Fawn glanced over to where the surgeon was still chatting with River. “Even if we find a donor, I couldn’t afford to have Mark Reynolds do the operation and aftercare.”
“I can.”
She blinked. “We’re not a charity case.” She recoiled. “I sincerely hope you aren’t offering to help River because the two of us have kissed a couple of times? Because if you think you can buy?—”
“I advise you not to finish that sentence. Damn you for even thinking it,” Declan hissed as his fingers closed tightly about the top of her arm, and he glared at her. “Icareabout and for you, and because River is your brother, I feel that same caring and concern for him too.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Knowing he had fallen in love with a woman who was nineteen years younger than him didn’t make any sense either. Not when, for years, he had deliberately not allowed himself to become emotionally involved with any woman. With anyone.
But Declan would be lying to himself as much as anyone else if he didn’t admit to knowing that was exactly what he’d done during the past seven days of knowing Fawn, the last three of them living together.
How could he not have fallen in love with her, when she was beautiful, funny, compassionate, stubborn, fiercely protective, and he now knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, she was also totally selfless.
But he had no intention of admitting his feelings for her in the middle of a hospital corridor, let alone in the presence of the all-knowing Nikolai Volkov and the smiling Linus Wynter.
The former probably already knew exactly how Declan felt, because the bastard seemed to know everything.
The latter had looked highly entertained by the whole situation from the moment he arrived at the hospital with Nikolai. As Declan knew there was nothing in the least amusing about River’s condition, he could only assume Linus was laughing at the situation Declan now found himself in.
The situation where, after twenty years of refusing to love anyone, Declan now knew he was deeply and irrevocably in love with a fiery and beautiful young woman who took no bullshit from anyone, least of all him.
And she had just accused him of trying tobuyher!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“This is an amazing apartment,”River admired after Declan had shown him to one of the two remaining guest suites, the one next to Fawn’s, as it happened, before he had left the brother and sister alone together. “You’re sure Declan is just a bodyguard?” He sat down on the side of the king-size bed covered in a navy duvet.
She shrugged. “He told me he also has family money.”
River chuckled. “He must have a lot of it.”
“He owns the whole building, so I’m guessing he does, yes.”
“Wow.”
Fawn didn’t think of Declan asjustanything, let alone a bodyguard. She never had. She had even less reason to think so after Declan had insisted her brother was coming home with them once River had been discharged from the hospital.
Nikolai Volkov had organized a private consulting room where they could all go and talk privately, including River, who hadbeen helped into a wheelchair and pushed there by Danny Walker.
The Russian had also somehow arranged for River’s hospital nephrologist for the past three years to join them too. He really was a powerful son of a bitch!
The two specialists had consulted quietly together for several minutes before the private consultant had announced, with the other consultant’s full agreement, that he would now be taking over River’s case.
They had also decided, this time with River’s agreement, that for the moment, it would be better for him to go home to rest and recover from his fall so that he was as strong as he could be when a suitable kidney donor had been found.
The joy on River’s face at the thought that his nightmare might soon be over was enough for Fawn to abandon any further attempt at being the rational one and insisting they could manage without anyone else’s help or interference. Just because they always had didn’t mean they had to continue to do so. Not when Declan and Nikolai Volkov were so determined to help them.
The consultant had also arranged for a portable dialysis machine to be delivered to Declan’s apartment the following day, along with the nurse who would teach Fawn how to do the procedure correctly.
Which meant River no longer had to drag himself to the hospital three afternoons a week until he, hopefully, received a new kidney.
As Declan had already said, some kidney patients were sometimes too ill by that time to undergo the procedure.
The Irishman had stood silently at Fawn’s side for the whole of that intense consultation. Declan’s quiet but reassuring presence told her that he, Nikolai, and, most especially, Mark Reynolds, under their instruction, really were going to make this happen for River.
“Well, he obviously isn’tjustthat to you,” River teased, echoing Fawn’s earlier thoughts. “He seems like a really good guy.”
