Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“Do you want me to get your prescription for you?” Cody asked.
I opened my car door and practically fell inside.
Luckily, I’d found my car in the driveway this morning like Cleo had promised the night he came over after work, or I’d have been screwed. “No, I need to go for some meds anyway. The doctor said it might be the flu on top of strep since I feel so bad. Therefore, I have to run in for some liquids to tide me over. What you can do is tell your mom I won’t be there for a week or so.”
Cody snorted. “Oh, she’s going to love that. We’re already three short due to strep, and now you too. This week is going to be the bomb.”
Was that a hint of smartass I heard in my best friend’s voice?
“Sorry-Charlie,” I said as I started driving to the pharmacy. “I’ll talk to you later. It’s taking too much concentration to talk to you, drive, and not sneeze at the same time.”
“Okay, be careful. Call me if you need anything,” Cody insisted.
We hung up, and I drove to the pharmacy closest to my house where the doctor had called in my prescriptions.
I parked next to two bikes, and got out.
I’d just closed my car door when I sneezed all over the bike that was parked next to me.
“Nice,” a deep voice said from in front of me.
I didn’t react, but only because I followed up my first sneeze with fifty more. Okay, more like three, but still.
“I’m so sorry,” I coughed.
Then I opened my back door and lifted out the disinfectant wipes I kept in the car at all times.
“Here,” I said as I plucked out two wipes. “You’ll probably want to wipe that off. I have strep throat.”
It was when I was handing over the wipes that I realized it was a massive man wearing blue jeans, motorcycle boots, a black shirt, and none other than a Dixie Wardens MC leather vest.
Oh, and a scar on his neck that scared the absolute tar out of me.
That kind of wound wasn’t for the timid. This man had to have been a fighter to escape death with that kind of trauma.
I blinked at the man, and then extended the towels to him again.
He shook his head, leaned forward, grabbed them from my hand, and then went to his bike and started wiping off his bike.
“Sorry,” I said as I walked away.
“It’s okay,” he said behind me, but I didn’t turn around.
I couldn’t tell you why my heart was speeding a mile a minute.
I didn’t know that man, but just looking at his ‘cut,’ as Cleo liked to call it, made my stomach flutter with butterflies.
Cleo had come in two days ago and turned my world upside down again.
He’d made it feel like old times.
Times where I hadn’t forced him to have sex with me and ruined our relationship.
He’d been nice. He’d bought pizza. Drinks. Even a movie. One that I’d had to return, but he’d brought it nonetheless.
I’d been thinking about him non-stop since he’d left, and it was driving me bat-shit crazy.
Sighing, I went about getting the things I needed. Slowly. Mainly because it hurt to move too fast.
After picking up my prescriptions, soup, and juice, I walked out into the sunshine, stopping dead in the middle of the parking lot.
That was because Cleo was standing beside my car with his arm around a very beautiful blonde woman.
Her auburn hair was in soft waves down her back, and she was wearing some insanely tight jeans that made her ass look perfect.
I couldn’t see the rest of her since she was facing away from me, but I could clearly see the annoyed look on the face of the man whose bike I’d sneezed on.
And it was none too happy.
“Get your arm off my woman, Cleo,” the man said through clenched teeth.
I blinked, waiting to see what would happen.
“What if she prefers my body to yours? Would you let her sample this bounty if she wanted to?” Cleo asked as he let the woman go to gesture to his body.
His body was a bounty.
He had on dark washed jeans with a black t-shirt and his leather vest.
Something so simple made him look downright glorious.
The woman giggled and I wanted to smack her.
Stomping forward, I pushed behind Cleo, making him take an alarmed step forward before I unlocked my car with the key and opened the door.
“Don’t worry, Cleo. Your bounty spoils after one night. That woman looks like she wants stability, not a fuck that leaves the woman all worked up with no relief in sight. Oh, and that man looks like he could fuck better than you, anyway,” I said just before dropping down into my car and taking off.
I didn’t miss the woman’s laughter, as well as the deep-throated bellow from the other man.
Nor Cleo’s scowling face as I pulled out of the lot.
I wasn’t surprised when a deep rumble came up on my bumper and stayed there.
However, I couldn’t muster up the courage to care because my head was pounding.
By the time I pulled into my driveway, I was thanking sweet baby Jesus that I’d made it that far.
Probably shouldn’t have popped those Benadryl’s at the doctor’s office. What I should’ve done was waited until I was at home to do it.
I leaned forward and rested my head on the steering wheel, barely able to keep my eyes open.
Maybe I could just sleep in my car all night.
It was blissfully warm.
Or maybe that was my fever.
If only that horrible pounding would stop.
***
I woke up in my bed, unaware of how I’d gotten there.
I was beyond cold, and looked down to find only a sheet wrapped around my body.
I moved experimentally, blindly searching for the blanket that was usually there, but unable to find it.
Rolling over, I came up to a barrier that was blissfully warm.
“Uh-uh, Rue. You’re running a high fever. You have to stay on your side and you can only use the sheet. You’re already at 103,” a deep voice rumbled.