“Babe?” Austin called from behind the locked door.
“Go away.”
“Let me in.”
“No,” I grumbled. “I’m dying. You shouldn’t have to watch it.”
“You’re actually sick?”
I reached up and unlocked the door. “As opposed to?”
He peeked in. “I thought you were just upset.”
“Well, I’m that too.”
“I’m so sorry, baby.” He hunkered down beside me and pulled my hair away from my face. “You’re burning up.”
“Bonus.”
“I’m gonna run the bath.” He rose to his feet. “Let’s get that fever down.”
I stayed plastered against the toilet, buck naked, as my man filled the tub, grabbed towels, and then helped me off the floor and into the bath... also buck naked. I would have laughed had I not been so pathetically ill.
I dropped my head back against the rim of the tub and sighed. The warm water covered me all the way to my neck and it was divine.
“Dani?”
“Hmm,” I mumbled.
“I’m gonna call your brother, yeah?”
“Why?” I opened my eyes and frowned. He’d pulled on pajama bottoms and that kind of made me sad.
“Because you’re way too sick to go tonight, but I still need to talk to him.”
“Oh, right.” I closed my eyes again. “’K.”
I vaguely registered his voice as he called my brother, but my body felt like lead and I didn’t even have the energy to listen.
“Babe?”
“Mmm?” Austin’s cool hand fluttered across my forehead.
“Wake up, baby. Gonna get you dried off and back into bed.”
“Can’t move.”
I groaned when I heard the clunk of the drain being opened and the water whooshing down the drain.
“Okay, honey, let’s get you up.”
I swallowed, my throat dry and rough. “No.”
“You’re gonna freeze if we don’t get you into bed.”
I forced my eyes open and frowned. “I don’t care.”
Austin chuckled as his hands went under my armpits and he lifted me onto shaky legs, wrapping a huge towel around my body and scooping me from the tub. He sat me on a chair in front of the mirror and gently brushed out my hair. Since I could barely keep my eyes open, he secured the mass with a scrunchy and then helped me back into bed.
