“I didn’t know they weren’t. I kept seeing them together, and she slept at his house, and I just assumed...”
“Never assume. It makes an ass out of u and me. That’s another Emmy-ism.”
“I’ll have to remember that one. How about I tell Nick I had a freak-out?”
“You don’t want to sound like an idiot.”
“I am an idiot.”
“He doesn’t think so.”
Hmm. Right now, I wasn’t convinced. “What about apologising for the car and telling him I don’t want to live without him? Too needy?”
“Nah, he’d be happy to hear that.”
“You don’t think he’ll run a mile?”
“Only if it’s towards you.”
We lapsed into silence as I mulled over the right words. This had to be good. No, perfect. Except things didn’t go quite to plan. Because when Tia slipped out of the door a few minutes later, my mind went blank.
And when Nick collapsed to his knees at the side of the bed looking more haggard than I’d ever seen him, took my hand, and kissed it gently, I could only say three words.
“I love you.”
CHAPTER 47
A SPARK LIT in Nick’s brown eyes as our gazes locked.
“I love you too, baby.” He dipped his head and brushed his lips across mine. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life showing you that.”
“I’m so sorry I yelled at you. I got confused, and—”
He silenced me with another soft kiss. “Shhh. It’s in the past. Emmy told me what happened, and it’s my fault too. I should have made my relationship with her clear, but I thought she’d already told you.”
“It turned into such a mess, didn’t it?”
What was that cheeky smile for? Nick squashed onto the bed and wrapped his arms around me.
“There’s only one kind of mess I want to make with you.”
“We’re in a hospital,” I hissed.
He glanced over at the door. Closed. Firmly closed.
“In case you haven’t realised, I like to take risks.”
His two-day-old beard scratched against my chin as he kissed me again, and when our lips met, he took me away from my disaster of a life. One touch of his tongue made me forget my own name. I closed my eyes as warm fingers crept under the thin blanket, caressing my side through the ugly gown.
A whispered sigh escaped my lips. This man was everything. Everything.
Then a commotion outside the hospital door brought me to my senses, and I jerked my head to the side.
“Someone’s there!”
Nick didn’t remove his hand. In fact, it crept lower. “Don’t worry. There’s a guard outside, and Tia, and Tia’s a tiny little pit bull in designer clothing.”
Hushed voices filtered through the door as Nick kissed me once more, and for a moment, I blocked out reality again. Despite being in a hospital bed with a psycho ex-boyfriend wishing me harm and a crazy stalker cop on the loose, I was officially the happiest girl in the world. Or at least, I would be when whoever was outside went away.
But they didn’t, and one voice grew louder.
“But I’m a doctor, and I need to check on Miss Reynolds. She could be taking a turn for the worse in there.”
“She’s fine,” the guard outside replied.
“You don’t know that.”
I tore my lips away from Nick’s for a second. “The doctor’s just trying to do his job. We probably shouldn’t be making out in a hospital bed, anyway.”
“I can think of worse places. Ignore him.”
Nick kissed a fiery path down my neck, then trailed the tip of his tongue up my jaw. The sensation made me shiver, but in a good way for once. One finger nudged under the edge of my horrible paper panties, and the darn things rustled. Talk about embarrassing.
“Those aren’t mine.”
“Who cares? They’re coming off.”
The ripping sound almost covered up the doctor’s protests in the hallway outside. Almost, but not quite.
“If you don’t let me in, I’ll call security.”
The guard didn’t back down. “I am security.”
“Nick, why don’t we let him in and get it over with? Perhaps he’ll say I can be discharged?”
Apart from a few aches and some ugly-looking bruises, I felt pretty darn good.
Nick wadded up the paper panties and stuffed them into his pants pocket. “Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Then I can get you into a proper bed.”
The doctor poked and prodded, shone a light in my eyes, and asked a whole bunch of questions. Then he told me I had a concussion, and I could go home tomorrow if I felt up to it, but not before. Nick asked if he could stay with