Rising Storm (Westin Force #2) - Julie Trettel Page 0,44

that was very forgiving. I needed to stay in top shape.

Emma was in the kitchen putting together some dinner. All I did was bend my knee and it made me cringe. I had been forced to keep it straight for two whole days and now it was stiff and tight. After a minute, it was fine though. It was just that initial bend that hurt.

I wanted to get up and put pressure on it, but Emma was back before I could get up all the way. She set our food down on the coffee table and shook her head.

“Come on. Let’s get you up,” she surprised me by saying.

“You’re not going to fuss about it?”

“No, Grant said you need to move it now, just not runs or leg workouts yet.”

I wanted to groan. “Grant said…” I was going to strangle him the next time I saw him.

One thing I had learned about my mate was that she took most things very literally. If they gave her rules to follow, she did exactly as told. She did not deviate from the plan in any way. It was a good lesson for me, I supposed.

Life with Emma was certainly never going to be boring.

We still needed to talk about sealing our bond. The wolves had made it sound like it was this pressing need like an itch they couldn’t scratch until their bonds were sealed. I didn’t feel that way at all. I was perfectly happy in our little bubble. If it wasn’t for the guilt of letting my team down, I’d have been fine.

I didn’t feel any of the aggression and insanity I’d witnessed when Grant had found Taylor. Maybe at first I’d lost it a little, but I didn’t think I’d been as ridiculous as he was.

With Emma’s assistance, I walked around the room testing the strength in my leg. They’d made me feel like an invalid, keeping it elevated, iced, and drugged for two days, but I quickly learned it was fine. I didn’t realize how much I needed that until relief washed over me. Still, I let myself lean on Emma, just because I liked having her close.

“You stink,” she blurted out. “Shower or bath?”

“Depends. Are you joining me?”

She looked torn. “Grant told me not to let you out of my sight. So yeah, but I need to change the sheets still too, and we haven’t eaten yet.”

“The food will wait. I’ll take a bath,” I finally said.

She must have realized I didn’t need her help walking, because she left me long enough to run ahead and get it started. I wasn’t trusting a two day stiff leg to keep her up in the shower if I had my way with her. If Grant had told her no sex for a week I was going to murder him.

I stripped out of my clothes and waited for the large garden tub to fill. Emma waited until it was ready and then helped me into the water. She removed one of my T-shirts that she’d taken to wearing around the apartment and slid in with me.

“Are you in a lot of pain?”

I shook my head. “A little stiff, but not in any pain.” It was the truth too. If she hadn’t been here, I’d already have been back to work again.

She gently removed my bandage and smiled. She looked relieved. “No infection. Everything looks good. You aren’t even swelling.”

“See? Just a scratch.”

She scolded me with her stare as she took a washcloth from the rack on the edge of the tub and gently cleaned the area.

“It does look so much better now,” she said more to herself than to me.

The next thing I knew, she had the rag soaped up and started washing me all over. I was instantly hard and wanted her bad. The smirk on her face told me she knew it too.

Once I was entirely clean and struggling to keep my hands to myself any longer, she set the cloth to the side. When she reached past me to get the shampoo, I couldn’t resist myself. I captured one of her nipples in my mouth. It wasn’t my fault it was right there and easily accessible.

She moaned. “I’m not done washing you yet.”

It wasn’t exactly a protest though, more of a warning to stop being impatient.

She straddled me and then poured shampoo on my head and started washing my hair. I wanted to laugh. I couldn’t give a shit about my hair just then. It would be