Page 44 of With This Kiss
“You should go to sleep,” I said, noticing the bags under his eyes. He was tired, no matter what he said.
He nodded. “Good night, Jamie.”
“Good night.”
He turned and made a move to stand when I stopped him. “Wait. What… what happened to your back?”
Oh fuck, but what really happened? His back was marked with bruises and wounds that were obviously new.
It looked like…
“Did someone take a whip to you?”
And more importantly, who would have been capable of that? It wasn’t like Reign was the kind of man to just stand there and let other people abuse him.
Why the hell didn’t he fight back?
I pressed my hand against a particularly nasty mark on his shoulder blade. His skin was warm, and he tensed a little from my touch. It was going to leave a nasty-looking scar.
“That’s not important,” he said lightly.
“Not important? Have you seen it? Fuck, I can take a picture and show you. This isn’t something to be taken lightly.”
He reached back and grabbed my hand, turning back to me once more. I didn’t pull away.
“I’m fine.”
“What happened?”
He let out a small sigh. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
I pressed my lips together in a tight line. Should I push him? I didn’t think we had the kind of relationship where I could push his boundaries, but this…
This wasn’t fucking normal.
And the only reason he was even acting like this in the first place—how someone was even strong enough,powerfulenough to hurt him—only left two options.
His father or his brother did this.
But why?
I took a deep breath. “Then at least let me put some ointment on it so you don’t end up getting an infection and die.”
He gave me that cocky half smile of his. “I’m not going to die. Do you really think I’m that easy to kill?”
No, I didn’t think that. But he wasn’t immune to infection.
And the only reason I cared, why I didn’t want him to get an infection, was because it would mess up my entire plan.
That was all there was to it.
That was the only reason.
At least, that was what I told myself.
I was a dirty little liar.
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