“Am I?” Trevor asked, feigning disinterest. “I’ll just have to go somewhere else,” he said, knowing damn well that wouldn’t be happening. Until he was done with her, and he wasn’t even close to being done with her, she was his and no one else would do.
“Okay,” Zoe said, wiping away the rest of her tears that he noted had thankfully stopped flowing, “if that’s what you want, I guess I’ll have to look elsewhere as well.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously on her. “What exactly does that mean?”
She gave him a little shrug and an innocent expression that he wasn’t buying for a second.
“You’re saying that if I end this arrangement that you’ll start one with another man?” he asked with barely controlled rage. He didn’t like the thought of her with another man.
Not at all.
He glared at her for another moment, waiting for her to falter in some way, but when she just sat there looking innocent, he snapped. “Fine! But you’re going to start eating, Zoe, or I swear I’ll spank your ass!” he said, noting the gleam of anticipation in her tired eyes at his words and remembered who he was talking to. “And not in the good way either.”
“Fine,” Zoe sighed heavily. “I was already starting to rethink my diet anyway,” she grumbled, toying with the sandwich wrapper but not opening it and eating it, he noted.
He reached out and took the sandwich and juice back, placing it in the bag with the rest of the food and stood up, holding his hand out to her. “Come on.”
Her eyes widened almost comically as she looked between him and his hand. “I know we have an agreement, but I really am tired,” Zoe said, sounding close to crying again.
“Shh,” Trevor said soothingly, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead as he took her hand into his. “Come on,” he said, giving her hand a gentle pull.
After a slight hesitation, she allowed him to lead her into the bedroom where he quickly pulled on one of the pair of jeans he’d left at her place and found her a pair of panties and one of his Yankees tee-shirts. With an exasperated roll of her eyes and a cute little smile, she took the shirt and pulled it on.
“Come on,” Trevor said, grabbing her hand once again and pulling her towards the door.
“Where are we going?” she mumbled around a small yawn.
“I thought we’d watch a movie with our dinner,” Trevor said, leading her down the stairs, into the hallway, and into his apartment. He didn’t bother shutting the door behind him since he knew that it would only make Toby cry. The dog wouldn’t accept anything less than full run of the entire house.
“Have a seat and I’ll be right back,” he said, placing the bag on the coffee table. After making sure that she did as he’d asked, he ran upstairs and grabbed a pillow and one of the large quilts that his grandmother made for him and headed back downstairs to find Zoe already starting to doze off.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Trevor said, tossing the pillow and quilt at the opposite end of the couch. “You need to eat, Zoe.”
“God, you’re bossy,” she mumbled, but he didn’t miss the look of anticipation on her face or the way she licked her lips. Poor thing, he thought. He really couldn’t imagine living on nothing but green veggies and sticks, but somehow, she did.
Maybe he should have picked up a couple of steaks with the works, he thought and then quickly dismissed the idea. Zoe would have balked at breaking her diet like that. Once she realized that she could still eat regular food by making healthy choices, she’d be fine.
“Here you go,” Trevor said, grabbing her sandwich and drink from the bag and setting it down in front of her. “I grabbed you a turkey, no cheese, extra veggies and fat-free mayo on wheat. It’s healthy food and it won’t leave you starving, Zoe,” he explained, hoping that she wouldn’t give him much of a fight because at this point, he was willing to pin her to the ground and force-feed her.
She’d lost too much weight to be healthy and worst of all, she was making all of his favorite curves smaller. He fucking loved those curves and he’d be damned if she denied him what he wanted. Plus, she really was making him nervous.
Not that he really cared or anything.
Okay, so he cared a little bit. She was his friend and they were sleeping together, after all. It was only natural that he be concerned when she was putting her health and more importantly, their arrangement at risk. He needed to work her out of his system and he wouldn’t be able to do that if she was constantly sick.
At least, that’s what he told himself.
Truth was, he really didn’t like seeing her suffer. She’d been really good to him and he loved their time together. She was the highlight of his day and as much as that frightened him, he couldn’t ignore it. He’d help get her where she needed to be, finish this arrangement after he found his future wife and keep tabs on her afterwards to make sure that she was okay. Maybe he’d put her in one of his nicer apartment houses and let her live there rent-free. It was the least he could do for her and it would make it so much easier to make sure that she was okay.
“What if I get fat again?” she muttered so softly that he’d almost missed it.
He’d just barely stopped himself from snapping at her. “Zoe, you really need to eat. This isn’t healthy and if you make better choices and continue to exercise, you will be fine.”
She tore her eyes away from her sandwich and gave him a sad little sheepish smile. “I always gain the weight back plus a little extra when I break a diet,” she admitted, her little chin wobbling.
Sighing heavily, Trevor reached out and took her hand in his. “You’re not breaking your diet, Zoe. You’re just switching it around. Plus, I’m around and if I see you eating something unhealthy, I’ll just steal it from you,” he said with a shrug.
Her lips twitched even as her eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “That’s really nice of you.”
