Page 71 of I Choose You
Reid shuffled to the bed like a zombie, his body too weak to pick up his feet. I got him settled on the side of the bed where I had slept. At least it wasn’t wet with sweat. His temperature was definitely elevated, so I went to the bathroom to wet a facecloth for him.
A knock on the door came a minute later. A housekeeper delivered the supplies I had asked for, and I gave her a tip for her trouble.
Reid was already asleep again, so I took the new pillow and set it on the chair. I sat atop the blanket next to his curled-up,sick body, gently pressing the cool facecloth to his forehead.
He moaned in appreciation, his eyelids fluttering. I sat like that for a while, running my fingers through his hair and resting the cloth against his warm skin. When I pulled back so I could rewet the facecloth, keeping it cool, Reid reached out and grabbed my hand.
“No,” he mumbled. “Don’t go.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m just going to get the cloth cold again. I’ll be right back.” I kissed his forehead.
“Don’t leave me. I love you.”
I stilled.
His voice was soft and mumbled. He was probably asleep in some fever dream. He didn’t mean it, but it made my heart beat faster all the same.
He loved me?
No. He was just delirious.
Right?
I ran cold water over the facecloth and over my wrists. I was starting to get warm. I hoped I wasn’t getting what he had. We couldn’t both be down for the count.
The clock on the nightstand read 4:00 a.m. I sat beside Reid, occasionally rewetting the cloth and coming right back for the next few hours. Finally, his fever broke around 6:30 a.m., so I left him to sleep peacefully and made up the chair for myself.
My mind was racing. Was Reid expressing his innermost thoughts when he mumbled those words? Was he just appreciative of me taking care of him? Was it a fever dream that had him saying things he didn’t mean?
He couldn’t be in love with me. This was temporary. He knew that. I knew that. But we hadn’t talked about it ina while. I had been avoiding bringing it up, enjoying our moments together far too much to risk it all going up in flames.
The hard chair was uncomfortable, and from where I was, I could see the first rays of light through a crack in the curtains. Sleep wasn’t happening tonight, so after I tossed and turned for a while, trying to find a position that didn’t hurt my back, I gave up on it and got in the shower.
Reid was awake when I came out of the bathroom, looking so much better than he did last night, but still not one hundred percent.
“Morning. How are you feeling?”
“Better, mostly.” His eyes raked down my body—I had only a towel wrapped around me—before they flitted to the chair where a blanket and pillow were still laid out. “Did you sleep on the chair last night?”
“Not really. I lay there for a few hours this morning. Mostly, I sat by you, trying to cool your temperature down after you emptied your stomach.”
Reid groaned. “I’m sorry. You didn’t need to see that.”
I laughed lightly. He had said the same thing last night. Not that he seemed to remember it.
“Do you remember anything from last night?” I pulled the towel away from my body, using it to pat my hair dry.
His gaze zeroed in on my boobs, then trailed up and down my body. His jaw hung open, and his tongue swiped across his bottom lip.
“Not really. But if I embarrassed myself or said something stupid, then I am very, very sorry. Extremely sorry. Please don’t hold it against me, unless that ‘it’ is your perfect body. Then you can hold it against me all you want.”
He stalked toward me like a predator, desire and lust blazing in his eyes.
“Oh, no. I don’t think so,” I laughed, poking him in the chest. “I saw some things last night. You’re going to need a minimum of twelve hours of keeping food down.”
His groan was mixed with laughter. “That seems fair.” He looked me in the eye and wrapped his hand around my head. “Thank you for taking care of me. I really appreciate it.” He placed a soft kiss to my forehead.
“You’re welcome.”
