Better Left Unsaid: by Jeannie Raney by Jeannie Raney

Author:Jeannie Raney [Raney, Jeannie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-29T23:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Sixteen: Bite

“You probably shouldn’t take a shower because of the stitches, but… I could help you clean up if you want?” I swear the click of the door shutting echoes through the room as I turn to face him, and it is only… us. He closes the space between us before I can get a grip, and kisses my forehead gently before limping into the bathroom, gripping the doorframe on his way in, making the veins in his arm pop… Why could I think of nothing but those arms wrapped around me? This isn’t like you…

“I think I would like that,” he calls, checking over his shoulder and smirking slightly. I grab a towel and a few washcloths from the dresser and meet him in the bathroom. As I help him onto the ledge of the tub and fill it slightly with warm, soapy water, I feel his gaze on me the whole time. Then he sits on the edge of the tub beside me, so close the hairs on his leg tickle my own thigh.

Gently picking up his hand, I dip the cloth in the water and start by carefully, but with some elbow grease, scrubbing the grime and blackened blood from the creases between his fingers and the ridges of his swollen knuckles. None of the blood here is his. Good. Not good—that means he’s too used to hitting things, or his knuckles would have split.

“You’re too nice, Juniper.” He’s far away, somewhere that isn’t here, now.

“Really? I guess I just got tired of being stuck up all the time.” How do I even begin to elaborate something like that?

“I know how that feels.”

I remember the picture I saw of him on Facebook. “You said she left you for a friend…” He doesn’t move or acknowledge, so I add, “Your wife—”

“Ex- wife. Yes, and no, I didn’t suspect anything, but she was always… distant. She threatened to take… something from me if I didn’t move, so I did. And she dangled it above me.”

“Is her name Tess?” Mercer pulls his hand away and stares me down like I just smacked him over the head with a bat…

“How do you know that name?” No… I can’t stand this side of him.

“You said it in your sleep, in the rocking chair…”

“Tess is the complication, Juniper. And I literally cannot say more than that, so please… Please don’t ask and make me say nothing, or worse… force me to lie. Because I will not jeopardize what I’m fighting for.” He sets his hand back on my thigh, but maintains the distance he put between us in that split second… Brick by brick, the wall shall rebuild.

“Fine… Skull and cross bones?” I mumble and he, to my surprise, laughs… an actual laugh.

“You’re too fucking nosy for your own good, you know?” Tapping my nose with a freshly-scrubbed finger, he grabs the second cloth from the floor where I dropped everything and starts wiping his face, while allowing me to do his hands and around the stitches, though not without some whining.

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