Love hurts

Love hurts

He heard a low gasp of pain from the bedroom and immediately hurried into the room. “What’s wrong, baby girl?”

“Nothing.” she almost yelled at him. “Get out!”

“But…”

“Out!” she shouted.

He was startled for a moment. Then he carefully asked. “Honey, did I do something wrong? If I did, I’m sorry. I never meant to do anything to… make you upset or…”

“No” she interrupted him and sighed, “it’s just… I… I need to change clothes. So… would you please just leave me alone.”

“I could help you.” he volunteered.

“No way!” Penelope gasped. “Derek, I can’t… I don’t want to… I’m not going to undress in front of you.”

“I won’t look.” he quickly promised.

“Yeah, I’m sure about that.” she mumbled.

Derek stepped forward and knelt down in front of her. “I could just as well stare at you if that would make you feel better.”

“That’s not funny.” she grumbled.

Suddenly all serious Derek took her hands in his and softly explained: “I don’t want you to be in pain and I absolutely don’t want you to rip your stitches in a careless movement. That’s why I’m here. I just want to help and make sure you’re alright.”

“I know.” she whispered.

Derek gently squeezed her hands. “Let me help you, Penelope!”

She drew in a shaky breath and closed her eyes. This was going to be embarrassing. But she knew changing the shirt on her own would be too much pain. It was almost impossible to raise her arms over her head. So she nodded.

Derek stood up, walked around the bed and carefully sat down behind her. “The flashy purple one?” he asked with a soft smirk that was even audible in his voice.

Fortunately, he was sitting behind her so that he couldn’t see the soft shade of pink that appeared on her cheeks. “Yeah, that’s… I usually wear that at night.”

“Ready?” he smiled and gently grabbed the bottom of her shirt.

“No.” she whispered and took in another shaky breath.

Carefully Derek pulled at the shirt, higher up revealing the bandage around her middle. When he noticed Penelope shiver he stopped and asked concerned: “Did I hurt you?”

“No.” she almost panted. “Just… This is so embarrassing.”

“Just pretend I’m one of the nurses.” he smiled and continued to pull up the shirt.

She couldn’t stop the gasp of pain when she had to raise both arms above her head so that Derek could remove the shirt. But it would certainly have been much worse if she had done that on her own.

“Bra?” he asked huskily. This was definitely inappropriate now but he knew that she couldn’t reach behind her back – or at least shouldn’t at the moment.

“No!” Penelope gasped. Then she swallowed and nodded. “Yes.” God, this was getting more and more embarrassing.

Carefully Derek opened the clasp and tried not to watch her while she carefully removed the piece of closing. Yet his eyes were studying every inch of her bare back. Her skin looked so soft and tempting. He could smell her and he was mere inches apart from touching her, tasting her. He could just lean forward and nibble at the soft skin.

Of course, he shouldn’t – and wouldn’t at the moment. Not when she was in so much pain. But the mere thought of that made his whole body jerk.

Derek shook those thoughts off – at least as good as he could. He shouldn’t think about her like that, especially not now! So as soon as she was done removing her bra, he quickly grabbed the purple shirt and carefully pulled it over her arms, then her head and slowly down her body – yet he couldn’t help but take every opportunity to accidentally touch her.

“Thanks.” Penelope mumbled.

“You’re welcome.” Derek smiled and now took a deep breath himself. He had to admit that the situation was awkward.

“Could you… um… leave me alone now?” her voice was barely above a whisper.

He frowned for a moment and then his eyes fell upon the pajama trousers on her bed. Grabbing them he jumped up and walked around the bed so that they were facing each other. “Let me help you!”

“No!” she shouted at him and tried to grab the trousers from him. But that simple movement made her gasp, wince and grimace in pain.

“Are you alright?” Derek quickly asked and grabbed her shoulders in a desperate attempt to do anything to make it better.