Chapter 11 #2
Head rolling on the headrest, my gaze moved from one beautiful sight to another.
The Pacific had nothing on Thaddeus Vale.
His profile was aristocratic and strong, with a straight nose—how the hell did he play hockey without ever breaking the damn thing—and a neatly trimmed beard.
My eyes followed his long, thickly muscled arms to where his hands wrapped around the steering wheel.
The man exuded confidence, dominance, control, and sex.
He pulled me in, and I didn’t know if whatever magnetism there was between us would allow me to walk away, even if I wanted to.
“Hostage…though it’s not a kink I’ve ever been interested in. But with you…? I doubt there is anything I wouldn’t try a couple dozen times. Even then, I could probably be persuaded.”
His head turned, his eyes meeting mine. The warm brown gaze I’d grown used to heated to a molten chocolate that took my breath, and even through the pain and drugs, I felt my cock twitch.
“Same,” he said before turning his eyes back to the road. His massive SUV chewed up the miles between the hospital and wherever he lived.
Where he lived turned out to be a house that could have been pulled from my mind’s eye and plopped down on the most picturesque spot on the planet.
At least what I could see as he pulled up to the house and into the garage.
I knew the man was filthy fucking rich. Like living in the mud and muck and dust and dirt filthy rich, but this…
? Holy fuck. This looked like professional athlete or movie star or fucking royalty kind of rich.
I bit back the holy shit exclamation that threatened to spew forth when Thad wheeled—yes, wheeled because he refused to let me use crutches today—me into the house.
This was no house. This was a mansion. A palatial, wide-open living space made to make you feel like you were living and breathing the view beyond.
Outside, the house blended into the landscape, even with its sleek concrete-and-metal exterior, but the moment you walked into the space, the house fell away, leaving the view of the Pacific beyond.
“So…welcome to my—”
“If you say humble abode, I’m going to punch you in the dick since it’s all I can reach in this fucking chair, you ungodly tall giant,” I groused.
While he laughed, I took control of the chair, clumsily wheeling myself across the expansive space to the glass wall. Even in the near darkness, the view was impressive.
Home.
The word echoed in my mind. Craziness. That word fit with the one beating itself against my skull.
Safe.
The two words felt synonymous, but they fell away like the house gave way to the view when my brain registered Thad’s footsteps padding softly behind me, first away and then coming closer until he walked past me.
My focus on Thad made everything fall away.
A moment later, he pushed open the wall of glass and the smell and sound of the Pacific coast became part of the interior.
They wrapped around you, and if I didn’t want to leave before, I really didn’t want to fucking leave now.
Clearing my throat, I wheeled myself out onto the balcony that overlooked the ocean. “I could sleep out here.”
“I have, and I highly recommend it. There’s nothing like it,” Thad said.
He’d moved outside as well. He seemed to be following me as he let me explore the house on my own, only showing up once I’d taken everything in. He sat in a patio chair that looked like it came out of a magazine for architecture and art. Something meant to be seen and not used.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
I nodded, but kept my gaze locked on the view as the last light of day faded. When it was gone and night surrounded us, I turned to him. “Can I help cook?”
Thad took a deep breath, stood, and asked, “How’s the dizziness? The pain?” before trailing off into the house.
I loved that he didn’t push me and allowed me to move about on my own. “Dizziness is gone. Mostly. And I don’t feel as groggy or nauseous. Or as shaky. But they feel like they could drop in for a visit at any moment.”
“And the pain?”
I groaned. “There, but I don’t want to take anything,” I said, following him into the house. I stopped at the open glass wall. “Do you want this closed?”
“Not unless you do,” he called back over his shoulder as he opened the fridge.
“I’d never close it if I lived here.”
Thad paused in pulling out ingredients to look at me.
“You do live here. For as long as you need. And your meds are on the table. I know you don’t want to take anything, but you need to stay ahead of the pain.
At least for today.” He stopped, rolled his lips into his mouth, and said, “But you probably know that.”
“Yeah, Doc, I do. You can’t be Dr. Vale. Not here. Not if we’re going to make this situation work.”
A deep sigh was the only response until he said, “You’re right. Here I’m Thad. That’s it. Unless you ask for Dr. Vale.”
“Oh, Doc, believe me, there will come a time when I ask for a very, very thorough exam from Dr. Vale, but it will not be until I’m back on my feet, can participate fully, and am no longer your patient.”
Thad went to help me settle at the island, but when he propped my leg on the barstools, the dizziness returned. Instead, he settled me in a lounge chair he dragged into the kitchen from somewhere. The hovering ended once he seemed confident I wasn’t about to keel over.
“So…what are you making me? And can you even cook? If you can’t, someone should forcibly remove you from this house because it’s a waste of an amazing kitchen,” I said, wincing as a wave of sickness washed over me.
“Cash?”
I waved him off, and the knife hitting the cutting board resumed while I battled the nausea.
“Cooking is one of the pastimes I enjoy. Am I great at it? No, but…that view”— he pointed his knife at the view through the open wall— “and this kitchen were the reasons I bought this house. Being set away from everything and everyone also helped.”
“The view alone is enough,” I said, staring at the man before me. Nestled into the cushion of the chair, I settled back, letting the wave of fatigue I’d been fighting off have its way.
The chair dipped near my feet. My eyes opened to a lidded tumbler. “Ginger ale. And here,” he said, handing me a couple of amber bottles. “Michael sent you home with nausea meds.”
“And there’s Dr. Vale again,” I joked, swallowing the sip of soda.
“No, just the guy who gives a damn watching you turn a very familiar shade of green,” he responded.
“Take the meds before you puke.” He went back to the kitchen.
“And so you know, you can have any of the pain medicine when you’re ready.
Just let me know which you take so I can help keep you on schedule. ”
I sighed, then swallowed an anti-nausea pill.
The chicken-and-rice soup and crackers Thad made tasted better than some of the nicest, most expensive chef-created meals I’d eaten in my life.
Not that there had been many. I wanted to finish it and even ask for seconds, but the half-bowl I managed churned in my stomach.
The nausea meds did their job. Somewhat.
I didn’t puke, but I still felt like I could at any moment.
Held up by my hand with my elbow braced on the table, my head dipped several times as the sound of the ocean lulled me.
“Let’s get you to bed,” Thad whispered.
For the first time in years, not counting Halo House, I would sleep under another person’s roof. A roof I had no way of leaving without help. Thad’s help.
The thought should’ve terrified me.
It didn’t.
That it didn’t… scared me more.