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She shuddered against him. “You suck.”
“I know,” he soothed.
“You really, really suck.”
“I do,” he agreed as he ran his hand up and down her back, hoping to ease the trembles in her body. “I suck big time.”
“How dare you get stabbed? You asshole.”
“Total asshole.”
“You got beaten up, you jerk.”
“Lay it on me, Rainbow. Tell me how you really feel,” he teased.
“And you need to stop being so reasonable. I don’t like it.”
“I’ll stop,” he promised.
“Making me drive you here while you were bleeding out. You nearly bled to death and I didn’t know how to drive. Total jerk move.”
He wasn’t sure it’d been that dire. Although he noticed that he had an IV drip. Had he needed blood as well?
“So inconsiderate of me.”
“Completely inconsiderate. You owe me some new pajamas.”
He stiffened.
“Pajamas?”
“Yes, I was wearing my pajamas. I couldn’t sleep and I went out onto my balcony for some fresh air. And then I saw . . . then I s-saw you being attacked.”
Jesus. His poor girl. He could only imagine how terrifying that had to have been for her.
“Baby, you should have stayed safe in your apartment.”
“They were beating you up, Maxim! You got s-stabbed.”
Christ. He wished to hell he’d killed those fucking bastards. How dare they upset his girl?
“Now those p-pajamas remind me of them. I had to t-throw them out. Luckily, G-gracen gave me some of her c-clothes. But they were my favorite!”
Oh, his poor girl. He knew she didn’t care about the pajamas. No, that was just the thing she’d decided to focus on.
A sob broke free from her mouth and he felt terrible.
“I n-need new p-pajamas now,” she sobbed.
“I’ll buy you pajamas, baby. As many as you want.”
“Those h-had sloths on t-them.”
“We’ll get you more pajamas with sloths on them.” He’d say or do anything to stop her from crying. Turning his head, he kissed her forehead.
All of him hurt. The kind of hurt that he knew wouldn’t go away in a day or two. But his physical pain had nothing on the pain in his heart right now. The pain he could hear in her voice.
“Baby, please stop crying,” he begged. She clung to him and he could feel her tears against his bare skin. Someone had stripped off his clothes, so her face was pressed into his bare chest.
Under other circumstances, he’d be fucking ecstatic to have her in his bed with him. But he’d never imagined or wished she’d be sobbing her heart out like this.
“Shh, baby. You’re all right. You’re safe. Everything is okay.”
“I’m not worried about me, you . . . you dipshit.”
She didn’t swear often. He had a vague recollection of her swearing while she drove him here. He winced at the memory. God, she must have been terrified. She didn’t even know how to drive and she’d had a crash course on driving in the dark with him injured and passed out next to her.
Yeah, he could understand how that would make her swear.
“You could h-have died.”
“Shh. It’s all right, my baby. I’m okay. I’m so sorry you got scared, that I frightened you, but it’s going to take more than a few assholes to take me out.”
“They might have. They m-might have k-killed you.”
The truth was, she was right. He didn’t think they’d been trying to mug him. They’d wanted to cause him pain. One of them had stabbed him.
Fucking asshole.
And then she’d come racing in, ready to help him even though he’d told her to leave.
“You took my back.”
“What?”
Anger mixed with fear inside him. “Soon as I’m feeling up to it, you’re getting your ass spanked,” he growled at her.
“What? Why?” She drew back from him and he didn’t like that. But he had to tell her this. And then he could tug her back where she belonged. Next to him.
“You ran into danger, Aston. You aren’t supposed to run toward assholes. You run the fuck away from them.”
Her eyes widened. “You. Are. Kidding. Me.”
He could see that she was angry. But he didn’t care, since he was now mad too. The memory of her racing into the alley, and jumping on that asshole’s back . . . yeah, that wasn’t going to leave him anytime soon.
And she obviously needed a lesson in self-preservation. Which he was only too happy to give her.
“Not joking. Not even a little bit. And this is going to be a punishment spanking, Rainbow. So prepare yourself for that. You won’t like it, but I will get my point across. You do not put yourself in danger. Not ever. Not for anything or anyone. Do you understand me?”
Her mouth dropped open, and she gaped at him. “They were attacking you!”
“Yep.”
“You expected me to just calmly sit on my balcony and let you get beaten up?”
“I should have given you my brothers’ phone numbers. I’ll do that for next time.”
