Page 99 of Hard Rock Heat

"It makes me feelbetter."

He pressed his fingers to the pulse points in my inner wrists. My veins throbbed under histouch.

"All it's doing is raising your blood pressure," hesaid.

"I can't sitstill."

"You want to sneak off and fuck in the storage closet?" he asked, completelyserious.

I snorted out a laugh, my lips curling up despite myself. "It's not really the time or theplace."

"I can always make time for that sweetpuss—"

"Ms.Briars?"

The doctor was here. I took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Whatever she had to tell me, I could handle it, good news orbad.

But I recognized the sympathetic look on the woman's face. My throat closedup.

"I can give you an update on your father," she said. She flicked her gaze to Damon. "Would you like to go somewhereprivate?"

Damon's hand squeezed mine once. I knew he'd go along with whatever I wanted. I squeezedback.

"No, it's okay. He can be here when you tellme."

She nodded. "Luckily, he didn't take any severe damage to his head when he fell down the stairs. No concussion to worry about. Unfortunately, he broke both legs. There were several fractures. We had to do emergency surgery. He's going to be out of commission for quite some time." She looked at me with worry in her eyes. "I won't lie, there's going to be a long recovery period. He'll need someone to look after him almostconstantly."

The lump in my gut turnedsour.

"Would you like to see him?" The doctor looked at me expectantly. "He's still sedated from the surgery, but some part of him might like to know you'rehere."

I ran shaky hands through my hair, smoothing it down. "Um. Maybe I'll wait until he wakesup."

"We'll have someone call you when he's conscious." The doctor gave me one last sympathetic smile andleft.

I stood silently, watching her retreating back. I began to tremble, fighting back asob.

Damon cupped my face. ""Hey. It'sokay."

I sniffed and rubbed my eyes with my palms. He tipped my chin up and pressed a kiss to myforehead.

"Everything's fine," he said. "It's just a few brokenbones."

"It's not fine," Imumbled.

Damon tilted his headquestioning.

"You heard what she said," I told him, voice shaky with unshed tears. "Long recovery period. Constant monitoring. I'm already— I can't—" The tears finally, splashing down my face, warm and wet. "I can't do this," Iwhispered.

Damon tugged me into his arms. "You don't have to do this alone." He pressed another kiss to the crown of my head. "Call your sister," he said, voice muffled by my hair. "She needs to know. You can't keep this fromher."

I nodded miserably, then shook my head. "I can't. I lied to her for so long. She'll hateme."

"She won't hate you," Damon said gently. "Hope's too nice for that. She didn't even hate me when I was an asshole to her. And believed me, I deserved it." Damon pulled back to meet my eyes. "Do you want me to call her? I can tell her some of the story. Give her time to process it before she showsup."

A fresh flood streamed down my face at the offer. "Since when are you thoughtful like that?" I gave him a small, teary,smile.

"Hey, I get the urge to be thoughtful sometimes." Damon winked. "I just usually ignoreit."