AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thanks.” I stepped away from her to take them from his hand, and his eyes flared with embarrassment as they shifted to Oaklynn.
“T-thank you,” she told him from a shaky voice as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear with equally shaky fingers.
The color of her nipples was clearly visible under the light cloth of her top, and the French cut of her panties showed off the awesome curve of her thighs.
Alec cleared his throat and turned his back on us to give her privacy before answering, “Of course. Anytime.”
“Can you lift your arms?” I asked as I held up the shirt to pull over her head.
She rolled her eyes even as she raised both hands and said, “I can dress myself, you know.”
“Yeah, well, humor me,” I told her. “I need to do something to feel useful here.”
After sheathing her with one of my old 10K race shirts, I pulled her hair out through the head hole and smoothed it down her back as I smiled tenderly.
She gazed back with red-rimmed eyes that seemed grateful and appreciative…but also still pretty traumatized.
I pressed a kiss to her forehead before kneeling in front of her and holding open the shorts for her to step into next.
She glanced down at the way I was holding them, and for some reason, I knew she was remembering that moment in the library’s health room when I’d held her panties for her.
I knew I’d always remember it too; it had been the very moment I realized she was everything to me.
Tears flooded her eyes as if it hurt too much for her to recall, though.
Yet, she still slid off the table to place a hand on my shoulder and step into the shorts.
I tugged them slowly up her legs, wincing at all the scrapes and cuts I had to pull them over.
Keene exploded into the kitchen, nearly plowing over Alec as he entered.
“Got the first aid kit.”
I took it and pulled it open, while both Alec and Keene crowded in on either side of Oaklynn as she crawled back onto the table. They sat next to her as I knelt in front of her and started with her legs, wiping them down with antiseptic.
“Thalia didn’t...she didn’t do all that to you, did she?” Keene asked when I moved to her elbows next.
I glanced up in surprise, not even considering the idea.
“What?” The question seemed to startle Oaklynn too. She blinked at Keene as if he were insane. “No way. She would never. Shesavedme, actually…” When I swerved my attention to her, she met my questioning glance with a wince, and said, “She saved me from the fully-living human who broke into the apartment and attacked me.”
“Saywhat?” I lifted to my full height, and Hudson appeared at the entrance of the kitchen, phone in hand.
Oaklynn glanced at her captive audience and bit her lip before she explained the entire story. When she finished by saying, “I’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for your sister,” legitimate tears filled my eyes. “She saved my life.”
“Jesus,” I choked out as I yanked her into my arms and held her tight, trembling with relief over the fact that she was okay but gritting my teeth with rage, wanting to hurt the fucker who’d broken into the brownstone.
When I buried my face in her hair, she petted my back and said, “I’m okay. Seriously, I’m fine now.”
“Should I call the police and ask them to come over and take a report?” Hudson asked in the middle of typing something on his phone.
I answered, “Yes,” at the same moment Oaklynn shook her head. “No. Please don’t.”
I whirled to her. “What do you mean, no?Yes, we’re calling the fucking police. Someone attacked you.”
“And this would be my second call to them in—what—four…five days. The last time an officer took a report from me, he said he’d arrest me if I pranked him again.”
“But neither call was a prank,” I insisted. “That cop believed you by the time he left.” Then I motioned to the claw marks around her ankles. “Besides, your skin is probably still under that fucker’s fingernails as we speak.”
