Fuck. Me!
With her eye watering to the point that she now had tears rolling down her face, Sadie jumped and looked around me, like she was trying to look at the door. “Who’s that?”
Someone who’s about to die.
Stalking over to where my sweats were lying in a heap on the ground, I pulled them on and picked up my hoodie for her to wear. The loud thuds were still coming from the door as I pulled it over her head and tilted it back so I could look at her eye again. Maybe I should take her to the doctor or call Parker and get him to look at her here?
Decision made, I lowered my head and gently kissed her. “I’ll go find out. You pull some more clothes on, baby.”
Buzzed—amazing how stabbing someone in the eye with your cock could sober you up—or not, the fact there was a perverted psycho who’d once been interested in Sadie loose in the world now hadn’t skipped my mind. She was smaller than me, and the amount of alcohol she’d drunk would affect her differently. I didn’t want her to have to fight to defend herself when I could do it. And she was turned on and mostly naked, so that was another fuck no. I was her wall of safety always, and nothing was getting past me.
Well, that was until I opened the door, then I realized four people were getting past me—her dad, her grandmother, Gramps, and Grams.
“Oh, so you’re alive then,” Grams snarled, kicking me in the shin as she passed by. “Nice bruises, here’s another.”
“Ever heard of saying hello?” I snapped, eyeing the boots she had on her feet. “Are those steel-toed Doc Martens?” Pink or not, they were savage when they connected with you.
Sighing, Gramps followed behind her, shooting me a smirk. MeeMee gave me a similar expression because she knew I’d been staying here, but Ned stopped in front of me and glared.
“Where’s my daughter?”
I didn’t get to answer because MeeMee growled, “Who’s been drinking my whisky?”
Figuring the answer was easy enough for both of them, I went with what I figured was a wise offer. “Would you like me to get you a glass?”
“Oh, would you?” she asked, shooting me a bright smile over her shoulder. “And add some ice to it and bring the ginger ale, too.”
Rubbing my face with both hands, I shut the door and went to do as she’d asked. “Anyone else want one?”
“Or I’ve got proper tea, cold tea, Coke, coffee,” Sadie offered as she walked into the room, her eyebrows raising when she saw her dad. “And to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”
“I went to see you at work, but they said you weren’t working tonight and you’d called in. We just wanted to make sure you were okay and to see if you needed anything.”
I was just coming back with the glass and shit MeeMee had asked for when Grams gasped. “Oh my god, honey, your poor eye. No wonder you called in.”
Ned was out of his seat in an instant to get a closer look. Part of me was thinking how much he doted on Sadie and how it must’ve been hell leaving her in England and not being able to see her every day. The other part of me was doing everything it could to not wince about how he was looking at his daughter’s eye, which was pink because I’d assaulted it with my dick.
“Shit, pink eye. Have you got anything for it?”
Sadie choked slightly and tried to pull her head away. “Yeah, I’ve got some drops. It’s not that bad.”
“Pink eye is pink eye, sweetheart. It’s contagious and makes you miserable.” Then, he looked at me over his shoulder and said grimly, “You should be careful you don’t get it in your eye, too.”
Figuring nodding was better than telling him the truth and how impossible that would be, I repeated the offer for drinks, but they wanted ‘real tea’ so Sadie jumped up to get it. It looked like I was going to have to learn to make it because if she was ever sick or asked me to get one for her, I wanted to make it correctly. So, I followed behind her and watched over her shoulder as she filled the plug-in kettle, turned it on, and pulled down a box from the cupboard—the bottom of it, where she could reach.
“Show me how to make tea the way you like it.”
She’d been separating tea bags and dropping them into mugs, but hearing this, she looked up at me questioningly. “Why?”
Leaning a hip against the counter, I picked up the box, read the front, and then sniffed it. Earl Grey didn’t smell so bad, but smells could be deceiving.
“Because I want to be able to make it perfectly for you. Not everyone likes their coffee the same way, and usually the amount of milk or sugar is the key element, so tea’s probably the same. Can’t say for sure ‘cos I’ve never had it hot, but it stands to reason you’ve got a certain way you like it.”
I almost dropped the box when she threw her arms around me but managed to brace at the last second. “You can’t be nice to me, Elijah. I’ll do something stupid like cry or throw my knickers at you.”
I didn’t realize it, but her dad had been watching us, and when I threw my head back and burst out laughing, wrapping my arms around her at the same time, it went a long way to winning his trust with his daughter.
Why? Well, Sadie didn’t hug or touch people she didn’t trust. I knew that and had done everything to get her to relax around me from the moment I met her. What I didn’t realize was that he’d also seen the shadows in my eyes, and seeing them disappear as I laughed… Ned knew that like had not only attracted like, but it’d brought light back into the shadows for both of them.
I just wish someone had pointed that out to me.
Chapter Six
Elijah
Two hours later…
MeeMee was a whisky savage. She’d dropped the ginger ale an hour ago, moving on to drinking straight whisky, and had pulled out a secret stash from the very top of the cupboard, insisting that the two of us join her for one. One to me was a small amount in a glass, but this wasn’t good enough for her, so she’d filled the glass until there was only half an inch of space at the top of it.
Add this onto the amount we’d drunk earlier and the half a glass we’d added afterward, and it’s fair to say we were wasted.
“I think that last one was too much,” Sadie slurred, trying to get up off the couch. “We should sleep.”
It felt like the blink I’d just taken had lasted forever, and when I opened my eyes, there was a hand in my face.
“Wasat?”
Looking at what I was pointing at, her eyebrows—what I now knew were her eyebrows—raised. “S’my hand.”
Grabbing it, I tugged at it to see if it would move. When she squealed and landed on my lap, I wrapped my arms around her and snuggled in. “You’re comfortable.”
Patting the top of my head like I was a dog, she pointed out, “You’re sleeping on my boobies.”
“You’re petting me like a dog.” For some reason, this was fucking hilarious, so I buried my face in the space between the pillows under my head and snorted laughing.
“My cat hasn’t got any hair, it’s nice to switch it up sometimes.”
Lifting my head to say something, I misjudged how close we were and stopped when my lips grazed against hers. The good Elijah said not to do it, and it was wrong for some reason. The bad Elijah said to absolutely do it, and it was the best idea ever.