Chapter 82 CHAPTER 086
All I need is him. He is all I need. I have missed him. I am with him now but I still feel like he is far away.
"Let me help you shave after lunch." I say across the table at him. I am not hungry, but I need the food for my drugs and supplements.
I don't know what Linc told the hospital was the reason for my injuries or Ashley's, but nobody looked or treated me weird. He seemed to have kept things under wraps for the most part. That is what being a billionaire can afford you. The ability to choose how to handle a situation.
We still have to talk about Tyler. About the tape he has and what that could mean for us if he decides to release it. About my mom and that french artist and all that mess. We have a lot to talk about and yet we have said nothing. I am okay with it. I am so tired of all the issues. I just want to be with him and not have our moment be interrupted or intruded upon. I deserve that much after the hell I have gone through.
"Why? Do I not look sexy again? You said I looked hot with it." He says, a corner of his mouth quirking up with his mirth.
"You do. But I doubt you are going to go back to work looking like that." I say.
"Go back to work? Who said anything about going back to work?" He cocks his head at me, the light catches his face at an angle that makes him look truly stunning.
"Well, won't you?"
"Not anytime soon, I can assure you that." His face hardens.
But I don't let it deter me, "why not? You know you don't technically have to be with me twenty four seven."
"Try me."
I roll my eyes at him. I guess the boss doesn't have to clock in at work everyday to keep things running.
"Anyway, you look tired and rugged because of it. Hot, but kind of unsettling. I prefer the sexy clean shaven stepfather I know." And fell in love with. But I keep that bit to myself. I chew my food mechanically, I drink my water, I go through the mindless motion of eating as a deflection.
"Okay then. Though all I need is a good night's sleep." He says in a light tone.
"You will get one tonight." I say. It slips out of me without much thought.
But I sense the way he stiffens at the words, I look up at him, he avoids my gaze, I go back to my food without thinking much of it. Then it occurs to me as an afterthought the insinuation of what I said.
"Oh, I meant you can relax since I am safe." I say, blushing like we weren't already intimate. Like I wasn't in love with him. Like he didn't know ways to get my body succumbing to him.
"I would never be able to relax till we catch him." He says with so much bitterness in his tone, it makes my heart clench.
"Oh Linc. Don't do that. They will catch him eventually. He can't hurt or reach me anymore. Don't jeopardise your health more than you already have unnecessarily. You are too old for that." I add the last bit so he can laugh, he gives me a small smile. My pulse picks up.
"Okay." He says. He doesn't sound convincing. But I will take it.
We finish lunch and he clears the table. I offered to do it but he refused. I don't know if I will ever get used to this level of tenderness without eventually just confessing to him what I feel.
I go upstairs to his room to look for his essentials so I can help him shave. I feel heavy from the meal or the painkillers in my bloodstream but this offer to shave Linc is too delicious to let up.
The bathroom is state of the art furnished. Marble. Gold accents. Minimal decorations. I can't even begin to imagine what it all costs. Having spent one summer living in this magnificent house, hating it and everything else as that time, I have sort of desensitized myself to its splendour.
But coming back to live in it as an adult, I am able to fully appreciate its modern beauty.
I look around the spacious bathroom, trying to decide the best spot and how to do this right.
The door clicks open behind me, Linc walks in fully clothed and gives me a smile, "we have come a long way, I am trusting you with a blade to my face." He says. He must be reminiscing on that summer too.
I smile, "so, how do you want to do this?" I ask gesturing at the huge empty bathroom space.