Mila said that she’d hire Hannah as a babysitter if I chased her away, and that sounded like a worse fate, to have her in the house but not near.
Fuck it.I wanted her when she was in my room. And I wanted her when she wasn’t. Like now, with her absence, I fought a deeper sense of longing that I didn’t want to invest energy on.
For the rest of the afternoon and evening, I tried to keep my mind off her. I failed. Epically. It didn’t matter how often I reread the dossier my brothers had collected on Erik or how many times I tried to close my eyes and nap, I was stuck on her.
My concentration was shot, and this gnawing irritation settled deeper into my muscles as the minutes ticked away. More than once, I glanced at the clock to gauge how much more time sat between now and when she’d come for the next therapy session. When I was checking the time every three minutes, I gave up. Annoyed and loathing this weird sensation of anticipation, I used my walker to pace in my suite.
Hannah showed up, surprised to see that I’d graduated from my walker to the cane. “Don’t overdo it,” she cautioned good-naturedly. Somehow, her tone wasn’t nagging. She said it with an easygoing bit of concern without preaching.
She looked at me as she spoke, too, which was a vast difference from how she’d blushed and stammered when she left earlier.
Trying to sweep this under the rug, too?I wasn’t having it.
“Why were you jealous earlier?” I put her right on the damn spot, direct and blunt with my greeting.
She opened and closed those pink lips, and the expression of embarrassment that covered her face somehow made her even sexier. Docile, yet not.
“I’m… I wasn’t.”
I walked back toward my bed, where she’d placed the elastic exercise bands I both loved and hated. They hurt, butno pain, no gainapplied when I used them.
“You weren’t jealous when you ran out of here earlier?” I arched a brow, watching her cheeks turn pinker.
“Nope.”
“Bullshit.”
“I—no.” She furrowed her brow. “I’m not jealous of anything or anyone.” After crossing her arms in a classic defensive mode, she lowered them, only to re-cross them.
I almost smiled, towering over her. “You’re so young you don’t even know how to fucking lie.”
“I’m not ly?—”
I gripped her chin. “You’ve got a lot to learn about dishonesty. You were jealous.”
She swatted my hand away and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said as she rolled the low stool toward my bed. Short and mobile, it was at an ideal height for her to guide my ankle through stretches.
“When Ivan came in and talked about a woman coming to me.” I sat, watching her frown. “To… how’d he say it? To put me in a better mood?”
She clamped her lips shut tight as she reached for my ankle. I kept it low with my foot still on the ground.
“You were jealous of another woman coming here to satisfy me.”
“I wasn’t,” she insisted, reaching again for my ankle. Each dip down brought her nearer my crotch, and my desire flared to nuclear heat. My entire body felt charged and wired up to explode.
“You’re not mine,” she clarified hotly. “You’re notmyman. So, there’s nothing to be jealous about.”
But you want me.I stared at her, letting her detect the unspoken words hanging between us. We both wanted something more than her touching my ankle in a clinical, professional manner.
She raised her brows, almost sassy about it. “If you’ve got ‘needs’ and having them met would make you less of a grouchy pain in the ass, then go for it.” Her slim shoulders lifted and fell. “See if it helps.”
I held in a growl at her boldness. “You do it.”
She blinked, gazing up at me.
I spread my legs apart to demonstrate how much I meant it. Already, my erection pushed up against the material of my gym shorts.
“What?”
