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“Yes, I think we’re all sick of that.” Tiffany was back. Her blonde hair was up in a ponytail, her gorgeous body in a T-shirt and jeans that clung to her every curve and reminded him of all the ways he hadn’t had her. He’d never once slept beside her, his arms wrapped around her, bodies tangled. He’d never have that with her.
“Then you should feel free to leave.” She thought she was sick of dealing with him? She had no idea what it was like to be in this chair, unable to do even the simple act of tossing out a volatile ex-lover.
“Oh, baby, have you not figured it out yet? I’m not going anywhere. You want me gone, get rid of me yourself. Eric, I’ll take his phone, too. Wouldn’t want him calling the cops on me, would we?” She held out her hand.
He watched in utter horror as Eric passed it over to her. “Good luck, Tiff. Call if you need help moving him around, though he’s actually got incredible upper body strength. He can manage a lot. He’ll need someone in the shower with him for a few days. The doctor’s orders are all in this bag along with his meds and some extra bandages. Keep the wound clean and he needs to go back in a week.”
“I’ll take care of it. Thanks.” She took the bag from Eric.
Eric looked down at him. “She’s giving you another chance. I would take it if I were you.”
Oh, would he? Well, Eric wasn’t the one stuck in the chair. Eric didn’t understand what life would be like for her if she did stay with him. Eric wasn’t the one who would mourn her when she was gone. “If you walk out that door and leave me with her, you can find another fucking som. Do you understand me?”
Tiffany’s eyes rolled and there was a sad shake of her head as she looked back at Eric. “I’ll have him back at work in a day or two. If you need something from him before then, call me. You can also send Javi with food if you need wine pairings. Send me a list of the foods and I’ll tell you what he’ll want to try with each course.”
“Thank you. I can send sample plates over tomorrow night.” Eric turned and walked out, closing the door as he left.
And he was alone with Tiffany.
“Since when do you know what I’ll select to try with a dish?” Now she was taking over his job, too?
“Let me see. I believe the dish Eric’s working on tomorrow is the rib eye. You’ll want the 2013 Lafite and the 2012 Balmont Cabs to test for the high-end pairing. And I’ve got three in mind for a Zinfandel pairing. All rich in tannins and high in alcohol volume. I’m also going to ask them to bring in a Malbec. I know it’s not traditional, but Malbecs are all the rage and we have to stay on the cutting edge.” She put one hand on her hip. “See, I listen. And I know you far better than you know me.”
He couldn’t argue with that. She’d hit it on the nose. He could only shrink back into the real argument. “I don’t want you here.”
“Well, honestly, right now I don’t particularly want to be here, but some things we suck up and take, Sebastian. That’s what couples do. We don’t run out on each other when the going gets tough or when one of us turns into an emotionally tight-fisted asshole.” Tiffany held up his phone. “You can have this back when you earn it. Mean men don’t deserve cell phones. Are you hungry?”
He was confused. So damn confused. There was a part of him that wanted to hold a hand out to her, to bring her close and not let go. He knew how that would end. “What the hell are you doing? I don’t want you here.”
“I know what you’re afraid of,” she said, her tone calm. “You’re afraid that I’m going to treat you like a poor little cripple. Good news, baby. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to treat you like the overstimulated toddler you’re acting like. When you want to act like the kind, loving adult I know you are, we can renegotiate.”
“We didn’t negotiate in the first place. Wait. You know we actually did and you seem to have forgotten who the Dom is.”
“The Dom broke our contract so as far as I’m concerned, there’s no contract at all between us. If you want to kick me out, you’re more than willing to try. See, I’m not treating you like a precious invalid I have to take care of. I’m being a massive bitch because that seems to be the only way to talk to you about this. Here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to wheel you into the bedroom. You’re going to rest up and I’ll cook us both some dinner and read up on the meds the doctor sent you so I’ll know how to take care of you.”
“I can take care of myself.” But the words were starting to sound stubborn even to him.
“No, you’ve proven that you can’t. How long have you known you needed to be off your feet?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He didn’t have the will to truly say what he needed to say to get rid of her. Hell, he wasn’t certain it would even work at this point. She seemed to have some wild need to prove to herself that she could handle this.
And what if she can? a hopeful voice whispered deep inside. What if she really, by some miracle, loves you? Love hadn’t been enough for Alicia and that started long before you lost your legs. Tiffany isn’t Alicia. She’s more. She’s better.
“The fact that you had to see a doctor today tells me that it did,” she replied. “Did you do this because you didn’t want me to see you in a wheelchair?”
He felt his whole body flush with shame. He shut down that stupid voice and got back to reality. “You are not my nursemaid.”
“No, I’m your girlfriend, though I’m worried that doesn’t mean the same thing to you that it does to me.” She moved in closer, getting down on one knee in front of him. Her eyes softened as she looked at him. “The worst happened, Sebastian. I’m looking at you in a wheelchair and do you know what I’m thinking about?”
“I don’t want to know.”
She moved on like he hadn’t responded at all. “Mostly I’m thinking about how pissed off I am, but underneath all of it, I’m so happy to be done with this bullshit. I want us to get through this so we can be normal.”
He seized on that very naïve statement. “There’s no normal here. Do you understand that? This isn’t normal. This is hell.”
Her eyes rolled in a way that made his hand itch to smack her pretty ass. She stood over him. “Don’t be ridiculous. And you mistake me. I wasn’t talking about you being a normal man. There’s no such thing. There are no normal people. Everyone is different. There are normal behaviors. Like sleeping together. Like caring for each other. Like loving each other’s bodies. I know you think you’re some monstrous thing, but you forget that I have seen you.”
Oh, he forgot nothing. He could still remember how she’d stared at him. “Yes, you’ve seen it so you should thank me for being polite and not forcing you to see more.”
