When you first looked into his eyes, they would give anyone pause. Not me. I knew what dangerous and evil looked like. I’d lived with it for the past few years. I had the scars to show for it. Evil looked normal and inconspicuous. Even with his mercurial glare and hard features, this stranger didn't look or feel dangerous to me. The one word he brought to mind was safe.
His eyebrows created deep creases between them as I kept staring at him and laughing like an idiot. It was a terrible first impression, but I was in no mindset to care. I figured I should at least apologize for all the noise, having just noticed he was in sleep pants and a tee. Sweet Jesus, I wanted to spread over his chest like that soft cotton.
“I would love to be your shirt,” I blurted out.Holy shit, I didn’t mean to say that out loud!I slapped my hand over my mouth and with wide eyes looked up to see what he’d do.
He didn’t do or say anything, like he hadn’t heard me at all. Was he hard of hearing? Had Meg told me that and I forgot? In my wine hazed brain, I felt bad and needed to tell him I was sorry.
“I’m sorry. I must have forgotten you’re hard of hearing. And I’m sorry I said that about your shirt. I meant it, but I didn’t mean to say it out loud. God, I’m sorry for a lot of things these days.”
I was feeling deflated all of a sudden. I might start crying any second. I looked quickly back over to the strange man standing in the doorway, and he hadn’t moved an inch. He was just looking at me like he was trying to figure me out. Oh, God, did he even speak English? Had I missed that, too? The only other language I could speak was Pig Latin, and I didn’t think it would be appropriate to talk to him in that. Finally, I decided to cut my losses and just get out of here before the tears on my face weren’t from laughter anymore.
“I need to get to bed, it’s been a long day, and I’m not used to all this. I’m sorry if I’ve offended you. I haven’t been around people for a while, and I’m more out of practice than I thought.”
I tried to stand up, but my blanket once again betrayed me, and I fell back to the deck with a loud thump of my ass meeting wood planks. I was picking a new blankie tomorrow. This one didn't like me anymore.
The large, beautiful man picked that moment to move finally. He strode over to me and roughly picked me up, so I was standing. Ripping the blanket off, he got an eyeful of me in my newHot Wheelssleep pants andTransformerssweatshirt. I’d had to go shopping at a discount store for clothes once I left, and these were the only ones I could find in my size. I’d loved them until this moment. Now, I felt like a little kid. On second thought, I didn’t dislike that idea as much as I thought I might.
Having gotten me untangled, he then proceeded to pick me up in a bridal carry. Leaning down to pick up my blanket, he then carried me without hesitation to my room and placed me on the side of the bed I always sleep on, even though the bed was made. How did he know? He pushed me back onto the pillows and then covered me with the blanket, tucking it in around me.
I thought he was gone when he left the room, but he returned a moment later with a glass of water and a bottle of pain relievers. How sweet.
“That’s so sweet, thank you. Um, I don’t know your name.”
He looked down at me in the dim moonlight streaming through the window but didn’t respond. As he moved to leave the room, I had to try again.
“I’m sorry about everything before. I’m usually not like this. It’s been a rough few days.” Then under my breath, “Few years actually.” But it was probably too low for him to notice, hearing loss and all.
He didn’t respond this time either, and I had just drawn a breath to keep apologizing, yet again, when he finally spoke. His voice was a deep, bass tone that swept right through me and made me shiver.
“Just go to sleep, Worthington. It’s late, and you’re drunk.”
Then he was gone, closing the door behind him.
I did as I was told and went to sleep. My last thought was he’d been nice to me, the first person other than family to be nice to me in so long. I fell asleep smiling for the first time in years.
