AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bypassing the stairs, I dive into the pool and reach for Blaire’s body underwater. As she comes up, she gasps for air and begins pushing me away. “Get off of me!” she yells.
“Baby, baby, it’s me. I got you.” One arm is around her waist, dragging her from the deep end, while the other is fighting her off as she is pushing against my chest.
When she realizes it’s me and not Maddox, she relaxes. I get her to the shallow end where there is a bench underwater and sit, holding her in my lap. “You’re okay. I got you. Are you hurt anywhere?”
She has calmed down and touches the back of her head, wincing. “I think I hit my head when we fell into the pool.” When she brings her hand back in front of us, there’s blood on it.
“Fuck,” I whisper. “Let me get you out of here and look at it.”
Helping Blaire out of the pool, I carry her into the house and we pass Maddox sitting on a lounger, passed out. Half his body is falling onto the ground and Mateo is trying to lift his legs up to get him fully on it.
“Leave him like that. He deserves to wake up in pain,” I grumble out. Blaire squeezes my shoulder, making me look away from my so-called best friend.
“I can walk,” Blaire says to me. I grip her harder in my arms, bringing her closer to my chest.
“Not happening, baby. I’m taking care of you.”
Her eyes soften at my words, and she relaxes into my hold.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I bring Blaire into my bedroom and drop her on my desk chair to go to my closet and get some towels, then wrap one around her to help dry her off and run one over my body. The blood is dripping from her head and down her back. I use one of the towels to stop the flow of blood from traveling any farther and apply it to her head. She whimpers and I feel like a son of a bitch for causing her more pain.
“I’m sorry, baby, but I need to apply pressure to stop the bleeding. Head injuries bleed more, but from what I see, it isn’t too bad. You won’t need stitches or anything.” If Maddox wasn’t passed out right now, I would storm downstairs and kick his ass.
Blaire brings her hand to rest against mine that is gripping the back of the chair. “I know. Thank you for taking care of me and please try not to be so mad at Maddox. He was so out of it and didn’t mean for us to fall into the pool.”
She’s too good of a person. Any other woman would be pissed at Maddox for acting like an idiot. “Blaire, baby, he shouldn’t have gotten that drunk and he should have never touched you. I saw how scared you were before he fell into the pool with you. That’s not okay, and him being drunk isn’t an excuse for how he acted.”
As she bites her bottom lip, I can see she’s fighting with herself on being upset with Maddox. “What he did was stupid, but being mad at him isn’t going to change what happened.”
“Let’s not talk about him right now and let me clean up your head.” I pull the towel away from her head and see that the pressure I have been applying has helped to stop the flow of blood coming out. “How about you take a quick shower to get the chlorine off of you and I’ll get the first aid kit to clean up your head when you’re done?”
Blaire looks down at her wet clothes. “How about I just head home. I don’t have a change of clothes and I can clean my head up and everything there.”
As she goes to stand, she stumbles, and I catch her before she falls forward. “As much as I believe you can handle all that at your place, I don’t think you should be driving right now, and it would give me peace of mind if I can watch over you tonight.”
A look of worry comes across her face. “I can’t stay the night here,” she says, looking around the room like she is trying to find an escape.
I bend down so that she and I are at eye level. “Blaire, you hit your head and I don’t think you should be by yourself tonight. It would make me feel better if you stayed here. I will sleep on the couch downstairs, but I want to be able to check on you every few hours. Emree can even sleep in here with you if that will make you feel better, but you’ll have to put up a fight with Conrad.” I smile at her, and she laughs a little.
“Okay,” she whispers, “but I don’t have anything to wear.” She looks down at her soaked clothes.
Standing, I give her a quick kiss and head for my dresser. She’s quiet behind me as I pull out a pair of clean boxers and a T-shirt and bring them over to her. “Here, these are clean but will probably be a little big on you.”
She clutches them to her chest. “Thank you,” she says, barely above a whisper.
I show Blaire to the bathroom across the hall from my bedroom and give her a fresh towel. She closes and locks the door and once I hear the water running, I head downstairs. Emree and Jules are in the kitchen doing the dishes and when Emree sees me, she drops the rag she was using to dry the plates.
“Where is Blaire? Is she okay?” Emree asks with slight panic in her voice.
“She’s fine,” I tell her. “Her head was bleeding from when she hit it at the bottom of the pool, but I got it to stop, and she is taking a shower now so I can clean the wound.”
Emree’s shoulders relax. “That’s good. I would take her home, but I’ve had a few beers and don’t feel comfortable driving.”
Conrad comes in shirtless and with a pissed off look on his face. “That motherfucker puked on me,” he seethes.
Emree lets out a laugh from beside me and slaps her hand over her face to cover it up. He glares at her and disappears upstairs without another word to either of us.
The backdoor opens again and Levi and Mateo are carrying in a passed-out Maddox, who is covered in his own vomit. Seeing him after knowing how reckless he was with Blaire makes me furious. She should have never been put in that position, especially by any of the guys in this house. When he’s sober, I’m giving Maddox hell for what he did tonight. He needs to get his shit together.
