Jerk It (Madd CrossFit 2)

We passed by the main hospital, and I glared at it as I passed, because tomorrow I would have to return to work, and that sounded like the worst thing in the world to me.

The more I worked, the less time I had to spend with Murphy.

And, apparently, I had a lot less than I’d planned to have after last night.

My worries for what was wrong with him—I thought something small was wrong. Not this—had seriously gone way past the stratosphere of possibility.

And now I didn’t know what to think. What to say. What to do.

But I knew what I wanted.

Him. For as long as I had left.

“Do…do you want to stay at my place?” I asked quietly. “Do you want to come stay with me and Vlad? You could…”

“I’ll stay the night,” he offered. “From there, you might decide that I’m too loud. Or that I’m bothering you.”

I snorted. “I’ve wanted you around for a long time, Alessio.”

His eyes were hot when they turned to me. “There was a reason I wanted you to stay away.”

I didn’t say anything more to him until we pulled up in front of his house and got out.

CHAPTER 14

Back & Body hurts.

-Coffee Cup

MURPHY

“I kind of hate you for almost taking this decision away from me,” she muttered darkly.

I didn’t know what to say to that at first.

Instead, we got out of the car at my house, and I walked inside, leaving the door open for her to trail behind me like I knew she was going to do.

“Where are your dogs?” she asked curiously, her eyes taking in the half-finished mansion.

I scratched my belly as I walked into my bedroom. “They stay at the shop. I have the dude next door let them out before he leaves for the night, and when he gets back in the morning.”

“The baker?” she asked.

“That’s him,” I confirmed. “We actually kind of share them. Before I got the shop, the baker was the one feeding them.”

She made an understanding sound as she followed me to my room.

I reached into my closet and pulled down my spare gym duffle bag and tossed it on the bed before heading to my drawers and grabbing enough underwear to last me a week, not just a day.

Then I grabbed just as many shorts and t-shirts before finding some socks and my toiletries.

It was only after the entire bag was packed that I turned to see her standing in the door way staring at me like I never wanted her to look at me.

The moment she caught my eyes, I knew she wasn’t doing good.

I opened my arms, feeling my heart in my throat, and she ran into them as if the world was weighing down on her shoulders.

And maybe they were.

Her in my arms, her tears soaking my shirt, was the entire reason that I didn’t want her to know.

I didn’t want her to have this very feeling she was feeling right then.

I wanted her blissfully ignorant.

If I could get her to continue hating me, then maybe she wouldn’t totally break when I died.

Except, with one look at the woman currently looking at me like she was ready to do battle—with me—I knew that wasn’t going to work.

She would fight tooth and nail to be here with me until she couldn’t anymore.

“Do you want your pillow?” she asked, fisting her hand in the soft fabric.

I thought about it for a moment.

I did like my pillow. But I’d slept just fine last night with Mavis’s.

Before I could answer, however, she moved away from me, picked it up and tucked it underneath her arm.

I looked at her then, really looked at her, and felt my heart sink down into my belly.

She looked…lost.

I never wanted to see that look on her face ever again.

I finished zipping up my bag, then I left it where it was at on the end of the bed before reaching for her.

She tried to evade my touch, but I moved forward until I could catch her solidly around the waist. The moment I had her in my arms, she truly started to struggle.

“Let me go!” she cried.

I thought about doing as she asked for all of two seconds before slamming my mouth down onto hers.

She gasped in outrage, and I took advantage of her open mouth by sweeping my tongue inside, blistering her with a searing kiss that felt like everything to me and more.

When I finally pulled back, it wasn’t just my failing heart that made me pant—it was the need that I felt coursing through my body at the feel of her body pressed so close.

I pressed my hardened cock into the side of her hip as I said, “I’m sorry I told you.”

She reared back like I’d slapped her.

“What?” she gasped.

I smoothed my hand down her throat.