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But as soon as I was back in my cold, empty room I decided to hell with it. I changed into pajama pants, came back, and slipped under the covers with her and pulled her into the crook of my arm. She slept nestled up against me, her naked and me shirtless, until we woke up again for the next round.
I’d slept with my prosthetic on for the last two nights, which was absolutely forbidden, and my back and hip were paying for it. But I wasn’t about to let her witness my bedtime ritual: washing and drying my polyurethane liner, washing my stump if I wasn’t taking a shower, and getting around the house on my crutches when the prosthetic was off. The last two days had been insane, and I wasn’t looking to do anything to pop this bubble yet. I wasn’t ready for her to start looking at me the way everyone else in this town did.
Same went for showers. The old me had been a real shower sex connoisseur. But when she’d offered to join me when I rinsed off last night, that had been a hard no. There was nothing sexy about the white plastic bench and handrails in my shower. They made me feel like a geriatric fuck. So did the fact that I normally would’ve taken a long hot bath and spent some time massaging my stump after that hike on Saturday.
Stirring, she pulled me from my thoughts. “What time is it?” She purred a contented noise and shifted against me.
I reached over to hit the button on my phone, then tossed it back down on the nightstand. “Ten forty-five.”
“Mmmh. A.M. or P.M.? Actually, wait. What day is it?” Sitting up, she stretched her arms overhead and shook out her bed head, which just made me want to pull her back down under me.
“It’s Monday morning.”
“Pfft.” She blew a raspberry noise between her pink lips. “I hate to say it, but I have to do some work today.” Flopping back down, she turned to face me. “How about you?”
It took a moment for me to absorb her question. My thoughts were occupied with how much I liked the view of her laying her head on the pillow next to mine. “What about me?”
She rolled her eyes. “Am I keeping you from something? Like a job?”
“Nothing that can’t wait.”
“So mysterious.” She hummed. “Well, my job can’t wait much longer. Unless I want to lose it. So I’m going to need like, a half-day breather to take care of that and recuperate.” She grinned at me. “And you can do…” She waved her hand at me. “Whatever it is you do.”
Probably a good idea to let her know I wasn’t lazing around doing nothing day in and day out. “Real estate.”
She choked on a laugh. “Uh, try again.”
“Excuse me?”
“There is no way you have a job involving customer service.” She hopped out of the bed and rooted through her suitcase, the sun bathing her glorious body in light like some kind of dirty angel. The errant thought that I wished she’d unpacked and used the dresser flitted through my mind. “You mean to tell me you put on a suit, pop slice-and-bake cookies in the oven, and rave to potential buyers about how great the schools are in this neighborhood?” She shimmied into her jeans. “Not buying it.”
“God no. I flip houses.”
She pulled a top on and cocked her head, studying me. “That, I believe.” She gathered her bag and laptop. “If you have any house flipping stuff you need to get done, I’m going to buckle down until dinnertime.”
Straightening up in the bed, I stretched my hamstrings. I was going to need to take off my prosthetic for however long she was gone. Possibly elevate and ice my stump depending on whether it was swollen from wearing my prosthetic longer than I should have. But she didn’t need to hear that. “I can keep myself occupied.”
“You don’t have to sleep with your leg on for my sake.” She glanced up for a second, gauging my reaction, then continued packing up her bag.
Was I that transparent? Or did she have some kind of witchy intuition that let her see inside my brain in a way no one else ever had?
It doesn’t matter. She’s not sticking around.“It’s not for your sake.”
She chewed on my response for a moment before she nodded. “Suit yourself. But if you ever want to take it off and have me join you in your room after you’re ready, let me know.”
“No thanks.” The words felt like ash in my mouth.
Silence unfolded between us. She grabbed her phone off the top of the dresser and held the button down to power it up. Her expression was unreadable as the incessant chimes of alerts came rolling in.
She paused by the door to the hallway, staring at me for a beat. “Can I ask you something?”
My body tensed. Here we go.
Maybe I’d been foolish for believing she would be satisfied with our arrangement. Now she was going to ask questions I didn’t want to answer. Expect things I couldn’t give. Want me to be someone I couldn’t be.
I gave her a tight nod and waited for the inevitable.
She stared at her feet like she didn’t want to ask but couldn’t help herself. Then she finally looked back up at me. “Do you know if Axel Everett has a vacation home in Kelly Bay?”
