Page 23 of Desire Me
“You should sleep.”
Rae cocked a brow in Saint’s direction. “Do you really think tonight has been conducive to sleep?”
He eased himself into the recliner in the corner of the room. Or mini recliner—the chair was barely half his size and groaned as it accepted his weight. Just how big was he, anyway?
His grin lit those gorgeous hazel eyes. “If the nurses’ constant interruptions even let you, right?”
That look made her want to smile in return. Which just made her more suspicious. How could a guy be this beautiful? And how could a guy this beautiful be interested in her? She’d looked in the mirror a few times when she’d finally managed to start shuffling to the bathroom on her own, and she was no prize, especially not in her current condition.
Speaking of which, what was she going to do when she needed to shuffle to the bathroom? Saint wasn’t just going to stand on the sideline and wait. He’d be right there, hovering.
She smothered a groan and decided she’d deal with it when the time came. Maybe it wouldn’t.
Yeah, right.
“I don’t think I’m the only one who won’t be getting any sleep,” she pointed out, eyeing first the chair, then him. He’d be lucky if the thing didn’t collapse beneath him.
A sigh escaped as she rubbed at the pounding ache in her head that still hadn’t let up despite the meds the nurse had brought before Leah and Remi left. She’d felt oddly abandoned as they walked out the door, though she’d been the one to tell them to go. It was like pulling the rug out from under herself—sending away her own stability, her grounding. But she couldn’t rely on them to keep her stable. They had no connection between them aside from a curious nurse’s interest; at some point they’d walk out the door for good. Better to get used to standing on her own two feet—so to speak—now than later.
“I’ll be fine,” Saint was saying. She realized too late that he’d abandoned his chair for her bedside, but couldn’t bring herself to protest as he took up a perch on the edge of her mattress. “Hurting?”
The deep timbre of his voice, that seductive, concerned tone sent goose bumps down her arms. She rubbed at them, willing them to go away. “Most of the time,” she admitted, then stilled in surprise. She hadn’t even told the nurses that, so why tell him? The question didn’t stop the flow of words, however. “Residual headaches from the hit to the head. Supposedly they’ll go away eventually.”
“Supposedly?”
She shrugged. “They say a lot of things will get better.” Daring a glance up at him from under her eyelashes, she gave him a wry grin. “I have a feeling patience isn’t one of my virtues.”
He laughed lightly.
Staring at the man in front of her, she had a sudden desperate wish that she could remember even a hint of him. Those eyes. The curve of his lips. None of it was the slightest bit familiar.
“Is it, Saint?”
He raised a black brow. “Is it what?”
“Is patience one of my virtues?”
His amusement vanished like smoke. “I—” He hesitated, his hand reaching for her, then pulling back. “Can I hold your hand, Rae? Please?”
This time she was the one who hesitated.
“I just—” He dropped his gaze to the tight fists resting on her thighs. “It just feels wrong talking about this without touching you. Too impersonal. Not… close enough, I guess.”
The thread of uncertainty in his words decided her. She reached out a hand.
Saint took it carefully, a look of almost… awe crossing his face that had her choking up. That look couldn’t be fake, could it? How could anyone look that amazed to be touching another person?
“I didn’t think I’d get to do this again,” he murmured, his thumb stroking along the back of her hand. The words brought vague visions of Saint frantic, worried, searching desperately to figure out what had happened to her, and her heart lurched. The need to comfort was instinctive—she squeezed his hand.
He met her eyes, his own so intense she wanted to look away. She didn’t.
“I’ve tried to imagine what you’ve gone through the past week, and I can’t, Rae. I have no idea what it’s like to have everything you know—about yourself, your life, your world—be completely wiped out. It hurts”—he spread one strong hand wide across his sternum—“right here, knowing that’s what you’re going through.” The fingers surrounding hers tightened. “I’m not going to abandon you. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to walk beside you, all the way.”
Rae couldn’t breathe. His words, hisvowhit her in the most vulnerable part of her, the part that had been a frightened little girl who wanted to hide in the dark and have all of this go away. Wanted someone to swoop in and save her. But she couldn’t let him. She wasn’t even totally sure she could trust him.
She closed her eyes. “Saint—”
“It’s going to be okay, cariño. I promise. I won’t let it be anything else.”
