26. Chapter 26
Rory
“Rory, baby. C’mon, solas, I need you to wake up.”
My eyes felt gritty and swollen, but I forced them open at the sound of Cal’s voice. I squinted into the light of the room, my eyes finding him sitting on the bed next to me, his hand planted in the mattress by my hip as he leaned over me. His brow was creased with worry and it made my anxiety spike immediately. I sat up, clutching the sheet to my chest.
“What’s wrong? What’s happening?” My eyes scanned the room for a threat, but my tired mind finally caught up and realized he would never let a threat into the house, much less our bedroom.
His frown increased and he ran the backs of his fingers down my cheek, his thumb trailing behind. “Nothing’s wrong, solas. Everything’s fine. But you’ve been asleep for almost twelve hours. You need to eat.”
My stomach rolled and saliva flooded my mouth. The urge to retch clenched the back of my throat. But despite my aversion, my stomach growled loudly, begging for food. Something in my expression must’ve tipped Cal off to my hesitance.
“Please, baby, you need to eat something. Anything. Maybe we can start with something easy, like plain eggs, and go from there?”
Again, the urge to vomit was strong but I nodded, unable to stand the worry in his eyes. Guilt for thinking he might’ve been behind the poisoning ate at me and my eyes tried to water. He sighed when I nodded and pulled the sheet from my body, lifting me into his arms and carrying me into the closet. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on tightly, not afraid that he’d drop me, but just because I needed the comfort his body provided.
As he so often did, he seemed to read me and knew exactly what I needed, because he sat on the small ottoman in the middle of the closet and held me on his lap, running his fingertips over my skin. I enjoyed the intimate comfort in silence until my stomach rumbled again. Cal stood, placed me on the seat and walked around the closet, gathering some clothes for me.
He helped dress me in a pair of black leggings and a long sleeve Henley shirt from his side of the closet. Although I could dress myself, I allowed him to have this. He seemed to need to take care of me right now, and I could understand that. If he’d been the injured one, I’d be doting on him hand and foot, doing as much as I could to assist him and make his recovery easier.
As I watched Cal pull thick, fluffy socks onto my feet, I was hit with a realization that felt like a ton of bricks.
I was falling for him. I was falling in love with my husband, and not just because he was caring for me when I needed him.
I’d been falling for him since the first time I’d laid eyes on him, falling for him a little more each time I saw him around, each time I saw him in the same place I happened to be.
I remembered asking him at Fern’s engagement party if he’d been following me and that he never offered an answer.
“You never answered me, you know.”
He looked up at me and he settled the long sock up around my calf, over the leggings. “What do you mean, solas?”
“At Fern’s party, I asked if you’d been following me. I saw you at Thai Moon that day, then I thought I saw you outside the store Charlotte and I were shopping at. Then I saw you outside Primo. And the next day, I swore I saw you when we were at dinner. And then the next Thursday, you were outside Primo again, but you were parked up the street.”
If I hadn’t been looking at him so closely, I would have missed the way his cheeks colored with the slightest tinge of red. He cleared his throat.
“Um-well, I mean I wasn’t stalking you or anything. I mean...I guess I kind of was. But not in a creepy way. I mean…I guess I did pay Nate fifteen thousand to hack the cameras at Primo, and that could be a little creepy…But I just wanted to see you. I wanted to make sure you were safe and-”
I laid my hand on his cheek, cutting off his nervous rambling. Honestly, I’d never seen the man anything other than obnoxiously confident, excluding the obsessive worry that had taken over the last few days, and the nervousness was kind of…adorable.
“Thank you for looking out for me.” A small huff of a laugh escaped. “After the third time I saw you, I thought Elio had sent you to kill me.”
He laid his hands on my hips and pressed his forehead to mine. “Absolutely not. I would never hurt you.” His gaze bounced between my eyes and I could see the fire in his, the need to make me believe him. I felt my face soften and ran a finger down his chin. I nodded solemnly.
“I believe you. I know you will keep me safe when you can.”
“No,” he said harshly. “Always. I will always keep you safe.” I didn’t respond because I wasn’t sure how to tell him that there will always be another unseen threat in this life, that there will always be a way for someone to get to us. When I didn’t say anything, he pressed a soft kiss to the corner of my mouth and stood. “Let’s eat, baby.”
He sat me at the table in the kitchen and Orla appeared with a tray of breakfast foods. She put the tray on the table, stood to her -rather impressive - height, and then crossed her arms over her chest. I looked between her stern stare and Cal’s amused face. Unsure what she was waiting for, I reached for one of the bowls and thanked her. “This looks great,” I said lamely, unable to muster even false excitement for the food. She didn’t budge and I looked back to Cal, waiting for him to clue me in.
“She’s upset with you for not eating yesterday,” he said with a smirk.
My stomach dropped and my mouth went dry. I could tell she was waiting for an explanation so I said the first thing that came to my mind. “I’m sorry. I was just so tired after the hospital. I really didn’t have much of an appetite.” She pursed her lips before nodding sadly and leaving the room. Finn came in as she was leaving and sat next to Cal, across from me.
“You received an invitation in the mail this morning.” He handed an envelope to Cal, who set it on the table next to his plate without looking at it. They began to talk business, so I moved my attention to the food, listening with half an ear.
I put a small helping of scrambled eggs on my plate and Cal passed me the syrup without my asking. I poured some over the eggs and lifted my fork. I was halfway to my mouth when I was suddenly paralyzed by fear.
Who all had access to the food? Where’d it come from before it was brought here?
I stared at the eggs suspiciously. I flicked my eyes to Cal and Finn, noting that they were engrossed in conversation about Lorcan’s security while he was abroad. I lowered the fork to my plate and mashed my eggs with the tines, trying to make it look like I’d eaten something.
My stomach revolted at the thought of the food and, despite the fact that I had been hungry only moments ago, I now had no appetite and fought the urge to push my plate away while I stared at the food that could have the potential to kill me.
I swallowed the excess saliva in my mouth and leaned back in my chair, hoping that Cal hadn’t looked too closely at the amount of food I added to my plate to start with.
“What do you think, solas?” I blinked at Cal as he addressed me directly. I thought back over the last few seconds but I had no idea what they had been talking about.
“I’m sorry. I missed that. What were you talking about?”
He held the invitation out to me. “Elio has invited us to a party in honor of our marriage. Finn said he thinks it’s a trap. I said I think it would be a good opportunity to try to figure out who poisoned you. I asked what you think about it.”
The idea of going back to that house made my palms sweat. “Um, when is it?”
“Two weeks. Saturday after next. We don’t have to go if you’re uncomfortable with it. We can politely decline. Now that the peace treaty is in place, he can’t retaliate if we don’t show.”
A sudden memory of Elio placing a file with a blurry picture taped to the front in his desk drawer made my heart race. Now that I was so familiar with Cal’s handsome features, I could see the picture was of him. I told Cal and Finn about the file. “I think I can make it into his office without getting caught. I know where he keeps the key. We should go so we can find out what was in that file.”
“Then we will go,” he said, smiling at me with pride in his eyes.