Page 16

An Awful Patient

T he next time Nikhail woke, he was no longer alone. The scent of fresh rain flooded his senses, pulling him firmly out of the land of dreams back to reality, warning him that someone else was in the room.

He inhaled deeply, the pleasant aroma filling his lungs as he slowly opened his eyes.

The lights were brilliant suns, and their unwelcome glares seemed to shine directly at him.

It took a minute for his vision to adjust, but as soon as it did, he swung his gaze to the left, where the fresh rain was the strongest.

His breath caught in his throat, and for the longest moment, he didn’t move. He couldn’t, lest the fragile moment shatter like a piece of glass.

River was slumped over in a red hospital armchair, her chin resting in her hand. Her eyes were closed as she dozed. Strands of brown hair were escaping her ponytail, and shadows darkened the skin beneath her eyes. Even in wrinkled pink scrubs, she was beautiful.

Nikhail hadn’t seen River since she left his house the morning after the storm. He’d picked up the phone to call her several times since then, his thumb hovering over her name, but he hadn’t done it. He wasn’t sure what her coming to him meant, and he wasn’t ready to ask her yet.

He couldn’t get that night out of his mind, couldn’t stop thinking about the desperate way she had looked at him.

She’d placed her trust in him that night, and he was certain it meant something.

Just as it meant something that he kept thinking about how well she had fit in his arms and how good his bed had smelled after she spent the night in it.

Nikhail had spoken to Ryker several times since that night. Even though he knew his best friend would want to know about his sister’s storm, Nikhail kept that information to himself. Breaking River’s confidence felt deeply wrong, and he refused to do it.

It was unbelievable how quickly River had turned his world around. For years, Nikhail had been dealing with his feelings for her without any issue, but she’d tested his carefully cultivated control the night she showed up on his stoop.

Every day since then, remembering why his best friend’s sister was off-limits was more difficult than ever.

It wasn’t that Nikhail had completely ignored River over the past four years. On the contrary, she’d been the central player in his fantasies that whole time. When it was late, and the stars were his only witness, hers was the face he pictured when he sought relief with his hand.

That had been fine. He’d been all right with the way things were. The way things had to be.

But now, everything had changed.

Now that Nikhail knew how good River felt in his arms, now that he knew how fucking stunning she looked in his bed, covered in his blanket, it was harder than ever to remember why they couldn’t be together .

River called to him in a way that no one else ever had. His soul was drawn to hers.

He shifted, trying to get a better look at her, but he moved too quickly. The paper-thin hospital gown crinkled—this one was free of blood, so someone must’ve changed him—and the sound was akin to a roar in the otherwise silent room.

River’s head shot up, and her brows knit together. A heartbeat later, she was on her feet.

“Nik.” She breathed his name as if it were half-curse, half-benediction. Her gorgeous eyes swept over him studiously, as if she were checking him for injuries. When she didn’t seem to find any, her gaze returned to his face. “You are an awful patient.”

The words were so unexpected—what happened to “how are you feeling?”—that a laugh burst out of him. In hindsight, that was a mistake.

A blaze raced through him, and his abdominal muscles screamed. He cursed, clutching his side.

“See? What did I tell you?” Crossing the room, River placed her hand on his forehead.

The most adorable frown overtook her features, and it took all his willpower not to rub out the crease between her eyes with his thumb.

What had gotten into him? “You sustained serious injuries, Nikhail Galebringer. You need to be more careful.”

He knew he was being scolded, and he should probably feel bad that he’d worried her, but he couldn’t seem to wipe the smile from his face.

River was touching him, and for once, he wasn’t thinking about all the reasons why he was supposed to stay away from her. The contact felt good, and he wasn’t strong enough to pull away from her.

“I know,” he murmured .

His gaze was trained on River’s face, and even though he knew he should be careful, even though it felt like his feelings for her were rapidly careening out of his control, he was finding he didn’t care.

Would she keep touching him if he remained still?

Her frown deepened, and she brushed her thumb across his forehead. “Do you?”

“Yes,” he said.

“I don’t believe you.” She pulled her hand back and crossed her arms. He would’ve mourned the lack of her touch, but the stern look she was giving him made up for it. “What in Dyna’s holy name possessed you to yank out your IV and try to leave the hospital, Nikhail?”

The way she said his name, all fire and worry, had him feeling more alive now than he had over the past month. Maybe even the past four years.

“I needed to get back to work,” he told her.

That was still the case, but somehow, it seemed less urgent now that she was here with him.

“Work?” She stared at him as though he’d lost his mind, and maybe she was right. Maybe he wasn’t thinking straight, and he’d sustained some kind of brain injury. Maybe that explained why he was desperate to get closer to her.

Wrapping his hands in the thin sheets to stop himself from reaching out for her, he reminded himself that this wasn’t just anyone. This was Ryker’s sister, she was significantly younger than him, and they were friends, nothing more.

All reasons he’d told himself hundreds of times before.

“You never would’ve made it out of the hospital, Nik.” Her voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and he refocused his eyes on her.

“I didn’t realize it was that serious. ”

“Not that serious?” She laughed, the sound lacking all humor. It faded when she seemed to realize he wasn’t joking. “Nik.” How could one syllable sound so good? “You were knocking on death’s door.”

Maybe he should’ve been worried about his health, because this conversation felt different from any other one they’d had in the past. Deeper, somehow. More meaningful.

“I see.” At least that explained the immense pain he’d been in.

Her lips slanted down, and she stared at him with her gorgeous brown eyes. Gods above, those fucking eyes .

At first glance, one would think they were just brown. But if someone spent enough time looking at them, if someone spent enough time dreaming about them, they would realize that brown was far too simple a word to describe them.

Gold flecks hovered near her pupils, a black ring ran around the outside, and in the right light, they were almost green.

Nikhail should know. He’d spent years looking at those eyes. Thinking about them. Dreaming about them. Fucking fantasizing about them.

It was wrong, but the problem was, he was inexplicably drawn to River.

He’d long since given up trying to figure out why that was.

He’d never acted on the way he was pulled to her, but in private, she crowded his thoughts.

It had only gotten worse over the years.

At first, he’d been able to ignore it. He’d gone on dates and slept around, but recently, he’d stopped doing that because it no longer felt right.

Nikhail was so lost in the depth of River’s gaze that her dark chuckle caught him off guard.

“Listen to me, Nikhail Galebringer.” He would listen to anything she had to say.

“It’s a gods-damned miracle you didn’t die as a direct result of your stupidity.

If Lorna hadn’t been there when you pulled your stunt, it would’ve been too late for you.

As it was, your wounds needed to be restitched. ”

She scowled, fire flashing through those captivating eyes. Gods, he could lose himself in them for days, and he’d consider it time well-spent.

“River, I didn’t?—”

She spoke right over him, her voice rising. “What were you doing that nearly got you killed, Nik?” Panic flashed through her gaze, and the sight was a knife to his chest. “You were shot. Did you know that?”

“Shot?” he echoed, his mind racing to put together the pieces of what had happened.

River pursed her lips and dipped her chin. The cracks in the black wall in his mind grew, and then it shattered. Memories flooded him all at once.

Getting a lead on a key piece of intel. Kicking down a door. A dark room. Shouts. His skin prickling. Confusion running through him. No one was supposed to be there. He yelled something, and then, there was a loud bang.

After that…

Pain.

Excruciating, never-ending pain that started in his stomach and spiraled outward.

“Oh.” He licked his chapped lips, his throat suddenly dry. “I suppose that explains it.”

“Does it?” A frantic look appeared in her gaze, and she tugged on the end of her ponytail. He didn’t like that he was causing her distress, but a part of him loved that she was so worried about him . “Well, I’m glad to hear that because there are a lot of pieces still missing for me.”

If he were having this conversation with anyone else, he’d stop it here. He couldn’t discuss his work with many people, and he’d probably already said too much.

But this wasn’t just anyone. This was River , with her fresh rain scent, big brown eyes, and adorable frown. She was panicked and angry because of him.

Worried for him.

Soon, Nikhail would be alone again. They’d both have to return to work, and the barriers that had always divided them would remain in place. He’d have to go back to seeing her as nothing more than Ryker’s sister.

But he wasn’t ready to let her go. Not yet.

Knowing it would egg her on, he raised a brow and asked, “Is that so?”