Chapter 4 Lily
Lily
My steps drag as I leave the bakery and a horrendous headache is starting to pound behind my temples. My hips and knees are bothering me so much that it’s painful to take each step to reach my car.
“Hey, are you alright?”
I lift my head and there’s a girl standing in front of me. I know who she is but for the life of me, I can’t remember what her name is. Or why she’s there.
“Ummm…”. I can’t quite get my tongue to cooperate.
“Dad!” The girl starts jumping up and down and waving at something and it’s hurting my head and my eyes just watching her.
There’s a heat behind me and then a growled, “What’s wrong, Case?”
“There’s something wrong with Lily.”
I open my mouth to tell her that there’s nothing at all wrong with me but before I can, I feel my jelly legs start to give out and I stiffen my spine to keep from falling.
The deep voice behind me says, “Whoa!” And then I’m wrapped up in someone’s strong arms and he’s picking me up, carrying me like a child to his car.
He sits me on the front seat of a very comfortable SUV and studies my face, his own handsome one setting off a clenching in my belly.
Huh. Who knew you could get turned on when you were so tired you could barely lift your fingers?
But if any guy could do it, I guess this one could.
The voices around me fade in and out and it feels like we’re underwater with how garbled it all is. But then he moves closer and his ice-pale blue eyes lock on mine as he gently touches my jaw and turns my chin up.
“Do you need to go to the hospital?”
Shaking my head, I moan when all the movements make me feel nauseous and dizzy.
“Can you tell me what your address is? I’ll take you home.”
But nothing comes out. My eyes close and I slide down in the seat, exhausted, as everything goes black.
The first thing that hits me is a smell. A delicious smell. I love Italian and for some reason I smell chicken parmesan. And the best kind of chicken parm.
Then I hear noise. A little bit of pans clanging around and a low murmur followed by a higher one.
The fabric that I’m lying on is a little bit rougher than the sheets on my bed. With my disease, my skin is super-sensitive and when I have a flare-up, my skin develops a rash whenever rougher fabrics touch me.
I find the softest cottons or silks so that I don’t get a rash.
Although these are nice fabrics, they’re not as nice as the ones I use. My skin feels a little itchy and I fight not to scratch at my arms and legs.
I sit up and stare around me, wondering where the hell I am. The last thing I remember is seeing Casey and her dad talking in front of the camera. Everything else after that was a big mushy mess of sights and sounds scraping along my nerves until I couldn’t take it anymore.
I know it hasn’t been very long since that but I feel a little better. Not one hundred percent but better.
Still have a bit of a headache though and my belly is turning.
But that might be because I haven’t eaten since early this morning.
I missed lunch to try and get my car tuned up.
I got it done but I sat in that little room at the dealership and stared at the walls while they spent at least two hours working on it.
That probably didn’t help my situation at all.
The door opens and there’s a huge shadow in the doorway. “Ah! You’re awake.”
“Did you kidnap me?”
A low, deep chuckle. “Umm. No. You passed out in my car seat and I couldn’t get an address out of you and it seemed kinda rude to just push you out and leave you on the side of the road drooling!”
“I don’t drool,” I huff.
“You did but I’ll be a gentleman and let you get away with that little white lie.”
“Is she awake?” A young girl’s voice hollers from the other room.
“Yeah, she’s awake but you don’t need to come in here and bother her.”
His big body comes further into the room and he turns on a night light beside the bed. Immediately my belly clenches when I see his ruffled hair and piercing blue eyes. He looks too good to be real. Like Thor dropped to Earth and he’s devouring me with his eyes.
If only!
“You wanna tell me what happened?”
My eyes drop and I pick at the blanket. My hands have the beginning of a slight rash and he murmurs under his breath, reaching out to lightly trace the pink.
Fire slicks along my nerves. And this time it’s a good fire.
“I have CFS.” His dark brows lift but he doesn’t say a thing.
“It’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It’s like a laundry list of problems and there’s no cure.
Sometimes it goes away but usually that takes a long time.
Nobody knows why or how it happens. But I have flare-ups and I just can’t do much of anything. ”
His bulging arms cross and my mouth goes dry. The muscles ripple in the dim light and my eyes trace the movement.
“Eyes up here, princess. Is there any warning that you’re about to get one of the flare-ups?”
I nod my head and peek out from under a curtain of my hair. “Usually. I felt off yesterday and I had a feeling it was coming but I hoped that I’d be able to get this taping done and then I could take the time to mix it all together and it wouldn’t cause an interruption in my episodes going out.”
“So you knew this could happen?” There’s a tone of annoyance in his voice and I don’t like it. Like he thinks I owe him an apology for messing up his night.
“I’m not saying I’m sorry,” I huff. “I didn’t intend for this to happen. I know I should have planned better but sometimes it’s just impossible.”
“I’m not asking for an apology. I’m saying you should take better care of yourself, princess. If you were mine, I’d wait until you felt better and then I’d spank that pretty ass of yours for scaring the hell out of me and my daughter.”
He turns to the door as I gasp and clutch the blankets with my suddenly numb fingers.
Then he turns back and grins. “Luckily for you, you’re not mine. Yet.”
And then he strolls to the door like he didn’t just blow my mind. “If you’re hungry I can bring you something in here or you can come out and join us for dinner.”
“I-I’ll come join you and Casey if that’s alright.”
He turns around and winks, smirking. “Absofuckinglutely, princess. I’ll get you a plate.” His sparkling eyes run up and down my body so that it feels like he’s done an X-ray through the blankets. I feel naked and I know that I’m about ten shades of red!
He gently closes the door and I drop back to the bed, closing my eyes and grabbing a pillow to scream into it.
That man is all kinds of sexy and I like it a fucking lot.
But he knows that I’m sick and he’s a freaking god. I have to remember that. There’s no way he’s interested in me.