“Red, you’re here,” he whispers again and his face twists before the morphine drags him back under.
I breathe deeply to hold back my sobs. I spend the day content to stroke his fingers and brush mine through his hair as machines chirp and cry around us.
I spend two days sitting with Wolf. Stroking his hands and playing with his hair. Sometimes he opens his eyes long enough to smile and mumble. He calls my name looking dopey and heavy-lidded.
Hunter and I stand idly by the bed, things between us on ice until Wolf gets out. The doctor comes in and tells us they are planning on cutting down on his morphine so they can get him out of the ICU.
When the doctor leaves, I’m so relieved I go to the cafeteria and cry into my coffee.
That afternoon they move him to another room. When I step inside, he’s sitting upright. His bristled jaw clenched tight. I freeze at the door when his gaze finds mine and his lips tug upwards.
“Red.” The smile doesn’t touch his eyes.
I erase the distance between us and reach for him then stop. When he smiles, I reach for his hand and lace my fingers through his. “I’m so sorry Shaw, I didn’t know.”
His eyes grow wide and his face colours in surprise, “Fuck Red, she almost killed you. Nothing here is your fault.”
“I let her in.” My eyes fall away.
“Red, look at me,” he holds my gaze, and pushes up in the bed so our eyes can be level. His jaw clamps and I see the pain and tension in his neck and shoulders, “what happened with Jenny is not your fault, it’s mine. I should have never let things get as far as they did.”
“Shaw—”
“She could have hurt you.”
“She hurt you instead.”
He sucks in a pained breath, “I would have never been able to live with myself if anything happened to you.”
I screw my eyes closed, my heart finding a way to beat through the pain, “I’m sorry.”
“Red.”
“I believed you.”
Understanding colours his face, and a smile tugs at his lips.
“I believed her. I believed that a leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
“But I’m not a leopard Red, I’m a Wolf.” He gives me his slickest grin, and my stomach rolls as he grabs my wrist.
“She was the reason you wanted to move out?”
His head cocks a little, “You heard us?”
“Yes.” Heat singes my cheeks.
“And that’s why you were so angry?”
I nod, almost embarrassed.
“I’ve never been anything other than me when I’ve been with you. I’ve always told you the truth, and I always will. I should have told you about Jenny.”
“But you didn't.”
He sighs and lets his head fall into his pillow, “I thought I was protecting you.”
“And Hunter?”
“What about Hunter?”
“He told me everything.”
“He told you?” He sounds surprised.
I nod and wait for more.
The muscles of his jaw jump around before he starts speaking, “He’s your big brother, my friend… he drew a line, he was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
“From me,” he sighs.
“I’m so sick of the two of you thinking I need to be protected, I’m a big girl, I can make my own choices, my own damn mistakes.”
He grimaces before he adds, “You have to understand, he was also protecting himself.”
“Himself?”
He nods, “If we dated, and I hurt you in anyway, if we ever broke up, it would be the end of our friendship. We’re brothers. It would be like losing a limb, someone like Hunter doesn’t come around every day. He thought he was doing what’s right for everyone.”
“He never asked what I wanted.”
“I don’t think it mattered. Maybe you forget, but he’s lost just as much as you and he made a lot of sacrifices.” His face is stern as he speaks, “I guess losing me wasn’t one he was willing to make.” He wiggles his eyebrows letting the tension move out of his face.
His words soak into me and of the first time I can see my brother’s perspective. Not that I feel like he had any right to interfere.
“I guess that’s fair enough.”
“Yeah. So you’ll forgive him?”
“Maybe.”
“And me?”
“Well, you’ve already been shot, so…”
He grins his beautiful smile and draws me closer.
I swipe away a strand of hair from his face and gaze into his eyes, “I don’t like being lied to.”
“I’ve never lied.”
“Omission is just as bad.”
He nods thinking, “Well, there has been this one thing I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time.”
“Yeah?” I smile a little as his voice turns huskier and darker.
He gestures for me to get closer.
I move in, and his hand plunges into my hair, drawing me even closer till our breaths mingle. His lips brush mine, but before he says anything more, the door opens and a nurse walks into the room followed by Hunter. He looks her up and down, and my stomach twists in disgust.
“Seems like someone is feeling better,” the nurse chirps and gives me a cold look.
What the hell is her problem?
“And yet he’s still as ugly as he was when you brought him in,” Hunter jabs at Wolf, who rolls his eyes.
“You’re just jealous cause I’m prettier than you.”
“Is that what you keep telling yourself?”
“I don’t have to with—” his words die down and his eyes dart to me then to Hunter, who chuckles like an idiot.
The nurse plays around with his chart, adjusts a few tubes and touches Wolf more than I think is necessary. I see the way she looks at him, like she wants to give him a fucking sponge bath.
“Everything looks good,” she chirps and gives him her best ‘I would sit on your face if your girlfriend wasn’t in the room,’ look.
I wonder where they keep the scalpels. If I stab her, at least she’ll be able to get immediate medical help.
I watch her leave. Hunter’s gaze follows her, and a smirk crosses his face before he grabs Wolf’s chart and pretends like he has any idea what’s written on it. “You got a pen?” he turns to me.”
“No, why?”
“Thought I’d ask for the results of his proctology exam, see if they found his head up there.”
“You’re so lame.”
“So is Wolf,” he chuckles, and I roll my eyes.
“At least mine will heal.” Wolf says as if it’s a fact.
“Pfftt,” Hunter shakes his head, before his eyes zero on the two of us. “So, you two?” His demeanour suddenly changes as he and Wolf exchange and long look that I know means they will have some sort of conversation later on.
“None of your business—”
“—Yes.”
We say at the same time, and my eyes flick to Wolf, who smiles like he’s won some kind of prize.
Hunter nods and says nothing else for a beat, “I have to go find your nurse, there’s something in my pants I need her to look at.”
Wolf chuckles and I groan, “She’ll need a microscope for that sort of exam.”
“It’s ok, it will be quick.”
“So, disappointment all around?”
“Why? Is she meant to enjoy it too?” Hunter quips.
“You guys are assholes,” I interject, and they both muffle a laugh as Hunter leaves the room.
“That poor nurse doesn’t know what’s about to hit her.” Wolf says in his wake.
“Hopefully a brick in the face…” I murmur, and a smirk slithers across Wolf’s face.
“Jealous?”
I huff, “Didn’t like the way she touched you.”
“Oh?” his smirk grows wider, “How’s that?”
“Like she wanted to take what’s mine.”
A dark express
ion crosses his face and the humour falls away, “Oh?”
“Like this.”
I go to the door and lock it then stalk to the end of the bed where I rip his blanket away. It falls to the floor, and I climb onto the end of the bed.
I lick my lips and his eyes zero in on my mouth. I crawl over the bed, placing my hands on each side of his torso, careful not to touch or disturb any of the tubes and machines still attached to him. I nip at his lips and a pained sound rips from his mouth. I steal it from him, kissing him hard, bruising and intoxicating. Wolf belongs to me.
When I break the kiss, I crawl back down his body and sink my hands down his boxers to find his massively hard cock.
“Red…” he growls as I squeeze lightly.
His heart monitor spikes, and the beeping becomes more frenzied as Shaw sucks in a ragged breath, and his face twists with a combination of pleasure and pain as his body tenses and his shoulder pulls.
I smile and lick my lower lip, his heart rate erratic.
There’s frenzied knocking on the door, and his hooded eyes shoot to mine.
“Red.” he strains as I jump off the bed, throw the cover over him and go to unlock the door.
The nurse falls inside the room, I notice her shirt is slightly out of place and her hair has been mussed. I find Hunter grinning a few steps behind her and roll my eyes. “What’s going on here?”
She rushes to Wolf’s bed and checks the heart rate monitor then goes on to check Wolf’s blood pressure and temperature. His flushed face tells its own story as I lean against the window, smirking while she asks him a series of questions he stutters through. She double checks the heart monitor and says something about noting an elevated blood pressure. I bite down my snickers.
When she leaves, I move back to the bed and kiss Shaw.
“Fuck Red,” he sucks in a gritty breath, “were you just about to—”
“Suck your cock?” I suck in my lower lip, “I was. And I would have too, if it wasn’t for your pesky heart monitor and giant hole in your shoulder.”
He swallows hard, “And are you planning on doing that every time another girl looks at me?”
“I might.” I wink at him and his jaw falls open for a second before a wicked smile crosses his face.
“I think I might be okay with that.”
I bite my lower lip and battle a smile, “Just as long as you—"
“—I fucking love you Red.” He doesn’t let me finish and his lips crush mine in a bruising, bone melting kiss.
Hunter
I manage to convince Red to go to her friend’s house for a few hours and rest. I send Dylan along with her. He’ll stand outside that door and bring her back to the hospital when she’s ready. When I told her, she didn’t even argue. I think that maybe for the first time ever she doesn’t mind having a babysitter—as she calls anyone I ever asked to keep an eye on her.
When’s she’s gone I slink into Wolf’s room. His eyes fly open when I step inside, and he pulls himself up on the bed, wincing as he does.
“Hey.”
He nods in response and his pensive gaze follows me around the room.
“Saw your mum earlier.”
“Yeah, she came to see I was still breathing and left. She organised some high tea with her friends while she was still in town.”
“They’re leaving again?”
“I’m breathing, aren’t I?” He shrugs it off, but I’ve known him for a long time. I know how much his parent’s indifference slices his insides. The mistake they never should have made. I guess it’s why we bonded the way we did, we both needed family.
“I see despite all their attempts to fix it, your face is still the same.”
He smiles, “What can I say? You can’t fix perfect.”
I scoff at him still threading carefully around the words I want to say. “So…”
“I love her.” He doesn’t blurt it out or make it sound like a confession. He says it like it’s fact and should be acknowledged as such, “Always have and you’ve always known.”
I nod, “And how does she feel?”
“The same.”
“Sure you’re not forcing her to like you? It’s hard work.”
“Well, if I was forcing her, she’d be tied up and gagged in the basement right now, wondering why I haven’t been back to torture and feed her for a few days.”
“You feed them?” I gasp in mock horror.
“How else do you keep their energy up?”
“Mm, maybe that’s where I’ve been going wrong.”
We laugh it off and our eyes lock.
“This is not how I wanted you to find out.”
“Where you going to buy me dinner first?”
“And box seats to the boxing.” He wiggles his eyebrows.
“So, you and Red?”
“I love her, and I have no intention of hurting her. I’m not letting her ago again, and if you have a problem with that, then we can sort it out when I’m out of here.”
I nod once. “If you hurt her…”
“—I won’t, and I’m not asking your permission. Red is mine, she’s always been mine.”
“Spare me all the details and try to keep your hands off her when I’m around.”
“Define, ‘when I’m around,’” he smirks at me and I consider punching him in the shoulder.
I shot him an irritated look and he laughs.
“Relax, I know the rules.”
“You already broke all of them.”
“But, only for her.”
I sigh. “Just…”
“I won’t.”
I nod just as Wolf’s nurse walks into the room. Her cheeks flush red when she sees me, and I wink at her, thinking of all the things I’m about to do to her in the supply room. She checks on Wolf and gives me a lingering look before walking out.
“Seems I have somewhere to be.” I smirk at him and follow her out.
53
Red
They release Shaw a few days later. He has to keep his wound clean and meet with a physiotherapist to build his strength back up. They keep telling him how lucky he was I was there. I don’t feel the same way. Shaw reassures me Jenny has been arrested and held without bail. She’s breached her restraining order one too many times, and with possession of a firearm and attempted murder charges, she will stay there for a long time. I feel safe in that knowledge.
We don’t go back to the apartment. Instead, he’s booked us a few nights at a hotel before his new apartment is ready. Hunter brings my suitcase, never asking why it was already packed. Maybe once everything settles, and I don’t want to stab him for robbing me of years with Shaw, we could have that conversation. He doesn’t stay long, he has clients and some new girl. I don’t ask questions.
Shaw acts like an overgrown child, too stubborn to take things easy. His lips find mine between silences and his uninjured hand takes leisurely journeys around my body, getting to know it all too well—driving us both crazy. I ask him to stop, he promises he will. We both suffer.
The boys help move us into the apartment. A two-bedroom unit with plenty of room. There is no history there, just a fresh start. We hold off celebrating for three agonising weeks. Movies and casual walks, the only activities he’s allowed.
When we finally go to the doctor, Wolf is so anxious that he taps his leg all the way to the office and while we sit in the waiting area. He leaps out of his chair and storms into the surgeons’ office as soon as they call his name.
I wait.
When he comes out, his smile is so broad and his gaze so hungry my body quivers with anticipation. He grips my wrist and rips me from my seat then stalks out. His body is a tense, muscular mountain moving with intention. He pulls me down the corridor, his grip tightening with every step.
He finds a door marked supplies and tries the knob. It falls open and his big body presses mine beyond the door and shuts it behind us. As soon as the door closes my back hits the wall and the air rushes from my lungs, as he
captures my lips and lifts my legs, which automatically wrap around his waist like a belt.
“Shaw,” I break the kiss, breathless as his mouth peppers a trail of kisses along my jaw and neck, “we can’t…”
He steals the words from my mouth as if I didn’t speak at all and rips at my shirt. It comes away with a single brutal tug and his mouth is back on mine. Impatient, hungry.
“I need you,” he growls and pushes me back against the wall. His shirt vanishes, our bodies flush, and his mouth devours mine. My hands thread into his hair and as his kiss consumes us.
Intensity courses through his blood, dominating his actions and emotions. It’s why he holds himself back so much, why his guard is always up, and his walls are so high, because when he falls, he falls the hardest. When it comes to Shaw, he doesn’t do things half assed—especially not when it comes to me.
I reach for his jeans, pulling open the button and tugging the zip, he slides them down just enough to release his hard cock, the vein pulses along the shaft. He pushes away my skirt and rips my underwear to the side. I’m already so wet so needy. With a harsh thrust he’s inside me and I bite down a cry. His face is a collection of expressions, like a hundred feelings clash all at once.
My fingers dig into his shoulders finding hot flesh to anchor myself against. I want to be gentle but he’s so rough. He doesn’t care about the pain, just me, just us. He pounds into me, his mouth never leaving my skin, kissing, nipping, licking at my neck and jaw and mouth—like he wants to be everywhere, making up for more lost time.
Pleasure builds inside me as Shaw keeps hitting that spot, and I move against him, needing to fall apart in his arms. He falters and stiffness and we fall. Lost to sensation, consumed by ecstasy, we are ruined, obliterated, undone.
He stills inside me, a guttural sound rips from his lips and his body tries to give out. His clammy forehead falls against mine as we gulp for air. His mouth whispers against my lips, claiming a sweet kiss before he sets me down.
“I love you, Red,” his words slay me as we find our clothes and sneak out.
“I love you too.”
Wolf (A Little Red Riding Hood Retelling) (Brother's best friend romance) Page 22