The Rules Regarding Gray (18 page)

“Let me get this straight. You injured yourself on your medical equipment?”

She bobbled her head back and forth a couple of times. “Yeah. I guess you could put it that way.”

He laughed again. “This would have been a bad idea on a good day. When you’re crippled, it goes from the bad category to the ridiculously bad category.”

He pulled the drain on the bathtub, and they studied one another as the water lowered. She kept her breasts hidden from him, and she’d dropped the rag to use her free hand to cover her groin. It was almost offensive. Of course, he understood, but … he didn’t like it. He lifted her and set her on the side of the bathtub as he grabbed a towel, and he waited for her to pat her body dry and squeeze the water from her hair. She wrapped herself up tightly in the towel and then used another to vigorously rub her hair, nearly toppling over as she tried to balance with her bad foot held up in the air.

“Whoa.” His hands were held out toward her like a parent trying to guess which way their clumsy toddler was going to fall. The whole ordeal left her hair looking wild and crazy.

When he leaned down to lift her into his arms, she stopped him.

“I can use my crutches.” She was being stubborn.

He stood up smirking at her. He was pulsing inside, but he was hiding it. In truth, he was struggling to keep things on the platonic plane they’d relegated themselves to thanks to all her nudity and cute ass behavior. He reached down and grabbed her crutches for her, standing them up at her side. She stood, and he smiled at her.

“Have fun with that,” he commented casually.

“I will,” she said defiantly.

He chuckled as he followed her from the bathroom. She made it about two feet beyond the bathroom door before her towel came undone and fell to the floor. She gasped and froze in place. He was too busy staring at her ass to say anything for a moment.

“Jas,” she whispered out.

He finally pulled his attention up to the profile of her face as she cocked her head around in an attempt to see him. He hummed as he walked toward her. He wasn’t supposed to be doing this. He definitely shouldn’t be doing this, but his cock was hard and pressing against the front of his pants, and he was breathing shallowly as he tried to rein in the nearly overwhelming need to touch her. He couldn’t stifle this. He didn’t know how to stifle anything with her. He’d thought he could. But this was…

“Please, Jas,” she gasped out.

He froze mid-step for a moment, but then he snatched the towel up from the floor behind her, and he walked around to the front of her. She was breathing quickly, her chest rising and falling rapidly as he let his eyes wander over her completely naked body. Her eyes glanced down to his groin, and she whimpered.

“Towel,” she said.

He studied her eyes for a moment. He imagined telling her no. He imagined making her walk all the way to her bedroom naked. He imagined clutching her up in his arms and carrying her naked to bed, pushing his pants down only far enough to get his cock inside her. In the space of those few seconds, he imagined so many different scenarios that his brain was left spinning.

But in the end, he walked up to her, wrapped the towel around her, lifted her in his arms, and carried her to bed as her crutches clanked to the floor. He set her on the side of the mattress, and he walked away toward the bathroom before he could turn back and do something inappropriate.

As he rifled through her medicine cabinet, he focused on something building inside him. It was anger. It was anger at her, anger at Ian, hell, anger at himself. What the hell did she see in Ian? What the hell did Ian see in her? And why the hell did he feel like he owed Ian even one ounce of loyalty? Ian wouldn’t care what he did to her, or at the very least, he’d get over it. So why the hell couldn’t he?

But then his focus shifted to her. That would hurt her. She didn’t need the guilt, and he knew well enough that even if Ian didn’t give a shit, she would. She was holding on to her relationship with Ian for some reason. He didn’t understand what it was, but he wasn’t going to overstep any lines to find out either, because however he pushed her, it would only end in her guilt. Her own fucking boyfriend had given her permission to be attracted to another man and had expected it not to have consequences. The odd thing was the consequence wasn’t to Ian; it was to her. Jas could easily push her over the edge thanks to the permission Ian had given them, but at what cost to her conscience?

When he finally found her small first aid kit, he snatched her brace and ace bandage off the floor, and as he stalked back to her, he grumbled and grabbed her crutches from the floor. She was still sitting on the edge of the bed, and she looked nervous when she glanced up at him. It softened the hot anger of unfairness that was coursing through him at the moment, and he took a deep breath as he sank to his knees in front of her.

He slipped the splint that ran along the sole of her foot and up the back of her leg into place, and she held it as he started to wrap the ACE bandage around and around and around. He used the clips that were stuck to the bandage to fix it in place. She was studying him intently, holding her towel tightly across her chest.

When he kneeled up, he finally looked at her. Her lips were parted slightly, and her nervousness looked so fucking arousing his cock twitched at the unintentionally hooded and sexy eyes. He didn’t look away from her eyes when he reached for her knees, and he pushed them apart as he moved closer to her. She held the towel closed at her groin for a moment, but as he stared at her, she released it, swallowing over a lump in her throat and looking down at his chest.

She was terrified. She was also aroused and helpless to push him away. She felt the exact same way he felt, and he didn’t need her to say it to know it with absolute certainty. When he reached for the first aid kit on the bed, it pushed the front of his jeans into her sex, and she whimpered. He moaned quietly.

He couldn’t seem to be this close to her without overstepping the lines they’d put in place two days before, and he very consciously ignored those lines as he kept his body entirely too close to hers. He opened the small plastic box. The scrape had stopped bleeding, and he tore a single use packet of antibiotic ointment open, squeezing a small amount on his middle finger.

His free hand ran over the top of her thigh, pushing up under the towel to grip her hip, and as his fingers dug into her skin, he reached for her forehead and ran the ointment over the scrape. She was panting, and he could feel those breaths against his chin. He was only inches from her mouth, and all he needed to do was lean forward the slightest distance to get his lips on hers.

But he didn’t. He grabbed a bandage, opening it and quickly pulling his hand from her hip, so he could place the bandage over the scrape. Once he was finished, he stayed still, his body so inappropriately close to hers. Even as he reached for the top of her towel, he knew he was making a mistake, but his fingers wouldn’t listen to his brain, and if he were completely honest, his brain was a traitorous fucking thing that wasn’t putting up much fight at all. He pulled the towel loose even as a rush of air left his lungs. The towel pooled at her waist, and then he stilled again, trying to figure out how to walk away from this.

His focus moved down to her tits. Her nipples were small and hard as stone. His hands twitched as he imagined touching them. His lips trembled as he imagined sucking on them. He slowly moved his focus upward. He needed to see her eyes. He needed her permission to go further. But his focus stalled out when he looked at her lips. She licked them, and he watched them tremble. But then she shook her head…

It was so slight, so subtle he could nearly ignore it. Part of him thought she wanted him to ignore it, but then he glanced to her eyes. They were wide, terrified. She may be aroused as hell right now, but she knew full well they were treading into dangerous territory. He may have wanted to ignore his own warnings, but as he focused on those beautiful green eyes, he didn’t ignore hers. He sank back to sit on his calves, and he gripped his forehead, squeezing it as he took a deep calming breath.

He stood quickly, moving to her dresser. He pulled a pair of underwear from the drawer, a pair of gray short cotton shorts, and a white cotton tank top out as well. When he returned to her, he set the clothes beside her. She pulled the towel back up to cover her body.

“Please tell me you can dress yourself, because if I have to help you, I’m done for.”

She smiled shyly. “I can handle this,” she said quietly.

“Thank fuck,” he muttered as he walked away.

He found a frozen pizza in her freezer, and he busied himself heating up her oven as she dressed. Her home was entirely too open to afford her any privacy and him any chance at decency, and he glanced at her regularly as she changed. When she came crutching into the kitchen, he shook his head in exasperation. The shorts were short, and the white tank top was just thin enough he could see her tight pink nipples through the fabric.

He was starting to think he couldn’t do anything right on this day.

He behaved himself through lunch, and she ended up lying on the couch in the living room after he kicked her out of the kitchen as he cleaned up. She was lying on the sofa with her foot propped up on the back, and he sank down in front of her wrapped up foot, pulling her good foot onto his lap. He kneaded the sole of her left foot as they watched T.V., and he kept his eyes on the television, rather than letting them shift to her.

It was a perfectly enjoyable afternoon…

Until her door burst open…

“Yoohoo!” A woman called out.

“Honey, we’re here,” called a man’s voice. “Now don’t be upset, but we simply couldn’t…”

And then the middle aged couple’s eyes found them on the couch. Gray was struggling to sit, but with one foot behind his head and her other foot on his lap, it was an awkward fight for her to get her body upright.

The woman at the door gasped in shock, and that’s when Gray’s bad foot nailed Jasper in the back of his head. The splint was made of hard plaster, and as she managed to get her foot around his head and sit up at the same time, he hissed and reached for the back of his head.

“Oh, God, I’m sorry,” she said as she reached for his cheek, but then she pulled her hand back quickly as her eyes returned to the startled couple at the door. “Mom. Dad. What are you doing here?”

Chapter Sixteen

This could not be fucking happening.

“Uh… Well, umm… Well, we just… uh…” Her mother was stammering as she walked slowly toward them, eyeing Jasper suspiciously.

“Well, dear, we just wanted to see you, and uh…” Her father stared at Jasper for a moment, before he managed to look back at her.

Jasper stood then, approaching them and holding his hand out to her father. “Hi. I’m Jasper Drees. I’m a friend of Gray’s.”

To Gray’s horror, her dad stared at him for a moment, refusing to take his hand. “Oh. Yes. Well, I’m Ron Ellis. I’m her father. This is my wife Viv. It’s … good to meet you.”

Jasper nodded, and Gray started struggling to get herself up. When she was finally motating toward them, she took a deep breath.

“Dear, where is Ian?” Her mother chimed in. “I mean. Are you two…?” The suspicion was still there in her expression, but it was now coupled with judgment, and Gray groaned inside.

“No!” Gray replied quickly, still trying to catch up to them.

Jasper turned to her mother, offering her his hand as well. “No. We’re just friends. I’m actually a friend of Ian’s. I’ve known him since I was a child.”

“Really?” her mother exclaimed as her eyes traveled over him. She so clearly was trying to draw the dots between Gray’s straightly laced boyfriend, Ian, and her newfound rather rough looking friend, Jasper. But her mom eventually took his hand, clutching her hand to her chest in relief as Gray internally fell apart. “Oh! Well, thank goodness. I thought for a moment…” She rolled her eyes as if the notion were ridiculous.

Her mom’s relief was offensive. The way her eyes appraised Jasper was too, and as Gray finally reached them, she opened her mouth to say as much.

“Yes. Well, we can’t all be as amazing as Ian now can we?” Jasper commented sarcastically before Gray could say a word. But there was a hint of coolness to his voice, even though he was plastering a casual smirk to his face.

When his eyes met hers, she was staring wide-eyed back at him. His expression faltered, and he shook his head subtly, looking guilty for having reacted to her parent’s inappropriateness. All she wanted to do was reach out and touch him.

“Umm…” He pulled his hand back from her mother. “I should really go.”

And at just that moment, their hell became even hotter. There was a knock on the door, and then it opened. Clearly being incapacitated meant people could and would simply come and go as they pleased from her home.

Ian was standing there. He took in the sight of them all, and then he plastered his broad smile widely across his face. He’d met her parents when they’d visited a few months back, and he’d charmed the hell out of them. Ian was good at charming people, herself included at one point in time, and now as he stepped through her door, that charm was back, exuding his confidence and competence like a tractor beam aimed at her parents.

“Ron and Viv! Gray said you were out of the country. I just can’t believe you’re here.” He shook his head as he rushed to them, shaking her father’s hand and pulling Viv into a hug. “It’s so good to see you both. I hope you didn’t think we weren’t taking care of your girl for you.”