Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,51

few minutes ago.

“Nothing,” she whispered back, telling herself that she could make it through this move.

Apparently, she was a lying bitch, because she’d barely lasted five more minutes before she was slapping a hand over her mouth and running for the bathroom, ruining their first, and probably only, date in a matter of seconds.

Chapter 25

“Mr. Bradford?”

“What is it, Patrick?” Lucifer asked as he tossed another folder on the stack of folders currently taking over a corner of his desk.

“I can take care of that if you want,” Patrick offered, letting him know that it was that time of night again when he normally settled in to catch up with work before going upstairs and trying to sneak in an hour or two of sleep before he had to get up in the morning, but not tonight.

“That would be great, Patrick. Thank you,” he said, already heading for the door and barely registering the look of shock on Patrick’s face.

He considered going over what needed to be done, but he had somewhere to be. Besides, this was Patrick’s job and he should know what needed to be done by this point. Telling himself that everything was in good hands, he headed to the back door, punched in his security code and went upstairs, hoping that he hadn’t already fucked this up again.

He should have never left her side, but the stubborn woman had insisted that they call it a night. She’d been embarrassed about what happened at the movie theatre. Not that he could really blame her, because he couldn’t. He only wished that she’d given him a head’s up that she was going to be sick so that he could have warned her that she was running into the men’s bathroom.

Live and learn, he thought with a sigh as he let himself into her apartment, not exactly surprised when he spotted Melanie curled up on the couch, wrapped in a pile of blankets and playing on her computer while she nibbled on some kind of baked good.

“The men’s room, huh?” she said without bothering to look up from whatever she was doing on her computer.

“Hell of a good time,” he said dryly, grabbing two glasses and filling them both with ice before helping himself to a six-pack of Coke.

“I bet,” she murmured absently while he was forced to step over Mojo, who at some point in the last thirty seconds had dropped down behind him and started snoring.

Without another word to Melanie, or an explanation of what he was doing in her apartment, he headed towards the back bedroom, making note of the sounds of a shower running. He stepped into Rebecca’s semi-chaotic bedroom and closed the door behind him so that he could strip down to his boxers since comfort was important.

By the time that he was stripped down to his boxers and climbing into the small bed, Rebecca was walking into her room, looking absolutely miserable in her oversized The Walking Dead tee shirt. When she saw him waiting for her, her lips pulled up into a shy little smile that made him feel like a fucking king.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, not quite able to meet his gaze and letting him know that she was still embarrassed about earlier, but she would have to get over that, because he wasn’t going anywhere.

“Finishing our date.”

*-*-*-*

“You didn’t have to do this,” she said as she lay down beside him and desperately tried not to think about what happened two hours ago.

One thing was for certain, she decided as she accepted a glass of Coke from him and took a small sip to settle her stomach, she was never going to that movie theatre again. Not because she’d been banned or anything, but simply because self-preservation demanded that she never set foot in that place again out of the fear that she would die of mortification.

“Yes, I did,” he said as he took the glass from her and placed it on the nightstand and then before she could ask, he was placing his hand gently on her stomach.

She groaned with relief because one touch from him did what a hot shower, three Advils and a Coke hadn’t been able to do. Her stomach didn’t stop hurting, but at least she wasn’t on the verge of crying anymore.

“What do you want to watch?” he asked as he pressed a kiss against her temple, making her stupidly want to smile.

He really was a sweetheart, she thought as she settled in