Page 18 of Only You

No wonder the women go crazy when he’s wearing that lab coat. Shit!

He was upping the ante on why I would fight off every skank who even thought she would get close to him. The old Tayla was gone; Brice was mine. With my eyes back on him, he peeled back my bandages individually. There were two. One wrapped around my right side, and the other around my lower left. He carefully inspected both, cleaned, and redressed them.

“Let me know if he gets too heavy, Tay. Your wounds look good. You’re going to have some scarring. I did everything I could to minimize it. You scared me, Tay. Baby, I thought I had lost you,” he whispered again. He removed my IV and bandaged the spot. Then he moved down, pushing my legs open. It was then that I realized I was wearing a catheter. I wanted to crawl into myself.

God, why are you letting this fine ass man…I’m sorry, God, fine man, see me like this?

When I imagined Brice back between my legs, it certainly wasn’t to pull out a damn catheter.

Damn you, Nina!

“When I slide this out, you're going to feel some discomfort,” he said. When he started the process, I belted out my inner dialogue.

“Ahhh. Mother-fu…Your ass better be dead in a ditch somewhere!” It was my message to Nina. When he was done, I quickly snapped my leg shut. Not only was I pissed, but a barrage of other emotions were also going through my mind. The first was that Brice would never care or love me like I had always loved him. He didn’t so much as give my body a second glance, and now it was marred with bullet holes. I was also embarrassed because I’d let my mind take me to this place where we were a happy family, but Brice was only doing his job. He still wasn’t interested in me that way. When he returned to the room, he took Bryson from my arms.

“Tay, I need you to get up and walk around. You’ve been down for a few days.”

“How long?”

“Six days.” It was then that I began to look around as I sat up. It hurt, but I wasn’t a punk, so I winced my way to the edge of the bed, where I placed my feet on the ground. I recognized the room as the guest bedroom I’d stayed in last year when I visited Jourdan. However, Brice had changed the décor. The room now held a modern matte black-painted bedroom set. The dresser and chest held a beautiful medium brown walnut stain at the base. It was nice, but lacking a woman’s touch. It looked like a bachelorpad, and this was just the guest bedroom. I was afraid of what the rest of the house looked like.

“You need me!” I exclaimed as Brice handed me a robe and helped me put it on. I was referencing the décor, but Brice had taken it another way.

“I know. Be careful when you stand because you’ll feel weak,” he casually said. Then he reached out his hand to help me stand, but I smacked it away.

Hmph! I’m the Lynx.Tay, you got this!

I didn’t have shit because as soon as I stood, my wobbly legs gave way beneath me, and I tumbled back onto the bed.

“Fuck, Tay. Why do you always have to be so damn hard-headed?” He said as he helped me stand.

“Come on, it’s time for him to eat, and you need to eat something small too, but I mostly just want you to get some fluids down.”

“Thank you, Brice. You could have let me die,” I said. He ignored my declaration momentarily, leaning forward to kiss my forehead. Instead of comforting me, like it had when I was out of it, it pissed me off.

“Brice, we need to talk,” I said as I defiantly gathered my strength and walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth.

Today, he was going to listen to me.

CHAPTER 12

Brice

Ilay Bryson on my chest, following his mother into the kitchen. I couldn’t help but stare at her ass. It took everything in me not to get hard when her nipples hardened under my touch. I listened to her heart rate increase each time I shifted my hand on her soft skin. I closed my eyes and bit my lip until I tasted blood because it wasn’t the right time. Nothing that I was doing was meant to be sexual, but that was precisely how Bryson’s ass had gotten here. A drunk mind speaks sober thoughts, and those thoughts, even then, told me that Tayla’s ass was mine and always had been.

After the initial news and shock that I was a father, I haven’t let him out of my sight since. I wasn’t even mad that I didn’t know because the situation was complicated. I missed her pregnancy, but I was glad I was here now. He was now four months old and weighed sixteen pounds. He was a long baby, bound to be tall because I was six-five, and his mother was five feet ten. We werein a fucked up place right now, but these two meant everything to me.

Brice, we need to talk.

I knew we were about to finally have the conversation we should have had a year ago. This time, I was ready. I would lay everything on the table because we’d already lost too much time. I let everything I wanted to say swirl around in my head as she gingerly sat on the stool and rested her elbows on the island. The sight of her discomfort was refreezing the walls that she’d slowly thawed. I’d decided that Nina and whoever else decided to roll with her would see my operating table. I looked back at her and saw her looking around in confusion.

“Brice, why am I here with all our stuff and not in a hospital?” I sat Bryson in his bouncer and then fixed him a bottle before I began to talk.

“Two days post-op, you hadn’t come around. I drew your blood, and I found that someone was poisoning you with potassium nitrate and using morphine to keep you under. It would have killed you had I not figured it out. As far as your things. I moved everything here the day I was introduced to our son.”

“Great, so someone at the hospital is under Nina’s thumb, and your ass involuntarily moved me into your house,” she said and sighed.

“This is our house until you tell me you want something bigger. All your stuff is here, including your cars, and it’s fucking non-negotiable. I need you here with me,” I said with finality asI scooped the formula into the bottle, replaced the lid, and shook it.

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