Read Sleeves for Free Online Page B

tight.
    “I can’t. Hospitals would be the best way to get caught and killed. I can’t ever go there.” His arm flopped to the side and he opened and flexed his fist to get the feeling back in it. His skin was prickling and going numb just thinking about her touch. “You touched me tonight.”
    “Kel, I’m serious—get some medical attention, now!”
    “No. I want you . I want you to help me. You said you would. Your friends said you would. I just need a woman—can you understand that? I just need to touch you,” he said, his tone desperate as he searched his foggy brain for the right words to make it all okay. “But you can’t touch me back. I don’t want to break you. I like you.”
    A soft breath whispered across the line. “I like you, too, but this isn’t good. You sound sick—like you need some help.”
    “Just you. Only you can help me. Can I come see you?”
    “What— now ? It’s . . .” there was shuffling around “. . . three in the morning.”
    “Please, I’ll . . .” He groaned and raked his hand down his face. “I had a fucking nightmare, and I can’t go back to sleep. I just can’t. She’ll be there, and there’s blood and my . . . and my . . .” He broke down into a silent sob, his chest shaking and his eyes scrunching shut as he tried to tune out the pain.
    “I’ll come see you.” Her voice was soft, melodic, and it soothed him somehow. “It doesn’t sound like you’re well enough to drive, and I know where you live. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
    “But what about your—”
    “Just stay where you are. I’ll be right over. Bye.”
    Click.
    He peeled the bandages off his feet and threw them in the bathroom garbage can, then crawled over to his bed and lifted himself back into it.
    His head throbbed, and he tossed and turned, hoping all the while she’d get here soon.
    Fingers flexing, heart pounding and dick twitching, he waited and ached.
    Maybe he could find a way to make it work this time.
    His eyesight blurred and visions of that last nightmare, the worst one yet, morphed into Casey, allowing him to fuck her, being pregnant with his unauthorized child.
    Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. What if she did come here and he managed to allow her to touch him again?
    His stomach clenched a few times as adrenaline spiked through his veins at the thought of her being here with him. In his bed .
    He’d never done that before. No one had ever been in this bed but him.
    “Oh, sweet man, what did you do?” a soft voice called out a few minutes later through his door that led to the back end of the club where he parked his bike. The fucker was hanging on the hinges.
    “Fucking broke it. Who cares,” he said, his voice barely audible.
    “Yeah, I can see that—I meant, what did you do to yourself? You look like hell,” she said, managing to pull the door open wider, ducking around it then making her way inside.
    “Christ, I don’t know why I called you.” He blinked and shook his head back and forth in slow, exaggerated motions. “You shouldn’t be here. Go back home.”
    “Let me make sure you’re okay first. You sounded like you were in pain on the phone.” She approached him with cautious steps, her footfalls nearly silent.
    “I’m fine.” He scratched his scalp and messed up his hair, groaning and shaking his head harder, this time in a manic way.
    “You’re fine—okay, I believe you, but I can’t leave in good conscience unless I see for myself. Call it paranoia.” She put her hands up in front of her chest, palms facing him, signaling she wasn’t going to harm him. “Why don’t you lay completely flat, stay still and I won’t touch you. I’ll look at you and listen, but nothing else.”
    He nodded.
    She moved closer and closer until he could almost feel the heat coming off her skin.
    Her left palm extended, and almost as if she was a metal detector, she ran it an inch above his body, starting at his shoulders and then all the way