She rocketed up but didn’t move away from him. Instead, she whirled around and looked down at him with wide eyes and a barely contained smile.
Rose went from lying comfortably against him to tearing herself out of the bed like he had bitten her. She tucked and rolled off the edge so fast that James sat up quick to try and see if he needed to help her.
The sudden movement made his head throb. He winced at the pain.
Rose, managing to get to her feet, saw it.
He watched her face go from red to concerned and red. Her brows knitted together, her hands still clutching some of the quilt.
“Why are you doing that? What hurts?” she asked.
James touched his forehead.
“The part of my head I used as a battering ram yesterday.” It was definitely sore. Probably bruising. “It’s not a big deal, though. Just a little uncomfortable.”
Rose didn’t seem to believe him. She crawled back into bed and right over to him. Her eyes were locked on to the spot in question as she got almost close enough to touch it. James kept his mouth shut while she did her silent inspection.
When she was apparently okay with what she was seeing, she pulled back to sitting on her side of the bed and James saw her own set of bruising. It wasn’t as pronounced as he would have thought it would be, but the once-handprint ring around her neck was still visible.
James tapped his own neck.
“How about that?” he asked. “How’s that on the pain scale?”
Rose tentatively felt the area. She didn’t wince.
“Fine as long as I don’t touch it.”
“How about your throat? You don’t sound as raspy as you did last night.”
Rose thought about it a moment.
“It’s better,” was all she came up with.
“Good.”
James gave Rose some space to collect her own thoughts and stretched out wide before scooping up his phone. Rose excused herself to the bathroom. The shower turned on soon after. James couldn’t help but give another little laugh.
Usually when he woke up with a woman, they would talk about what had happened or at least make a comment or two. Rose, though, wasn’t like other women, he was finding.
No one had called or texted James since his last communication with his dad the night before. Still, he decided to send a few quick texts to his parents. They were simple messages, just saying good morning and to have a good day, but it was small interactions like those that meant a lot to James. Especially when his mother replied with a little picture of a kitten half-asleep next to an oversize mug.
That was why he was smiling when Rose reappeared, wrapped in a towel and hair dripping wet. Adrenaline shot through James as he was sure something was wrong, but this time her expression halted any action.
“I think I get it,” she said in a flurry of barely contained excitement.
“Get what?”
“Why Damon has been attacking me like he has, instead of just outright killing me easy.”
James didn’t like the way she phrased it but he was also invested.
A smirk pulled up the corner of her lips.
James was once again bowled over by how beautiful the woman was.
“I think it’s time we paid our friend from last night a visit.”
* * *
