I’ve asked Christian to take you.”
He nodded. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”
I bit my lip, not sure how he was going to take this next part. “And I’ve asked him to stay here for the week.”
His gaze shot to mine. “I don’t need a babysitter, Finn.”
I thought we’d just been through this? “He’ll just be here in case you need a hand with anything.” Like doing up a zip, shoes, making food, getting a drink? The list was endless, but I kept it to myself for now. He needed time to get used to the idea.
But no way was I leaving him here alone.
“Look,” he said, head resting back on the sofa cushions. “I’m very grateful for Christian offering to take me to the hospital, but I’ll be fine here on my own.”
“We can talk about it in the morning.” I gestured to his mug. “Drink your hot chocolate before it gets cold.”
He grunted but took his drink when I offered it to him.
Angus chose that moment to crawl out from behind the tree.
“There you are.” I held my fingers out to him. “I’d been wondering where you were.”
He stretched, meowed loudly, gave my fingers a quick sniff, then jumped up on the sofa next to Jasper. He promptly climbed onto his lap, curled up in a ball, and went back to sleep.
Of course he did.
“I’m so glad I’ve got a cat. They’re such great company.” I rolled my eyes as Jasper stroked him and loud purrs filled the room. “Phone your mother.”
He stuck his tongue out at me but passed me his mug to put down and reached for his phone. “Hey, Mum,” he said, resting his head against the sofa back. “No, I’m fine. Well . . .”
I closed my eyes as Jasper explained what had happened. He was silent for long intervals and I smiled as I imagined him getting an earful. I hoped she wasn’t too worried about him though. That part wasn’t funny.
I tuned back in when I heard him mention me.
“Thursday. No, Finn’s away with work for the week.” Silence. “Mm-hmm.” Silence, and then Jasper shaking his head. “Christian’s going to take me.”
I imagined her asking who Christian was because Jasper answered with “Finn’s best mate.” Then, “No it’s fine really. You’ve got work, and so has Dad. Finn said Christian’s fine to take me.” He caught me listening and smirked at whatever she was saying. “Yep.” Then his face took on a slightly panicked look. “You don’t need to do that.” He scrunched his nose up and sighed. “No, really. Christian’s going to stay until he gets back.”
It was my turn to smirk. I raised an eyebrow when he glanced my way.
“Thanks, Mum, I will. Call you tomorrow.”
He hung up and sighed again, sounding knackered. “Yes, fine, thank you for getting Christian to stay with me.”
I sat up and squeezed his knee. “Why don’t you get some sleep?” I was about to say he had to get up early, but then remembered he didn’t work on Mondays.
And oh.
“What about work?”
“Ahh, fuck.” Jasper groaned and rubbed at his eyes, before yawning. “I have no idea what’ll happen with that. I definitely can’t do the job I was doing.” He went to shrug, then thought better of it at the last minute. “I’ll give them a call tomorrow.”
“Okay.” I stood and looked down at him when he hadn’t moved. “Are you coming upstairs?”
His eyes had dropped closed and they fluttered open at my question. “To be honest, I’m really comfy here.”
My sofa was one of the comfiest things I’d sat on. Maybe he’d be better off kind of propped up a bit. “At least take your jeans off, though.”
He glanced up at me, a spark of interest in his eyes. “I’ll probably need help with that.”
I swallowed at the thought of getting that close to his cock again. “Yeah, okay.” Of course my voice came out rough, and Jasper smiled, a mischievous glint to his eyes.
That disappeared as soon as I moved a sleeping Angus and helped him up off the sofa.
“Ow.”
“Sorry.” No matter how careful we tried to be, his arm got jostled a little, and that was enough to make him grimace. I suspected it hurt a lot more than he was letting on. “I’ll get you some more painkillers. Wait there.”
He huffed out a pained laugh. “Not going anywhere.”
When I came back with his tablets and a glass of water, he hadn’t moved an inch. “Here you go.”
As soon as he’d taken them, I