AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m here to take you to the hospital,” I said. I went to close the door but her hand shot out to stop me.
“No!” she yelled drunkenly. I frowned at her.
“Hope, I think you’ve been drugged…”
She shook her head, then leaned it back against the seat.
“No hospital,” she slurred. “No insurance.” I blinked at her as her eyes drifted closed, feeling like the world’s biggest asshole. She had no insurance because I, as her employer, didn’t offer any.
“I’ll pay for it,” I insisted.
“No…hospital…”
Well, fuck.
I couldn’t take her to her own house in this condition. I didn’t even know how to find it. Her address must be on her paperwork at the restaurant. But as much as I didn’t like it, it was clear to me what I would have to do.
As I walked back around the hood of my truck to the driver’s side, I hit the scrawny kid in the ribs with a well-aimed kick. He coughed and curled up into a fetal position as I pulled out my phone.
“Say cheese,” I growled, zooming in on his face and taking a picture with flash. Man, this guy was ugly. Scum of the earth. No wonder he had to resort to disgusting rapist tactics to pick up chicks. I couldn’t imagine that a sober one had ever willingly touched his pale, pimply skin. I leaned over him, considering boxing his ears a few more times, but the way he sniveled and shrank away from me was too pathetic. I shook my head in disgust and left him lying there.
A few minutes later, I pulled up my driveway, threw the truck into park, and cut the engine. Then I just sat there for a long time, staring at the house. Hope was snoring like a chainsaw beside me. I had no idea if she’d just had too much to drink or if those assholes roofied her. But she was insisting she didn’t want to go to the hospital. Lucky for her, I had some experience babysitting a person drunk enough to choke to death on their own vomit. I spent my entire childhood sitting up, watching my mother sleep, praying that she wouldn’t die. Eventually, she did die. But by then, I was long gone, and no longer a believer in prayer.
“All right,” I said out loud. Hope snorted awake and raised her head, blinking at me. “I won’t take you to the hospital—for now. But if I see a single sign that your condition is deteriorating, you’re going even if I have to hog-tie you to get you there.
The thought shouldn’t have excited me the way it did, tying her up, having her at my mercy.
You’re a creep, Thacker.
“No hospital,” she mumbled. I gave her an exasperated look but couldn’t help a smile.
“Yeah, you said that.” I hopped down from the truck and walked around, pulling her door open and unbuckling her.
“Mmm.” The contented little noise made me stop in my tracks like a gut punch. I shook my head, trying to gather myself. This was literal torture. Why did I have to answer that phone call?
Because if you didn’t, she’d be in the back of some monster’s van right now.
The thought set me on edge. Clenching my jaw, I shoved my arms under her legs and behind her back, lifting her off the seat and elbowing the door shut behind me.
She turned in, burying her face in my chest and clinging to my shoulders. I scowled, putting all of my energy into keeping it together and shoving down the emotions that were bubbling to the surface. It didn’t help that the hot, bare back of her thigh was resting in the crook of my arm. It was like my worst nightmare, having to hold her but knowing that nothing could ever come of it. Carrying her like a bride over the threshold of my house knowing she wouldn’t even remember it in the morning. That she would run out of here and back to her life, her perfect, age-appropriate, hockey-player boyfriend.
I kicked the front door shut behind me, plunging us into semi-darkness. The lamp I’d been eating by was still on in the living room, but it did little to diffuse the night that was pouring into every window.
I carried her down the hall to my bedroom, laying her gently on the mattress and then pulling the covers up over her, hiding that impossibly sexy dress. You’d think that covering her up would help my mental state, but there she was, lying in my bed, yet another moment I’d dreamed of that was meaningless.
“Thacker,” she murmured. Her eyes were closed and I was sure that she was still asleep. But when I went to back away, her hand shot out from underneath the covers and grabbed my wrist. She tugged me toward the bed even as I dug in my heels. “Lay down with me,” she said.
“No,” I said, too fast and too loud. She cracked one eye to look up at me questioningly. “Uh, no thank you,” I said, trying to sound stable and not like I was on the verge of cracking up. “You get some sleep. I’ll be right here if you need me.”
Now, both of her eyes were open and staring at me, her lips curled in a dreamy smile. I wanted to believe that she was really seeing me, that she was thinking the same thing about me that I was thinking about her—God, I want you.
But I knew better.
Her little hand was still gripping my wrist. She was surprisingly strong. I pried her fingers gently open and laid her arm on top of the covers. Then I leaned down to adjust the pillows behind her head so that she would be in a half-sitting position. With my face close to hers, I heard her breath hitch. I felt it against my skin. And then she was grabbing my shirt, pulling me closer. She kissed me, hard and needy, and I lost myself.
I should have pulled away immediately. I knew well enough that she was too drunk to be kissing anyone. I should have pulled away…but I didn’t. Not at first. For a moment in time, a moment I knew I’d never have again, I was just a man. Just a man who was stupid enough to let himself fall in love with a woman he could never have.
Her lips were light and soft, warm and wet, better than I’d expected, everything I didn’t know I needed. When they parted, I groaned into her mouth as her tongue snaked out against my bottom lip. I fisted my hands in the comforter as everything inside me screamed at me to pull away and get the hell out of there while I still had my sanity. But my body was a traitor. It wouldn’t move, wouldn’t respond to reason. She was the only thing I’d ever wanted like this, aside from alcohol. I wanted her more than alcohol. She was more intoxicating than any drink, any substance. She made me feel like the king of the fucking world as she clung to the front of my shirt.
