Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 100680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
She rolled onto her back. She was remarkably pale except for two red blotches on her cheeks.
What the hell?
A bad feeling filled him and he put his hand over her forehead. God, she felt so hot.
“Shit. You’re ill. Wake up, baby. Come on, wake up and look at me.”
Worry filled him. What the hell did he do? Did he call an ambulance?
Then her eyes opened and she glared up at him. “Go away.”
“Can’t do that, Rainbow.” At least she was awake, even if she was looking at him like he’d kicked her puppy.
“Shoo, bug, shoo.” Her hand fluttered through the air as though she was actually trying to shoo him.
Was she serious right now? He would have laughed if he wasn’t so worried about her.
“I’m not going to shoo, baby. What are you doing walking around the building when you’re so sick, huh?” He took her pulse. It seemed a tad fast to him.
“Stupid Brian. Crusty dick. Hot water,” she complained miserably.
He stiffened. “What? What did you say about Brian’s dick?” And how would she know anything about his dick?
“It’s crusty, and he wanted me to suck it. But I said no! I am in charge of my body now and I’m not sucking anyone’s dick ever again.”
“Well, now, that’s a shame,” he muttered without any humor. “Did someone make you suck dick before?”
He really didn’t know anything about her. He was now thinking that might have been a mistake.
“Not literalably . . . litteraty . . . what am I trying to say?”
“Literally?” he suggested.
“I dunno. I wanna sleep now.”
“You can’t sleep out here, Rainbow.”
“Why not? Why are you hating on the place I want to sleep?”
His lips twitched. “I’m not hating on the place you want to sleep.”
“Yeah, you’re being a real downer. Just shoo, little fly, shoo.”
“I’m going to forgive you for telling me to shoo like a fly because you are obviously sick. But you won’t be shooing me again.”
She cracked an eye open, looked straight at him, and said, “shoo.”
This brat.
She was definitely headed toward a spanking.
“Right, come on, time you were in bed. Before your mouth gets you into trouble.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
She opened both her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? My legs have stopped working.”
He shook his head at her dramatics. He bet she’d be horrified if she remembered any of this tomorrow.
“It’s good that I’m going to help you then, isn’t it?” he said.
“Why would you help me? Why do you care about me?” she asked pitifully.
“Well, why wouldn’t I? We’re friends, aren’t we?” But that sounded wrong. Because he didn’t want to be just friends, did he?
Which is why he’d decided to keep his distance. And yet, here she was again. Seemed like the universe kept pushing them together.
“Are we friends?” she asked.
“We’re friends.” If he said it enough, then he might begin to believe it. He put an arm under her legs and the other around her back, then lifted her against his chest.
“Friends. I don’t really have any friends.”
“You don’t?” Yeah, Aston was going to be really pissed off if she realized what she’d told him while she was mostly out of it.
“Nope. Tooooo risky. Risky. Risky. Have you ever noticed that if you say a word too much that it sounds weird? Maxim. Maxim. Maxim.”
“You’re right, baby. That does sound weird. Why is it risky to have friends?”
“Who said that?” She stared up at him as he shuffled her weight onto his raised leg so he could hit the elevator button. “You’re so handsome.”
“Am I?” He stepped into the elevator and it worried him that she didn’t even notice.
“Yep. Really sexy. Of course, you’re a bit of a dick, too.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. She always came out with shit that he wasn’t expecting. Was there anyone else in the city who would call him a dick?
Well, not to his face. He was certain they did it behind his back. But this slip of a girl . . . she just told him exactly what she thought and be damned the consequences.
“Are we in the elevator?” she asked in a small voice.
“No,” he lied.
“We’re not?”
“No, baby. We’re not.”
“Good. I don’t like the elevator. If we were in the elevator, I’d have to get mad.”
He smiled. “And what happens when you get mad?”
“I cut off ears.”
That was . . . random.
“Do you?”
“Yeah. Just ask my brother. I cut off a piece of his ear.”
“You did?” he asked in shock. Was she having hallucinations?
“Yeah. But he was being a dick.”
He shook his head, still smiling, as he stepped out of the elevator onto her floor. She was obviously making stuff up.
It was pretty cute.
Cut off part of her brother’s ear because she was mad. Right.
She was like a kitten when she was mad. All hiss, no bite.
When he got to her door, he set her down on her feet, holding her to him.