“Good, because you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not. You’re not the only one who realized a few things in that place.” Her tongue darted out to run over her dried and cracked lips. “Like I realized I can’t and won’t live without you in my life.”
“Damn right you won’t.”
I tried to offer her a smile of some sort, but I had no idea if it looked as bad as it felt. I was all blood and torn up skin. Everything was three times the size it was yesterday and a hell of a lot more painful. Dropping my hand to her chin, I let my thumb hover over her bottom lip before gently tugging it down.
“This is it now. You and me. I mean it. No more half assing it on my part. You and me.”
“Took you long enough, asshole,” she said with a laugh as the tears formed. She tried to blink them back, but one of them escaped, forcing her bad hand up so she could brush it away on her wrist, her eyes rolling.
I reacted without thought, pulling her focus back to me as gently as I could, my face falling serious as I reached for and held both her wrists in my grip. “Don’t do that, either.”
“Do what?”
“Refuse to believe that what I’m saying isn’t just more bullshit words that I’m whispering in your ear to comfort you,” My voice was smaller than a whisper as I let my forehead brush against hers. “I mean it, Ayda. I’m not going anywhere. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not in a year, a decade, or any amount of time you can come up with. I’mnever going to leave you or ask you to leave me. I want every single bit of you I can get…forever.”
She continued to search my face, the tears now flowing easily and cuttingthrough the marks on her cheeks. Her voice was choked as her tears fell from her chin. She sniffed quietly, a small cough coming as she tried to clear her throat with no luck. “Drew Tucker, I love you.”
“Took you long enough, asshole.” I smirked.
She stifled a giggle, groaning in pain a little as her good hand moved from mine so she could cup my cheek with a feather-light touch. “Do you think you could do me a favor?”
“That depends…”
“On?”
“If it involves heavy lifting, physical exertion or me applying broken lips to any of your body parts that deserve way more attention than I am capable of giving right now.”
Tipping her head forward, she looked up at me from under her lashes. “Does that include just holding me in a bed with the lights out?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Moving sounded easier than it was, and it took me way too fucking long to hold all my body parts in place and rise to a stand.
Shuffling on the bed slowly, Ayda looked up at me and with a small, humorless snort, covered her face with both hands.
“Jesus, would you look at the two of us, moving around like ninety year-olds.” She reached out slowly and thought better of it. “Just how bad are you?”
I didn’t answer right away, instead reaching out for her offered hand and lowering myself down beside her. All I waswearing was my sweat pants. The doc had been trying to clean me up before I stormed in here, unable to listen to any more of my injuries because all I could focus on was finding the one medicine I needed.
My shoulder was strapped up to cover the bullet wound that would be a new addition to the ever expanding war artwork that was splashed across my body, but that didn’t stop me from creasing my face together and holding it up high for Ayda to fall under. It might not have made sense to her or anyone else out there, but I just needed to feel her against my chest. I needed her to breathe life back into me again.
“I’ve had worse.”
“Liar,” she whispered, settling in against me as gently as she could, her breaths coming in small puffs as her fingers traced the packing slowly. “But I promise, you’ve got yourself the best little nurse around.”
“You’re not nursing anyone.” I smiled, resting my hand on the top of her ass. “For once, you’re going to let me look after you. No arguing.”
Ayda went quiet for a while before she released a quiet yawn. “You always look after me.”
“There’s always room for improvement. You might want to prepare yourself for me dressing you up in bubble wrap from now on. Three guard dogs everywhere you go. No venturing out after dark. Maybe a collar…” The smile on my lips hurt as I teased her, waiting for her to bite the way she always had.
“You don’t think one’s enough?” she asked thoughtfully. “I mean, technically, with…” She lifted her head an inch from my chest and sucked in a breath. “Wait. What happened to the girl? Sofia?”
I frowned quickly, my body tensing slightly beneath hers. “What?”
“The girl that identified you?” she asked, tipping her head back slowly so she was looking up at me. “What happened to her?”
“I…” There was no way to say what she wanted to hear, and while I never wanted to shut her out of anything anymore, I also knew that then wasn’t the time to relive more pain. Sagging into the mattress, I closed my eyes and nudged her closer. My body was working hard to pump blood to all the places that needed it the most. It was a feeling that left me floating but grounded me at the same time. I was anchored by agony, yet lost in a headspace that made everything seem unreal. Especially what we’d just done. Pushing my lips to the top of her head, I held them there as I spoke through the haze of the memories and the pain.
