Page 78 of Devoured By You
“Of course!”
“Then my advice, for what little it’s worth, is to hang in there. Because when he comes out the other side and realizes what a shit he’s been, he’s going to need you to help build him back up again. And I’m talking emotionally rather than physically.”
“It never occurred to me to do anything else.”
“He’s lucky to have you, babe. Maybe drop that into the conversation next time he’s behaving like a pig.”
The smile returned to my face. “Don’t be a stranger.”
“I don’t plan to be. As soon as I finish this darned book and meet my preorder deadline, I’m coming for a visit. Tell Kingcaid to prepare to have his ass kicked with a steel-toe boot if he doesn’t buck up his ideas.”
“I miss you,” I whispered. “I miss all of you.”
“We’re here, babe. We’ve got your back. Always.”
I hung up, drowning in melancholy and lingering in too much self-pity. Snap out of it, Jill. I was about to go looking for Blay when an email notification popped up. My heart skittered, missing several beats. My editor had replied to the message I’d sent yesterday.
Oh, God. Nausea swirled in my belly, and my hands were suddenly clammy. I wiped them on my shorts and forced a deep breath into my lungs.
I thought back to what Blay had said to me in Barbados. “Rip off the Band-Aid.”
I opened it, scanning the text, my mood soaring as I read each paragraph. She was fine. Better than fine. Hugely supportive. Her message said not to worry, that what was important right now was for me to heal from a terrible ordeal and be around to support those I loved. She ended by saying that when I was ready, she’d be waiting.
My vision blurred, and despite furious blinking, tears dripped down my face, one after another. And once I started, I couldn’t stop.
As I dried my tears, something incredible happened. Something so out of the blue that I wouldn’t have dreamed it in a million years, yet now seemed so obvious.
I know how to fix the damned novel.
Chapter 28
Blaize
Yep. Still using humor to make it through another fucking day.
Before I’d gotten shot, I’d barely gone a week without having sex. Now, four and a bit weeks later, despite having a live-in girlfriend who probably spent her waking hours searching for an escape route without it looking as if she was abandoning me in my hour of need, I hadn’t even gotten a hard-on, let alone engaged in the act.
Just what every new relationship needed to thrive. A helpless cripple with zero sex drive.
It surprised me that she hadn’t left already. I treated her like shit most of the time, yet she responded with more kindness and understanding than I deserved.
If today didn’t bring a smile to my face, even a small one that lasted less than a second, then nothing would. In an hour, I had an appointment with one of Florida’s top prosthetists who planned to fit me with a temporary limb to replace the one the doctors had hacked off.
Yep. Still using humor to get through the day. Whatever it took, right?
I’d have to have several fittings before my permanent leg was ready, but at least with a temporary one, I could dump this damn chair and learn to walk again, albeit with walking sticks and a ball-busting physio I’d hired to put me through my paces.
I’d regain my fucking independence if it was the last goddamn thing I did.
My libido had better damn well follow. I was too young to give up sex.
“Ready?” Jill poked her head into my study, greeting me with that beautiful smile of hers. Today, I found it slightly easier to return it with a grin of my own. The way her eyes lit up when I did made me want to pull out my fingernails with pliers. She’d put up with so much fucking crap these last few weeks.
“Come here.” I held out my hand, beckoning to her, then patted my lap. She came to me all too readily. My arms went around her as she hovered over my thighs.
“Legs are fine, Jill. This part of them, anyway. Sit down. I want to feel your weight on me. Make sure you’re still real and you haven’t cloned yourself and the real you is off living a far better life than this one.”
“Blay.” She settled herself in my lap, cupping my face with her warm palms. “I’m going nowhere. As long as you want me here, then here is where I’ll be.”