And if I had my way, I wouldn’t hear that sound once during the rest of the time I was here.
Ryan gave me more than a second. He gave me five full minutes, so by the time I had my dildo put away and put pants and a shirt on, I was starting to wonder if maybe he’d run. But right as that panic set in, I heard the creak of the adjoining door.
My pulse began to hammer in my ears as I waited, my legs still a little weak, but I didn’t need them to support me now. I was tucked in bed with half the covers pulled back, the TV remote in my hand, and my heart between my teeth.
I still hadn’t processed the fact that he was here. It had been a risk, coming to this island. A sort of hope flung out into the stars. I thought maybe I’d run into him one of the days on the trip. I thought maybe I’d recognize him and see him lounging by the pool or beside the water with a gorgeous partner and a smile on his face.
I didn’t expect this.
I didn’t expect the pain in his eyes, and the tremble in his voice, and the way I could tell he was just as lonely and alone as I was.
And I sure as fuck didn’t expect him to be close enough to reach out and touch. Literally.
I glanced up at the doorway just in time to see Ryan hovering there. He’d thrown on a hoodie, and he looked adorably soft and rumpled, his hands holding the room service tray identical to the one that had been delivered to me the night before.
When I jerked my head for him to come in, he took shuffling steps to the bed, then eyed the spot I left open for him.
“You’re not worried about crumbs?” he asked as he hesitated.
I laughed. “Not really. We can sweep off the sheets if you’re a messy eater.”
Biting his lip, his eyes fixed on mine, and then he slid beside me and laid his tray over his thighs. “God, I was starving before, but now it feels like I swallowed boulders.”
Something in my chest cracked. “Hey. If I’m interrupting your peace and quiet?—”
“No, god. That’s…Atlas,” he breathed, my name a whisper on his tongue. “You have no idea how relieved I am to see you here. I have wanted to meet up again for so long.”
I bowed my head and nodded. “Me too. I know that the night we met wasn’t, you know, full of sunshine and roses.”
He barked a nervous laugh and rolled his eyes up toward the ceiling. “Yeah, no. But it was worse for you.”
He wasn’t wrong. He was doing his job. I’d been fighting for my life. But I survived because of him. Not just the injury, but the earth-shattering way my life changed too. My first therapist was blunt with me when she told me not everyone did.
Sometimes, the pain was too much for people to bear, and there were nights I understood why she said that. But I hadn’t felt that way in months, and now that I’d found the angel who gave me the courage to keep going?
Shit, there weren’t words for the way I was feeling.
“Am I interrupting yours?” Ryan eventually asked. “I mean, if I remember right, you didn’t even know this place existed. So why are you here?” I was afraid to believe he sounded hopeful, but it was hard to deny his tone.
I used my hands to help me sit up a little higher, then crooked my knee to the side so I could turn and face him. God, he really was so thin. “If I tell you how I’m feeling, will you promise to eat a little?”
His cheeks went a little rosy again, and he cleared his throat, picking up the burger. It looked a little…sketchy. The melted fat had congealed, and the cheese had rehardened. Ryan stuffed amassive bite into his mouth and began to chew, raising his brows at me as if to say, “Happy?”
And yeah. I was.
“Just don’t choke. I technically learned the Heimlich, but I don’t know if I could actually do it.”
He snorted and swallowed. “Don’t worry. I learned how to do it on myself.”
I motioned for him to take another bite, and when he did, I leaned back against the headboard. “I’m here because I was looking for you.”
He froze, his cheeks puffed out with the size of his bite. “Me?”
“Yeah. I asked around after I woke up from surgery, but no one had your info. I mean, you were on the job, and I figured there were rules about that.”
He snagged his water bottle off the tray and swallowed half down before he spoke again. “That’s true, but shit. I had no idea. I thought about hiring a PI to track you down, but that seemed a little…unhinged.”
His eyes widened, and he laughed. “That would have been wild. But I don’t think I would have been mad about it. It might have taken them a while to find me though. I quit right after that night.”
