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I reached out and tilted his chin up to look at me. “Why do you think they wore you out like this today?”

His cheeks were still a little flushed, so I moved a hand up to feel his forehead, but he pulled away from me with another irritated noise. “Let go of me. I don’t know.”

I could tell he was lying. But I could also tell he was dug in and wouldn’t talk to me unless I distracted him away from his stubbornness. “How about some ibuprofen?”

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye like I’d told a joke and he was waiting for the punchline.

I blew out a breath. “Fuck, McNeely. I don’t want you to be in pain, okay? Anti-inflammatories. What kind do you want?”

He swallowed and tilted his head toward his bedside drawer. “In there. Naproxen.”

As I moved through the drawer in search of the right bottle, I tried ignoring the lotion we both knew he’d used to jack off ever since I stole his lube.

I kept up the chatter in hopes of relaxing him, making comments about recovery supplements he should be taking, like creatine, magnesium, and BCAAs.

“I know all of that,” he said. “Jesus, Vaughn. I’m an athlete.”

I tipped out the pills before finding his water bottle and handing everything to him. He swallowed the pills and handed the water bottle back instead of reaching over to put it back on the bedside table.

“You hungry?” I asked, watching him for any sign of lies.

He shook his head. “Ate at the cafeteria.” His eyes flicked over to me, then away. “Uh, saw your sister there.”

I didn’t tell him she’d told me about it. Instead, I nodded. “You need to do any schoolwork before bed or…?”

He looked at me with confusion bunching his forehead. “Why do you care?”

“I can bring you your laptop or whatever,” I said with a shrug. “So you don’t need to get up while you’re icing your hip.”

“You’re being nice to me,” he said with suspicion. “It’s freaking me out.”

I couldn’t help but notice the pink still in his cheeks. Maybe I liked keeping him on edge. Being a little unpredictable. Or maybe I didn’t want to see him in pain.

Either way, I wasn’t about to explain myself to him. Instead, I leaned forward and brushed my lips against his ear before murmuring softly. “Maybe I just need you at full strength before I fuck your pretty face again.”

His eyelids fluttered closed for a brief moment before he coughed and sat up straighter, wincing in pain as the movement caught up to him. “Fuck off,” he croaked.

“Easy,” I warned with a laugh, readjusting the ice pack trying to fall away from his hip. “You almost sound like you don’t want it.”

“I don’t,” he snapped.

I bit my tongue to keep from snapping bullshit right back at him. That was fine. Let him keep his cute little plea of denial. We both knew the truth, and besides, I didn’t need him. There were plenty of people on this campus and in this town who would let me fuck their face.

If I wanted to get off, I sure as hell didn’t need Bett Fucking McNeely and all of his issues in order to do it.

I stood up with a sigh. “Suit yourself, princess.” As I moved away from him, I forced myself not to add a command to go to sleep. The guy obviously needed rest, but he also needed a break from working as hard as he did all the time to keep up his fortress of walls.

Not that it was any of my business.

I didn’t care.

At all.

I didn’t care when I noticed his breathing regulate and finally drop into a slow rhythm. Or when I moved silently across the room to pull the ice packs off his hip. Or when I pulled his duvet over him.

And I didn’t care when I curled my fingers into a fist to keep from smoothing the wrinkle between his eyebrows.

And I sure as shit didn’t care when I woke up every few hours to glance over at him to make sure he wasn’t in pain or having a nightmare.