Page 22

Chapter Twenty-One

Tessa

Everything is so bright that it makes my eyes hurt, but I can’t see anything. My eyes dart around to try to make out any details, but I still can’t even see the lights blinding me, just feel them heating my face.

I try to lift my hand to shield my eyes, but it feels too heavy. Someone turns the lights even brighter, and I open my mouth to protest.

Shut it off!

The only sound that comes out is a pitiful croak.

The shadows move around, and I hear a soft voice ask, “Tessa, can you open your eyes?”

Oh, yes. My eyes are closed, that’s why I can’t see anything. I crack my eyelids open with difficulty but promptly shut them when it feels too intense and shake my head. At once, the lights go dim, and the pressure in my eyes lessens.

“Do you want to try again now?”

I do so, and while my vision is blurry, I can still make out the silhouette of a young woman. She’s holding a straw to my mouth.

She must be an angel, surely. How else could she have known that I was so thirsty?

After draining almost the whole cup, she puts it aside and smooths my hair back from my forehead. “I’m Fran, your nurse. How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” I croak. “Achy.”

Everything feels too heavy, as if someone put a comforter made of cement on top of me. I look around the room and then at myself. I’m in a hospital room. That much I can tell, but why I’m here, I’m not sure.

“That’s expected. You’re in a hospital, and you’ve been out for almost two days. The doctor said you can eat, so I’ll get you something light, like soup. After that, you can have some Tylenol to help with the pain if you want.”

Confused, I wrack my brain to remember how I got here. When I come up empty, I decide to ask, “How did I—”

And then, it hits me.

I was soaking in the tub while waiting for my boyfriend to come. He’d promised to…oh, God. Heat envelopes my face as my nipples bead beneath the thin hospital gown.

Theresa Jane Blackwell. In exactly twenty minutes, you’ll be on your knees with your dirty mouth stuffed full of my cock, and then, I’ll have you screaming so loud that the neighbors will hear you.

Nathan.

“I’ll get your food, okay?” The nurse pats my shoulder and goes to leave, but I grab hold of her hand with surprising strength. Fran’s round face comes back into focus, her brown eyes soft with concern.

“I-I…can I see my boyfriend, please?” I ask.

Her brows furrow, and she opens her mouth, I assume to ask me who I mean, when I clarify, “His name is Nathan.”

“I can go and get him for you, but first, have some soup. You must be hungry. Then, we’ll get you freshened up.”

Ravenous, actually, and not for food . The thought of waiting to see Nathan causes my stomach to protest in a different way. “No, I want to see him now.”

She pauses and takes a good look at me, and I think my face gets even hotter the more she observes me. I wonder how many of her comatose patients wake up with a different kind of hunger plaguing them.

“Okay,” she says with a little smile and glances at the clock on the opposite wall. “I’ll check if he’s around.”

“What day is it?” Not that it matters, I know he’ll be here.

“It’s 10:50 on a Sunday morning.”

It’s after she leaves that it occurs to me to worry about my appearance. If I was out for a couple of days, I probably look like death warmed over. I can’t let Nathan see me like this.

This time, it takes all my strength to raise my hands to my hair in an attempt to smooth it over. What I find makes my heart sink. It feels like clumps of straw glued together, and I just know that it’ll take a decent amount of conditioner to detangle the clumps.

Goodness. How must I look? No wonder she suggested I freshen up first. It’s too late to call Nurse Fran back, though.

I cup my hands in front of my face and exhale. There’s a faint smell of mint. I send a silent thanks to my nursing team for at least taking care of one aspect of my hygiene.

Before I can freak out further, Nathan appears at the door.

My mouth dries, and I immediately forget everything except how much I’ve missed him and how good he looks.

He stands just inside the door and leans on the frame, watching me from across the room.

“Tess?”

“Nathan,” I say with a sigh, holding out a hand to him.

He slowly approaches my bedside, and as he gets closer, the beeping from the heart monitor behind me gets louder and faster. It soon becomes clear to everyone and their dog how much the man is affecting me.

He smirks as he leans over me. His large palm cradles my head while his other hand holds my mine in a tight, affectionate grip. I love the way his eyes are drinking me in. Like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

“You are a sight for sore eyes, baby girl.” He presses a kiss to my forehead, then deliberately reaches up to shut off the heart rate machine, which is now beeping like it’s about to explode.

“You—I…” I give up on words, instead reaching up to curl my hand behind his head and pull him to me. The moment his mouth covers mine, I want to sob in relief and pleasure. His smell and taste settle into my pores as I cling to him and kiss him like I never want to stop.

My hand strokes down his chest and abs, feeling the delectable ridges of muscles. Has he always been this ripped? I find the hem of his sweater and pull it up so I can reach underneath it and caress the warm skin under there.

Nathan kisses a path to my ear. “Tess, how are you feeling?”

“Hungry. I want you. I feel like I haven’t been with you in weeks.”

He chuckles. “That’s true, actually. It’s been a while.”

“But why?” Seems like a stupid decision to me, one I can’t fathom making.

“You wanted it that way. Until a couple of days ago, that is.”

“What am I, crazy?” I can’t imagine why I’d have a boyfriend who looks like this and not want him railing me at every possible chance.

My expression of disbelief makes him chuckle more. “How much do you remember, Tess?”

“About?”

He huffs out a breath. “For starters, where do you work?”

“Boston. I do charity work with Guardian Angels in Boston, and I have to go back to school for my final semester.”

“Okay…” He seems puzzled by my answer, but he fills in some blanks.

“So, you were transferred to the Fount. That’s my group of hospitals, and that’s how we reconnected. You’ve been working with me for a couple of months now.”

“I thought we’d been together for longer?” Though I meant it as a statement, it comes out sounding like a question.

“It feels that way,” he agrees. “We’ve known each other for a long time. What else do you remember about us?”

Bits and pieces come back to me in quick flashes, enough for me to get the general idea, but not enough to recall the specifics of our relationship.

“I’ve had a crush on you for a long time. I gave you a lap dance sometime, I think. You loved it.”

“True. And about me being your boyfriend, what do you remember about that?”

I shrug. “I mean, the last thing I remember was you threatening to come…and…fuck me until I scream.” My voice lowers. “And how much I was looking forward to it.”

“Holy hell, woman!” He drops his forehead to my breasts, making me suppress a needy moan.

“I kinda assumed we were a thing… are we not?” My voice doesn’t hide how vulnerable I’m feeling. What if he says no? What if I’m just making a giant fool of myself?

Luckily, he doesn’t hesitate to reassure me. “Yes, we most certainly are, baby.”

“So, what happened to me? The last thing I remember was waiting for you in the bath.”

He lifts his head to look at me, and I can see the emotions rolling in the blue depths. “You…dropped off to sleep in the bath and nearly drowned.”

Something in his body language tells me that there’s more to that story, but before I can pursue it, there’s a knock on the door. Someone I assume to be the doctor comes in with Nurse Fran.

Nathan gives them enough room to assess me but doesn’t go far or let go of my hand. I’m gripping his just as firmly, too.

The doctor introduces himself as Max Montaigne, and I answer his questions about pain, my breathing, my last menstrual period, and what I remember about being in the bathtub. Then, he listens to my heart and lungs and checks the charts while I watch his every move like a hawk, wondering if I can tell what kind of man he is.

“Any questions for me, Tessa?” he asks.

Do you have any idea how much you hurt Isa when you left? The question pops into my head out of nowhere, but I know that it’s an important one.

Still, I don’t bother bringing it up. It’s not the time or the place. “No,” I say instead.

“Okay, we need to talk some more, but only when you’re feeling stronger, okay?”

I nod. “Thanks, Doctor.”

Nathan joins the conversation. “Max, when can I take her home?”

I love the sound of that. I’m pretty sure we don’t live together yet, but he makes it sound like we’re one unit. The idea of it makes me want to smile.

“We’d like to keep an eye on her vitals and check her blood work for another day or so, but if everything looks good and Tessa’s feeling up to it, tomorrow or the next day would be a good bet. Alright?”

“Sounds good, thank you, Max,” Nathan says, reaching out to shake the doctor’s hand.

Max smiles at us both brightly, then continues on his rounds.

“So, you need to eat, baby,” Nathan says after Max leaves. “Should we do that now?”

“Okay. I could eat.”

Nathan gestures to Fran, who nods and leaves the room, presumably to get the food.

“And you have about twenty people waiting to see you if you’re feeling up to it,” Nathan says.

“Twenty! Who all is out there?”

He starts listing names and ticking them off on his fingers. “Well, the regular Fount folk, but you also have Walter Heche, Betty, and Zara all the way from Boston. Chris, Isabel, and a few of your friends from your pre-med days, just to name a few.”

“You're kidding!”

“No, Tess, they’re very excited to see you again. There’s also someone else who can’t wait to meet you.”

“Who is it?”

“My mother.”

“Your mother!” I almost yell.

He smirks and offers my hand an encouraging squeeze. “You two have never met, she’s mostly been away in Europe, but she’s been dreaming about meeting my woman for ages, so you’ll have to pardon her if she seems overeager. I couldn’t get her to wait for a better time.”

“Oh, it’s okay.” I smile. “I’d love to meet your mom, Nathan.”

He takes my lips again and kisses me until I’m wet and throbbing. “Nathan—”

Fran interrupts by returning with some soup and bread, effectively putting an end to the plea I was about to make to Nathan to get me off.

He feeds me, despite my insisting that I can do it myself.

After getting washed and dressed, I ask to meet Nathan’s mom first. Nathan only lets her stay for about five minutes, but it’s more than enough to fall in love with Caitlin’s effusive presence. From her soft, welcoming smile and the way her blue eyes go moist, it seems the feeling is mutual.

After Caitlin leaves, Nathan lets in the rest of the crowd, as well as brings in the rest of the flowers and cards that hadn’t made it in here before, then stands off to the side to let me see my friends.

He never goes far and keeps looking at me in that loving way of his, but I still catch glimpses of something dark and haunted in his gaze.

I know it’s something floating just beyond my consciousness, and I have a feeling that if I focus hard enough, I’m sure I could recall what it is. But all the people talking and laughing around me makes it difficult. I’m sure it’ll come to me soon enough, though.

As Isa chats away, I lift my head and catch Nathan doing what I would define as fussing, something I’d never have guessed how much of a turn on it could be.

My eyes follow him as, for what must be the tenth time, Nathan resets the room’s temperature, fiddles with the settings of my drip machine, and remotely controls the blood pressure cuff around my arm and the IPC device squeezing at my calves at the foot of the bed.

Max says we could go home tomorrow, but with the constant tightening in my pelvis and how damp my thighs are now, I wonder if I’d be able to wait that long. It feels like it’s been a year since I last had Nathan.

He returns to his spot by the door, where he continues talking with Chris. Suddenly, as though he can sense my gaze on him, he turns to look at me. I deliberately let my eyes rake over him, then bite my bottom lip in a way that I hope tells him how horny I am.

He gets it, sends me a sexy smirk, and mouths, “I know, baby. Soon.”

My toes curl in anticipation, even as he resumes his conversation with Chris, seemingly without breaking stride.

I cannot wait to get him alone.