Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,57

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“How’s that?”

Squeezing her eyes shut, she shook her head, trying not to cry as Lucifer reached into the tub and helped her onto her other side only to end with the same results.

“Do you want to try laying on your stomach again?” he suggested, already helping her move back onto her stomach, which in theory should work, but since she was short and didn’t want to drown, that position required her to get on her hands and knees with her ass in the air.

“I just want to call it a night,” she said, trying to sit up so that she could climb out of the tub and curl up in bed so that she could lose herself in a marathon of horror movies. Instead, she was suddenly forced to grab hold of the side of the tub and hold on for dear life when Lucifer suddenly let her go.

“Hold on,” he said as though she actually had a choice in the matter.

“Umm, could really use a hand here,” she said, trying to draw her knees closer so that she could sit up, but she quickly gave up on that idea when her ass screamed in agony.

“Just hold on,” he said, sighing heavily, which at the moment she really didn’t appreciate.

“What do you think I’m doing?” she snapped, tightening her hold on the side of the tub as she tried to figure out a way that she could possibly crawl out of the tub without causing further injury to her ass.

“Being a pain in the ass,” he said dryly as he once again grabbed her and shifted her around the bathtub full of water.

“Ha, ha, ha,” she said dryly as she allowed him to move her aside so that he could step into the tub.

“What? Too soon?” he asked, chuckling as he carefully sat down and once he did, he rearranged her so that she was sprawled out on top of him.

“Better?” he asked when she was able to relax.

She nodded as she savored the feel of the hot water covering her backside, which was actually starting to provide some relief. Closing her eyes, she decided to let him live and forget all the manhandling that he’d done tonight.

“We’re having a hell of a time figuring this thing out, aren’t we?” Lucifer asked as he wrapped his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head as she closed her eyes.

“We’re not doing so bad,” she said, drawing wet circles on his chest as she laid there, trying not to think about how many people had seen her bare ass tonight.

“You really think so?” he asked as he traced her spine with his fingertips, careful to avoid the bruise marking her tailbone.

“Yeah,” she said, a little surprised at how easily she could say that, because Lucifer really wasn’t what she would have called “Relationship material.”

Then again, could she honestly say that she knew him that well before? She’d teased and tormented him over the past five years, but before he’d decided to take an interest in her medical mystery, she really hadn’t known him well enough to assume anything. Maybe this was the norm for him, asshole to the world but an incredibly sweet, understanding and funny guy to whichever woman was lucky enough to be with him?

No, that wasn’t it, she decided as she thought back on all the women over the last five years that had taken his indifference as a challenge and went a little nuts. So, maybe it was her? She liked to think it was at least. Not that she was one of those women that was going to lose her mind if he ever started ignoring her, again, because she wasn’t. If he ever pulled another stunt like that again she’d walk away, no matter how much it hurt and something told her that it was really going to hurt.

“Your parents are assholes,” he suddenly said, surprising a laugh out of her, because she could honestly say that she hadn’t expected that.

Most of the guys that she’d dated would have either asked her what happened or pretended that he didn’t know what was going on so that he wouldn’t have to deal with her crap. Not Lucifer it seemed. He liked to cut to the chase and get to the point. Her parents were in fact assholes and it was really nice to hear it from someone besides Melanie for a change.

“You want to talk about it?” he asked, making her smile, because she