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“Tanner!” She slapped his chest, wincing as she obviously hurt her wrist. “You can’t offer to buy us sanitary products!”
“Why not?” he asked, genuinely confused.
“B-because it’s something personal. I don’t talk about things like that. Not with . . . not with you.” She glanced away, blushing.
Was she . . . embarrassed?
Nope. He wasn’t having that.
Picking her up, he carried her to the sofa and sat with her on his lap.
“Tanner,” she said with a sigh.
“If you’re about to complain about me picking you up and carrying you around, then just stop.”
“Just stop?”
“Yep. I want to do it and you look like you barely have the energy to blink, let alone walk. So just . . . let me take care of you, okay?” He tried to keep the frustration out of his voice but didn’t think he fully managed it.
“You don’t have to take care of me. We’re not . . . you and I aren’t . . .”
“Did you forget the conversation we just had about me claiming you?”
She buried her face into his chest with a groan. “I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”
“Good. Then don’t.”
“Tanner, I don’t know what’s happening here.”
“Yes, you do. You’re just in denial. We’ll work on that. As well as your inability to ask for help, your tendency to work too hard, and the fact that you don’t seem to be eating.”
She tensed in his arms.
Fuck. What if she’d grown so thin because she was ill? Or had an eating disorder?
He drew her back so he could stare down at her. “I know I’m not the most sensitive guy and I should likely handle this differently. But you need to know this. I am not going to let you hurt yourself.”
“I-I’m not.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he replied, unsure it was true. “But if you were, you can tell me. I’ll hear you out. I’ll listen and I won’t judge.”
“Uh-huh. And then what will you do?” She gave him a skeptical look.
“I’ll do whatever I think is in your best interests.”
She sighed. “Even if I don’t like what you choose to do?”
He grinned. “You know me so well. I should have known you couldn’t stay away from me, that you’d turn up eventually. I mean, I am freaking irresistible.”
Lilac groaned. “You’re impossible, is what you are.”
“Impossible to resist.” He winked at her and lifted her off him before standing. “I want you to have a rest. I’ll bring back dinner too.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“If you’re mine, I take care of you. So yes, I do.”
“Well, just don’t go overboard, all right?”
