Page 47 of Crave Me

With that, he headed out of the room. Asher followed. Caspian hesitated for a brief moment, but then he took off with them, not even saying goodbye, not connecting with me at all.

He was standing at more of a distance as time went on by.

The man who always expressed his love and care for us was now just a shadow of that former self of his. He was basically locked down.

And I hated it.

I hated that it had come to any of this.

I pulled up the chair from Bastian’s desk and settled beside the bed, my mind swirling with so much worry and anxiety.

The urge to go with them had been hard to swallow down, but I just hadn’t been able to bring myself to leave Bastian’s side now that he was finally back here with us. It would have been a massive fight with Caspian and in all likelihood a futile uphill battle to convince him to allow me to be present after he’d found out about my other off-the-books mission also.

As much as it was hard for me to simply stand down and sit on the sidelines of anything, especially when I most definitely had the skills to see to it, sometimes you just had to pick your battles.

“Sky?”

I jolted, pulled from my burdensome thoughts, where I’d been stroking Bastian’s hair and staring off into space.

I looked to see that his eyes were opening and he was squinting to take me in.

I grasped his hand and gave it a soft squeeze. “Yeah, sweets, it’s me. I’m here. I’m here with you.”

A weak smile graced his lips and he croaked, “Best sight to wake up to.” His lip curled. “You being naked would’ve been the cherry on top.” He shifted his weight slightly and winced. “Although, there’s not much I could do about that right now, huh?”

I chuckled. It was a good sign that he was going there. “Not really, no.” I stroked my thumb over the back of his hand and shuffled right to the edge of the chair to be closer to him. “Anticipation makes it all the sweeter, though, right?”

He laughed, and the sound warmed me, especially after not hearing it for so long.

Unfortunately, it quickly turned into a coughing fit for him, his throat clearly too dry to take the strain of it at the moment.

I let go of him, then snatched up the glass of water I’d brought in for him a little while ago.

He shifted in the bed before I could stop him, pushing into a sitting position. “Careful,” I warned. “You’re still weak and you need a lot of rest and basically no exertion whatsoever. And there’s also the IV hooked up to you.”

“I’ll be careful, baby,” he said, managing it slowly, then leaning his head back exhaustedly against the headboard.

I handed him the glass and his fingers shook around it, his arm too, as he only just managed to bring it to his lips.

“Just sips, okay?”

He followed my instructions—unlike a certain somebody else—and took a few sips, then licked his dry lips. I helped him ease the glass down and he breathed a heavy sigh. “Much better.”

I picked up the container of Jello beside it on the table and held it out to him. “You must be hungry. The doctor said you need to ease into eating solid foods again, but this will be okay. Green Jello—lime flavor. Damien told me it’s your favorite flavor. But if you don’t feel like this, I also had some soup made. I mean, we could also do a little bit of mashed potatoes if you want and—”

He grasped my hand, jarring me from my rambling. “Sky, I’m okay. I’m back with you. And I’ll be fine.”

“I… yeah, of course. I know and—”

He squeezed my fingers gently. “I promise. I’m all good.”

I eased my hand away and then I was scrambling onto the bed right beside him. All the worry and grief of the last few days that I’d been holding back finally took me over and I sank against him, holding him tightly to me with trembling hands as I breathed him in. “I missed you. I missed you so much. I was so worried that—”

“Shh,” he said, wrapping his free arm that wasn’t attached to the IV around me and stroking my back. “I’m here now. I’m here, beautiful.”

It took me several moments to get myself together and when I finally did, I eased back a little so I wasn’t actually squeezing the life out of him.

“I love you,” he said, reaching out and wiping my tears away.

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