“Okay, let me help you.”
“No!” I squeak, mortified at the thought of Denham seeing me in the bathroom. “I don’t need help I just need to get unhooked from these damn machines.”
“Your drip is on wheels, Ari.” Denham says, laughing under his breath. “I’ll take you to the bathroom.”
“I don’t want you to,” I say insistently.
“Arianna, don’t be such a baby. I’ve seen you in all your magnificent naked glory.” He strokes my cheek and whispers, “I even know how you taste…” His breath fans across my skin and provokes my senses. That one little sentence has me all kinds of flustered. I can hardly remember what we were talking about.
Oh yes, I want to pee. But, I most certainly do not want him to take me. There are things a girl needs to do by herself and this is one of them. I mean, what happens if I don’t just need to pee? What do I do then?
“Just help me off the bed, I’ll be fine, I promise.”
“No, Arianna,” he insists. “Stop being so damn stubborn, will you? You haven’t stood upright for a little over six hours. I am not letting you go to the bathroom on your own. What happens if you lose your balance or black out again?”
I hadn’t even thought about that…but I still do not want him to see me in the bathroom like that.
“Fine,” I grumble. “Please call me a nurse … and before you try to insist that you’ll take me, I don’t want you to … Just … ” I sigh. “ … please.” I don’t know why I’m so insistent. It’s heartwarming that he wants to help do the most basic things. But this is all so new to us,weare so new. I want to keep that spark there, that allure. This situation is already way beyond what a new couple should be experiencing.
“Fine,” he concedes. “But just so you know, nothing could make me want you any less.”
My heart tightens, gripping those strands of genuinity that he so generously keeps giving me in abundance. “There are just some things a girl has to do…in private,” I say quietly.
“I get it.” He shrugs, kisses my forehead and presses the call bell, then his cell blares through the room, again. He glances at the screen and shakes his head. “I’m gonna have to take this, Stunner. Do not get out of bed until the nurse comes,” he orders,looking at me pointedly before leaving the room and closing the door quietly behind him.
Not knowing how long the nurse could take to get here, and thinking it would be even more mortifying if Denham came back to me having peed right here, I manage to wriggle my way to the edge of the bed and dangle my feet while I wait for the nurse. The urge to go increases. Should I just go on my own? I can’t wait. The more I think about it the more I need to pee. Denham could be a while after all. He said I’d been here for six hours already. Is that right? He has a business to run and he’s spent the day by my side while I was unconscious. It’s no wonder there are people calling him. He probably has endless calls to return and he wouldn’t even know if I just slipped out and slipped back in again. My feet swing faster as the thoughts run through my head and I mentally explore my options. The longer I deliberate, the closer it gets to him coming back so I slide off the side of the hospital bed very carefully, transferring the weight onto my feet gently and testing my ability to stand. There, that isn’t too bad…I just have to make it over to the other side of the room and into the bathroom and I can sit down again. God, I want to sit down again, my head is starting to pound. Maybe this was a bad idea. My legs are shaking like a newborn lamb and I’m not sure how much longer they are gonna hold out. I make it three tentative steps before the drip is tugging at my hand and I remember that I’m attached.
I turn and make it back to the bed, resting my hands on the edge and trying to support my weight as best I can as I know I don’t have the strength to climb back in.
It was a stupid idea to try this on my own, but despite everything I still hate to be dependent on anyone, even if I know I can’t do it on my own. But this time I am defeated.
The door clicks open and one of the male nurses comes in.
“And where do you think you’re going?” he asks.
“I need to pee, but I…” My voice wavers at the fact that I can’t do a simple thing such as take myself to the bathroom.
“Don’t worry, you didn’t realize how much your body would protest, I know. Here, let me help you.”
He comes to my side and I hold on to his hand as he supports me around the waist with his other arm. He guides me towards the chair that Denham has spent the whole time sitting beside me in, when he hasn’t been snuggled up next to me, but before I can make it to sitting, my eyes start to feel fuzzy around the edges and I lose my balance. I fall into the nurse, clutching for anything in front of me that I can grab but finding nothing and relying on the nurse to catch me. Luckily, he does or I could have been sporting another lump on my head and a double concussion.
“What the hell?” Denham’s voice reverberates around the room and he rushes to me. “Get your hands off her,” he orders sharply.
“Mr. King, she needs to get back into the bed, now if you’ll let me do my job,” the nurse says firmly but politely.
“No, if you think I’m going to let you touch my girl, especially when she’s wearing next to nothing, then you’ve got another think coming. I’ll do it,” he growls. “Come here, Trouble,” he says softly to me. He shifts me out of the grip of the male nurse, who turns to leave, shaking his head as he goes and then Denham scoops me up in his arms before placing me back on the bed and covering me up to my neck with the sheet. His possessiveness makes me feel safe. Jonny was always possessive for his own personal reasoning, but Denham’s way with me is totally different. He’s actually protectingme.
I let my head roll back onto the pillow and close my eyes to soothe the throbbing feeling pushing its way around my head. After a couple of minutes, the dizziness slows and I open my eyes a fraction.
“I’m ‘Trouble’ now?” I ask sadly.
Denham’s soft laugh makes me feel warm, “Yes, it seemed appropriate.” He brushes my hair from my forehead and kisses me softly.
“You haven’t called me that for a while,” I say sadly. I warned him at the very beginning that I was trouble, and look what has happened. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be crazy, Arianna, you’re still my stunner. It just seemed like a ‘Trouble’ moment. I told you to stay put, you ignored me.”
“I needed to pee.”
