The Ruthless Biker's Ex-Convict Bride

Chapter 14

Wren’s Point of View

When I wake up, I find Ash walking into the room. He looks up at me, and his gaze is intense, his eyes trailing down my body slowly enough that shivers run through me and my breath hitches.

I'm suddenly conscious of how I look. Of what I must look like in this old, oversized shirt, my hair a mess, barely awake.

It's been a week since I told him I'd help find his family. He rarely talks to me now. We've fallen into a routine where I make sure I only see him when I need to change his bandages; if not, then I come back later from work.

Ash's eyes lock on it a second too long before he moves toward me, as he tries to avoid looking at me.

"I bought you coffee," he says, walking to the counter.

"Where'd you get the money?" I ask, closing the distance, my eyebrow raised. I know he doesn't work, and he certainly didn't ask me for money to get these things. There's no way he came up with cash on his own.

"Helped Kara with something. She offered to pay me, so I got coffee instead. We were out," he says, his voice low and gravelly.

"Coffee. You didn't have to—"

"I did," he says in a monotone while ignoring me. I swallow hard, looking down at his shirt and taking things out of the brown paper bag he brought.

"Did you do any heavy lifting?" I ask, worry creeping in as I take in his clothes. I can't see any blood soaking his shirt, but you never know.

He doesn't answer. Just moves to the kitchen and pulls out a plate.

"Will you sit down so I can look at your bandages?" I get closer, wanting to check on him because I can't stop worrying about him. Just yesterday, I heard him wincing as he tried to get up.

“I’m fine. Now sit down,” he orders, but I ignore him.

I reach for his shirt, and His hand closes around my wrist before I can, stopping me cold. Shivers run through my whole body at the contact, and suddenly I'm hyper-aware of who's standing in front of me, the size of him, the heat coming off his skin, the way his grip is gentle even though it's firm.

"I'm fine, Doc. Don't worry about me." My breath catches, and I don't know what to say back. He has never used such a soft voice with me.

“Are you sure?" I ask him, and he gives me an affirmative nod.

"Now sit down." There's a command in his voice that has me obeying him as I sit down on the wooden chair

My eyes stay on him as he brews me coffee, sets it on the table without a word. I take one sip and nearly gag because the coffee is so bitter, and it also makes me want to throw up everything I had last night, or rather, this morning before my shift.

"Everything okay?" he asks, watching me as I place my cup back on the table because I don’t think I can take the coffee.

"As much as I appreciate the effort," I manage, swallowing the bitter taste, "I'll be making my own coffee from now on."

"It's not that bad." He brings his own cup to his lips, his deep voice unbothered, and then immediately grimaces and nearly spits it back out. I can't help it; when his ever-straight face makes that grimace, I laugh so hard, the first real laugh I think I've had in years.

He watches me with an intensity that makes me stop laughing almost as fast as I started, just staring back at him because I haven't laughed like that in a long time.

He watches me as I swallow hard. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

He won’t stop staring at me as he clenches his jaw tight.

"What's wrong?" I ask, since he won’t look away from me, and right now, he looks angry.

"You should laugh more," he says it with a straight face, then dumps the rest of his coffee down the sink. "I'll see you later."

“Wait, where are you going?” I push up out of my chair to follow him, but my foot catches on the leg, and I stumble hard. I can see the ground where I’m about to land my f*****g face on, but He's there before I hit the ground, one arm catching me fast, and I look up at him, my heart racing, too aware of where his hand has landed on my hip—my shirt's ridden up, and there's nothing between his palm and my skin.

That's when I feel it. Something hard is pressed against my stomach.

My breath stops for a second as I look at him. I gulp, looking in his eyes, and he looks in my eyes with such intensity that I feel tingles in my stomach as his hand gently rubs the skin where his hand is.

“Um…I should…” I can't get the words out as I stare up at him. I don’t know what to say or do. He's still hard, and his eyes have darkened.

“Umm…” I’m about to say when a knock comes at the door, and I instantly jump away from him, my heart hammering hard against my chest.

He growls, but his eyes don’t leave me as I move past him, going to the door.

The knock comes again, and I walk faster. “I’m coming,” I shout as I get to the door, then pull it open before checking the peephole.

And there stands none other than my ex-husband.

His eyes trail over my body from my legs to my thighs, and then finally to my face.

He must see something he doesn’t like because he frowns as his eyes drift from me to where Ash is standing behind me.

“What the f**k is going on here?” he asks, his eyes looking at me.