“About thirty minutes,” he said getting up from the bed and moving to stand near me. His continued guarded expression puzzled me.
“Really, Emmitt, I’m fine,” I said to reassure him. He didn’t look convinced so I leaned forward, ready to stand and prove it to him.
He quickly offered his hand. I clasped it and was glad for his help. I hadn’t been aware of the number of stomach muscles used when standing. If my stomach had felt tender lying there, it now felt like it’d been punched...repeatedly.
He wrapped his arms around me and held me close as I waited for the pain to fade. To distract him, I nipped his neck again. He twitched then pulled back, shaking his head with a small, amused curl to his lips.
With a tender look, he helped me to the bathroom. He left me at the threshold without a word. I closed the door and turned toward the mirror to assess what the reporter would see. The girl in the mirror actually looked better than I felt.
The light bruises on my wrists were easy to overlook, but the scattered bruising on my stomach wasn’t. A shirt would cover it, though. Even the injury on my head would be invisible thanks to my hair. I ran my fingers through the tangles on the uninjured side but just smoothed the strands down on the injured side. It was good enough for now.
I brushed my teeth with the new toothbrush that waited for me on the counter then dressed in my freshly laundered clothes. Emmitt must have been awake for a while to have everything ready for me.
My stomach rumbled, and as I opened the door, I wondered if we’d have time to eat the leftovers. It wasn’t meant to be. The empty containers filled the small trashcan in the kitchenette, and Emmitt stood waiting for me.
I studied Emmitt. The blood on his shirt was gone too, but he still sported the rips I had noticed last night. Going out in public like that would cause stares.
“We’re going to need to get our things,” he said, noting the direction of my glance.
I wrinkled my nose but knew he was right. Our plane tickets were still there.
“They dropped these off this morning,” he said, showing me a pair of black, slipper flats. He didn’t let me take them, but went to a knee to help put them on so I wouldn’t need to bend. The flats fit me well enough.
He stood again. “Ready?”
“Just a second.”
I walked back into the bedroom to make sure we weren’t forgetting anything. Not much to forget since we’d arrived with just the clothes on our backs, but I still felt the need to check. Maybe I simply needed to look at the room one more time.
It was hard not to stare at the bed for a moment as the reality of what I’d done settled over me. Engaged. I didn’t really feel engaged. Of all the different ways I’d imagined last night playing out after the bite, it had been completely different than I expected.
I wondered when I’d feel something from Emmitt like Nana Wini had mentioned. All I felt at the moment was my complete contentment. I paused. Was I really content? A little. But I felt nervous about meeting the lawyer, tired, and sore, too. I missed my brothers and wanted to get back home.
Emmitt stood in the doorway behind me, watching, and gave me a questioning look. Understanding dawned, and I smiled at him in wonder. It wasn’t my contentment I was feeling, but his.
I moved to twine my fingers through his. “I’m ready.”
He kissed the back of my hand, and we left the room.
The person at the front desk called a cab for us, and within minutes, we were making our way back to the old hotel. I still worried Blake had lied on the phone and would be waiting either at the hotel or at the lawyer’s office. I didn’t trust him after everything he’d done to me.
The cab pulled up to the hotel’s drop off, and I eyed the building. Everything looked normal from the outside, but I really didn’t want to go back in there. Emmitt seemed to sense my concern and told me to wait in the cab while he ran in. It was a nerve-racking wait. I scanned the parking lot around us the whole time. I caught the cabbie looking at me several times and figured I wasn’t being as casual about it as I’d hoped. If I’d seen anything, I would have been yelling at the cabby to “go, go, go!” like in the movies.
Thankfully, Emmitt returned before I had to do anything so drastic. Grey and Carlos trailed behind him with their bags. I couldn’t believe they had stayed in their old room. What if Blake had come back? I couldn’t say anything as they piled in. The cabbie already looked ready to tell me to get out.
Emmitt gave the driver the lawyer’s address as he handed me my slack bag. He caught my look at the bag and shrugged.
“There was nothing else worth taking.”
I wondered what they’d done to our things and dejectedly faced forward. I wanted to go back home. I wanted Blake to leave me alone for good. I wanted to see my brothers. Above all, I wanted some time with Emmitt where we could just be normal. Well, as normal as an engaged werewolf and human could be.