Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Hudson
I felt like puking—and it wasn’t because I was sick.
The scent of disinfectant, the white walls, the nurses and doctors running all around—they were the ones making me nauseous.
They were the reason I was sick to my stomach and felt like spewing my broth everywhere.
There was no denying I needed some kind of medical attention, but I hated that I had to be here.
Didn’t matter that it wasn’t the same hospital where I’d been sexually assaulted. Fucking raped. Didn’t matter that he no longer fucking worked here and couldn’t touch me. And it didn’t matter that I was now an adult capable of taking care of myself.
Those kinds of scars never faded over time.
Sometimes, they randomly reopened and bled.
Like now. All I wanted to do was get up from this hard, uncomfortable chair and leave.
Just sprint out those emergency room doors and never stop running until I reached the safety of home—the one place I’d never been abused because Kreed had never allowed it.
“Knight?” the triage nurse called, using my last name as soon as she opened her door. Her hair was blonde and held back by a clip. She looked pleasant enough, but I knew looks could be deceiving.
“Come on,” Kreed murmured, standing and turning to face me.
I shook my head. I didn’t want to go back there.
Kreed, the understanding fucking bastard that he was, crouched in front of me, his eyes soft and understanding. He rested his hands on my knees and stroked his thumbs over my thighs through my cotton pajama pants. “I’m by your side the entire time, remember? No one will touch you, Hudson.”
“This is stupid,” I rasped then coughed.
Kreed shook his head. “Your fear of hospitals and their staff is not stupid, Hudson. You haven’t had time to heal from it because you’ve shoved it down and kept it hidden.
” He straightened to his full height then gripped me beneath my arms, hauling me up.
I lost my balance, falling against him, and his arms came around me immediately. And fuck, the way I sank into him…
Kreed was home. He was safety. How could I not sink into him and seek a moment of comfort?
“Easy now,” Kreed murmured. He eased me back then grabbed my hand.
I didn’t let a single thing show on my face, but my heart skipped a beat when he slipped his fingers between mine and gently squeezed.
I had no idea what the fuck was happening, but I sure as hell wouldn’t say a word.
If I got what I wanted without having to put in the work, who the fuck was I to complain?
I’d worked for everything in my life. Maybe—just maybe—I could get what I wanted without a fight for once.
The nurse smiled warmly at us as we drew closer.
“Hudson Knight?” she asked. When I nodded, she looked at Kreed. “If you’ll just wait in the waiting room, I can come get you once his triage is finished—”
I was going to puke.
My hand tightened around Kreed’s, sweaty and shaking. My heart was beating too fast, and I was sure my knees would give out beneath me.
He couldn’t leave me. He promised.
“Not happening,” Kreed told her, his voice hard and final.
I lifted my eyes from the floor to look at him.
His jaw was set in a tense line, and his expression was begging her to argue with him.
And if she did, it wouldn’t end well. Kreed wasn’t the CEO of a very successful gaming app company for nothing.
He’d built the first app when he was in college, had launched it on his own, and it had grown so much, he now owned an entire company based off that single game.
He might have come from a wealthy family, but that didn’t mean he didn’t create his own wealth.
“Sir—”
“He stays,” I croaked before Kreed could open his mouth. “Or I leave.”
The nurse scanned me from head to toe then flattened her lips, nodding once. Obviously, I looked shitty enough that she chose not to argue. I didn’t know whether to be happy or a little peeved that she thought I looked like absolute dog shit.
“Take a seat.”
I dropped into the chair she gestured to and sat still as a rock while she took my temperature, my blood pressure, and asked the standard questions.
Kreed stood a mere foot from me, forcing the nurse to work around him.
I knew he was getting on her nerves, but I was infinitely grateful for his presence.
“Alright. We’re going to put you in room three,” the nurse told me. “Come on, hon.” When she held out her hand to help me up from the chair, I blatantly ignored her.
Kreed cleared his throat.
“Excuse me,” he murmured then held out his hand to me once she moved out the way.
I slipped my hand into his, and he pulled me up, not even commenting on how sweaty my palm was.
We silently followed the nurse, and once we were in the room with the door shut, with the terrifying promise the doctor would be in shortly, I laid back on the bed.
Kreed silently covered me with the provided blanket then dimmed the lights. “It’ll be a while before the doctor comes,” he told me quietly. “Try to rest.”
“I can’t,” I rasped. My eyes burned, and I was so fucking tired. My body was weak, and already, so much energy had been drained out of me. But I was terrified of sleeping in this fucking place. I was vulnerable when I was asleep. Unaware of my surroundings.
Kreed slipped onto the bed beside me. “Come here,” he murmured.
I rolled onto my side to face him. He curled his arm around me, tugging me closer. I rested my head on his shoulder, sinking into his warm side. He stroked his hand up and down my arm. “Now sleep. I won’t move, okay? You’re safe. You’re always safe with me, Hudson.”
I swallowed thickly, which only sent me into a coughing fit. Once it passed, I croaked, “I know. Thank you. I’d say I’m sorry for being a dick earlier…”
He chuckled, his chest vibrating. “You’re not.”
A small smile tilted my lips. “Nope,” I whispered, sleep already tugging at me. “I’m still planning to make you mine, Kreed.”
He hummed. “I know, Hudson.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head, and I felt as if I were drowning in happy endorphins. “Now sleep.”
I was already passing out, almost feeling like his somewhat-agreement was already the beginning of a dream in which everything I wanted became mine.
Even if it wasn’t true, I clung to it with both hands and held on tight.