Chapter 14
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E lizabeth woke feeling surprisingly good, with Masters still curled up beside her. She smiled, knowing that it was an intimate experience to watch him sleep and yet helpless to do anything else. When her phone buzzed, she reached over to answer it, but Masters’s arm swung around her waist and pulled her back down again. She murmured, “And here I thought you weren’t awake.”
“I’m not,” he muttered.
She chuckled and then realized it was probably more of an instinctive reaction. She wasn’t allowed to leave or it worried him. Considering everything he’d done for her, it was the least she could do to stay here and allow him some true rest. She remained still, as she watched and waited. Sure enough he drifted deeper back under again. She curled up beside him, her phone in her hand, and checked up on messages and emails.
After a few minutes, he yawned beside her.
She muttered, “You should go back to sleep.”
“No, I’m done now,” he replied. “I just need a minute to wake up.”
“You have lots of minutes,” she noted.
“Have you heard from the hospital?”
“No, but I’ll call them right now.” She dialed the hospital. After being on hold for a bit, she got an update on her brother’s condition. When she got off the phone, her voice was subdued. “He’s out of surgery, and he did fine, but he’s,… he’s in rough shape. I can go see him, but he won’t be conscious for a while.”
“No, I don’t imagine he’ll be conscious for quite a while,” he replied. “Remember that part about a medically induced coma?”
“Yeah, she mentioned something about that, but he’ll make it,” she declared. “And that’s what counts.”
He wrapped an arm around her, pulled her up tightly against him, and added, “That’s what you need to hang on to. Even if his rehab takes a very long time, you just hang on to the fact that he’s here and that he’s alive. Everything else we can fix over time.”
She hugged him close and whispered, “I do appreciate that you went to bat for him.”
He smiled and just held her even closer.
After a few minutes, she groaned and added, “I don’t know about you, but I need food.”
He chuckled. “Coffee would be good too.”
“Okay. Coffee and food it is,” she declared. “Are you ready to wake up?”
“I’m awake,” he said. “I’m just enjoying a few minutes of downtime.”
She snuggled back into his arms. “Yeah, me too.”
“By the way, your brother might have a question whenever you get to talk to him.”
“A question about what?”
“When I rescued him, I mentioned something to him. He seemed quite surprised, but honestly I’m not surprised at all.”
Confused, she looked up at him. “You’re not making a whole lot of sense.”
“Oh, but I am,” he stated, with a smile. “It’s just that you don’t know.”
“I don’t know what?”
“When I found Nicholas, I told him that he could thank his sister for his rescue.”
“Hardly, that was all you.”
“Sure, but you’re the one who kept that hope active, that kept bringing it back to the forefront of everybody’s mind, whether they liked it or not.”
“By being a pain in the ass.”
“And sometimes that is what we have to do,” he noted, smiling at her. “Anyway, I also told him that we would talk later, but I had designs on his sister.”
She stared at him, and the words didn’t compute. “You said what?” she asked, half laughing.
“That I had designs on his sister. I got a similar reaction from him.”
“Yeah, ya think?” she quipped, staring at him in disbelief. “FYI, I don’t think people talk like that anymore. I haven’t heard that expression in a very long time.”
“Yeah, I’m a bit of a dinosaur,” he admitted. “I’m a throwback to a time when words meant something and when honor and ethics and all those good things could be counted on from everyone.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she replied, “because, when you put it that way, I guess maybe I’m a bit of a throwback too. You told him that?” she asked, still stunned.
He smiled, then nodded, his eyes still closed.
She tapped him on the nose and asked, “And did you mean it?”
He opened his eyes, and she lost herself in that warm almost amber gaze. How had she never noticed the color of his eyes before? Something was so wonderfully warm and melting about them.
“Absolutely,” he stated, a smile breaking free. “Never doubt that.”
She stared at him. “We don’t even know each other.”
“Nope, we don’t,” he agreed. “The good news is that now we’ll have some time to take care of that.”
She felt tears in her eyes, as he pulled her down and gave her a gentle kiss on her battered nose.
“And I’ll give you time to get used to it.”
“Who said I needed time?” she asked.
“Me,” he replied, with a chuckle. “I’m just letting you know.”
“Just letting me know that you’re staking a claim?” she asked in disbelief.
He thought about it and nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”
“This isn’t the Middle Ages anymore, so you don’t get to do stuff like that.”
He thought about it, then shrugged. “As I told you, I’m a dinosaur.”
“And it doesn’t bother you?”
“No, does it bother you?”
She frowned.
He chuckled. “See? You’re not even sure what to think.”
“Because I’m not sure what to think,” she declared. “Can’t say it’s anything I expected to hear from you today.”
“I’m not surprised,” he murmured. “But are you telling me some part of you doesn’t want to know if something is worth pursuing here?” She flushed and he nodded. “I just prefer to speak my mind right up front.”
“Okay,… you’re right. Something is between us.”
“There is absolutely,” he agreed, “and it would be nice if we had an opportunity to figure out what that was.”
She smiled as she looked down on him. “It’s been a while.”
“A while what?”
“A while since I had a solid relationship,” she clarified. “Both my brother and I just gave up on them, after we had a bunch of duds.”
“Duds,” he repeated, and then he laughed. “I’ve never been a dud in my life, so I’m not planning on starting now.”
“I didn’t mean you would be a dud,” she said in protest.
But he laughed, then pulled her back down on the bed and murmured, “Nope, and I wouldn’t be. However, on the other hand, I won’t push it either. You’ve been through an awful lot of emotional traumas, and you’ll need some time to sort through it all.”
“You keep pointing that out,” she noted in exasperation. “It is starting to get irritating.”
He asked, “What part is getting irritating?”
“The mention of the emotional traumas,” she replied. “I’m not wounded. I’m not devastated by any of this. Obviously now I have the absolute best reasons in the world to smile,” she pointed out, “but even before that I was not somebody you needed to treat with kid gloves.”
“Ouch, I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Good,” she snapped. Then she laughed. “Listen to us. We already sound like an old married couple.”
He opened his eyes and smiled. “A lot to be said for that.”
“There is, indeed,” she murmured, “but neither of us is in great shape to start a relationship right this moment.”
“I’m in great shape. I just needed sleep.” And he waggled his eyebrows at her. “You’re the one who doesn’t want to be treated like you’re some lame duck.”
She winced. “This is a stupid conversation.”
“Agreed, so how about we stop the whole conversation and do something else instead?” Slowly and carefully, waiting for a reaction from her, he pulled her down until she was lying half on his chest and half off.
She stared at him. She knew they were coming to this point, at least hoping they were. She just hadn’t thought that they would reach it anytime soon. And yet why not? Why not now that they had a pathway open, allowing them to have a relationship? As she settled onto his chest, she whispered, “I guess that means I should be gentle, huh ?”
His eyes widened, then he snorted. “Have you looked at your face lately?”
She winced and shook her head. “No.”
“In that case, you don’t have to be gentle for my sake,” he stated. “I’m just worried about you. You do have broken bones in your face, remember?”
“I’m fine,” she muttered. “Totally fine, until the painkillers wear off.” Then she leaned over and kissed him. And this time she kissed him with a ferocity that surprised them both. When she lifted her head, her eyes glazed, she muttered, “Oh my God, I don’t even know what that was.”
“I don’t know either,” he admitted, his tone thick and raspy, “but I sure as hell want to find out.” And he pulled her down and gave her another one.