Page 25 of Bean
“Rhymes with Derek.” I snorted. “Sorry, I’m trying to come up with some kind of mental trick to remember it, but I can’t think of anything.”
He cocked his head. “Hmm, I’ve never thought about it, but I’d be happy to help you brainstorm.”
“Not now.”
“No?”
“I think we have different priorities unless you’re gonna get really upset that I still won’t remember an hour from now.”
His mouth split open in a wide grin. “I’ll live.” Then he sobered. “Are you good?” I opened my mouth to protest, but he held up a hand. “I don’t want to baby you, but I also can’t ignore that you looked like you were gonna faint there for a moment.”
He didn’t ask me to explain. He simply noted what he’d seen, but he never put pressure on me to give details. Somehow, that made it bearable. “Sometimes, my brain gets disoriented. It’s like those first seconds after waking up when you need a moment to remember where you are and what’s happening. Except it can happen in the middle of the day, doing anything, and I need, like, ten seconds to restart.”
“Gotcha. And when that happens, what do you need?”
My throat tightened. Other than Nash and the others, no one had ever asked me that. “It helps if you’re quiet and not moving so I can orient myself again to time and place. I know I’m a freak, but?—”
For the second time, he cut me off with fingers placed firmly against my lips. “You’re not a freak. You wouldn’t be okay with someone else calling himself that, so don’t do it to yourself. You have a…limitation.”
“A disability,” I said quietly. It had taken me time to get there, but there was no way around it. This brain thing, as I had started out calling it, was a disability. Not a mere nuisance, something temporary that would go away over time. It was here to stay. It could get better over time, maybe—hopefully—but it would never fully heal. “I have a disability.”
Jarek took my hand. “A disability. So please allow me to help you when I can.”
I swallowed. “It’s hard. I hate asking for help.”
“You didn’t ask. I’m offering.”
“You shouldn’t have to. This is a hookup. Or at least, it was supposed to be. Hookups don’t come with these kinds of complications.”
“Says who? No offense, sweetheart, but it’s not like you have experience doing this.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. “Fair point.”
He cupped my cheeks and pressed a soft kiss on my lips. “How about you let me decide what complications I’m willing to deal with? And by the way, I strongly object to that term. You’re not a complication. You’re sweet, you’re sexy, and I want to spoil the hell out of you, so how about we move on to that part of the program?”
My throat tightened at how sweet he was. “I’d like that,” I said hoarsely.
“Good. Now, where were we?”
“You were kissing m— Hmph…”
He dove into me, and a few seconds later, I didn’t even know my own name, let alone his. But it was okay. I knew how good he made me feel, and right now, that was enough.
I tugged on his shirt, which he promptly removed. Before he could ask me to do the same, I whipped mine over my head and dropped it on the floor. Nash would have a coronary if he saw me be so messy, but he wasn’t here, now was he? Which was good because I was about to get very naked and very intimate with this man. With…
Rhymes with Derek.
Jarek. His name was Jarek.
He nudged me backward, and we kissed as we made our way into his bedroom. My elbow hit the doorpost, but I barely felt the pain. The pleasure tingling throughout my body overrode anything else.
Jarek was so sexy. I broke away from the kiss, needing to catch my breath, and I admiringly ran my hands through his chest hair. “I love your body.”
“You said that last time too.”
“Well, at least you know I mean it.”
“I never had any doubts to begin with. You don’t strike me as the kind of man to lie.”