Page 38 of Love Set Free

Phoenix beats me to it, passing one he already has in his hand over the electronic lock next to the door. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I suppose that answers the question of how he got into my room last night.

“At least I know I’ll never have to worry about you lying to me,” he comments as he opens the door and waves for me to go in ahead of him. “I’ll always be able to tell if you do.”

“S’pose so,” I agree. “Guess I’ll just never lie to you then.”

Again, I think to myself. Although, is not telling someone the whole truth the same as lying? Probably. I definitely haven’t told Phoenix the whole truth. Not about me, not about how I came into his life. And if I want to keep him—and I do—then I probably never will.

But what I can do is never lie to him again. As long as it’s not anything about his kidnapping, that is.

After the door swings shut behind us, Phoenix double checks that it’s locked. He walks over to the pale, cream-colored sofa in the suite’s sitting area and flops down onto it. Seriously, why is everything in this hotel some shade of white? It makes me so nervous to touch anything. But I guess I’ll just have to chance getting some dirt on it, because there’s no way I’m going to pass up on the opportunity to sit next to Phoenix and cuddle up with him.

“I can’t believe they kept us for almost three hours,” Phoenix says with a groan. He grabs the remote for the TV and props his feet up on the square, wooden coffee table. At least it isn’t white. But I still mentally cringe at the scuff marks he’s probably leaving in the glossy, dark finish.

“And here I can’t believe the policeonlykept us for three hours," is my response as I settle myself on the sofa, next to him. “I was anticipatin’ they’d be throwing questions at us all night. And probably all tomorrow morning too. I could even see ’em houndin’ after us as we tried to get on y’all‘s plane.”

“Hmmpf. I’d never allow that." Phoenix’s scoffing expression changes to a worried look as he partially turns toward me. “You know…we don’t have to watch a movie,” he says. I’m all set to nod and agree with him, thinking he’s about to suggest that we move right on to the cuddling portion of the night, when Phoenix comments, “It seems like your accent gets more noticeable, the more tired you are. If you’re too tired…I can let you go to bed. Get some more rest.”

It doesn’t escape me, his use of the singular in his suggestion. It doesn’t sound as if he’s suggesting we both go to bed together. Nope, it only sounds like he thinks I should head off to bed. By myself. And that… Nuh uh. Not what I want, at all.

“Nope. I’m not tired at all,” I tell him, making sure to enunciate as best I can to lessen my natural drawl. I’d nevernoticed if it does get worse, the more tired I am. Maybe, maybe not. But I don’t want to give Phoenix any reason to leave.

“If you’re sure.” He doesn’t sound convinced, but he does some of my arguing for me as he adds, “But, I suppose, you can always get some sleep on the plane tomorrow. The flight takes almost an entire half a day.”

“Exactly.” I immediately leap on what he just said. “I can sleep on the plane. In fact, we should both stay up as late as we can tonight, so that we can sleep through most of the flight tomorrow.”

Phoenix drapes his arm over the back of the couch and I immediately snuggle against him, into the space he made.

“Alright, sweetheart. You make a valid point. Movies now, sleep on the plane tomorrow.” With that settled, Phoenix turns the TV on and begins scrolling through the various movies available to stream.

After I curled into his side, Phoenix moved his arm to wrap around my shoulders and his left hand is now lightly resting on my chest. How I keep forgetting about it, I don’t know. Probably because Phoenix hasn’t been making a big deal about it, or even mentioning it, but the white bandage wrapped around his finger—which is definitely looking a little on the grungier side—reminds me that Phoenix is injured. Those fucking assholes hurt my Phoenix.

But, except for a few hours last night, Phoenix hasn’t been out of my sight.

“You haven’t had anybody look at your hand, have you?” I ask him, not intentionally trying to sound accusatory, even if that’s how it comes out.

“Um…no?”

The blasted, infernal man. He doesn’t even sound like it’s any sort of thing that he has an untreated wound.

“Phoenix! You need to… We need to… Right now,” I say. “Screw watching a movie. We’ve gotta track down a doctor and get you seen right away.”

I could just about growl with frustration when all the dang man does is shush me and kiss me on the temple.

“It’s fine. Barely even hurts.” He idly raises his hand away from my chest and holds it out. “Bandage could do with replacing, I guess.”

“Phee…”

“Alright, alright,” he replies in response to the note of warning in my voice. “Why don’t we make a deal?” he asks, and I impatiently wait to hear what sort of deal he’s about to spring on me. It probably isn’t my place, but darned if I won’t shoot his deal down and make him go see a doctor if I have to. “The pilot and co-pilot of my family’s jet are both trained and certified EMTs. How about I have one of them look at my finger tomorrow? They can tell us if it’s something that needs to be taken care of right away or if it can wait until we land back in the States and I can book an appointment with a doctor there. Frankly, that’d be my preference. Not that I’m not sure there’s perfectly reputable and capable doctors here, in Brazil. But if it does need any sort of surgery…that’d delay us from leaving and getting back home. And I’d really rather not have to stay here in Rio any longer than we already have.”

It sounds reasonable. Although, what do I know about medicine and treating wounds?

“And these pilots…you swear they’re qualified to give you the right answer?” I ask.

“Mmhmm. I promise.”

“And you will show them your finger and ask them what the best option is? Not the most convenient option, or the one you want, but thebestoption?"

“I promise,” Phoenix says again. “I won’t bully them to change their mind or glower at them if they give me a recommendation I don’t like. I promise I’ll do whatever they say. Okay, sweetheart?”

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