Maybe that saying about pride and falls isn’t just some meaningless platitude after all.
Still, if I need to be taken care of, there’s something oddly lovely about being taken care of by Harry. He’s soft and strong in all the right ways, and I can tell that he’s got a quick wit too. The way his arms support me as we walk — well, as he walks and I stumble — is as possessive as it is tender. To my surprise, I like it.
It takes longer than it should, but Harry gets me to the medical center. The whole way, a stream of reassurances and soothing distractions flows from him. I latch onto his words like they’re a life preserver, allowing them to draw my attention away from just how hard it is to stay upright.
When we get to the clinic, Harry helps me to check in. A nurse appears with a wheelchair and he and Harry ease me into it. My companion wheels me to the waiting room where there are a few patients already waiting. I take strange comfort from the fact that I’m not the only one getting her ass kicked by the first day of school.
I fumble in my handbag, miraculously still slung over an elbow, for my cell phone. I begin to type out an email to my supervisor, explaining the situation.
Harry’s eyes are on me in a second. “What are you doing?”
I blink against the brightness of my phone screen. It sears into my eyes and makes my head ache all the more. “I need to email my boss.”
He grabs my phone. There it is again — that cocktail of domination and kindness. His actions are gentle but certain. He’s in charge, and he won’t take any argument.
To my surprise, I find my blood humming in response to his decisive actions.
If my head didn’t hurt so much and my thighs weren’t suddenly clenching together in arousal, I’d laugh. Because really, the situation is ridiculous. Girl collides with boy, boy insists on taking girl to the doctor, girl and boy fall madly in love and live happily ever after? That just doesn’t happen in real life.
And yet, when I look into Harry’s blue eyes, stomach twisting at how they crinkle up at the corners when he smiles at me, I think I spy something like what I’m feeling reflected back at me.
Or maybe that’s just my potential concussion.
My stomach lurches, not so pleasant this time, as the thought jerks me back to reality.
“Do you really think I’m about to let you look at your phone? That’s a no-no for concussion care,” he says, wagging a finger at me, eyes dancing in mischief.
“But —“
“I’ll email your boss.”
My nether regions tighten. He’s so confident that he’s right, and that I’ll let him do what he demands. Even in my compromised position, it’s fucking hot.
And he’s right. Even though it’s not at all my usual, I find that I want to give in to him.
I wonder what else he might require from me if all options were on the table. A shiver travels like ice over my flesh at the thought.
Harry notices. “Are you okay?”
I feel my cheeks heat. “Um, yeah, it was just a chill. Now, are you going to write that email or not?”
“At your service, m’lady.” He bows his torso, and I notice the defined hills and valleys of his back muscles as his shirt stretches against them. “Your wish is my command.”
I feel a naughty smile pass over my lips. I wonder if he’s guessed that the situation is quite the reverse — I’m his to order to do his whim.
He notices my smirk. Is it just my imagination or do his eyes darken and hood in brief arousal before he clears his throat and turns his attention to my phone?
God, I hope it’s not only my imagination. Because in spite of myself, I’m finding myself quickly falling head over heels for this guy.
Harry
It’s not long before it’s Kate’s turn to be seen. The nurse comes to wheel her back to an exam room. I stand, intending to join her.
“Sorry,” the male nurse says, giving me an apologetic shrug. “Family only.”
“But —”
“Look, you’re a student right?”
I nod, sensing where this is going and hating every second of it.
“She’s staff. So family only — for everybody, but doubly so for this situation. I’m sorry.”
He doesn’t wait for me to respond but pushes Kate’s wheelchair beyond where I can see. She was silent through the exchange, but her eyes were hot on my flesh. When the nurse had turned her away from me, she’d deflated.
I pace the length of the now-empty waiting room, trying to sort out my feelings. My blood is boiling with frustration, but I understand that the clinic staff have to preserve their patients’ confidentiality — especially when it’s a student trying to bust into a teacher’s exam. I get that.
It doesn’t mean I like it.
And what did it mean, the way Kate looked at me? Her gaze was loaded, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what it means. For a second, I thought it might be that she wants me. Like, wants me.
My dick twitches at the mere thought that my attraction to Kate might not be one-sided. Down boy, I tell myself. My sex life isn’t exactly the most pressing issue here.
The receptionist leans across the check-in desk. “You’re good to go. You don’t have to wait. You can get back to class.”
I almost laugh at her suggestion before I realize that she’s serious. She probably thinks I’m just some random student who happened across Kate and helped her get to the clinic.
Which I am.
But I’m also so much more than that.
I think. I certainly want to be.
Fuck. I shake my head, confused.
One thing I’m sure of, though, is that I have no intention of leaving.
“Nah, I’ll wait.”
She arches an eyebrow at me. “Fine. Then wait. In a chair. Your pacing is making me nervous.”
“Oh.” I feel the back of my neck grow hot. “Right. Sorry.” I sit, donning what I hope is a contrite expression.
She nods at me and spins her chair back to her work, leaving me to my thoughts.
Which are a jumble. Because this whole morning seems unbelievable in its momentousness. It’s a cliché, but meeting Kate has rocked my world to its foundation. Suddenly, everything feels different.
I mean, I’m still all-in on my education. That’s never been in question, even when I was a kid growing up in the wrong part of town, living with a single mother crippled by severe depression who struggled to make ends meet. Nobody expected me to make something of myself. But now here I am, going to school on a full-ride scholarship thanks to my impeccable grades, one year away from a degree in business.
Once I graduate, I intend to put the skills I’ve been cultivating to good use in supporting my mother. She’s a great lady — it’s not her fault that she couldn’t always afford the medication that made her functional. She always put my needs over her own, even when I wished she wouldn’t. So when money was tight, she chose to feed me rather than herself — and that included forgoing paying for her meds.
It’s my turn to help her, to give back, and that’s what has kept me on track through high school and college.
But now, something about Kate has changed everything. I mean, clearly it hasn’t — but at the same time, I don’t think I can just walk away from this woman. I’m drawn to her.