He smiled against my mouth but obliged, running a thumb over my peak before his hand moved down my body and stopped at the top of my underwear.
“Yes,” I said urgently against his mouth when he paused.
His fingers inched ever so slowly into my panties. My breath was shallow and my body felt more alive than it had in a long time. His middle finger followed my slit easily, proving just how ready I was for him. I moved one leg over, opening myself up for him. My foot found nothing but air, and I kept going until my leg up to my knee was dangling off the side of the bed. The move gave him more freedom and he took it, his finger working me in just the right places. I arched against him.
And then there was a loud bang. At first, I thought his hand or back hit the wall, that’s how small the bed was and how close we were to the wall. But then I heard a far-off cry and I sat up with a jolt.
“Shit,” I said.
“What?” he asked, taking a second to catch up. “What was that?”
“My mom.” I jumped out of bed and stepped into my shorts. Instead of pulling on my own button-up shirt though, I grabbed his T-shirt from my desk chair and tugged it on. “I’ll be right back.”
“Should I come w—”
“No, stay.”
CHAPTER 26
I rushed out of the room and pulled the door shut behind me. In the hall, I could hear my mom’s cries louder. I pushed open the door to her room. “Mom?”
She was on the floor, cradling her arm. I rushed to her side, turning on the small bedside lamp in the process. “Did you fall out of bed?”
“I needed to go to the bathroom. I thought I could do it myself.”
“What hurts?”
“My arm.” She held it to her chest.
“Did you land on your leg?”
“No. I just got dizzy. I’d made it off the bed to my good leg but hit the nightstand with my arm on my way down.”
I squatted beside her. “Wrap your arm around my neck.”
She did and I barely managed to get her all the way off the floor and then propped up against the bed. I was sure the adrenaline rushing through me had aided in the task.
“Let me get your wheelchair.”
“Just brace me.”
I knew what she was saying, but I wasn’t sure she was strong enough to hop on one leg as I acted as a crutch for her other. AndIdefinitely wasn’t strong enough. “I can’t, Mom. Your wheelchair is right there.” I nodded toward the end of the bed.
She nodded, defeated.
Once she used the bathroom and was back in the wheelchair, I pushed her back toward the bed. I watched her shoulders shake from behind and small sobs sounded in the room.
“Are you in pain?” I asked. “Let me go get your meds.” She’d stopped taking her middle-of-the-night dose, but if she was hurting, I didn’t see the harm in adding it back.
“No,” she said.
“No?” We were at the side of her bed now, and I moved around the front of her chair and squatted at her knees. “You don’t want pain meds?”
She shook her head, trying to hide the tears I could see glistening in her eyes.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I could feel sympathy tears pricking behind my own eyes, and I knew she’d hate that. I kept them at bay. “Do you want to get back in bed?”
She nodded and I leaned forward to have her wrap her arm around me again. This time she wrapped both. Maybe she hadn’t hit her arm as hard as she thought. Maybe it was just an initial pain kind of thing, like when you stub your toe on the corner of furniture. But I made a mental note to call the doctor in the morning to let him know.
