Not like I want to hear Delmare and Stefan bickering on the slopes.” Ethan chuckled. “Kiara and Alexei will be the only tolerable ones. Theo will complain endlessly about Odette not showing up.”
“She’s not coming?” My heart fell.
He shook his head. “No. She said she was busy.”
I frowned. Odette hardly hung out with us anymore. I didn’t know what was wrong with her.
“But if you hang with me, you’ll get sick.”
“Shifters can burn off viruses fairly quickly. If I get sick, I’ll be all right. I want to take care of you.”
This guy knew all the right words to say. “Okay, you win,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Ethan beamed like he’d won. I drifted into a nap while he was gone. When I woke up, Ethan had returned, carrying a tray of chicken noodle soup with an electrolyte-replacing tea and a huge hunk of bread.
“You are a life-saver,” I said as I dove in. For as shitty as I felt, my appetite wasn’t diminished at all.
Ethan watched me eat. His eyes traveled to the infusion pump again. “Thank you for showing me,” Ethan said. “I know it couldn’t have been easy.”
I blushed— or maybe my temperature was just increasing, I didn’t know. “I wanted you to be the first,” I said. “Maybe now that you know, it’ll be easier to tell other people.”
He leaned back against the wall. “Are there other things I should learn about CVID?”
“Oh, lots.” There was so much stuff that I didn’t even know about yet. “For example, it’s hard for immunocompromised people to get fevers. And if we do, we should be taken to the hospital, because that’s a awful sign.”
“That’s good to know.”
He reached out and caressed my face. “I want to know as much as I can about your disease, Emma. So I can help you.”
I shivered at his touch. “Well, I guess this is a good start.”
I ate— though I didn’t have food in mind anymore. By the time Ethan had moved the tray off my bed, I was feeling warm again.
My eyes drifted down to his jeans as he lounged on the bed beside me. It was like whenever he was in my vicinity, my sight went straight to his junk. What was wrong with me?
I got brave, and reached out my hand to trail my fingers along the edge of his waistband. His eyebrows shot up. “Emma, what are you doing?”
The bulge in his pants got bigger. He was getting hard. “Just... playing around.” I tried to sound innocent, but it came out as incriminating. I was busted.
I dared to run my hand over his dick. I could feel it through the fabric, and damn, it was straining to get out. Why couldn’t we take things further than before? It’d be fun.
Ethan hesitated for a second before he spoke up. “We can’t mess around. You’ve got a cold, and you have needles in your body.”
“We can be careful.” I went for the button on his jeans, but he pushed my hands away.
Ethan’s voice was husky, but amused. “Another time.”
I huffed. Another time seemed like never, in my opinion. He was such a cocktease.
I’m sure he was thinking the same thing about me. I’d waited until I was sick with a cold to touch his dick. Not very fair.
Ethan didn’t leave my side all day. He got me everything I needed whenever I needed it. By the time my infusion was done, he’d returned from the pharmacy with a million different medications. He’d brought a humidifier, along with some essential oils and pain relief cream. He rubbed my muscles until I could feel the tension in them ease.
Gods, he was an amazing guy. I’d gotten very lucky.
“You need a bath,” Ethan said as he finished massaging my left foot. “I’ll fill the tub.”
“What, am I gross?” I teased. I didn’t look the best, but I’d taken a shower last night.
“I know your muscles are tense,” Ethan said. “I could feel it as I was rubbing your back.”
I wish you’d rub something else, I thought, but I didn’t know where it was coming from. I had the energy of a sloth right now, but still, I was horny as Fuck.
Other people wouldn’t get it, but hey, I was sick all the time. If I waited until I felt better to mess around, I’d never get any.
Though today was worse than usual.
Ethan filled the tub with hot water. The steam inside the bathroom made my sinuses open up, giving me some relief.