she was my sister and had too many, so I was putting her to bed, whether she liked it or not. He just laughed and pointed out that it didn't look like she cared.
That held true for a while. I managed to get her laid out on the mattress, then I hurried back down to get her gear. She traveled a lot lighter than I'd expected. And she wasn't lying about her shirt. I was convinced she'd gotten dragged through a pile of bull manure when Disco Breakout took her for a spin around the side of the arena. There was no way she'd wear that tomorrow.
When I opened the door to my room, carrying an armload of her stuff, I heard her suck in a breath. Even before I made it around the corner, I knew my girl was awake, and there was a real good chance she was confused.
"I think this is the last of it," I said as I rounded the corner from the short little hall.
She nodded, but wasn't really looking. "Which way to the bathroom?"
Yeah, I knew that tone. Dropping everything where I stood, I pointed back to the half hall by the door with one hand. My other was helping her stand and wobble in that direction. The moment her feet touched the tile, she made the first choking sound, then dove. Her hands grabbed the toilet. Mine caught her hair. As her body purged itself of her wild night, I stood behind her, making sure she didn't pass out.
She wasn't the first woman whose hair I'd had to hold. She certainly wasn't the first I'd taken home who'd gotten a little too drunk. Usually it happened after I picked them up. I could always tell the shy ones because they started liquoring themselves up the moment they agreed to come back to my place. It gave them an excuse for what they already wanted to do and so long as they didn't get too trashed, I didn't care. This was different. This had nothing to do with me.
What I didn't expect was for her to cry. The first sob was so soft I almost missed it, but when she wiped the back of her hand across her eyes, her shoulders trembled. It was subtle, not like most of the girls I knew. She cried like she didn't want anyone to notice, and it hit me right in the gut. I finally understood what Renato was talking about, because in that moment, I'd do anything to make her smile again.
"Hey, baby," I said gently, bending down to flush the toilet. "Lean back. I gotcha."
But she just shook her head, pressing her forehead against her wrists, her face hanging over the water. "I don't want you to see me like this."
"Would it help if I closed my eyes?"
"Nuh uh."
"So why can't I see you, baby?"
"Because I'm gross, and I smell, and I don't look like I'm a professional bull rider, and you're just gonna laugh at me." After pushing all that out, she sucked in a quavering breath. "And that guy said I couldn't do it. They gave me the easy bulls because I'm just a stupid girl, and if I come back, he'll make sure I regret it. Now you're just going to tell them I puked. I can't even get drunk right."
Yeah. There was too much there to deal with in one go, and I had a feeling that getting drunk wasn't something she did on a regular basis. Not that it made me feel any better. She was crying, actually crying, because Austin had tried to scare her off. The next time I saw that bastard, I'd make sure he never messed with her again. I was going to put a fist in his face for every single tear she shed, and then a couple for screwing up my big plans to impress her, just on principle.
"Ok." Right now, all I needed to worry about was her. "Considering you're right beside the shower, I think most of that is easy enough to fix. How about we get you all cleaned up, and then you'll look like a professional bull rider again, ok? Our secret. I hear... What were you drinking?"
"Margaritas."
Yeah, so definitely a lightweight. "Right. I hear tequila makes even the toughest riders look a bit rough around the edges. Ok. How hot do you like your water, baby?"
"Very. Thirsty too."
I ran my hand across the back of her head before I pulled away. Mostly it was just that I had to touch her. Partly it was because she still wouldn't look up. Well, I could fix this. First, I'd get the water heating up. After that, I pulled down a pair of towels, setting them within reach of the shower - in case she ended up on the floor of it. Next, I unwrapped the glass on the sink and filled it with water from the tap. Then I moved back to her side.
"Here," I said, passing her the glass. "Drink this."
She took it and sucked back a small gulp, then swished it around her mouth. Before I had any idea what she was doing, Cody leaned over and spit it into the toilet before making a face. After pausing for a second, she drank the rest before thrusting the empty glass back toward me.
"Done," she mumbled.
I set the cup by the sink without looking. "Ok, baby. Gimme a foot."
She finally looked up. Those big blue eyes were so bright, and her lips were perfectly pouty. Why the hell did she have to be one of those girls who even cried pretty? She was supposed to have red eyes and snot. Instead, all I wanted to do was kiss the shit out of her and promise that tomorrow would be better.
"Foot," I reminded myself.
"Why?" She had no clue what I was doing, but still offered her leg obediently.
The best answer was to just show her. Holding her calf with one hand, the other gripped the heel of her boot and worked it off. When that was done, I made her give me the other. Evidently, the best way to get Cody to agree to anything was to give her a few drinks first, because she didn't even try to fight me. Granted, I wouldn't think about how easy that would make it for anyone else to do this. Nope. If anyone tried to take advantage of her - sober, drunk, or any other way - I'd kill them. Right now, I just had to focus on making my girl happy.
"Next part's harder," I warned her. "We gotta get you standing. You gonna help me out?"
And she smiled. Big droplets of unshed tears still waited in her eyes, but she didn't care. She smiled at me like I was her savior. I wasn't. I shouldn't have been. For the last five years, my idea of a long-term relationship meant two nights in a row, but the moment she looked at me like that, I knew things were going to be different. It didn't even matter if she kept trying to avoid me. If that was what I got when I tried to take care of her, then I was going to be her goddamned hero.
I had to haul her to her feet. The closest she came to helping was holding up her arms, but that was ok. As soon as she was standing, I explained to her exactly what I was doing. First, her belt had to go. After that, I checked for jewelry and moved her phone to sit beside the sink. All she had left was her shirt, jeans, and anything under that.
"Cody, the shower's ready. I'm gonna go in the other room, and you need to get undressed and get in it, ok? If you need anything, you just yell for me."
She nodded. "Ty?"
"Yeah, baby?"
"I dunno if I can get in with the world spinning like this."
Damn it. Yeah. I'd forgotten about that one little problem. The whole time, she'd been leaning against the wall, letting it hold her up, but that was because she had to. Ok, so time for plan B. My girl wanted a shower? Well, she was damned well going to get one, and I was going to be her perfect gentleman for it. I figured there was a first time for everything.
"Well, then we're going to have to share. You know we Canadians are all about conserving water, right?"
"Really?"
No, not really, but it was the first thing I'd thought of while I kicked off my boots. "So, you willing to get your undies soaked? I mean, otherwise, you'd be showering naked with some strange bull rider, and I'm not real sure how you feel about that?"
"I don't have anywhere to dry them." A little wrinkle appeared on her forehead. "But I'm not going to sleep with you. I don't do that anymore."
Oh-ho. Well now wasn't that interesting? One more little bit of information to save for later. "Just a shower, Cody. Nothing else. You just have to let me know if I need to keep my eyes closed. Pretty girl like you has nothing to hide, but if you're not washing your undies..."
"Promise?"
"Huh?" Wait, what the hell was I promising?
"That you won't look!"
It took everything I had not to laugh. "Swear to God, baby. I won't look at anything I can't see right now. But that means you can't either. No checking out my junk."
And her smile appeared for a second time, but this time it came with a blush. Oh yeah. I liked that look on her a whole lot. When she nodded her head, I pulled off my shirt, giving her every single chance to back out. She didn't. Cody's eyes slid down my chest and kept going until her lids closed. Only then did she reach for the button on her jeans. She was also biting her lip like she was holding back a very bad thought.
Me? I said a prayer, hoping God would forgive me because I was going to look. Oh, not to check her out, but as intoxicated as she was, there was no way I'd take the chance of letting her slip and fall. That meant I was babysitting. Like I would my little sister. Granted, when she peeled herself out of those jeans, then dropped her bra on top of them, I may have held my breath and thought about hockey, but that was because my sisters looked nothing at all like Cody Jennings.
Then I saw the bruises. I'd picked her up, carried her around, and watched her curl up in my truck, and she'd never even winced, but the side of her hip was the color of night, and the back of her leg was worse. I had some impressive war wounds from the last two days, but nothing like that! My initial impression of this girl didn't give her nearly enough credit. I'd known she was a hell of a bull rider, but the sight of what she'd been ignoring so easily? Damn. She was probably the toughest rider I'd ever met.
"Ok," I breathed, grabbing her now bare shoulders and steering her to the shower. "There's a step up. Then you have to step down. Yeah. And don't move while I get in, too. Ok?"
I guided her toward the back of the shower, where she could get out of the water, then moved beside her and pulled the curtain into place. The whole time, she kept her eyes closed. Then I shifted her closer to the shower head. The moment the scalding hot water hit her skin, she moaned, turning her back into it as she soaked her hair.
"Is it your shampoo that smells so good?" she asked.
Good? Um. I honestly wasn't sure what she meant. "Maybe. Hold your hand out."
When she did, I squeezed a dollop into her palm, reminding myself that I was not going to check out her body. My eyes didn't agree. It was a struggle not to look, but when she turned her back to lather her hair, she made it a whole lot easier.
Her voice jerked my eyes off her ass. "How do you know where stuff is with your eyes closed?"
"Got used to it last night," I lied. Yeah, I was going to burn in hell, but it was for a good cause. "You gonna hog that?"
"Yep." Then she turned to face me again, and a flood of suds washed over her shoulders.
The Calgary Flames. Stanley Cup. Snow. Lots of very cold snow. J.D. Adkins naked. I repeated it in my head like a mantra, trying to envision each one, hoping it would keep the blood in my brain and not any farther south than it already was. Holy hell, this woman was going to kill me, and right now, I figured it would be blood loss to all my major organs - except one!
"Your turn," she said, taking a step closer to me.
But even a hot shower wasn't enough to make up for whatever the hell she'd been drinking. She listed to the left, shoving an arm out that landed right on my chest, and she slipped. I'd been expecting it. I was ready for it. The second she lost her balance, my hands wrapped around her waist, keeping her from becoming some sad statistic about shower fatalities, and she gasped. Her eyes jerked open, finding mine without hesitation even as our wet, naked bodies were pressed right against each other. Yeah. Not even the idea of J.D. wiggling his scrawny ass could help me now.
Then she smiled.
