Page 30 of Contractually Wed

“Rearing to take me on,” he added, running his thumb over the tattoo.

“Wait.” Color flushed her sharp cheeks and it was a welcome sight. “You were present...when I couldn’t walk to the bathroom, and the other day when I threw up...”

“All me.”

She buried her face in her hands, groaning. Then she lowered her fingers. “And when I had that really bad dream and woke up thrashing?”

“I got into bed with you.” And he had stayed with her for the rest of the night.

“You were here the entire time? The whole time,” she said, her chest rising and falling as if she’d reached some impossible conclusion.

He felt insulted that she found it shocking he would look after her. What did she think he meant bycommitment? And what did it mean that he couldn’t make himself leave her side?

“Your fever was too high and you were delirious. The doctor said someone should be with you every minute. Plus, you’ve got your fingers stuck in half the firm’s projects, so there wasn’t really a point in me harassing the rest of the team for progress.”

Pushing her hair away from her face, she sighed. “So you’re angry that everything’s backed up at work? That was quite the ferocious expression you had earlier.”

It was the perfect out for Apollo to take. But then, he’d never harbored self-delusion. “I was frustrated. And I’m not the greatest at sitting patiently doing nothing.”

“That’s quite shocking to know,” she said, sarcasm dripping from each word. “Why frustrated though?”

“No one can tell me, apparently, why you got so sick.”

Her mouth slackened. And then she smiled. And Apollo felt as if his entire world had turned upside down. “Apollo, there can be a hundred reasons why I got sick. And—”

“Yes, but the rest of us are well. Only you got sick. I don’t like it. Nor was the speed at which you’ve been recovering to my liking.”

“Oh, I’m sorry that I’m not recovering fast enough to please Your Grumpy Highness.” And then, because she was Jia, she tossed a throw pillow at him. It hit him in the chest and dropped to the floor.

“Now I know you’re truly on the mend,” he said, getting up and walking toward the door. She’d need more than the broth she’d been surviving on to recover. Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, his entire workload slammed into his brain, claiming his attention.

“Wait, Apollo.”

He turned to find her combing her fingers through her hair and pulling it into a knot. The action pushed her breasts upward, her nipples poking through the silk top. Her stomach looked even leaner than before. The desire to hold her gripped him like a vise but it wasn’t just the base lust to claim, own and find that delicious edge. It was more.

Whatever she saw in his gaze, a flush climbed up her chest and neck. Like a newborn calf testing its legs, she got off the bed gingerly.

Apollo went to her just as she stumbled and she fell against him with a huff. And then her hands went around his waist, and she clung to him. “Thank you for taking care of me. Even if I cost you thousands.”

“Millions, Tornado,” he said, his voice strange to his own ears.

She dragged her teeth against his chest roughly, teasing and provoking him. And he realized a great big thing that he’d overlooked all this time. Willingly enough, she’d given him everything she’d had ever since walking into his penthouse.

Except now, he wanted the thing she thought she didn’t have.

He held her loosely, sudden itching to get away from her. From himself in this state. But she was soft and warm and sweaty in his arms and he had missed her lithe body, her tart comments and how hard she made it to gain an inch of her trust but when she did...

“I take my vows seriously, Jia,” he said, pressed a kiss to the top of her head and then walked out.

Jia stood under the double-jet shower after Apollo left and tried to make sense out of her knotted thoughts. Before they turned into feelings and wishes and hopes and foolish dreams.

But she was afraid that she was already too late.

The fact that Apollo hadn’t left her to herself, the energy and hours he’d put into looking after her...she didn’t know what to make of it.

He was a billionaire...he could have given her care over to any number of staff. Even his frustration that she wasn’t getting better fast enough...had cloaked something far deeper. She was sure of that, even as she warned herself not to make it into a big deal.

Her mind spun in circles as she stepped out of the shower and looked at herself in the mirror. She’d lost weight just in two weeks and looked even more angular than usual. But her eyes, even sunken, held a glow, as if a small flicker of joy had been lit up within. Work life where she was noticed and respected, a family that offered unconditional acceptance and care, and a man who respected her and challenged her and then turned her inside out with his demands at night...

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