Page 54 of The Billionaire's Temporary Governess (French Conquests 2)

Naisha awoke to the sound of the world’s most annoying alarm clock. Seriously, who thought that would be a good idea? Just beeping on and on like that. It was enough to make you want to turn over and go back to sleep.

She did try turning over, and the agony that ripped through her made her cry out and return to her original position. Which was when she realized her arm seemed to be tethered to a thing full of tubes, and that was where the beeping was coming from.

“Uhmmm?”

Her eyes fully open, she looked around in panic. Everything was white. The bed, the sheets, the walls. This was not her room. This was not her bed.

Before she could say anything again, a face loomed over hers, and concern and tenderness were written all over it. She struggled to bring her vision into focus.

“Hey, mon trésor.” Gentle. Soothing.

“Liam?”

His hand touched her cheek. “I’m here.”

She tried to sit up again, but between his restraining hand and the infernal webbing of tubes poking into and out of her, she was forced to lie back again.

She wasn’t sure she liked this.

“What happened?”

He perched next to her on the edge of the hospital bed and took her hand. “You got shot—”

“Shot! How?” Her hand came up to her right shoulder, the place where it hurt. It was thick with bandages.

“Abe.”

She gasped as memory returned. “Willa!” She looked around frantically, as if she expected to see the child in the bed next to her. When she realized they were alone in the room, she felt tears spike her eyes. “Please, please, tell me she—”

He smiled. “She’s fine. She sat here with me every day, waiting on you to wake up. I just sent her down to Yvette’s for something to eat. She was just wasting away, pining for you.”

She gave him a suspicious look. “What do you mean, ‘every day’?”

“You’ve been asleep for well over a week. You were badly injured, Naisha. The bullet went in under the clavicle on your right side and exited through your armpit. You bled so much.”

He looked as if to say any more would kill him. “We nearly lost you.Inearly lost you.”

Liar!she thought. Asleep for a week? Almost killed? That wasn’t even possible. But the pain in her arm told her that damage had been done, so indeed—she certainly could have been asleep a while.

He saw her prodding the bandages and grasped her hand, pulling it away. “One, stop poking at it. You’re only going to hurt yourself, and then I’m going to have to call the doctor in. And that means no lollipop for you.”

Despite her dire circumstances, she grinned weakly at that.

He went on. “Two, didn’t anyone ever tell you not to leap in front of a man firing a gun? That was crazy, Naisha.”

She saw again that awful scenario playing out before her eyes. Abe spinning around like a madman, waving the gun. Men rolling in from everywhere, shouting and Willa, in complete panic, running and screaming.

And that gun.

“But Willa.”

He pressed his lips against hers lightly. “That’s number three: I might live a hundred years, Naisha, but I will never, ever be able to thank you enough for saving my beautiful little girl. I don’t know what would have happened to her if you hadn’t stepped in, and I can’t even contemplate. The thought of it gives me waking nightmares. I—” He exhaled, hard, and tried again. “I can only say thank you.” He lowered his head onto her shoulder, and she looped her good arm around his neck, inhaling the scent of him. “And that I’ll never let you be hurt again.”

She eyed him anxiously. “What about Abe? What if he comes back?”

His pause was long and dreadful. “He’s dead, Naisha. Juneau’s men managed to get the gun away from him, but he grabbed one from another officer and pointed it at him. The man’s partner stopped him. With one shot.” He was peering at her uncertainly, not sure how she would take the news.

She wasn’t sure, either. The thought that a man could be dead over this. It was insane. How had it gotten this bad? How had it come to this insane level of violence? A huge part of her grieved for the loss of a human life, but she had to admit, almost sheepishly, that part of her was relieved.

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