burst of warmth straight into my chest. And oh, but I really liked that.
I closed my eyes and savored the silky-soft touch of her fingers in my hair, the calming scent of grapefruit and honey swirling around me, and her sweet heat rushing over my skin that was making me tingle everywhere.
I shifted my hand to reach out and pull her close, but before I could move my arm even a few inches, blinding pain shot down my spine all over again. A groan that didn’t sound like me echoed through the room. But I knew it had come from me. I’d felt it in my chest.
Twisting my face so it pressed against the mattress, I tried to push up on my hands, but that only sent pain spiraling through my back again, and I didn’t get very far before I collapsed against the bed with a groan.
“Luc.” Panic filled Natalie’s voice, sending the hair on my nape right to attention. “Oh shit. Please. Don’t move yet. Let me get Marco. I don’t want you to rip any of your stitches.” She leaned in close, and I caught a whiff of her intoxicating scent as she kissed my temple. “I’ll be right back. Stay still.”
She was there and gone before I could protest. Footsteps sounded. Then I heard her frantic voice—muffled, but definitely stressed—a distance away.
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but something was definitely wrong with me. Stitches? I had stitches?
I couldn’t remember being hurt. I couldn’t remember anything. As I tried to figure out what had happened, all I came up with was a big blank nothing. My brain felt like pea soup. And every time I tried to move... Motherfucker, that hurt.
“Hey.” Footsteps sounded with the voice. The familiar voice. My oldest friend Marco’s voice. Hands closed over my arm on one side. “Easy now. Deep breaths, Luc.”
I ground my teeth together and managed to push myself up on my hands even though my back was on fire and I was sweating from just that little movement. Whispered voices echoed around me but I was too focused on just getting off my damn stomach to look to see who was in the room with us.
I managed to pull my legs under me and shift them to the side of the bed so I could sit. Marco held me at both arms as if he was afraid I might topple over. Twice I swayed, and even though I had no fucking clue why I was so weak, I was suddenly glad he was there.
“Hold on, Luc.” Felicity. That was Felicity’s voice in front of me. My stupid eyes still weren’t working. “We’ll get that taken care of for you.”
I had no idea what she was blabbering about. I was too focused on breathing, not falling over, and trying to figure out what the fuck was going on to care.
Something sharp stabbed into my arm.
“Che... cazzo.” I jerked.
“It’s to help the pain,” Felicity said. “Stop being a baby.”
She’d stuck me with some kind of needle. I wasn’t so out of it I couldn’t tell that. The sting lasted for only a second, then I felt her smooth a bandage over the spot. “There. That’ll take the edge off.”
The drug was already working. It was dulling that burn in my back to something I could manage. Normally, I didn’t like drugs, but anything was better than that burn. And it was helping enough so at least I didn’t want to crawl out of my own skin.
“I’m... having trouble... seeing,” I rasped. Holy hell, that did not sound like me. Why the fuck was my voice so gravelly?
“It’s from being out of it for several days,” Felicity said. “It’ll clear. Give it time.”
Several days? My mind spun again but I still couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. “Where’s... Natalie?”
“I’m right here.” I felt her hand on my arm, but more than that, I heard her voice right next to me, and the soft sound was enough to ease the stress that had been building inside me from the moment she’d left to find Marco. “I’m not going anywhere.” Her fingers drifted down to where my hand rested against my thigh and closed around my own.
I was able to draw a full breath just knowing she was close. But why was I so stressed about keeping her near me? Why was I suddenly afraid to let her out of my sight—okay, vicinity—for even a second? We were safe