Downfall(43)

We both stopped briefly when we got to the front steps of the building. For the first time since I’d moved in, Lester’s ragged, rumpled form wasn’t sprawled out across the bottom step. The entire stairway was empty. Thinking back, I hadn’t had to step over the homeless man when I rushed out to pick up Solo, either.

“Lester is always on the steps. I wonder where he got off to.” I absently commented on the missing man and felt Solo stiffen where his strong, solid frame was pressed against mine. I was glad I was tall. He would’ve taken out a smaller woman when he suddenly jerked to a stop.

“Was he here earlier?” Solo’s tone was sharp under the hitch of pain.

I shook my head and winced as he groaned after taking the first few steps to the front door. “No. I ran down the steps on the way to the car. He wasn’t there.”

Solo swore again and let me brace him with my hip as I pulled open the door. “Not good. Lester always finds his way back to the stoop. I hope nothing bad happened to him.”

I silently agreed and shot dirty looks at the broken elevator as I helped Solo climb the agonizing five flights of stairs to his apartment. We were both sweating up a storm and grumpy as hell by the time I finally got him into his bathroom and helped him strip down so he could climb into the shower. I tried to keep my expression neutral and even, but there was a lot to take in once the man was standing naked in front of me.

I was a mom, so I should’ve been able to objectively check out his injuries without getting distracted by all the other goods, but it would be a total lie if I said I didn’t check him out from head to toe as he practically fell into the shower. He was tattooed and built in a way that practically meant it was required I ogle him when he was naked. I checked him out thoroughly on behalf of all the women who would kill to be in my shoes.

It really was a shame we had the night to ourselves but he was too battered to do anything about it. Under the ink crawling up and down his ribcage, I could see ugly black and purple bruises spreading from his armpit all the way to the top of his waist. He also had a very distinct bruise in the center of his chest that looked like the perfect impression of the sole of a boot. In the light, I could see he had bright red marks all along his jaw and another bruise shadowing his high cheekbone. He looked like hell, but he was standing under his own power and managing to wash himself with one hand.

Collecting his clothes off the floor, I found a hamper to toss them in and went in search of an ACE bandage so I could help him wrap those nasty looking ribs. When I got back to the bathroom, Solo was awkwardly trying to pull up a pair of nylon track pants with one hand. The sight made my mouth go dry, and when I reached out to help him get situated, the feel of all that damp, tattooed skin under my fingertips was enough to make my brain temporarily short circuit. Our timing was always just a little bit off and it was really starting to suck.

He stood still as he instructed me on the best way to wrap the bandage around his torso. It made my heart hurt that he treated the entire ordeal like it was nothing new. He shouldn’t know how to treat broken ribs like it was nothing, and I was slightly bitter about the fact that I now also had this knowledge.

Solo was slightly unsteady on his feet, so I helped him to his bed and found the mix of Tylenol and Ibuprofen he asked for in his tiny medicine cabinet. He popped the handful of pills without water and shuddered when they went down. He threw the arm on his less injured side over his eyes and sighed heavily. It was easy to see that today, and maybe all of his very busy, very hectic days, had finally caught up with him. He was ready to crash. It was like watching a very fast, expensive car run out of gas.

“Do you need anything before I leave?” I hated to take off when he was in such obvious pain, but he hadn’t asked me to stay and I didn’t want to overstep those tricky, invisible boundaries we were always tripping over. Plus, now that he knew my last name, there was a very small part of my paranoid brain worried he wouldn’t want anything to do with me. It was one thing to be scared of monsters. It was an entirely different thing to know the woman you lived next to, the one you touched, and tasted, and cared for, came from those beasts you had battled.

Solo moved his arm and squinted up at me. Without his hat and his usual sardonic, remote expression, he looked so much more vulnerable… and human. At some point I’d started to see him as someone so much larger than life. Right now, he simply looked like a man. A tired, beaten, resigned man.

I let out a little gasp when his hand shot out and latched onto my wrist. All it took was a tiny tug for him to pull me down to the mattress next to him. He grunted a little when the bed shifted under my weight but curled his arm around me to hold me in place as he dropped a kiss on the top of my head.

“Not how I envisioned getting you into my bed for the first time. But it will have to do for now.” His eyes closed and he gave me a little squeeze as I rested my head on his bare shoulder. “You’re the only thing I need, Orley. I need to know you’re safe. That you’re okay. That you trust me enough to let me help you.”

I sighed and carefully threw my arm around his toned stomach. I made sure to keep my touch light so I didn’t hurt him any worse than he already was. “You’re wrong. I think you need sleep more than you need me.” Or the truth. But I didn’t say that.

He yawned and nuzzled his nose against the top of my head. Between one breath and the next he was out. His breathing evened, his body loosened… except for where he held me next to him.