Page 49 of Mending Me

“Right now? Just three. I usually have four or five going though,” I confessed, shrugging my shoulders into my ears.

“Damn, blondie, you never cease to amaze me,” he marveled, shaking his head at me. Then, he opened the book and started to read.

I loved listening to him pronounce each word with care and laughed when he tried to do voices for the characters. As I soaked in the hot water, allowing myself to relax and destress, I watched as he turned the pages of my book and read to me. The story sounded so much better coming from his lips, especially when we got to a spicy part of the book. Since I had read hundreds of romance books, I knew when the story was about to get risqué and I waited with excitement to see how he would handle it.

“He bent down and,” he paused and brought the book closer to his nose and his eyes went wide as he read the next part in his head. He lifted his eyes to me where I sat in the tub, watching him with anticipation. “Is this what women want? For us to do….this?”

“I don’t know what he’s doing, my narrator has stopped narrating,” I teased, giving him a sly grin. He took a sharp inhale and blew it out between pursed lips. He almost looked uncomfortable and I half expected him to tell me the reading was over, but instead, he leaned over, placed his elbows on his knees, and started reading again. Reading these scenes on your own was never a bad time, but holy shit listening to a hot Latinoman read them to you was unlike anything else. As I sat in the tub, listening to him read one spicy sentence after the next, I could feel the heat inside of me starting to rise.

“Damn,” he said after finishing the chapter and clearing his throat, “now I know why girls read those things.” I couldn’t help but laugh because he wasn’t wrong.

“They’re not a bad time, are they?” I joked, looking up at him as he continued to sit, leaning over on his knees.

“No, they are not. You ready to get out or do you wanna soak some more?”

“Let me wash my hair really quick and then I’ll get out.”

“Okay, I’m going to go get some water while you do that, I’ll be back.” He gave me a wink and stood from his chair, quickly turning away from me when he did. As he passed the mirror I noticed why he had been sitting hunched over himself as he read. The large bulge in his pants was undeniable. I brought my hand to my mouth to stifle my laughs until he was gone and quickly washed my hair under the faucet. A few minutes later, he returned more relaxed than he had left. “Where do you keep your towels?”

“Under the sink,” I explained, pointing to the cabinet he could find them in. He pulled one out, unfolded it, and held it up for me. I stood from the bath and let him wrap the towel around me before carefully stepping out. As I tied the towel around me, he leaned over the tub to pull the plug to let the water drain out. I grabbed another towel and wrapped it around my head. He stood behind me like a bodyguard and watched me in the mirror as I washed my face and put on moisturizer. I then let my hair down and grabbed my brush.

“Can I do that?” he asked, staring at the brush that was in my hand.

“You,” I paused for a beat, looking down at my brush and then back to him, “you wanna brush my hair?”

“If that’s okay. I love your hair, it’s one of the first things I noticed about you when I saw you at the gym that morning.” My heart started to melt as I gazed at him in the mirror before turning to hand him my brush.

“Sure, you can brush my hair, but please be gentle. I have a very sensitive head.”

“I promise to be gentle.”

And he was.

He stood behind me and ran the brush from the crown of my head all the way down the end of my blonde locks. I watched him as he carefully ran the brush through my hair, his eyes locked on my head with focus and attention. As I stared at him in the mirror, watching him take care of me and knowing he was doing it because I’d had a bad day, I could feel something growing in my belly. A feeling I hadn’t ever felt before for another man but one I had read about time and time again. The feeling they write songs about and make movies about. The feeling you knew instinctively, because it’s a feeling we all long for until we have it. The feeling I never felt worthy of having after being attacked two years ago because I felt so ruined and broken.

My breath caught in my throat when our eyes locked in the mirror and he gave me the big goofy smile I had come to long for, and I knew.

I was falling in love with Hank Martínez.

1 beautiful

2 Beautiful

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28

HANK

If I could stop time whenever I wanted, I would push the button right now to freeze in this moment with her forever.

She was standing in front of me, wrapped in a towel, and watching me in the mirror as I pulled the brush from the top of her head down to her shoulders with as much care as I could. I never had sisters growing up, so this wasn’t something I’d ever done before. I’m not sure what prompted me to ask to brush her hair, but when she had released it from the towel she had wrapped around it, I knew I wanted to. As I brushed through her damp hair as gently as I could since she had told me she had a sensitive head, I felt her eyes studying me in the mirror. I rested my hand on her waist to hold her still, and she laid her hand over mine. After I’d finished brushing, I leaned over and kissed the top of her shoulder before handing the brush back to her.

Once she was dressed in her sleep shorts and an oversized shirt, I moved towards the front door to head home.

“Where are you going?” she asked in a small voice, standing in the doorway of her bedroom with wide, longing eyes.

“I was going to head home so you could get some rest.” I took a few steps closer to her again and brought my hands to her elbows as she grabbed onto my shirt.

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