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“It will get easier though, Cait. You just have to take each day at a time, and that’s what we will do.”
“How though? I have no idea what’s going to happen to me. I’m an orphan.”
“Don’t you have any other family?”
“Some cousins somewhere in Seattle, I think. My parents were the black sheep of the family, no one really talked to them.”
“I see,” I murmured, scratching at the stubble that was growing too long on my jaw. I’d barely looked in the mirror the last few days. I probably looked like hell as well.
“I suppose I’m a bit old to get adopted. I’ll end up in foster care until I’m eighteen.” She chewed on her lip thoughtfully, but it was agony for me to watch. I hated the idea of her being passed from family to family, with nowhere to really call home. She wasn’t far off of eighteen, but as soon as she’d aged out of foster care, what would she do then?
She deserved so much better.
“Let’s get you cleaned up. One step at a time. We can deal with all of that later.”
“It’s my life, Aidan. I’m living it. I can’t deal with it later because it’s now. I have no home, no family… nothing.” Tears welled in her eyes.
Dear God.
Seeing her so broken… It gutted me. I missed the Cait that fought me at every turn and looked like she wanted to scratch my eyes out every time she saw me. I knew how to handle that Cait.
“You have me,” I muttered, cupping her cheeks so she had to look at me. “I promise you, everything is going to be alright.”
Her eyes searched mine, looking for any sign that I was lying. I wasn’t. I would protect her. There was no way I was letting CPS take her and dump her with a family, miles from the only people she knew. Cullen would have to fix this. Find her somewhere safe. He owed her.
“Why are you being nice to me?” She murmured, and I had to smile.
“You’re the one with the problem, Clover. I’m sweet as pie,” I repeated back the words I’d said to her a few days ago, and a ghost of a smile haunted her lips.
“Now, I meant it. Let’s get you cleaned up.” I reached for her shirt, pulling it over her head before she had time to protest.
She seemed to come to life then.
“Aidan!” She shrieked as the cooler air hit her bare skin. She folded her arms over her chest, hiding the plum-colored lacy bra she wore. Her eyes flickered to mine, and despite the tiredness and shock I saw there, I also saw something else. Something that looked a whole lot like desire.
Stop. You’re imagining things.
“Oh, behave yourself. I’m just looking after you,” I snapped at her, pulling her to her feet so I could undo the button on her jeans. Admittedly, this wasn’t the situation in which I’d imagined myself undressing her.
“What are you doing?” She tried to swat my hands away, but she was so weak it was like a fly hitting a window.
“Taking care of you,” I muttered back, grunting with the effort of tugging her jeans down her shapely thighs while she was trying to wriggle away from me.
“Why do I need to be naked?” She was so busy trying to push me away, she’d forgotten to cover up her chest, so when I glanced up, I was eye level with her breasts and that bra that seemed to match her skin tone perfectly.
Jesus, Fuck.
I’d always known she would have a perfect body, but seeing it up close…
Stop it, Aidan.
“I can do it myself,” she bit out, her face bright red.
“Alright, fine.” I stood up, letting go of her and within moments she’d fallen back on the bed in a huff. I watched her with a smug smile as she tried to push her jeans down further, but she was too weak.
“Will you just let me do it? You haven’t eaten in days. I don’t want you wasting the last of your energy on that.”
Her eyes flashed to mine; one sentence evident in them.‘What do you want me to waste it on then?’
