Taking On The Billionaire (Redhawk Reunion #1) - Robin Covington Page 0,34

he was pulling out the big guns. “No. I’m not leaving until I know you’re okay or I’m going to call your sister.”

“Oh, you suck.” Tess glared at him but she sagged against him in defeat. Whether that was just from the illness or the threat, he didn’t know and he didn’t care.

“Well, get over it.” He scanned the kitchen island for signs of any pill bottles or medicines. “When are you due for another dose of meds?”

Tess groaned and leaned her forehead against his chest, her already-scratchy voice muffled against the fabric of his shirt. “My doctor called in an antibiotic but I fell asleep and haven’t gone to pick it up yet.”

“Tess, you’re running a fever. You need the meds.” Adam bit back asking her why she didn’t call him but he knew the answer: they were just sleeping together. You didn’t call the current fling and ask them to pick up medication at the pharmacy. And with her sister at school, Tess wasn’t going to reach out to anyone else. It wasn’t in her nature to ask for help. Adam tucked her close to him again as he reached for his phone. “I’ll call someone to bring it here.”

Her head whipped up. “Not Estelle.”

“No, I wouldn’t ask anyone from the company to come over here. Trust me.” He looked around, trying to gauge where her bedroom was located. “Why don’t you grab a shower while I fix you something to eat?”

“I’m not hungry,” she mumbled as she moved toward the hallway.

“You’ll need to eat with the antibiotic. Go shower and leave the rest to me.” Adam pointed toward the hallway, while thumbing across the screen of his phone and hitting the number for the person he knew would help him out.

“You’re so bossy,” Tess grumbled once more before she turned the corner. He smiled a little at her stubbornness and decided that he’d let her have the last word. She was sick after all.

A short phone call later and he was following Tess’s path down the hallway, listening for the sound of running water. The second door to the right was open, which led to her bedroom. He went in, turning on the overhead light and taking his first look around the space where Tess slept.

It was small for a master bedroom but in proportion to the scale of the cottage. But what it lacked in size, it more than made up for in comfort and style. Three walls were painted a warm honey color with the fourth decked out in a Mediterranean blue, giving the room the feeling of warm days on a beach in Greece. The comforter was a deep oceanic blue and pillows in white, silver and lighter shades of blue were scattered over the bed around the Tess-shaped spot on the left side of the mattress.

Ducking back out into the hallway, Adam grabbed a new set of sheets and proceeded to strip down the bed and remake it, stacking the decorative pillows on a large armchair in the corner next to the large window that faced the small fenced backyard. Adam could just spy a small patio filled with a table and chairs and a grill.

Hearing the water turn off on the shower, he moved toward the open door to the adjoining bathroom, leaning against the door frame as Tess finished wrapping a large towel around her long, lush body. Her hair was wet and darkened to the deepest shade of auburn, the strands sticking to the damp, heat-pinkened skin of her shoulders. Adam remembered the silk of her flesh, the sweet taste of her sighs as he kissed her all over.

Now she had no makeup. No hairstyle. No sexy outfit.

Tess Lynch was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

She looked over her shoulder at him and he could see the bone-deep fatigue in the lines around her mouth and the lack of brilliance in her eyes. And just like that the pull was back in his chest, the one that made it difficult to take a deep breath. Adam leaned against the door frame, willing his heart to revert to its normal rhythm and his tongue to form the right words.

“Your medicine is on the way. I’ll be in the kitchen making you something to eat.”

“Adam.” Tess sighed in exasperation, the hoarse whisper barely traveling across the room to where he stood. She shuffled forward a couple of paces, closing the distance between them to less than arm’s length. “Why are