Page 33

CHAPTER 33

ROSALIE

The first time I woke up, everything was so bright, and my head felt like it was full of tire smoke. And there were a lot of people leaning over me—maybe doctors or nurses? They were all wearing masks and talking quickly among themselves. I didn’t really understand a word they said. Then, I thought I saw AJ, but I fell back to sleep too fast to be sure. I was just so tired and felt like I needed a nice, long nap.

The second time I woke up, I was awake for a few more minutes than the first time. AJ, Mom, and Dad, and even Jayden were there. They all crowded around and started asking me questions—well, Dad did. Mom was busy yelling for the doctor. Jayden just stood there, watching me. And AJ grabbed my hand in his and kissed my forehead. I heard him tell me how happy he was to see my pretty eyes looking at him again. Which kinda confused me because of course he was going to see my eyes again. I was also confused as to why everyone was in my bedroom, but I was so tired that I fell back asleep again before I had a chance to ask questions.

The third time I was awake for a lot longer, and I finally understood why everyone was here. I wasn’t in my room. I was in a hospital. I was still pretty groggy, and Mom said it was from the painkillers I was on and I shouldn’t worry about it. But I didn’t know. AJ and Dad both looked worried, even though they tried to smile back at me. I thought everyone was trying to downplay how serious everything was, but I kinda knew. I was really lucky to still be here. For some reason, I hadn’t died when I was pretty sure I should have.

A nice doctor came in and sat down to explain to me everything that had happened. She was really soothing and had a pretty Spanish accent. She explained to me that I had been shot in a drive-by and that my boyfriend had driven me here. But I had lost a lot of blood, so I had to have surgery to remove the bullet and fix everything. She kept saying how it was a miracle I was sitting here, talking already. And that I must have had a guardian angel watching over me. She laughed when the next thing I told her was that I was starving and asked if I could get something to eat.

With a quick glance from Mom, Jayden left, and a little while later, he came back with a plate full of food in his hands.

“Oh my god, thank you! You are the best brother in the world.”

I waited for them to put the tray over my lap before digging in. It wasn’t fancy food at all, but it was the best-tasting food I thought I had ever eaten. I was so hungry that it could have been stale cereal and I would have loved it. I finished as much of it as I could as Jayden stood back up.

“Are you good if I head out?” he asked me.

I nodded. “Oh my gosh, yeah! You all don’t have to be here all the time. I know you have things to go do. You heard the doctor. I’ll be fine.”

Jayden gave a nod to AJ and Dad while Mom stood up and gave him a quick hug. She followed him outside the room and talked to him for a couple of moments before walking back inside.

“Kayden, I need to resolve the remaining issues with him . I’ll be back in a few hours.” She walked over and kissed my forehead. “Don’t do anything the doctors don’t say to do, and just try to rest, Rosalie. I’m working on getting you taken to a hospital closer to home, but it might be a few days still.”

I smiled back at her and patted her hand that was on my bed.

“It’s fine, Mom. Whatever they need me to do to get better, I will do it. You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll see you later, so no rush!” I winced as I tried to move my arm to give her a thumbs-up. That was what I got for trying to move too much.

Mom scowled at me. “Rosalie Wells, you stay put and stop trying to act fine when your body isn’t. I mean it.”

“Sorry, Mom. I’ll relax, I promise,” I whispered.

With that, Mom and Dad left, and after a few minutes, Dad came back with some food for him and AJ. Later that evening, Mom came back, and after visiting, I insisted she and Dad go home and take a night off from staying in the hospital. I said the same thing to AJ, but he told me he wouldn’t leave my side, and my heart warmed at that statement. AJ had been pretty attentive since I’d woken up. And tonight, I really wanted to get a couple of answers about what had happened that day. Everything got a little foggy when I tried to think about what led up to me getting shot. And I didn’t remember anything after AJ’s face looked so sad and broken. And I didn’t want that to be the only thing I remembered from that night.

Once it was just the two of us and the nurses made their rounds and we were just sitting next to each other, watching TV, I turned to him.

“What happened to Kordell, AJ?” I asked. There was no sense in beating around it. I just wanted to know.

AJ glanced over, took a deep breath, and turned in his chair to face me. “You sure you wanna know?” he asked.

I nodded.

I needed to know. Even if, deep down, I already thought I knew the answer.

“He’s not gonna bother you anymore—ever.”

But I knew what he really meant by the look on his face.

Kordell was dead. My stomach felt nauseous, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but feel relief. Kordell wouldn’t ever try to hurt me or AJ ever again. But it was so sad it had come to that. I’d loved him at one point, so I was feeling a little split with my emotions. I wanted to cry for him, but in the end, he had gone from being someone I loved to someone I was afraid of. And he had tried to kill AJ—I knew that. And so, my sadness quickly turned to anger. Anger with Kordell for not being able to just handle that we’d broken up and for doing what he had done in the end. But I was also angry with myself. For staying with someone as long as I had and for ignoring all the little signs that something wasn’t quite right. Trying to tell myself they weren’t actual issues. How could I have been so stupid?

AJ gripped my hand and rubbed it between his. “Hey, don’t cry for him, Rosalie. He’s not worth it.”

I hadn’t even realized I was crying, but I guessed the emotions and my frustration needed a release.

“I-I’m not crying over him. What happened to him sucks. But I… I’m just mad.” I sniffed hard. I really didn’t want to get all snotty right now when I couldn’t easily go grab a tissue.

“Why are you mad, baby girl?” AJ’s voice was soothing, but I could see he was confused by why I’d said that I was mad at myself.

“Because it’s my fault that I stayed with him for so long. Even when he did things I didn’t really like or when my friends tried to tell me to break up with him, I chose to stay with him. Heck, even when he broke Tyler’s nose! I should have left him way before you got back, but I didn’t, and because of me, he almost… almost shot you.” I sobbed, my voice breaking on the last words. I tried to keep it together. There was one last question that kept floating around in my head, and I had to ask now, or I didn’t know if I would ever be brave enough to ask him.

“Did… did you do it?” I whispered between shallow breaths.

AJ shook his head. “No, but I wish I had. But getting you here was more important.”

He leaned over and kissed my lips. It was such a soft kiss, the kind that just made all my worries and anger melt away. The kind where I knew just how much I was loved. I squeezed his hand as tightly as I could. Trying to tell him just how much I loved him.

He pulled away and stroked my cheeks. “No more questions. You don’t want to know the answer to anything else, all right? Just know he’s not going to ever be an issue again, baby girl.”

I nodded and wiped my tears away. “Are you going to stay here again tonight?” I asked softly.

“Rosalie, I’m going to stay here until you’re better and we can go home,” AJ said.

I lay there, holding AJ’s hands until I calmed down, and I fell asleep, looking into his beautiful deep amber eyes. Knowing everything was going to be okay.

FOUR WEEKS LATER

“Gosh darn it!” I said as I dropped the showerhead, and it banged against the white marble shower wall.

It had been a few days since I had come home from the hospital, which was almost four weeks between the first hospital I had stayed at and the second one that was in Beverly Hills. I was so happy to be in my own house and to sleep in my own bed, but I was really, really tired of feeling so gross. I didn’t get an actual shower in the hospital, and I just wanted to scrub all the dirt and grime away that I felt like I had been sitting in for weeks. Here I was, stupid enough to think that I could do this one thing by myself.

After all, how hard was it to take a shower? Answer: apparently too hard for this girl.

My arm still wasn’t near the range of motion it was before I got shot, and the doctor had said it could take months of physical therapy to get there. Which was frustrating as heck, but I’d still thought I could handle just a simple, quick shower on my own.

I took a deep breath, and just as I was about to reach down and pick the showerhead back up, AJ walked through the bathroom door.

“Rosalie,” he said, obviously a little annoyed by the sight of me struggling to bend down and grab the wand with my good arm, “I told you I would come in and help you with that, baby girl. Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“Because you already help with so much and I just want to do one thing on my own again… Like, I am so thankful you are here to help me, so don’t get me wrong! I wanted to feel normal again, even if it was just for a minute. But I guess I can’t even do that…”

I sat there on the bench in the shower, feeling so useless and like a dang burden to not just AJ, but everyone lately.

AJ just sighed. “Baby girl, don’t feel useless. Make room. I’m coming in.”

I turned in my seat to look at him and had to grab the edge of the wall to keep myself from falling off the bench.

“Wait, what? You don’t have to! Maybe just help me with the showerhead, and then I can do it myself.”

I watched as he stripped off his shirt and slowly lowered his joggers down his muscular legs until they were around his ankles before he kicked them off to the side. I was kind of cold, sitting in this bathroom, buck naked, but suddenly, it was a lot warmer. I just didn’t think I would ever get used to how sexy AJ was. And I was kind of okay with that.

I giggled at myself, and AJ raised an eyebrow as he walked over to the shower.

“What’s so funny? Don’t like what you see?” he said confidently with a smirk on his face.

“You know the answer to that one already! That’s not fair to ask! But I mean it, I can handle a shower! I just need a little help with the water—that’s all.”

I scooted back against the wall of the shower as AJ stepped into the space. It felt a lot smaller now here as I watched him pick up the showerhead and turn the water on, aiming it away from me until I could see a nice steam rising from it.

“Baby girl, let me help you. Trust me, it’ll be fun. It’s not a problem for me. I know you wanna do it on your own. But right now, you don’t have to.”

I let his words sink in as he carefully let the water flow over my body.

AJ had been so dang attentive and sweet to me these past few weeks. I couldn’t get over just how far he would go to do things. Once, he’d even gone to my favorite coffee place just to get my favorite drink since it was a special on their social media that day.

I was hyperaware of every little touch his fingers made as he followed the water with his hands across my chest and over my shoulder. I sighed. Maybe it was okay to rely on people just a little longer. And I could tell it wasn’t that AJ felt obligated to take care of me. It was because he wanted to.

“That feels great,” I said as his hand slid up the back of my neck and massaged it lightly.

He leaned down, and his lips traced the outline of my ear.

It sent a small shiver down my spine, and I held back a soft moan.

“Let’s take this even further, baby girl,” AJ murmured into my ear, his voice deep and husky.

Before I could say anything, his hand slid down from the back of my neck to cup one of my boobs. He gave it a gentle squeeze before rolling his thumb around the nipple, sending shock waves of pleasure through my body.

I moaned, encouraging him to keep going. It had been so long since he had touched me like this. My arm and body had been in so much pain. He had been so gentle, and the most I’d gotten were tender kisses as I curled up on his lap.

He lowered to his knees between my legs, and I spread them farther apart, giving him access to come as close as possible. He ran his hand over to my other boob, repeating the same motions, bringing both of my nipples to stiff peaks.

“Oh my gosh, that feels so good, AJ,” I whimpered quietly.

He chuckled before leaning in, bringing my nipples to his lips, sucking them one after the other, and my body jolted against him.

I’d almost forgotten how dangerous these lips of his were.

I need more. I want to come so bad.

“AJ,” I gasped. “I need more, please.”

“I’ll give you everything you want, baby girl,” he said as his eyes locked with mine.

He brought the showerhead lower down my chest until the water stream was brushing against my clit. My head tilted back against the shower wall as moan after moan left my body. I brought my one good hand up and wrapped it tightly into his hair, crying his name out loud, my voice echoing around the shower walls.

“AJ… AJ… yes, just like that. Please! M-more…” I begged, feeling a buildup of pleasure from the pressure of the water, combined with the way he was kissing my body.

“Tell me, Rosalie, what more do you want?" AJ asked, his voice deepening with desire. He brought his other hand down and massaged my thigh, his thumb brushing along the edges of my pussy.

I looked down at him, panting from the tension building in my body and needing a release as the shower filled with steam.

“I want to feel you inside me. Right now.”

AJ’s eyes softened as he chuckled.

“All you had to do was ask, baby girl. Just relax for me. I won’t stop until you come as many times as you want.”

“I want you to come too. Like I said, I want to feel you inside me, AJ.”

I needed him so much. After everything we had been through together, we deserved this moment and a thousand moments like this after. I slid my hand from his hair and stroked his cheek, leaning down. I kissed him, hoping he could feel just how much I loved him.

“What are you waiting for? Fuck me, AJ,” I said against his lips as I met his beautiful amber-colored eyes with my own.

His response was immediate. He shoved his fingers inside my pussy and kissed me back. His hand wrapped around the back of my head as he pressed me against the shower wall.

And with that kiss, all the remaining broken pieces of my heart pulled back together again.