In a low voice, he orders the clerk to leave. Grateful to escape from the angry and powerful man, she slips out of the room and shuts the door quietly behind her. Leilani tries to sit up so she can get away from Waylen.
“Don’t move,” he commands, “Don’t you want to heal?”
Silently but gently, Waylen presses her hand into her side and holds her down on the examination table. He unties her bathrobe and tugs it down to her waist. As soon as her robe slides down he can feel the temptation to look at and touch her fighting against the desire to heal her.
“Where does it hurt?” he asks gruffly, squeezing some balm onto his palm.
Leilani ignores him.
“Here?” he asks, pressing his hand against the smallest part of her waist.
The balm makes her skin feel hot, itchy, and painful and she doesn’t want him to touch her. She twists to try to escape from him.
“Give me the medicine. I can apply it by myself.”
“Do you have eyes on your back?” he asks, gently prodding different parts of her waist.
“Ah—” Leilani gasps with pain, “That part hurts.”
Waylen began to gently massage that part of her waist, rubbing the creamy balm in with his hands.
“Do you feel at all better now?” he asks gently.
“Not at all,” she hisses.
“You’re so stubborn,” he complains.
Though she’d never admitted it, the massage feels very nice. She can feel the pain easing and the tension being released from her injured muscles. More surprisingly, she finds that other parts of her body are responding to his touch.
She can feel a certain part of her body become excited, and she knows the wetness isn’t just from her period. She wants to kick herself for responding so shamelessly to his touch. She wants to scream at him to make him stop, but someone is knocking on the door.
“Mr. Bamford, the clothes are here,” says Robert.
Waylen picks up the clothes and hands them to her before leaving her alone in the small room. After a few minutes, the clerk returns carrying a paper bag. Your boyfriend said that you might have trouble getting dressed because of your injury and he asked me to help you. Also, I’ve brought you some supplies to deal with your period. Leilani sighs.
“I can see that he cares about you,” the clerk says.
“Can you?” Leilani asks, surprised, “How can you tell?”
“He looked so scared when he carried you in here. We all thought that you’d been in some horrible accident from his expression,” the clerk said, “We were afraid you were dying.”
“He’s always angry,” Leilani smiles and rolls her eyes, “Some people mistake that for fear at first.”
“No, it wasn’t anger,” the clerk insists with a small smile, “I know how men look when they’re angry, and he wasn’t angry. He was scared he was going to lose you.”
Leilani can’t believe what the clerk is saying, but she forces herself to try to remember what happened when he found her in the bathroom. His voice did sound strange, she admits. But she’s not so sure it wasn’t just anger or disgust at seeing the blood. She thinks about the way he took her in his arms and carried her to the car, the way he cradled against his body throughout the drive, and then the way he boldly ran into traffic to get her into the pharmacy.
She was too groggy with pain to pay attention to his expression, but she has to admit that maybe it didn’t anger on his face. Maybe he was worried about her.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a man so nervous he couldn’t tell if his girlfriend was bleeding out or on her period. He even mistook the lipstick on the towel for your blood,” the clerk says with a small chuckle.
Leilani presses her lips together. She doesn’t know how to reply to the clerk—she doesn’t even know how she feels. She doesn’t want to know that Waylen might be softening, that in some sick way, he might care for her. She can’t afford any distractions and she definitely can’t let any remnant of her old feelings get in the way of her escape plans.
The clerk looks at the clothing Leilani is struggling to put on and gasps, “Wow, that’s the latest Donna Karan. You’re so lucky to have such a sweet boyfriend.”
Leilani remains silent. She somehow doesn’t seem to realize who Waylen is. If she knew, she wouldn’t be shocked. One designer outfit is absolutely nothing to Waylen.
“Um, anyway, he also brought you some extra long sanitary napkins,” the clerk says.
Leilani rolls her eyes. Waylen must have asked Robert to buy those too. Robert is perpetually single and has no idea what to buy for women on their period. Though Leilani doubts that Waylen knows any better than his butler. She smiles dryly when she realizes that Waylen may have specifically asked for the extra-long napkins because he was so overwrought by the sight of her blood.
“Can I help you stand up?” the clerk asks.
With the clerk’s help, Leilani finishes getting dresses. For some reason, she can’t stop thinking about what the clerk said. Her intuition tells her that the clerk is right: Waylen Bamford has suddenly started caring for her. Leilani shakes her head to clear her thoughts.
“I can’t make the same mistake again,” she thinks.
As soon as Leilani finishes dressing, Waylen insists on taking her to the hospital for x-rays and scans. The techs report that nothing is broken or torn and Waylen cradles her in the backseat of his car on the way back to the manor.
Several servants stand at the gate of the manor, waiting for Waylen and Leilani. Lucky stands near them, but the servants all keep their distance from the enormous black dog.
“Mr. Bamford, our apologies, but Lucky got out and we can’t get him back inside,” a servant says as Waylen opens the car door.
Waylen helps Leilani out of the car and Lucky begins to bark at her.
“Lucky, go back to your kennel,” Waylen says seriously.
Leilani shrinks into Waylen’s side, afraid that the dog might come for her. Lucky growls low in his throat and pads toward Waylen. At the last minute, he dodges past Waylen and bites Leilani on the leg.
“Lucky!” Leilani scolds.
Lucky wags his tail. The bite was a playful greeting, and he quickly follows it by licking her leg. Waylen is surprised to see that Lucky is so affectionate with someone besides him.
Ten years ago, Waylen took Lucky from the Summers’ house. Lucky became incredibly attached to Waylen and developed an aversion to everyone else. Eventually, he even began to hate the Summers girls.
“Let me go,” Leilani says, trying to escape Waylen’s embrace.
“Don’t you care about your waist?” Waylen asks.
“The doctors said it’s fine,” Leilani says, “Now let me go. I can walk on my own.”
Waylen ignores her complains and sweeps her off the ground.
“Go to your kennel,” he commands again in a low voice.
The dog yelps and runs back to the house.
“Where are you taking me?” Leilani asks, looking around. Instead of taking her to the main parlor, Waylen is taking her to the back parlor where he keeps Lucky, “You told me not to come here anymore.
Waylen gently places her on the sofa and Lucky immediately runs over and rests his head on her leg.
“Leave her alone,” Waylen commands and points at the other side of the room.
He pushes Lucky’s head away from Leilani, and the dog stands up and trots to the other side of the room. Robert watches in awe. He still can’t believe that the dog likes Leilani so much. He’s been working for Waylen for years, but the dog still tries to bite him every time it sees him.
Waylen points at Lucky again, “Stay there or you can’t have dinner tonight.”
“Why won’t you let him come here?” Leilani asks, “Waylen Bamford, are you so low you’ll even threaten a dog?”
“Did you hear that?” Waylen says to the dog, “It seems like she likes you.”
Leilani wants to roll her eyes or scream. If anyone else said that it would be fine, but somehow Waylen finds a way to sound jealous of a dog. She wants to ask Charles if he happens to know of any medicines to cure men of crazy, possessive desires.
She suddenly remembers the man from the night club whose leg Waylen had skinned and she feels sick. She presses her face into the sofa cushion and closes her eyes. Seeing that Leilani is resting and Lucky is behaving, Waylen whispers something to one of the servants and then leaves with Robert.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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