“Do you think my gown will hide this well enough?”she asked Ryan, who had stripped and was already lying in bed on his side, watching her, his wounded arm bound up in a sling across his wide, muscular chest.
“Yeah, probably.Come lie down with me.”
She loathed the thought of everyone staring at her while she was up there, whispering about what had happened, but she’d do anything for Erin.Including standing at the altar in a few hours while nursing a bullet wound that hurt every bit as much as she’d imagined.
Exhausted, she crossed to the bed, climbed in beside him, and lay facing him on her uninjured side.He looked just as tired as she felt and she could tell he was hurting a lot more than he let on.
Reaching out, she cupped the side of his face and rubbed her thumb over his cheek.She would have leaned forward to kiss him but it would hurt too much so she stayed put.Searching his eyes, she sighed.“We look like the saddest bookends in the world right now.”
He snorted out a laugh.“Yeah, we sure do.”
And it said a lot that he wasn’t trying to initiate anything.She traced her fingers over his face, wishing she could take his pain away.“Who knew the mountains in Montana could be even more dangerous than the ones in Afghanistan?”
“No kidding.”His face grew serious and he slipped his left hand beneath her to wind it around her nape, fingers gently digging into her sore muscles.“Do you know how much I love you?”
A smile tugged at her mouth and her heart squeezed.He’d obviously been thinking about what she’d said at the hospital.“I think so, yes.”
He stared into her eyes, the raw emotion there making her throat tighten.“I could have lost you tonight.Until we talked earlier I never realized how much I’ve been taking you for granted, even though I didn’t mean to.I don’t ever want you to think I don’t love you or appreciate every single thing you do for us, whether I’m here or away.”
Her throat tightened.He was such a ham all the time; this level of seriousness and his heartfelt words showed just how much tonight had scared him.How the thought of losing her scared him.
With a soft smile she slipped her right arm beneath him and around the back of his neck.She snuggled in close to his body, savoring his warmth and strength, the feel of his love surrounding her like a healing balm.“Nobody’s perfect, but you come pretty damn close to being perfect for me.”
The corner of his mouth tipped upward.“Good.Now let’s try to get some sleep, huh?”
“Okay.”She doubted either of them was going to get much of it, but it was a huge comfort just to be able to curl up with him for the rest of the night.
Planting a slow, firm kiss on her lips, he grimaced as he reached past her head to turn off the wall sconce beside the bed.Then he pulled her close with his good arm and held her, their hearts beating in unison in the darkened room.
FOURTEEN
The morning of the wedding was cool and bright, barely a cloud in the sky.Ryan glanced away from the window in their room and winced as he draped the right side of his jacket over his sling, the motion pulling at his stitches.
It had been an uncomfortable few hours of rest for both him and Candace.Neither of them had wanted to stop touching the other, so it meant a lot of awkward positioning to make it work.He hadn’t slept much and neither had Candace, but she’d had to be up and gone by nine to get ready with the rest of the bridesmaids, no matter how sore and shitty she felt.
He felt bad that she had to soldier through a wedding when she should have spent the day in bed resting and letting him pamper her with cuddles and room service.They’d do that as soon as the reception was over, he decided.
