My mouth ticks up. “Nope. So? Something small or a full meal? You need to eat something with your antibiotics.”
He shifts with a wince and pulls his phone out of his pocket. “I can order something.”
“Colt, honey.” I move over to him, sitting on the coffee table. “I’m here. Let me help you.”
His eyes close, a muscle in his jaw flexes. “I fucking hate this.”
“Being hurt?”
“No. It happens sometimes.”
“Then what?”
He’s quiet for a long time, an eternity it seems like, his eyes drifting away from mine. Then he sighs and says something that breaks my heart, “Needing to rely on someone.”
Because his parents?—
Are his parents.
And for all the shit I’ve had in my life, I’ve always had Damon.
Steady, solid.
Colt has that with Blake, but it’s different—Blake needs so much more help and he can’t exactly tell his parents to fuck off and strike out on his own, not without a bunch of extra layers of complications.
So no, Colt’s not used to someone looking after him.
It makes him uncomfortable in a way I understand, in a way I can empathize with.
But also, I haven’t come this far, haven’t finally let a man into my heart only to back off or be the only one who takes, whose needs come first.
That’s not I want from our relationship.
And it’s not what either of us need.
So, right now, I give us, give him a little of what I’m good at.
Connection and softness and…me.
“You know, I couldn’t figure it out at first.”
His brows drag together. “Figure what out?”
“Why everyone treats me like I’m breakable…except you.”
Because even when he goes slow, when he’s careful to not push me too far, when he waited—so damned patient—for me to be open to the connection between us, he’s never looked at me like I’m damaged goods.
“That’s because you’re not breakable.” He takes my hand in his, squeezes lightly. “You’re so damned brave, Teach.”
I lean in, and God, even with the stitches and the bruises and the brace on his shoulder he’s so damned beautiful. “Brave enough to want you?”
“Baby”—he draws me down a little closer to him—“one more second of looking at me like that and I’m done being patient.”
Twenty-Eight
Colt
Her mouth curves.
