Page 15 of Protective Love

I tuck my paperback under my arm, squirt some sanitiser on my hands and then walk into Jaylen's room, prepared to spend the next hour until my shift finishes beside his bed, reading the book I've been engrossed in lately.

Walking into the room, I can already feel his eyes on me as I walk over to the chair beside him and aimlessly check the machine he's hooked up to and the IV bag hanging beside it.

As I sit down, I look over at him and give him a small smile.

Now that he's awake and can hear things and respond to them, I'm not really sure what I should do.

Do I try and talk to him?

Do I just pretend he's not there?

He continues to watch me as I get comfortable in my seat and when I open my book, only to see his eyes still on me, I decide that maybe I need to speak to him before I sit here and get lost in the fictional world that's had a hold on me for the past two days.

"Are you okay?" I ask, studying his face as I wait for him to blink in reply to my question.

When he replies with a yes, I nod my head and smile at him softly.

"Is it okay if I sit here and read my book for the next few hours until the end of my shift?"

He blinks once in response, indicating that it's okay for me to do so.

I watch him for a few more seconds, lost in the depths of his blue eyes before I shake myself out of it and lean back in the chair, tucking my knees up to my chest and resting the book on my thighs.

I manage to read a few sentences before my eyes flick back over to Jaylen, distracted by the feel of his eyes burning into me.

His brows raise slightly, and I'm unsure if it's just a twitch or an intentional movement.

When his eyes dart down to my book before jumping back to mine, I assume that he's wanting to know what I'm reading.

"You want to know what it is?" I ask, shocked that he seems to have taken an interest.

He blinks, just once, and a smile tugs at my lips.

"Well, the book's calledForget-Me-Not Bombshell. Honestly, I picked it up because of the cover," I tell him, sliding my bookmark into the pages before I close the book and turn it around to show him the front of it. "Then I read the blurb and the author's note and realised it's a dark why-choose romance. Total jackpot."

His eyes scan over the cover and his lips twitch slightly as amusement swims in his eyes.

"Why are you looking at it like that?" I ask, turning the book away from him as nervous tingles spread through my body.

His gaze flicks over to mine and my heart stops when I see his lips part, almost as if he's trying to say something.

Silence swamps the room, and when his mouth closes again and the amusement disappears from his eyes, my stomach swirls with discomfort.

"I'm sorry," I say, scooting my chair closer to his bedside. "I should've asked a question that you could respond to."

His eyelids flutter shut, and I watch the creases around his eyes appear as he squeezes them closed.

I tentatively reach my hand out, placing it gently against his arm, and when his eyes open again, I smile.

"Want me to tell you what the book's about?"

He blinks once, and I nod as heat prickles along my cheeks.

I thought he'd say no.

I hoped he'd say no.

I take a deep breath and roll my lips inwards as I awkwardly glance around the room whilst my mind works on overdrive, trying to come up with a description for this book that doesn't give away the fact that I was about to sit beside his bed and read about a woman in the Mafia who's getting railed by three different guys.