Page 108 of Falling for Her

She rolls her eyes, and I try to tamp down the way I feel every single time I see her bruises. I’ve had to bite down so many times, it’s a wonder I haven’t broken any of my back teeth. “I’m fine,” she mumbles as I bend to kiss her lips. “Now that we’re going home, it’ll be good to sleep properly.”

It’s been four days since she woke up, and even though she wanted to go home the day after, the doctor had her stay, just to be on the safe side. Collins was able to visit her, then quickly left town to return home. It was just the two of us for the last couple of days, and I didn’t leave her side for even five minutes. When she went to sleep at night, I sat there in the chair and watched her, thanking all the fucking gods that were listening to me while she was in a coma. Three fucking days I will never get back. Seventy-two of the worst hours of my life.

We head down, and there is a car waiting for us, something she said she would take care of. “Thank you”—she gets up and gives the nurse a hug—“for everything.”

“It was my pleasure,” she replies. “Take care of big man.” She motions my way with her head as I hold out a hand for Finley to get into the SUV.

As we pull away from the hospital, I grab her hand and kiss her fingers. “How you feeling?”

“Better than yesterday, not as good as tomorrow.” I shake my head.

Pulling up to her high-rise building in the middle of the city, I get out and open her door. She’s moving slowly, and I hold out my hand. It takes everything in me not to pick her up and carry her inside. I contemplate it again as we walk into the lobby.

I try not to let the empty security station bother me. The doorman has been fired. Finley wasn’t interested in pressing charges, but the building owner is. She came to see Finley at the hospital with a massive bouquet, opened the app on her phone, and let Finley enter a new security code so no one else would have it. I’m just glad that in not too long she’ll be out of here and safe.

She gets into the elevator. “Can you put in the new code?”

“What is it?”

“It’s the code you use for the front door,” she teases me, and I smile as I enter Asa’s birthday, and the elevator starts gliding up. I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her to me as I kiss her lips, my cock straining in my pants to get at her. The elevator pings, and we step out into her penthouse.

“Finley, this is where you live?” The wall-to-wall windows show the whole skyline. Everything looks like it’s fucking expensive, and the couch looks like you need a suit to sit on it.

“For now.” I follow her down the hallway. I’m expecting her bedroom but instead we walk into a closet the size of the whole bottom floor of my house. Boxes and boxes are stacked up on one side, and there are three suitcases in the middle of the room. “I’m going to need thirty minutes,” she says, lifting folded clothes from the top of the big dresser in the middle of the room.

“This is your closet?” I look around and close my eyes.

“This is the clothes closet. The shoe closet is through there.” She points to a closed door. “Well, it’s not just for shoes. The purses are all in there, too.” She walks out into her bedroom.

My boots sink into the lush carpet as I take in the floor-to-ceiling drapes that look like they cost as much as my house.

“Finley,” I say through clenched teeth, “when you are better, you and I are going to sit down and discuss a couple of things. What are you doing?”

“I’m taking a shower,” she replies as if she didn’t just spend a week lying in a hospital bed. She opens the door to the big shower and turns on the rain setting. “I want to wash my hair. And I would like very much to see what I look like since you refused to let me see the mirror when I had to go to the bathroom.

“Because it doesn’t fucking matter what you look like. All that matters is that you’re safe.” I pull my shirt over my head.

“What are you doing?”

“You want to wash your hair, so I’m going to get in there with you and wash your hair for you.” I kick off my boots. “You think I’m just going to let you get into a shower when you haven’t been up in over a week?”

“I took a shower yesterday,” she reminds me, her eyes trailing my body up and down.

“Yeah, with a walker and a nurse. And I don’t care how much you ogle me. There will be no sex.”

“Buzzkill,” she mumbles as she takes off her shirt gingerly. I start to help her. “No, if we are not having sex, you can’t touch me.”

“Baby,” I say softly, “the doctor said⁠—”

“To not stress myself. Having sex isn’t stressful. It’s relaxing.” I bend to take off her shoe and then the other one. She’s naked before I am, and my cock is rock-hard by the time I step into the shower behind her. “What if I sit on your cock while you wash my hair?” She looks back at me. “Or I can get on my knees and⁠—”

“Finley,” I groan.

“Yes, Lincoln?” Her fingers wrap around my cock.

“I love you,” I say, and her eyes soften, “more than you will ever know.” I kiss her nose. “But I’m not having sex with you.” She rolls her eyes and lets go of my cock.

I have her turn, and I wash her hair. She gets out as soon as I finish rinsing her hair. I put on my shorts and a T-shirt and find her already dressed in loungewear.