Chapter Twelve
Caroline
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PALE LIGHT STIRRED me from my slumber, and tugging the cover toward my face, my eyelids fluttered open to reveal white.
My brows knitted at that. White?
I blinked again, focusing on the bleached facade. White sheets were twisted in my fingertips, white walls surrounded me, and white machines stood by the bedside.
Heart beating harder, I pulled myself upright only to find Harper’s nurse, Elsa, standing there, watching me. Shivering at her scrutiny, I yanked the bedding closer around me.
“Good morning.” Elsa’s accent sounded harder than usual as her hands slid to her hips.
“Er, hi.” Glancing around the room, I noticed what should have been obvious from the start. Harper was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Adam?”
For one dreadful moment, multiple answers to my question sprang to my mind.
Maybe his heart had stopped again and the medics had been unable to save him, or perhaps he’d met with the officials while I slept and had already left Switzerland.
Frozen terror swept over me at the preposterous potential outcomes.
Logically, I accepted neither of those results could have transpired without me having noticed, but puzzled and panicked, my focus slid to Elsa for clarification.
“He is showering.”
Her attention landed on the empty space beside me, her gaze narrowing. Apparently, Elsa had agreed to let me stay with him—perhaps because of his relentless charm—but it seemed she didn’t approve of us sleeping together.
Or maybe she just doesn’t like me.
“Right.” Relief washed over me in one giant wave. Harper hadn’t gone far. “Is he okay?”
“Well enough to not be attached to the machines, finally.” She nodded to the devices that were silent.
“He’ll be pleased.” I pulled the covers closer to my chest, painfully aware that not only was I naked beneath them, but that I had no idea where the clothes I’d discarded had been moved to.
“Here.” She turned toward the counter and collected a pile of garments. “I folded them for you.”
Closing the space to the bed, she pushed the clothes in my direction.
“Thank you.” Collecting the bedding in one hand, I balanced the pile of clothes on the other, laying them on the blankets beside me.
A swell of awkward energy ballooned between us.
I wondered how long she’d stand there glaring at me before she’d take the hint and leave.
I was glad I had my clothes, but they were useless unless she was prepared to give me the privacy I needed to get dressed.
I’d spent too long waiting for the permission of others to do things as basic as dress myself, and I hadn’t clawed my way out of Fortorus only to bend to her will.
In the end, her stony silence left me no other choice but to speak. “Is there somewhere I can change?”
In truth, I’d have appreciated a shower myself, having not enjoyed the pleasure of one since we were forced from Fabian’s house, but the very least I deserved was space to don my attire without the prying eyes of Harper’s Swiss nurse.
Meeting the judgment in her eyes, I was reminded of the pleasure Harper had ripped from my body before we’d fallen asleep together.
In those hot, sordid moments, he’d cajoled me with the idea of Elsa, and how she might have reveled in my denigration.
His goading words had sounded so sexy in the heat of his embrace, but in the cold light of day, the nurse’s blue stare was only cold and cruel.
“It is not normal, you know.” Frowning, she folded her arms across her chest.
“What isn’t normal?” My gaze flitted to the window, wondering what I had to do to earn the solitude I sought.
“Allowing patients to have their girlfriends to stay with them in the hospital.”
“Oh, right.” Heat pooled on my face as I imagined the scene Elsa had walked into that morning.
Hopefully, Harper had remembered to cover up our entwined bodies before we fell asleep, but I couldn’t recall.
After the mountain of passion he’d piled on top of me, all I’d wanted was to doze off in his arms. I’d given zero thought to how we’d look to the medical staff or whether or not the room still reeked of sex. “No, I suppose not.”
“But Adam persuaded me, and then he worked on Officer Kaspar.” She blew out a breath. “He is quite the charmer, no?”
“Yes, he is.”
I couldn’t argue with her logic, even if the strained dynamic in the room was getting odder by the moment.
Harper’s magnetism had seen me fall for him, despite the fact that he’d been the man in charge of the entire camp I’d been held in.
I should have loathed him, or at least continued to fear him, but ultimately, I’d fallen in love.
“I put the rail up on the bed for you.” She motioned to the metal barrier elevated on my right side. “To stop you from falling to the floor while you slept.”
My gaze landed on the rail before falling to find the duffle bag still tucked beneath the bed.
“Well, thanks.” What else did she expect me to say to that?
I appreciated the courtesy, but there were more pressing matters, like the fact that I was still naked.
“So, is there somewhere I can get washed and changed?”
My question was answered by the door to the en suite opening on the far side of the room. I turned to find Harper, nude, save for the white towel wrapped around his hips. Our eyes met for one scintillating minute, a hundred unsaid sentiments flying between us.
“Ah, she’s awake.” He flashed a smile in my direction.
“And how are you?” Eyeing his muscular torso, Elsa flitted to his side like a mother hen. “The water was not too hot, I hope. We do not want to elevate your blood pressure again.”
“I’m fine.” He dismissed her with a flick of his wrist.
“Good morning.” Sir.
I held back the final word in Elsa’s presence, but I couldn’t deny the way my pulse sped up as he neared the bed. For all his dubious history and delectable filibuster, he was quite the sight for sore eyes—every inch of him the man who’d mastered me.
“Hey, you.” Leaning against the end of his hospital bed, his eyebrow arched at me. “How did you sleep?”
“Well, I think.” Still clutching the covers to my chest, I wished we could start the conversation over, but without our uniformed audience.
It was strange how, despite the obvious relationship between Harper and me, Elsa refused to give us any personal space.
Surely, she sensed the viscerally charged atmosphere in the room, yet it didn’t coax her to leave. “How are you?”
“Oh, I feel much better.” His lips twisted. “That medicine I had last night really helped.”
Stifling laughter, my gaze lowered to the pile of my clothes by my knee. I remembered that dose of medicine all too well, my throbbing clit hoping we could enjoy a repeat performance before too long.
“You can use the bathroom now, Miss Craness.” Apparently immune to the comedy, Elsa scowled.
“I’m happy to show you the main features.” Harper’s voice was wry. “There’s a light, more towels, and a really big shower head.”
“No, no!” Elsa tutted as though Harper was only a small child. “You have visitors arriving soon, Adam. You must get ready.”
“I think we can handle this from here.” Harper threw her a sympathetic smile. “Thank you, though, Elsa. We do so appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”
Her lips parted as if she was going to protest, but I watched as he ushered her out of the door. Closing it behind her, he spun to face me.
“I thought she’d never leave.” His eyes fell shut as he leaned back against the door.
“You and me both, Sir.” Moving my clothes to the end of the bed, I swung my feet from the covers and padded over to join him.
I pressed myself against his body, enjoying the warmth of his arms as I went on. “Do you have time to show me around the bathroom, or was she right about time?”
His lips curled. “Oh, I definitely have the time. If the ICC wants my help, they can wait a little longer.”
“Thank you for last night.” Rising on tiptoes, I skimmed a kiss on his stubbled jaw. “I really had missed you.”
His arm tightened around my middle as he gazed down at me. “Thank you, little girl. Once this is all resolved, we’ll find a way to make those kinds of nights our new normal.”
“What, both of us in a hospital bed, Sir?” I glanced back at the sheets. “Because, no offence, but I think we can aim for better than that.”
“Smart ass,” he growled as one of his large palms lowered and swatted my backside.
“I didn’t hear any complaints about my ass last night.” Soaking up the strike, I met his blue eyes.
So much had happened between us in the last few months, and that didn’t take into consideration the other traumas we’d witnessed and experienced in the new British regime.
To have found anything positive from our time at Fortorus was incredible, but that we’d both discovered something worth dying for seemed utterly unbelievable.
“Oh no.” Steering me back toward the shower room, he grinned. “Absolutely none.”
“You know, I thought you were going to fuck me after I came, Sir.” I glanced behind me as we passed the threshold of the two rooms. The floor beneath my feet morphed into tiles, their surface wet from the shower he’d just concluded. “I wanted you.”
“Is that right?”
I peered around the white expanse of the wet room, taking in the large shower and the heated towel rail to our left.
“I’m not complaining,” I assured him as he released the towel around his hips to reveal his already engorged cock. “I’m just saying I’ve missed you.”
Kicking the bathroom door closed, he smirked as he wandered over to the rail and hung his towel over it. “Well, the last thing I want is an unsatisfied little girl.”
“I’m far from unsatisfied, Sir.” I waited until he’d closed the distance between us before I threw my arms around his neck. “I’m just desperately trying to forget why those ICC officials are coming here today.”