Page 101 of Fierce- Royce

He released his hands and put them on her ass, held her down as he lifted up into her again and again.

She felt herself climbing, but there was more this time. It was deeper and stronger and she wondered if it had to do with the love she felt and expressed or it was the hormones in her body.

Then as everything else let go, she asked herself why she even cared what the reason was and just had to accept that she was thrilled she was experiencing it.

35

How Short Life Is

“Royce, it’s Dad! You need to meet us at the hospital now,” Elise said a month later.

“What?” he said. He barely had time to answer before Elise was yelling into the phone at him. “What hospital? What is going on?”

“Duke,” Elise said. “He was having chest pains in the office. The ambulance just took him away. Hurry.”

“Shit,” he said. He was at the commercial building right now overseeing multiple projects going on at once. He and Elise hadn’t wanted to cut back other jobs either so they were going full force into their crazy work schedule and it would only continue for months.

He’d been thrilled when his father said he wanted to get out and help the oversight more and he’d made sure his father was not doing much more than checking on things and not doing any heavy work.

He must not have been paying enough attention for this to happen.

The minute he got to his truck he called Chloe quickly. “Hi, Royce. What’s going on?”

“It’s my father. He’s on the way to the hospital via ambulance. Elise just called and said he was having chest pains.”

“Oh my God. I’ll come as soon as I can.”

“No,” he said. “You don’t need to.”

“I do,” she said. “Text me when you get there so I know where I’m going. I’m not letting you do this alone and you know it.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate it.”

He raced to the hospital and found Elise. “I don’t know anything else.”

“I didn’t think you would,” he said. “Just tell me what happened.”

“I don’t know. Dad didn’t look good today. I noticed he hasn’t lately. I asked what was going on and he said he was just tired. He’d been a little lightheaded earlier, but he hadn’t eaten anything.”

“Did you tell him to call his doctor?” he asked.

“Royce. He never listens to us. You know that. I’m lucky I got that much out of him.”

He knew that. His father was stubborn that way and didn’t want his kids to worry. “Did you bring him food at least?”

“Of course I did,” Elise said. “I made him some toast and put peanut butter on it. He ate it all and had coffee. Then he seemed fine. He buzzed me to come into his office quickly and I ran in there and he was holding his chest. I panicked and called nine-one-one and he didn’t argue with me.”

“He’s doing too much again. Damn it. I know he’s trying to take shit off my plate so I can be with Chloe, but she understands. She gets it.”

“You can’t tell Dad anything and you know it,” she said. “Don’t blame yourself for this. We don’t even know what it is. Maybe it’s just heartburn.”

He hoped but didn’t think that was the case.

He texted Chloe to fill her in and she said she was on her way and would be there soon. There was no reason to tell her not to come. He wanted her here anyway.

An hour went by while they all sat there and waited without any answers. It was driving him insane, but Chloe kept him and Elise calm. Guess he knew she was good under pressure.

“I’d get you another coffee, but you don’t need to be any more wired,” Chloe said to him.

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