Page 3 of Crown of Thorns
Chapter 2
Scared me
Gradually, I float back up to the water’s surface. I floated, adrift, for who knows how long. All I know is that I must be dead. I’m surprisingly at peace with that. If my piece is moved off of the game board then no one else will be harmed on my behalf or to punish me.
Is this heaven?
Will I finally see my mom and dad again? Butterscotch, the dog I had when I was a little girl?
My lashes sweep my cheeks and flutter upward like a butterfly’s wings over and over until I can finally hold my eyes open. A blurred form sits near me. I blink again to clear my vision.
The broad shoulders of a man slowly come into focus, and my breath stalls in my lungs.
“You gave me a fright, hen,” Rhys says in his deepbrogue, and I realize I’m not in heaven. I’m still in hell.
I stop fighting and sink into the pillows of the hospital bed, pushing out a frustrated breath between my lips. It’s like I’m stuck in that old movie,Groundhog’s Day. Every time I wake up, I’m still here. I squeeze my eyes tight to quell the tears of both anger and frustration that are bubbling to the surface. It’s no use. One slips free and I feel its hot trail burn down my cheek.
“Oh, don’t do that,” he says softly in his rumbly voice that I love so much as he shifts his large frame closer to me. “I hate to see you cry.”
“Then stop making me cry,” I whisper.
Can’t he see that he’s hurting me? That he keeps hurting me over and over again? I was better off in my quiet lonely life in New England. I had a job I loved and a little apartment that was mine. Eventually, I’d have adopted a cat. It was a quiet life, but it was peaceful and mine… even if it was lacking a bit.
“I’m afraid I canno’ do that,” he says gently. “I canno’ let you go.”
“You have to.” I pull in a deep breath to shore up my courage and open my eyes to look at him. He looks ravaged with emotion, but I just don’t trust it. How can I know what’s real and what’s not? “I know. I know everything. It’s okay.”
“You do no’.”
“I know about the other women,” I whisper and my chest shudders with the sob I refuse to let free. “I know that you don’t even want me. It’s okay, I promise. Justlet me go home.”
Rhys presses closer. His chest hovers above mine as he leans in, his face just inches from mine. The monitors behind me speed up their beeping to match my heart rate.
“You know not one fucking thing, hen, and I suggest you close your gorgeous mouth before you piss me off.”
“But—”
“No,” he says before he fists his hand in the tangle of hair behind my head and kisses the life out of me. I wish I could say that I stop it, that I push him away knowing I’m just a pawn in a game of global power and intrigue. But I don’t. Rhys has and always will be a weakness of mine, and I let him part my lips with his tongue to sweep further inside, tasting me, owning me. Truthfully, I do nothing but hold on for dear life.
The door slams open and I hear the stampede of footsteps fill the room. I pull back and open my eyes to see a doctor and two nurses all staring at us, wide eyed.
“I’ll, uh… just note the alarm as a glitch in the monitor,” the doctor says, bowing his head to Rhys, before rushing from the room.
The two nurses burst out laughing before turning to us. “I guess if you can snog like that, you can probably go home in a bit. I’ll check with Dr. Stanley when he’s composed himself a bit.”
“Carry on,” the other one says as she turns to follow her friend. “It’s good to see you well. We’re allso glad that you’re here,” she says before bobbing a curtsy and walking out the door.
“See?” I snap, slapping at his rock hard chest.
“See what?” he asks with a stupidly smug smirk on his face. The bastard is proud to be caught making out like a couple of teenagers.
“This is why I have to go home! A king can’t be seen making out with his girlfriend.” Doesn’t he get it? There’s a level of decorum that needs to be maintained here and I’m failing at every hurdle. But worse, he’s a cheating bastard who doesn’t love me and someone wants me dead.
“Probably not all the time,” he says with a smile on his face like he’s explaining something simple to a child. “But when the king’s fiancée is almost killed in a car wreck like his mother was, then it’s probably understandable that he’s so overcome with happiness and love that he gets swept away in the moment.”
“I see you already have your spin in place,” I mutter to myself.
“My spin?” he asks.
