Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,21

probably wouldn’t listen to her anyway.

“Because I’m not done with my pie yet,” he said around a mouthful of her pie.

That would teach her for sharing, she thought bitterly with a wince as her stomach cramped up, forcing her to wrap her arms around her stomach and try to breathe through the worst of the pain. You’d think that she would be used to this, but every time the pain hit, it felt worse than the last time. The only thing that even remotely helped was a hot bath, but right now it would hurt too much to try and climb into the tub right now.

Besides, she was saving all of her energy to throw her unwanted guest out.

“I’ll be right back.”

She opened her mouth to tell him not to bother only to gasp in pain as the move caused more pain to tear through her stomach. Okay, so maybe right now was not the best time to kick him out, she decided as she squeezed her eyes shut tightly and pressed her arms more firmly against her stomach to stop the pain from spreading.

“Here,” Lucifer said, taking her hand and placing it on something cold, but more pain instantly shot through her stomach. Shaking her head, because she thought that she was going to be sick again, she pulled her hand back and placed it on her stomach.

She heard him mutter something and then, she felt him climbing back on the bed and-

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, going completely still as she told herself that she was imagining this.

“Is it helping?” he demanded instead of explaining why he’d thought that it was a good idea to climb in bed with her and spoon her, wrapping his arms tightly around her and pulling her closer.

“It’s definitely creeping me out!” she snapped, because she couldn’t tell him that it was actually helping her and that some of the pain was subsiding.

“That didn’t answer my questions,” he said, adjusting his hold around her and making the pain bearable.

It didn’t go away, but at least she didn’t feel like she was seconds away from screaming in agony anymore.

When she didn’t answer him, because she stubbornly refused to admit that anything he did was helping, he started to pull his hand away. “I guess if it isn’t helping…” he said, letting his words trail off as he continued to pull his hand away.

Glaring at the wall and hating the bastard for toying with her like this, she grabbed his arm and yanked it back in place. “It’s helping! Are you happy?”

“Overjoyed,” he said with a chuckle that she refused to find pleasing as he wrapped his arms back around her and held her close.

“Asshole,” she mumbled even though it delighted her to hear him chuckle again. It was definitely something that he didn’t do often, but when he did, she couldn’t help but smile even when all she wanted to do was cry.

*-*-*-*

“Do you want the Coke I brought you?” he asked, noting that she’d tightened her hold over his arms before he had a chance to finish that sentence, letting him know just how much pain she was in.

“Do you have to let go in order to get it?” she asked after a slight pause.

“Yes.”

“Then no,” she said, shifting against him to get more comfortable.

He sighed as he glanced over at the alarm clock on the nightstand. He really should be downstairs preparing for the dinner rush and looking into hiring a new waitress, but here he was holding the biggest pain in the ass that he’d ever known. He still wasn’t sure what had possessed him to come up here and check on her in the first place. She wasn’t his responsibility, but for some reason he felt protective of her and he couldn’t quite explain it.

“Do you want anything?” he asked, hating to see her in this much pain and wondering what the fuck was wrong with all those doctors that told her that this was all in her head.

He wasn’t a fucking doctor and even he could see that there was something wrong. She was always exhausted, sick and in pain. He felt like an ass for even thinking that she was faking. She never tried to get special attention or used it as an excuse to get out of doing something. In fact, she usually got pissed if someone pointed it out and always tried to pretend that she wasn’t sick even when it was more