Page 55 of Beyond the Spotlight Discreet Version

“Thank you for taking care of me.”

I move a lock of hair off his forehead. “Of course.”

“The last time someone took care of me was sixteen years ago. It was a month after my parents died. My sister was so stressed. She was barely eighteen and halfway through Upper Sixth—that’s the equivalent to senior year of high school here in the U.S.—when she was given custody of a fourteen-year-old boy. Then I got a stomach bug. I had it for three days and she never left my side.”

I palm his cheek, then slide my hand up into his hair so I can rake my nails over his scalp. He closes his eyes and sighs at my touch.

“How did she die?”

He doesn’t answer for the longest time.

“A few months before filming forTyler’s Teamstarted, I flew to New Jersey to help Annalee during her last month of pregnancy. She didn’t have anyone to take care of her. Kyle abandoned her the minute he found out she was pregnant, and she said all her friends were busy and she didn’t want to bother them.

“She hated the idea of me helping her. The kid brother wasn’t supposed to take care of the big sis. Still, I came. The doctors kept her in the hospital for the last month of her pregnancy because she had peripartum cardiomyopathy: a weakened heart. After she gave birth, her symptoms got worse. I’d been sleeping on the couch in her hospital room, Adeline next to me in a bassinet. I woke up to the sound of Annalee’s heart machine crashing and Adeline wailing.”

My hand is still in his hair, absentmindedly petting him the entire time.

“I’m so sorry, Reynold.”

He finally opens his eyes and I expect them to be pained, full of grief. Instead, he smiles as if relieved I’m here with him, listening and supporting him.

“Call me Reynold again.”

“Reynold,” I whisper.

“Mmm. Never stop, okay?”

I salute him. “Sir, yes, sir.”

He chuckles, which makes him cough violently, reminding me he’s super sick.

I point at his chest. “Take your shirt off for me.”

He quirks a brow. “I like how this is sounding.”

He struggles to strip so I help. Despite his skin being hot to the touch, he starts shivering the moment the shirt is off.

I grab the jar of Vicks VapoRub I had delivered while Reynold was asleep.

“This will help you breathe better.” I take a dollop of the ointment on two fingers and spread it over his chest. He hisses at the sudden coolness of it.

Once I’m done, I wash my hands in the kitchen, then grab an ice pack from the freezer and wrap it in a towel.

Reynold’s eyes are closed again when I return, and I’m certain he’s asleep, but when I sit back down on the bed, he lifts his hand and rubs my bare leg… up my inner thigh.

I try to ignore the somersaults in my stomach caused by his touch and place the ice pack on his forehead.

“Watch those hands, buddy. You’re burning up and totally not sexy right now.”

Lie. Still sexy. Maybe even more with how needy he’s being. The tough action star, taken down by the common cold.

Men are such babies.

“I had plans for you,” Reynold murmurs. “I was going to sex you up so good.”

I snort. “You’re delirious.”

“Will you sleep with me tonight?”