Page 159 of Just One Bite
“He can stay,” another person says.
Then my skin is warm, so much warmer than before.
It only feels like seconds, maybe minutes, before I hear his voice again, but it could’ve been longer. It’s louder this time.
“You’re being such stubborn pain in the ass. You gotta wake up. Come back to me, baby.” I feel Parker's fingers tracing circles on my arm, up my shoulder, and to the tip of my ear.
I will.I think it, trying to tell him through our bond. The room almost feels solid around me before it disappears again.
"I hope you're dreaming of me." His voice echoes close.
The sun greets me as my eyes fall open. The sheets are pressed, and the smell of linen is overpowered by something much more prominent. I’m being held. There’s an arm around my waist, and I lean into the scent of him. He’s dirty. Sweaty. But mine.
“Parker,” I say, turning to face him.
He jolts up and places a hand on my cheek. “Tell me you’re okay. Do youremember what happened?”
“You’re here. You’re safe,”he says, in my head.
“I’m okay. You were hurt?”
“Flesh wound.”
“You’re going to overwhelm her,” Eva says, and I realize we’re not alone.
“I remember.” I fall into him. “You saved me.”
Then he’s kissing me everywhere: lips, nose, cheeks, teeth. The kiss of a mate is enough to ease the tension lingering in my chest. I don’t hurt anywhere.
“Just to remind you both, we’re in the hospital. We. As in your sisters and many nurses are present, so maybe wait to fully make up in the bedroom.”
Emma.
I sit up and take everything in. I must be in a hospital in the city because it’s all white marble and white linens. The windows are open, showing the city below and the fresh scent of pollen signals me to flowers of all different colors around the room.
“What is all of this?” I stare at the flowers covering my bedside tables and overflowing onto the floor, making out a name on the biggest one.Darien.Next to his name is the photo of my mother and Parker's mother.
“I’ll show her.” Emma places her phone horizontally for me to watch something.
It’s a video, and I instantly recognize the wallpaper from the train car.
The camera pans to a shower, and Parker is holding me in his arms and whispering to me. It shows him from the chest up, rocking me while the water covers us. There’s blood smeared on his face and in his hair, with what looks like a bullet wound on his shoulder.
“Please don’t leave me, baby.”
He rests his cheek on my head as he sobs. “Stay with me please. Stay with me. Stay with me.”
I reach for him in horror, and he wraps an arm around my waist for comfort.
“Theentireschool has seen this?!”
“Yeah, and they love you for it.”
“Who filmed this?”
“It was your phone. Aster found it in the room I grabbed you from, and it was already recording,” Parker says.
“The conversations you recorded of Cane and the footage Aster got weremore than enough to expose Cane. You and Parker are front-page news. Again.”
