Page 23 of Protective Love

You certainly shouldn't be blushing just because he's watching you.

I pull the gown down to his hips and drag my eyes away from his, focusing on his bandaged torso instead and shaking my head slightly in the hopes of ridding the pink tinge to my cheeks that I know is there.

Chapter Twelve

Jaylen

She's blushing.

I can't even speak, and I can hardly move, yet I've somehow made this beautiful woman blush.

Damn, I might as well be magic.

My eyes stay locked on her face as she gently unwraps the bandages from around my body.

I take note of the way her brows furrow whilst she's concentrating on being careful, and the way she cringes slightly when she sees the stitches across my body before pulling her lip into her mouth to mask her small reaction.

My eyes flit across her face, tracing every inch of her and burning her image into my mind.

Everything about her is mesmerising.

She turns to the side to grab something and when the bright hospital lights beam against her face, my eyes narrow at what I'm pretty sure is a bruise on her cheek.

Ignoring the pain shooting through my body as she begins to clean my stitches, I stare intently at her left cheek, hoping that my burning gaze can melt the make-up she's applied to her skin so that I can be sure of what I saw.

A beeping sound grows louder in the room and both Sophia and Rory turn to stare at me with worry evident in their eyes.

That's when I realise that the machine monitoring my heartrate is the cause of the beeping.

"Are you okay?" Rory asks, slipping her hand into mine as she peers over at me.

When I don't respond, she straightens up, standing at her full height.

I think she's planning to move away, so I put all of my focus and energy into wrapping my fingers around hers, gripping onto her hand again.

Her eyes flit down to our connected hands, then back to mine.

"Jay, what's wrong?" Sophia asks from beside me.

The beeping slows to a quiet steady rhythm again, but my eyes never stray from Rory's cheek.

I'm certain of what I saw.

She may have covered her face with some make-up and made it harder for people to see, but I'm sure that she has a bruise on her face that she's trying to cover up.

Rory steps closer to me and my eyes drop to her neck, seeing that her make-up is also spread across the delicate skin there as well.

A grumble sounds through my chest and the heart monitor picks up again as fury seeps into my bones at the realisation that someone has put their hands on her.

Someone has willingly hurt her, so severely that she's bruised, and if I had to guess, it wasn't an accident, otherwise she wouldn't feel the need to cover them up.

The beeping continues, growing louder as my anger grows stronger.

My lips part and I try to focus on the words I want to say, hoping and praying that the words will finally come out because I need to know what happened to her.

I have to find out who hurt her.

All that escapes me is a strangled noise, and the scratchiness of my throat sends me into a coughing fit.