Chapter 20 #2
The room tilts, my vision wavering as though the darkness is waiting for another chance to claim me. Hell, maybe my time has come, and the Grim Reaper has finally arrived to settle the score. After all, I’ve been making his job easy these past few years.
Locking my knees, I swallow the darkness, not allowing it to take me until after I’ve thoroughly killed Raiden Kane myself.
Then, after steadying myself with the IV pole, I put one foot in front of the other, sailing around the edge of my bed as the cool air hits my ass through the back of the open hospital gown.
As soon as my fingers grab hold of the curtain, I yank it back as far as it’ll go.
And there he is, in all his delicious perfectness, Raiden fucking Kane.
My gaze sweeps over him, taking in the casual way he braces his arm behind his head, looking as though he’s on fucking vacation.
His body is bruised and broken, just like mine.
His arm and ribs are bandaged from the cut I gave him and the bullet wound, but there are also bandages that wrap around his chest, telling me he likely has broken ribs from the impact of the fall.
The bigger question is, how the hell is he lying here with a smirk while not having to wear one of these ridiculous hospital gowns?
Which nurse did he have to sweet-talk to get that honor?
Hell, it wouldn’t have been hard. The moment Raiden Kane sets his sights on a woman, she becomes putty in his capable hands.
My assessment takes barely a split second, and as my gaze returns to that stupidly adorable face, that familiar rage burns through me. “YOU!” I whisper-yell, throwing myself toward him, awkwardly scrambling across the linoleum as I drag my IV pole along with me. “This is all your fault.”
“My fault?” he laughs, already bracing for whatever the hell I decide to do.
“You’re the one showing up in places you weren’t meant to be.
If you had butted out of my business, I would have gotten my job done, my way, and been home buried inside of you by now.
But nooooo, it had to be the . . . Bianca show, as usual. ”
I gasp in outrage because how dare he call me on my own bullshit? Not even Spikezilla would ever be so aggressively daring and audacious.
The longer he grins at me, knowing exactly how he’s getting under my skin, the deeper the fury boils, and the moment it snaps, I launch myself at him, abandoning the IV pole and attempting to finish what I started in that penthouse before the explosion ruined everything.
“Fuck, I hate you,” I say, throwing myself over him, straddling him over his blanket, suddenly completely unaware of how my body aches, but that’s how it always is around Raiden. He has a way of making the real world fade away, leaving only the two of us.
I grab for him, determined to finally finish him off despite how heavy my arms feel, but my movements are so sloppy he barely has to try. One hand stays planted on my bare ass while the other lazily bats my attempts away like I’m a billion-year-old fly with one busted wing.
It’s pathetic. I’m pathetic. And still, I can’t make myself stop.
Because being here, trying to kill him, trading blows and insults and heat, is where I feel steady.
Being in his arms, even like this, means I don’t have to look too closely at the truth pressing in from every side.
That maybe this isn’t just rivalry. That maybe there’s something far more dangerous simmering beneath it, that I’ve been too scared to even consider.
“Why don’t you sit on my face and tell me how much you hate me then?”
Fuuuuuuuuck. He boils my blood like no other. How is he even capable of this? But also . . . I don’t hate the idea.
I lunge for him again, my movements just as sloppy, and as he swats me away, my IV line gets tangled between us, almost tearing out of my wrist, and as I hiss in pain, a sharp gasp sounds from behind us.
My body freezes, and I look back to find Katie hovering between my and Raiden’s beds, a disapproving look on her face. “I thought I told you not to get up.”
I offer her a guilty smile, one I know can’t be resisted. “I found my husband.”
At the sound of the word husband, Raiden’s hand tightens on my ass, but Katie doesn’t miss a thing. She points at my bed like my very own season-one Dr. Miranda Bailey. “Bed. Now.”
I cringe, and Raiden grips my hip, all but lifting me off him and steadying me on the ground when I attempt to move. “You’ll have to forgive us,” he says, offering one of those irresistible, cocky smiles to Katie. “Newlyweds. You know how it is. Can’t keep our hands off each other.”
She doesn’t look impressed, and Raiden falters for just a second, knocking the breath right out of my lungs. Is this the first woman ever to be unaffected by this man’s charm?
“Wow,” I breathe, looking at Katie in a whole new light. “How’d you do that? How can you just stare at him and not crumble when he looks at you with those dark, gold-speckled eyes? I thought it was humanly impossible.”
Raiden shakes his head, pleading with Katie, actual panic in his dark eyes.
“Please. Whatever tricks you have, I’m begging you, don’t let her in on the secret.
I like when she can’t resist me. She gets all flustered and breathless, scrambling over her words like she suddenly forgot how to speak. Just adorable.”
“That’s wonderful,” Katie says, deadpan, not interested in the least before turning back to me, her fingers still aimed at my bed. “Now.”
Well, shit. Katie didn’t come to mess around.
And with that, I drag my IV pole back across the linoleum and perch my ass on the edge of my bed, offering my bloody hand to Katie. “Before you go,” I say, knowing I’m about to get the biggest I told you so of my life. “I fucked up my IV.”