Page 38 of Forbidden Bond

“Mo Grá,” she said to no one, unaware if the camera had audio. “Know my last thought was of you.”

Closing her eyes, she sank onto her back, holding the hope of oblivion. Feeling nothing was better than the numbness of boiling fear. Love. Strat was right. Everything was rooted in love.

Tears, the last vestige of herself, seeped out onto their sheets. Their happiness, their pleasure, there wasn’t a better place to surrender. Her life was his. She was his. In life… and whatever came next.

FOURTEEN

HEAVY, her mouth was dry. Peeling her tongue from the roof of her mouth, the aching sting in her throat demanded a cough, but that was too much effort.

God, her head hurt. Her sinuses burned. What was—

“Try not to move.”

A voice. Who the hell said that? Opening her eyes was difficult. When she tried, the heat of light closed them again.

“Who is that?”

“You’re safe, Miss McLeod.”

Not if she didn’t know who was with her.

Conn’s room at the loft was never bright, not like this, except… Memory returned slowly. Not that details mattered. Only one thing counted.

“Conn,” she whispered.

The voice wasn’t his. His brogue was one she’d recognize anywhere, and it definitely wasn’t in that room with her. If he wasn’t there, if she wasn’t…

Forcing her eyelids apart, she didn’t see anything familiar. White walls, an overhead light, rolling her head on the pillow sent another shot of pain in every direction. Wincing against it, she couldn’t give into it, she could be in danger, vulnerable…

“Please stay still.”

“Who are you?”

The guy at her bedside was writing something on a clipboard. Was this a hospital? No, there was a mirror on the wall and a dresser in the corner by a long window, pale curtains closed over it. Was it night?

“I’m looking after you,” the stranger said, putting the clipboard on the nightstand.

“Where am I?”

“Still in the city, don’t worry. We needed to bring you here for—you’re safe.”

“This isn’t a hospital.”

“No, but we are taking care of you.”

“Who is we?” she asked, fighting the pain to sit up.

When he tried to pressure her shoulders back, she batted his arms away.

“Please, you’re still weak.”

Weak, yeah, still had some fight in her though.

“Not too weak to blast out of here.”

What was obvious to her? Wherever she was, Conn wasn’t there.

“No, but Miss McLeod—”

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