Page 23 of Reacher
I lowered the phone after the call ended, and stared at the floor for a moment while my mind raced along with my heart. Poor Ice.
I know that some would say addiction is self-inflicted, and maybe it started that way, but once it takes hold, it’s like a constant battle. An illness. And we’d all enabled it. We’d allowed it. We hadn’t fought hard enough to keep him from that black hole, and now he was paying the price. We failed him.
“Reacher?” I felt my phone being moved from my hand, and then Alicia climbed onto my lap, straddling me, her arms around my neck. I let her comfort me, because my mind was spinning, and I needed something. Maybe I needed exactly this.Her.
We sat like that for a minute or two, and then she sat back up, so she could look at me.
“What happened with Ice?”
I stroked her hair from her cheek, feasting my eyes on her. How was this beautiful woman with me right now? What had I done at some point to deserve her?
“He’s detoxing, so they want to keep him under for the worst of it. It’s safer for him, or apparently less hard on him. I don’t know. My options were that or let him wake up, and suffer every hellish moment of withdrawal, and risk his recovery from his injuries.”
“And you agreed to keep him under for it? That’s the right call, Reacher. Easier on him should always be the right call.”
She cupped my face in her hands.
“How can I help, Reacher? Tell me what I can do.”
Seven
Hewasamess.He knew it was the right thing to do, but he was blaming himself for something. Maybe for not seeing how serious things were with Ice, I wasn’t sure.
I climbed up from his lap, and reached for his hand, leading him to the bed.
“Anything you want, Reacher. Let me help you relax.”
He groaned, rubbing his face, pressing at those studs over his eye. It had to hurt every time he did it.
“Why do you do that?” I asked, reaching up to pull his hand away.
He blinked at me, like he couldn’t focus on my words.
“What?”
“You poke at those piercings a lot.”
“Oh. It helps me clear my head. I guess the uh… it’s not comfortable to press on them. It distracts me.”
I reached up and pushed one half of his cut aside, flicking his nipple through the thin t-shirt he wore. He flinched, and backed up, catching my wrist.
“What the fuck, Ally?”
I smirked, as more of his awareness returned to him.
“You said you like pain. It helps you think.”
“That’s not what I fucking said at all.”
He didn’t seem to see that it had worked anyway.
“I’ll let you get your own back,” I offered, standing before him, and sliding his cut over his arms, carefully placing it on the bed.
He gripped my hair in one fist.
“What are you up to, woman?” I lifted off the t-shirt of his that I wore, leaving me in just a pair of lacy underwear.
His eyes travelled over me, taking in every bare inch of skin. I loved how it felt to have his eyes on me, crawling over me, almost like a physical touch. It made me hotter, wetter, more desperate to feel him on me, and in me. Surrounding me.
