“Oh what nonsense! Of course I was looking! The two of you looked so cute the way you were all cuddled up together,” she yells back mockingly, making me still and blush all the way to the roots of my hair.
Jared stalks out of the closet in a heartbeat, wearing a pair of sweatpants that ride low on his hips and a T-shirt that reads SEALs Go Deep and Hard.
I want deep and hard. Please.
He looks so yummy right now that if Judy weren’t in the room to witness my shame, I’d possibly just throw myself at him like the love-starved loser I am.
“Ma! Don’t you do it!” he yells suddenly, waving a finger at her in anger when I feel her lift my hand and slide something onto it quickly before standing with a smirk and a wink.
“It’s already done, cub. May the best man win!”
“Ma. Cupcake, take it off right now,” he growls, turning to me when he sees his mother isn’t even listening anymore, just staring down at me tearfully with her hands cupping her cheeks.
It takes me a second to realize what he’s said, but I finally look down and gasp when I see a huge, flawlessly cut blue diamond gracing my finger as if it were created just for me.
“Oh my,” I breathe, staring at the stone with eyes gone huge and wide in wonder. “It’s so pretty.”
“No, it isn’t! Take it off, now.”
That’s when I snap out of the jewel daze and realize that I’ve just been proposed to by his mom. He doesn’t seem happy about it at all, I realize when he starts glaring and pulling at his hair.
“Give it back, Paulie.”
But…
I slide the ring off with a pout, biting my lips to stop them from trembling when Judy scowls and takes the ring back before sniffing and turning on her heel—after kissing me, of course.
When she makes it to the door, her head held so high I wonder how she can see where she’s going, she pauses and turns back with a glare.
“I’m telling your father you hurt my feelings, boy.”
“Yeah? You also going to tell him you’re proposing again?” he says, rolling his eyes.
Judy sniffs twice before pulling the door open and marching out with her nose in the air, leaving me alone with him and feeling awkward enough to just die right on the spot.
I’m no fool, really, and I know that he has every right to be upset about this, but for just that one, shining moment I felt…happy.
“Sorry about that. She gets these weird ideas in her head and nothing we say can stop her. The easiest way to avoid her crazy is just to nod and ignore it mostly.”
I nod and shift uncomfortably, fiddling with the coffee I don’t want, just to have something to do instead of stare at his perfect body as mortification swims through me.
“Uh, it’s okay. Um, can I, would it be okay if I had a quick shower?” I ask, looking around for something to do that does not involve me staring at the crotch of his sweatpants.
I can’t help that the man is huge and I’m only human.
I feel like shit and I’m embarrassed and yet I still can’t seem to stop thinking about things I shouldn’t want and can’t have.
“No.”
“Er, no?”
That has my eyes looking up at his, and I almost faint when he glares at me and stalks closer.
“I don’t want you falling in the shower. You’re not healed completely yet.”
Whatever. He probably doesn’t want to be the poor shlub who has to come in and rescue my naked ass if I fall in the shower.
“I-I feel much better. Better than I should,” I say, putting a hand to my eyes as he comes closer.
That hard expression is back and he leans in, coming nose to nose with me as he grabs the tray and rises with it, stalking away to put it outside the door before closing it and locking us in.
“You’re not fine yet. You can have a bath. I’ll help.”
“What! Uh, no, really I can do it.” He isn’t even listening as he walks back into the bathroom and I hear water come on before he’s back and picking me up, cradled firmly to his broad chest.
“You’ll let me help or you stay dirty. Your choice.”
It’s one thing to be all hot and bothered for a guy and want him, but quite another for him to be seeing me naked for the first time and having to wash my cruddy butt.
Being naked now, in the cold light of day, is so not sexy and I don’t want him seeing me without the benefit of candlelight or the hazy lighting that I always had in my lascivious dreams.
“Jared, I can do it by myself. Please,” I plead when he sets me down on the toilet seat and goes to check the water before turning the faucets off.
The bathtub is huge enough to fit three and filled almost full when he stalks back and tries to grab the hem of the hospital gown I’m still wearing.