Chapter Nineteen
Ahearn
“Excuse me?” I knew I was gaping at Bari as he stood nervously before me, his fingers twisted nervously in front of him.
“Alpha Byrne suggested that I finish the term of my confinement with him at his home up north,” Bari repeated hesitantly. “That would be more comfortable for both of us, I think.”
“No.” Dismissing the matter out of hand, I reached for the cold toast on the plate before me and looked pointedly at the jam sandwich he’d just made. “You haven’t eaten your morning snack.”
“What?” Bari sounded startled. “Ahearn, why not?” He waved his hand in the air, indicating the room around us. “You don’twantme here!”
“That’s not..” I caught myself before I could saynot true.“Important,” I concluded weakly. “I was charged with your care by the Prince of Dragons himself and I intend to honor the agreement I made.”
“But why not?” Bari demanded. “You don’t want to care for me properly and you won’t allow me to ask that the agreement be revoked. Do you honestly hate me so much that you simply wish me to suffer?”
“Suffer?” I shook my head in confusion. “If this is about missing your touch therapy this morn, there was an Alpha still in your bed when I knocked,” I growled, anger spiking in me at the memory. “I presumed that meant yourphysicalneeds had been met.” I stood and reached for the cravat around my neck, pulling it free with a flourish and dropping it on the table. “To correct my error, I will, of course, make myself available immediately.”
“What? No!” Bari’s eyes opened wide. “I..that wasn’t what I meant.”
I stood silently, waiting.
He finally sighed and dropped his eyes, his cheeks flushing. “My physical needs can be met more effectively through intimate contact,” he mumbled. “It is better for the babies and helps to ground me. Petroh is willing to provide that..extra care.”
My temper flared further at hearing the interloper referred to by his proper name. “Then perhaps he shouldn’t have waited until your care was forced upon me to come back for the baggage he left behind,” I snapped. “Truth, during our travels home, you reacted poorly when you thought I intended to touch you in such a manner,” I reminded him stiffly. “It’s hardly as though you’ve asked me for themore intimatecare you refer to and been refused.” I had to bite back a hiss. “Or even suggested you’d welcome it until you and Alpha Byrne stunk the manor up mere minutes after his arrival.”
“Oh, my God,” Bari whispered, the color draining from his cheeks. “I didn’t..it was inexcusably rude for me to..accept comfort from him in your home.” He swallowed hard and backed away, reaching blindly behind him for the doorknob that would allow him to escape the drawing room. “Excuse me.”
Before I could formulate a response, he was all but running down the passageway, his slippers barely whispering on the highly polished marble tile. I was about to call out to him to slow down when his feet flew out from under him and he dropped to the floor, his head landing on the tile with a sickening thud.
“Bari!” I was at his side in a moment, pressing my handkerchief against the blood seeping from the wound on his temple. My stomach clenched at the sight of him lying still on the cold marble floor.
Bari mumbled something incoherent under his breath and raised his hand weakly as if to push me away.
“Stop,” I said firmly, reaching for the cellular phone I carried but seldom actually used. “You’ll need a doctor.”
Assured that an ambulance was on the way, I lifted Bari as gently as possible and carried him past the room he’d been sleeping in that still reeked of sex to place him on my own bed, carefully propping him up on the stack of pillows.
The stark pallor of his face worried me. I reached for the decanter of water I kept on the bedside table, pouring some into the matching glass and holding it to his lips. “Drink, Bari. Help will be here soon.”
I’d barely set the glass down when footsteps from the hall announced we were no longer alone.
“What is the meaning of this?” Alpha Byrne’s voice was measured, but he was clearly angry.
“He fell in the hall,” I snapped back. “Medics are en route. Perhaps you could make yourself useful and wait at the door!”
Turning on his heel, the other Alpha stalked away, presumably to do as I’d instructed and when I looked back at Bari, his face was pinched.
“I’m sorry to cause you trouble,” he murmured, raising his hand toward his head. “I’m sure I’m fine.”
Catching his wrist before he could dislodge the makeshift bandage, I eased his hand back down, telling myself I was only holding it to keep him from reopening the wound that had started to close.
“It’s my fault,” I said quietly. “I shouldn’t have upset you. You owe me no apology, Bari.” I raised his hand to press my lips to his palm. “Forgive me.”
Confusion clouded Bari’s brown eyes, but Byrne chose that moment to return to the room, followed by a veritable parade of medical technicians who promptly surrounded the bed, barely allowing me to step back before they got to work.
