whatever reason he has, he won’t let you close. So, make up an excuse as to why you have to share his room, and ignore anything he says. Slip into his bed and refuse to budge. No hot-blooded guy will be able to resist the woman he’s crazy about when she’s in his bed. Trust me on this.” He winks. “Besides, he can’t exactly carry you out of it and dump you back in your own.”
Both Diego and I stare at Kasey who just laughs. “I’m telling you like it is. He relies on his wheelchair to get about, so once he’s in bed, move the chair out of his reach and join him. Pretend to sleep and see what he does.” He shrugs. “I bet he eventually gives in to you.”
“I can’t believe I’m actually contemplating this advice from you two.”
“Hey, not me. I want you to remember that this is all Kasey when it backfires.” Grumbles Diego.
“Chickenshit,” Kasey mumbles at his brother.
Diego grins. “I don’t give a shit what you think, I have a woman waiting for me in my bed. I don’t want her getting pissed when she gets wind of this idea.”
Kasey rolls his eyes. “Well, Felicity has said more than once that her brother needs a swift kick up the ass, so having Violet in his bed will be one.” Kasey holds my gaze. “Just don’t give in to his cranky ass okay?”
I nod.
“That ‘a girl.” Kasey shoves me softly out of the truck and they both watch me enter the quiet, dark house.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Nothing if you do just that…nothing.
5
Blake
Hearing the door shut behind Violet, I pretend to be asleep on the sofa, so that she doesn’t think I’ve waited up for her, which of course, I have. I’m an idiot for letting her go out with someone else when all I really want is for her to stay here with me. That isn’t going to happen though. I have nothing to offer her, where Deacon has everything.
Rubbing the pain where my heart is, I snap my eyes open and find Violet leaning over the back of the sofa. “Why are you sleeping on the sofa?” she asks the question, but her eyes caress over the length of me as I stay sprawled out.
I clear my throat and notice the pink brightening her cheeks, so I grin. She may have been out with another man, but it’s me who makes her blush. I frown because that isn’t what I want. I don’t want her to keep looking at me in that way, when I can’t have her.
Instead of answering her question, I narrow my gaze and ask, “Why did I hear Kasey’s truck outside?”
She averts her gaze and on a heavy sigh drops onto the coffee table directly in front of me. “I called Kasey to come get me.” She shrugs. “The date didn’t go as planned and I wanted to leave.” She won’t meet my gaze, so I struggle into a sitting position and gently take her jaw into my hand, turning her face so that she has to look at me.
“What did that bastard do?” I growl.
Her eyes fill with tears. “He scared me,” she admits. “He suddenly, out of nowhere, became possessive, and he wouldn’t let me leave.” Her hand rubs absentmindedly at her arm, which is when I notice the bruising.
“He touched you?” My blood boils at the thought that I’d sent her out with that asshole because of my own stubbornness. “This is my fault.”
“No,” she breathes the word, moving closer. So close. Her small hands grab my face as she forces me to look at her. “You did not have anything to do with what happened. I wanted to leave, and he wouldn’t let me, so he grabbed my arm and shoved me back into the seat. That’s when Kasey and Diego arrived. I called them when I went to the restroom.”
I pull her closer and rest my forehead against hers. “Why didn’t you call me?”
She stays silent and then it hits me. “You didn’t call me because I’m a cripple and not much good to you.” I give a bitter laugh as her eyes fill with tears.
“That’s unfair,” she whispers. “All I could think about was getting home to you.”
“But you didn’t call me,” I whisper.
She stands and moves away from my touch. “I didn’t call you because…” Her voice catches on a sob. “Because you’re the one I wanted to see coming through those doors to take me away from there,” she cries, “but you’ve made it clear that you don’t want me.”
“Look at me,” I shout. “I’m useless to anyone in this chair. I can’t give you a life like you deserve Violet.” I turn my head away, hoping she doesn’t see the tears hovering in my eyes. “You need a man who you can call when you need saving, not a man stuck in a chair.”
Sadly, she says, “You don’t know what I want out of life because you’ve never asked. You’ve only ever assumed.”
I watch as she slowly retreats into herself and disappears along the hallway to her room. Blinking back my own anguish, I slowly inhale and close my eyes. My fingers squeeze the bridge of my nose, determined to not let my tears of frustration and pain fall. They won’t do me any good. Nor Violet.