Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Who knew he could turn into such a mother hen?
“Um, well, I don’t take painkillers,” she told him without thought.
“What? You don’t take painkillers? Are you allergic?”
“Um, no.” Shoot. That likely would have been the easiest excuse to use. Although it might have led to questions that she couldn’t answer with confidence. “I just don’t like them.”
“You don’t like painkillers?” he repeated.
“Well, it’s not that I don’t like them. It’s just . . . well, I . . . ”
Lord. How did she tell him this? It was embarrassing. She hadn’t been able to tell Roman the other day, instead she’d just hidden the pills in her pocket while his back was turned.
“What is it?”
“I just don’t like pills.”
There. She’d said it. This was ridiculous. A grown woman who couldn’t swallow pills.
Utterly humiliating.
“You don’t like pills,” he repeated, sounding dumbfounded.
“No. I have trouble swallowing them. My, uh, my parents didn’t often give me painkillers. They didn’t really believe in them.”
“They didn’t believe in them?”
“How long are you going to keep repeating what I say?” she asked.
“I suppose until what you say starts making sense,” he muttered. “What kind of parents wouldn’t give you painkillers?”
“They did. I think they just didn’t want me to get used to them or something,” she said.
Kind of a lie.
“And I never got used to swallowing pills, I guess. I just hate the feel of it going down my throat.”
“Shit. Didn’t you have any broken bones? Sprains? Muscle pain? What did you take? Liquid painkillers?”
“Um. Well, yes.” When she was given painkillers at all. And then sometimes, she was given pills and told that if the pain was bad enough then she’d just swallow them.
That hadn’t helped her pill phobia at all.
Yes, she was calling it a phobia.
She didn’t want to tell him that she’d suffered through a number of injuries without any sort of pain relief.
When her period had come, things had been brutal.
Thankfully, she’d trained so hard and lost so much weight that her periods had kind of disappeared anyway and when they did come, they were light and sporadic.
She hated to think what those years had done to her. It can’t have been healthy. She had an implant, but it hadn’t really helped make things more regular.
“I don’t think we have any liquid painkiller. I will send for some.”
Send for some? What did he mean?
“No, don’t do that,” she told him.
That seemed like it would take too long anyway. She intended to be up and moving in half an hour.
He shook out a pill onto his hand. “It is up to you, but I do not like seeing you in pain.”
That was kind of sweet.
She stared from the pill to him.
“If you cannot take it, then it doesn’t matter,” he told her. “We could try crushing it up and putting it in some yogurt.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Yuck. I’d still know it was there.”
“All right, that’s out, then. On to plan C.”
“You won’t send for liquid painkiller, right?” she asked to be sure.
“I’m sending for it whether you take the pill now or not.” He drew out his phone and typed something. “There. Done.”
“How could you do that so quickly?” she exclaimed, sitting up.
He pressed her so she lay back down. She rolled her eyes at him.
“Did you just roll your eyes at me?” he grumbled.
“What? Who? Me?” She gave him an innocent look.
He grunted with a small laugh, and she found herself grinning.
“Brat. You can do that with me. I find your sassiness cute. I bet you’re not like that with Roman.”
No, she wasn’t.
She and Roman had a different sort of relationship. You might think it was more of a friendship if it wasn’t for how much she was attracted to him.
And she knew he was attracted to her as well. She’d caught sight of his erection as they’d read books together.
“But you don’t want to do that with Salem.”
Surprise filled her. “Really?”
Salem was always so calm and reasonable. The voice of reason in this household. It was easy to see that he was the glue that held these guys together.
He didn’t react without thought.
“He wouldn’t put up with that sort of sassiness. He likes obedience from his subs.”
Hmm. She could see that. But she wasn’t sure how good she was at being obedient.
Then again, she wasn’t in a relationship with Salem. She wasn’t his sub.
“I’m not his sub.”
“No, I guess you’re not. But maybe in the future you’ll remember what I said. Or not. Depends how much you like being spanked. Although I think he’s more into orgasm denial for a punishment. Might depend on the circumstances.”
She knew that he was speaking English, but it all sounded like jibberty-jabberty to her. Orgasm denial? Spankings? Circumstances? What the heck did that mean? What circumstances was he talking about?
“I don’t know what you are saying.”