Chapter 13 #2
Silverware. Honest to God silverware made of honest to God silver. They’d been taught to recognize and identify a lot of precious metals.
“A silver spoon? Really?”
She smiled. “I would have set a nice table for you if things had gone normally. Hush now.”
He hushed.
Next was a crystal chalice and a glass bottle of sparkling water. “No wine for you, I’m afraid. Sorry.”
Then a thermos and she poured out a creamy liquid that was the same light green color as the flowers. Food that matched the décor. That was a new one.
She unfolded with a snap a light green linen tablecloth the size of his desk and put it around his neck and put the solid silver spoon in his hand.
He ate a spoonful of the soup and nearly laughed. It was absolutely delicious—fresh tasting and somehow minty. And a small slice of focaccia. “What is this?”
She smiled a witch’s smile. “I should keep you guessing but you’re sick and all, so I won’t. Cream of zucchini soup with basil and mint. As easy to digest as cream of wheat but much better tasting.”
God yes. He ate the entire bowl and the slice of focaccia. At first, he thought she wasn’t serving him much food, but it turned out she’d calculated it perfectly. He was full.
Parker turned to fiddle with the small case and pulled out a small pretty china plate with a small slice of the lemon cake made by her neighbor. And a small silver dessert fork. He wasn’t hungry, but he knew first-hand how good that cake was and finished it off.
He was happily stuffed when he sat back while she put everything away. For the first time since the earthquake, he felt…okay. Not great, but okay, and better all the time. Part of it was just the natural healing process of a healthy body, but part of it was her. Parker. Here, by his side.
A reason to get better as fast as he could. He watched her as she put away the dinner things, graceful and smiling. She’d made an extra effort to provide him with better than hospital-quality food and make it an exercise in elegance, something hospitals weren’t known for.
She was tired but still looked amazing. Even more alluring than normal because he knew how she got so tired. By trying to help him.
They should have had their evening at her house.
Dinner followed by sex all night. They’d missed that.
It was a weird feeling to want sex with Parker but not feel warmth in his groin.
The burning desire was there, but the blood wasn’t pooling between his legs, and he didn’t have a hard-on. It would come, just not now.
However, there was a pooling of blood in the middle of his chest. Where his heart was, though up until now it wasn’t an organ he paid much attention to.
Now he was forced to pay attention because he could feel heat, feel it beating in his chest. Like sexual arousal without an erection. Was his heart getting a woodie?
Fuck.
Parker was messing with him without meaning to.
She’d put away his dinner things and pulled a chair to the bed. She sat down and held his hand. It warmed up his entire arm. “What else can I do for you?”
Nick shot her a look, and she laughed.
“Besides that. Down, tiger. Dr. Crowley would definitely not approve. And you’ve got stitches. There are rules.”
Nick gave an exaggerated sigh.
“What’s happening with the Consulate? Are you going to continue the contract when you get out? Even if they’ve caught George, surely there’s some mopping up to do? Putting new security features in place?”
“Dylan’s taken over the contract. He’s a vice president of both Go Solutions and Black Inc. like me. The Consulate’s in good hands. He’ll put a super secure system in place and figure out what’s been compromised.”
“Is he as good as you?”
Nick waited a beat. “Yeah.”
She laughed again. “Did that hurt?”
He shrugged. “A little.”
She cocked her head. “Does that mean you can take some time off? Rest and recover?”
“Oh, yeah,” he breathed. Parker Donovan was going to be his personal rehab.
“Good. And I still need to feed you my tiramisu. But only at home, not here. Dr. Crowley would have my head.”
Two days later, Nick eased back on Parker’s comfortable couch, feet up on a hassock.
Nick had discovered something shocking about himself. He loved being pampered. Simply loved it.
Up until now, if you’d asked him, he’d have described himself as a total badass. Tough as they come. Nothing scared him, he could survive anything. He ate nails for breakfast and shat bullets.
That kind of guy.
Instead, he’d fallen face first into Parker’s care like falling into a perfumed vat of flower petals. Oh man.
Parker hadn’t left his side. He had asked the nurses to put a cot in his room instead of having Parker sleep in an uncomfortable chair and they did.
He’d encouraged this with a €200 tip, but that probably wasn’t necessary.
It had been made clear to him that he could have what he wanted within reason and what he wanted was for Parker to be comfortable, since she refused to go home.
He’d dozed a lot, to his surprise. Just fell right asleep at odd times, only to wake up hours later with Parker right there, usually working on her laptop or reading something on her tablet.
As soon as she realized he was awake, she’d put everything down and dedicate herself to making him comfortable.
Nick had been wounded before, had had surgery before, but hadn’t had Parker by his side before. And man, did it make a difference.
She fussed over him, and instead of it irritating him because goddamit, he was tough, he…
liked it. Liked her straightening out the bed because God forbid wrinkles in the sheets bother him, holding a glass of water, which she kept chilled in a cooler.
Nick drew the line at being fed, but it was a temptation.
After two days of whining, Dr. Crowley finally let him go home. Or to Parker’s place, which was better than any home he’d ever had. Parker had a long list of questions about his care and took careful notes.
He’d woken up this morning feeling okay for the first time since he’d been shot, but leaving the hospital, being driven to Parker’s place, settling in—it had taxed him, though he’d never admit it.
Parker insisted he sit down on her couch, which was sinfully comfortable, with a very lightweight cotton blanket, and he’d fallen fast asleep.
Fuck. Alone with Parker for the first time since being shot, and he fell asleep.
He woke up and found her beside him, dozing, her head on his shoulder.
Yeah, she’d be exhausted. Sleeping for days on a cot in the hospital, always moving around to make him more comfortable. And though she hadn’t been shot or wounded, she’d lived through an earthquake, crawled through rubble and had killed a man.
Enough to make anyone tired.
Nick studied her face as she slept. She had dark circles under her eyes, new lines in her face, and was very pale. She’d never looked more beautiful to him. An extraordinary woman. And his.
Of that he was certain.
She was taking really good care of him. He was going to take really good care of her.
Her eyes opened unexpectedly, wide, tired, beautiful. She sat up, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “Hey,” she said. She looked him up and down and seemed satisfied. He hadn’t taken another bullet in the time she slept. He was on the mend.
“Hey back.”
Parker gave him a soft kiss and stood up. “How about we have dinner at the table, like civilized beings? You must be sick of eating off a tray in the hospital.”
“Oh yeah.” One thing about his Parker. She liked to live elegantly. Good thing she wasn’t a soldier out in the field, shitting in the woods like a bear. But the thing was, Nick loved that about her. Wherever she was, she created beautiful surroundings. Everything she touched became nicer.
Nick stood up on his own, but leaned on her a little as they made their way to the table. There were candles and pretty napkins and silver napkin rings. Soup in a china tureen—he’d learned the word from Parker—slices of sourdough bread, a small salad. No wine yet, but that would come.
Nick had spent a lot of time, a good portion of his life, in the badlands. Where there was no civilization, where it was dog eat dog and no beauty. He knew where he wanted to be. In Parker’s world.
She smiled as he pulled out her chair for her and tried to hide that he sat down heavily in his own chair.
Parker ladled bright yellow soup into his bowl. He leaned over and sniffed. “What’s this?”
“Carrot and ginger soup. Full of vitamins for a growing boy.”
He laughed and tasted it. It was, of course, delicious. As was the toasted sourdough bread drizzled with olive oil.
When Nick finished the soup and slice of bread, Parker touched his hand. “I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh yeah? Am I going to like it?”
“Very definitely. Now close your eyes.”
He closed his eyes obediently.
“Open.” He opened his eyes and stared at the small serving bowl.
“Ohmygod.”
Parker nodded. “I asked Dr. Crowley, and he gave me his okay.”
“Tiramisu,” Nick said reverently.
“It is. A promise is a promise.”
He dug his dessert spoon into the creamy, chocolatey mass and put the spoon in his mouth and closed his eyes.
It tasted of heaven. The best tiramisu he’d ever had.
He finished the bowl without talking and barely kept himself from scraping the bottom of the bowl for a few more molecules of the dessert.
He picked the bowl up and tilted it to her so she could see just how tragically empty it was.
“Sorry, slick.” Parker smiled. “The doctor said one small bowl. But the good news is I have more for tomorrow.”
Nick looked over at Parker. She was smiling at him, and he knew that she was doing her very best to please him and care for him. And she was doing a fantastic job. If he played his cards right, this could be forever. He could see her across the table for the rest of his life.
It was what he wanted more than anything in the world.
Nick picked up her hand. He wanted to smile, but it was too big a moment to smile. “Parker Donovan, I’ve never met anyone like you before. I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I know myself and I know I want to be with you forever. Will you marry me?”
She laughed. “For the tiramisu?”
But then she saw that he was serious and stopped smiling. Her hand trembled in his. “Maybe. I don’t know what to say. Not many marriages work out.”
“Yes. You say yes.” Nick startled babbling in a sweat of panic.
“But you don’t have to say yes immediately.
We could—we could live together first. You could get used to the idea.
I could definitely relocate Go Solutions headquarters to Rome.
Naples would be harder, but Rome could work quite well.
You could live in Rome, right? Work in Rome? ”
She nodded, eyes huge.
“So we’d live together, see how it works. I think it would work great, don’t you?”
Nick picked up her hand, soft and graceful. Everything about her was soft and graceful, and he was astounded at how much he wanted this, wanted it forever. Something of what he felt must have gotten through because she suddenly smiled.
“Probably.”