Sleeping With the Help (Toyboy Lover) by Ava Rush Read Free Book Online

couch in the living room, then I rushed into the master bathroom and fumbled around in the cabinet for antiseptics and dressings. Certainly not the way I'd envisioned the night progressing when I'd woken up.
    While Claudia saw to her brother I disappeared into the hall and made a surreptitious call to a doctor who owed me a favor. Waking him at close to midnight naturally put him in a bad mood, but he agreed to come.
    “I couldn't take you back to your house. It wouldn't do your mother any good to see you like this,” I said on my return to the room.
    Claudia had managed to clean the blood from his face. Surprisingly his eyes were not badly bruised, though a couple of cuts above the brow gave cause for concern, as the blood looked as if it would run into his eyes. His nose bled intermittently and his bottom lip was bloated and red. He pressed a napkin with ice to the swollen areas of his face, lying back on my couch, his blood-stained and mud-stained clothes making a mess of my expensive furniture. A purple bruise sat on his temple. Once again he looked like the boy I knew, not like a victim; though each time his sister applied antiseptic cream to his wounds, he winced.
    “She's in Puerto Rico,” Claudia said. “We sent her there last week to recuperate.”
    “Well that's something at least. She doesn't need any more stress in her condition.”
    “Who did you call?” Eduardo fixed his eyes on me, so suspicious, as though I'd stolen from his bank account! “I heard you on the phone. Who did you call?”
    “You wouldn't let me take you to the hospital, so I called a doctor friend of mine. He'll be here shortly.”
    “You people. I don't need a fucking doctor!” he grumbled. He tried to get up, tried to shove his sister's hand away, but his face contorted with pain and he fell back down, gripping his sides.
    “Your ribs would beg to differ,” I said, holding back a smirk. Now wasn't the time for it.
     
    “I've given him Oxycontin for the pain,” the doctor explained as I walked him to the door. The bags under his eyes and the puffy redness surrounding them were indication enough that he needed to rest. It had probably been weeks since he'd had a good night's sleep. I felt bad for having disturbed him.
    “There doesn't seem to be any broken bones, they're just bruised. I've bandaged him up, but I strongly advise he gets to the hospital first thing in the morning for a thorough check-up.”
    “And in the meantime?”
    “Let him rest. He's sleeping now. He'll feel better when he wakes up.” He handed me a pill bottle. “He should take two of these with breakfast.”
    I thanked him for coming at such short notice. He grunted and exited the house. I probably wouldn't be on the Christmas card list this year...
    I set up the guest room for Claudia, insisting that she stay the night.
    “Why did you call me?” I asked, just before I left her.
    “Because you were there for my mom. She says you're a good person.” I searched for the deception in her words, the manipulation, but I found none. Just honesty.
    “Your mother said that? About me?” Emotion suddenly overtook me. I'd been called many things, but a good person wasn't one of them.
    “Sure she did.”
    “Well, your brother doesn't seem to think so.”
    Claudia sat on the edge of the bed. “It's nothing personal. He doesn't trust people who have more money than him. Thinks they're evil.” She shrugged, offering me a light smile. “That means virtually the whole world is evil.”
    I left her to sleep, in disbelief that she could be related to Eduardo, such a recalcitrant boy. She got her gregarious nature from her mother, clearly. Either way, I took heed of her words. I wouldn't take his attacks personally. His issues existed long before I'd entered their lives.
     
    I slept restlessly, tossing and turning into the early hours, until finally, when I'd tossed myself to the edge of the bed and almost fallen out, I gave up trying to get any more