“That’s the problem.” He peels my fingers from his wrist, then stoops down to eye that ugly bruise that won’t go away.
“How is that the problem?” I run my foot across his side.
“Too many stupid ass men around you got you thinking you supposed to be taking care of yourself.” He gives my climbing leg a softthwackuntil it falls back against the island. “Stop.”
“Rich,” I whine.
I don’t even recognize the dulcet tone coating his name as it flows out of my mouth. I sound like a woman who just learned what it felt like to be turned on by a man.
“I said, ‘Stop.’” He reaches out without warning, pushing his fingers into my side.
I’m floating so high that I think I’m watching him touch me from his kitchen ceiling. The sharp pain that stabs my side every time I swallow floats up and sits right next to me. Now I don’t feel anything except the things I want to feel, like his warm ear pressed into my side.
“Take a deep breath,” he says.
I suck in while my fingers find their way to his ear, dancing across the cartilage.
He gently peels my fingers off it. “Let it out.”
I blow it out, rolling my eyes toward the ceiling, and my fingers easily find their way back to his ear again. They glide across it until he peels each finger off one by one.
I sit back on my elbows, staring down at him.
“So, do I need another doctor, Dr. Lovelace?” I garble out, thrusting my abdomen closer to his face until he pushes it down.
“No. You just need to be good, ‘cause you being bad right now—like fucking with my head type bad.”
I smile, dropping my head back and basking in the way his calloused fingers glide across my skin. I don’t know what he blew into my mouth, but it makes his kitchen feel like Es Cavallet, where I snuck away from AJ, got drunk, and skinny-dipped for the first time with the locals. I feel the warm air tickling my bare skin and hear the waves crashing onto the shore.
“What you doing?” Rich asks, interrupting the deep whooshing of Es Cavallet’s water playing in my head.
I glance down and find him staring at my hand hanging from my left bra strap. My right strap dangles from my shoulder as my naked breast sits between us. I don’t even remember pulling it out, just like I don’t remember plunging my naked body into Es Cavallet’s bright blue water.
“I’m being good. I’m just trying to give you another one of those gifts you like.” I drop my chin against my chest, staring at him stare at my nipple. “So, what’s my prognosis?”
“It’s not broken—just really fuckin bruised…” he mumbles, kneading my thigh and staring at my breast.
I eye the bruises that wrap around his eyes and reach out, running my finger along the taut skin. “Now that that’s settled,who did it? I told you who gave me my bruise, now you have to tell me who gave you yours.”
“You don’t need to know that.”
“Yes, I do. This is reciprocal, remember?”
He swallows. “A dude named Jay… from Gulfport.”
“The girl from your kitchen didn’t do it this time?”
He shakes his head, studying my pert nipple. “Nah. She too busy flashing me right now. Good thing my eyes ain’t swollen shut tonight, huh?”
“Right. If they were, I’d have to find Jay from Gulfport and beat him up for ruining your inaugural post-birthday gift.” I laugh, tilting my head and trying to picture Rich ducking a punch from Jay, but all I see are his heavy red eyes.
He chuckles then slurs, “Man, that nigga hit me so hard I saw?—”
“Double?”
He smirks, nodding.
I smile grimly. “Yeah, the worst is when everything goes?—”
