Page 22 of Forbidden Dark Vows

What if no one else ever makes me feel this way again?

“No.” His eyes flash in the comforting twilight of the hospital room. “I want to do it right, Ruby. I want to … make you happy.”

He pulls me back into his arms, my head resting on his chest, my naked breasts squashed up against him under the covers, and I close my eyes. We stay that way until the nurses’ footsteps along the corridor as they start their early morning rounds jolt me awake.

I’m sitting in my seat, fully clothed, my lips and nipples still tingling from Harry’s kisses when the door opens, and the nurse comes in.

8

HARRY

I’m floatingthe next morning, and it has nothing to do with the meds they’re pumping into me. I wanted Ruby so badly, but there was no way I was screwing up our first time by making her do all the work … in a cramped hospital bed … with my friend snoring in the visitor’s seat.

I miss her presence beside me in bed the way I would miss my right arm. She has left a gaping hole through which I feel my essence gravitating towards her like bees to pollen. My eyes keep drifting to hers, the two of us exchanging glances that no one else would understand, and I already know that this is going to be our thing for the rest of our lives. We’ll be in our seventies and still messaging each other with our eyes.

Something has shifted between us overnight. Until now, the three of us have been a little family, bonding over silly games and telling stories, but now there’s me and Ruby, and Ronnie is like the distant cousin who’s trying to rediscover his niche. If he notices the change, he keeps it quiet.

The nurse comes in with her practical shoes, her ready smile, and her efficient bedside manner. “Morning, did you sleepwell?” She aims the question at me, and heat instantly rises in my face. I hope it isn’t going to affect my temperature.

“I did, thank you.” I flash another glance at Ruby, whose expression is completely neutral.

The nurse unwraps the cuff to go around my arm. “The snow is already starting to thaw out there.” She doesn’t say the words out loud, but she means that when the roads clear, Ruby and Ronnie can go home.

“Much longer, and my socks would’ve been walking out of here by themselves.” Ronnie cricks his neck from side to side.

“How long do you think Harry will be kept in?” Ruby asks.

“A few more days.” The nurse records my blood pressure on the chart at the end of the bed and removes the thermometer from under my tongue. “You’re welcome to come back and visit him.”

It’s their dismissal.

The bubble has been popped, and I already feel the pang of loss inside my chest. It won’t be the same without Ruby and Ronnie. I’ll be left alone with my thoughts and my bruises while they go back to their regular routines, and their worlds return to normal.

My world will never be normal again, not now that Ruby Jackson is in it.

The conversation over breakfast is more subdued than it has been the past couple of days. The card games are quiet, and Ronnie doesn’t even cheat at Snap.

So, our ears all prick up when we hear the raised voice from the corridor.

“Where is my daughter? I’ve come to take her home.”

Ruby’s shoulders are hunched up around her neck like she’s already preempting leaving the tropical ambience behind and stepping into the sub-zero temperatures outside the building. I don’t recognize the voice, but it’s obvious this is aimed at Ruby.

The voice comes closer.

“I’ll be having words with whoever runs this place. My daughter has been missing for three days, and where do I find her?”

Ruby stands up, the chair legs scraping across the floor behind her. She doesn’t say a word. She doesn’t need to—the crumpled expression on her face is enough.

“Ruby…” I reach for her hand, but she doesn’t take it.

“Are you leaving?” Ronnie stands too, and I feel so useless stuck in this damned hospital bed with my arm in plaster and a tube inserted into the back of my hand.

I don’t know what’s going on, or what has prompted her mom’s anger—Ruby called home on the first day to let her know that she was safe—but my veins are already pumping with anxiety.

The door bursts open, and Ruby’s mom stops on the threshold, surveying the room with eyes like bullets. She’s wearing a heavy navy-blue coat and an ivory woolen scarf that almost covers her chin.

Her eyes settle on Ruby, and a shudder of something, disappointment maybe, passes behind her eyes. “Get your coat. You’re coming home,” she says.

---