Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 106948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
I was tempted to turn around and stick my tongue out at him, but I managed to act like an adult. The bathroom was nice, but it was still obviously a hospital bathroom with its extra railings and handicap-accessible shower. A wrapped toothbrush and little thing of toothpaste sat next to the sink, and I gratefully gave my mouth a good scrub while examining myself in the mirror with a wince.
At some point, someone must have taken my ponytail out because my hair fell down my back in its usual boring, bone-straight way. The edge of my right sleeve was still splashed with coffee near my biceps and my eyes were red-rimmed from crying. With a sigh, I wished I had a hairbrush and a team of makeup artists to work some magic on me, but unfortunately the best I could do was pinch my cheeks to try to add some color to my pale face. My light brown eyes were bloodshot with dark circles beneath them and overall I resembled a zombie apocalypse survivor, but splattered with coffee instead of blood.
“Hannah, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I yelled back right away, afraid he’d come in and catch me mooning over myself. “Just washing up.”
I cleaned my hands in like three seconds then dried them on one of the fluffy white towels hanging next to the sink before girding my loins and opening the door.
Leo stood on the other side of the room, talking with Dr. Gardener, who regarded me with a rather forced smile. “Feeling better, Hannah?”
“Yes, thank you. Am I okay to go home?”
“Of course,” Dr. Gardener said as she typed something into her phone, avoiding my gaze. “If you don’t need me for anything else, Mr. Brass, I have a patient that I need to attend to.”
“You’re free to go.”
She cast him a brief look of longing as he strode towards me, then left.
While I’ve had a problem with jealousy before, I’ve never felt as intensely possessive of a man as I did Leo, and we weren’t even dating. What in the world was wrong with me? Maybe I needed to go see a psychiatrist again before my anxiety started up. This fixating on a man I barely knew, who was so different from anyone I’ve ever been around, couldn’t be healthy. All I could think of as he closed the distance between us was that he would be strong enough to hold me up while he fucked me against the nearest wall.
My breathing sped and when his wide chest filled my world, I found myself afraid of meeting his gaze, afraid of the desire he would see in my eyes.
“Leo, can you take me home please?”
I checked him out as surreptitiously as I could, wanting to run my fingers down the open collar of his shirt to the light brown hair of his chest. His pulse beat against the tanned skin of his neck, making me want to lick him there. My need for him was so strong, I had to press my thighs together in the hopes of easing the ache.
“Of course. Dr. Granger left some medicine and antibiotic cream to take home with you, along with a change of bandages. There shouldn’t be any scarring.”
“Thank you.” I hesitantly reached out and gently touched the fingertips of his injured hand, telling my hormones to shut the hell up as guilt reared its ugly head again. “Leo, I’m so sorry I hurt you.”
“Don’t worry. I have a very, very high pain threshold.”
“I don’t.”
“I know.” He sounded amused as he took a step back, then gestured to my lilac jacket nicely hung over the back of a nearby chair. “You might want to answer your phone, it’s been ringing a lot.”
“Oh, crap, my roommates!” I stumbled over to my jacket and dug my phone out, groaning at the amount of messages and texts from Joy. The only one I had from Kayla was to tell me—not ask me, tell me—that I needed to run her library books back for her, like she couldn’t do it herself.
No doubt she’d sleep all day tomorrow, the day her books were due, and continue to beg me to take them back while looking pitiful and laying on a guilt trip. Normally helping her didn’t bother me…but right now, it irritated me that Kayla just got to coast through life, using her money and connections to do whatever the heck she wanted while I busted my butt to just get by.
Rather than answering all the individual texts, I called the house and Joy answered, “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hannah! Are you okay? You never came home and I got worried so I called your work. They said you burned yourself and left with some guy.”
Conscious of Leo watching me, I turned slightly and said in a low voice, “I’m fine. In fact, I’m on my way home. I spilled coffee on one of my customers and myself, burning us both. He was nice enough to take me to get medical treatment at a fancy private clinic.”