“You’re perfect,” he murmurs before standing and patting the pockets of his jeans. “Can someone get my car up to the hospital? I’m gonna ride with her.”
The officer closest to us snorts but nods as Royce rattles off the plate number. “Tell your uncle he owes me.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Royce says firmly, the other man nodding and reaching forward to shake his hand. Royce does the same with some of the other men in the hall before leaning down and pressing a kiss to my already bruised forehead. “Let me take care of you.”
And he does, sweeping me into his arms and carrying me out the back door to the waiting ambulance.
And he doesn’t leave me.
Never again.
26
ROYCE
The hospital is quiet, this wing containing Kinsley and only a few others while she’s here. My uncle had every law enforcement agency involved before we’d even gotten to the hospital. In fact, his reach extended to the governor of Tennessee. I didn’t ask how he made that happen, but if I knew my uncle, he’d leave no stone unturned so this wouldn’t happen again.
Not while men like Zander were out there.
“What are you thinking about?” Kinsley asks, her voice raspy from her raw throat, and my heart squeezes in my chest.
“How my uncle is gonna dismantle all of Nashville from his office in Chicago.”
“Do I want to know?”
“I’m not entirely sure I do,” I tell her honestly, throwing in a smile as I press my lips to her hand where it’s still holding mine. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I got in a knock-down, drag-out fight in the back of a club.” I purse my lips, and she grins. “Everything hurts.”
“We’ll manage the pain—massages, baths, whatever you need.”
She opens her mouth and then closes it again, her brow furrowing. “I appreciate all of this, I do,”—she laughs but sounds like she’s choking back tears—“but it doesn’t change?—”
“I’m gonna stop you right there,” I say, standing from my chair and forcing her to move her legs so I can sit on the mattress. “You, Kinsley Dane, are stuck with me.” I make sure her eyes are locked on mine as I add, “until we die.”
“That’s awfully dramatic,” she breathes, letting me hear the hope in those three words.
“Yeah, well, you didn’t teach me to date other girls, Kins. You taught me how to dateyou.”
“You never needed me, Roy. You’re the perfect boyfriend.”
“You’re wrong; all I’ve ever needed isyou.” Cupping her face as gently as I can, I tell her what I should have said the very first time she kissed me. “I love you, Kinsley Dane. And I loved you before I ever knew I could fall for you—that you’d let me fall—because that’s what this was. Each day you showed me how to fall for you, and I never want it to end.”
“Really?” Her eyes are full of tears, her lip quivering as she waits for me to answer.
“Yes. For as long as I live,”—I lift one shoulder and let it drop—“which should definitely be the scale considering I’m going after an older woman and all.”
“I have a confession.”
“If it’s that you don’t love me, be warned that I’ll just lock us away in your apartment and make you orgasm until you do.”
She laughs, nuzzling her face against my palm. “It broke me to leave you at the bookstore.”
“You broke me too. And then when I couldn’t find you,”—the words get caught in my throat—“I’ve never been so scared.”
“I was stupid.”
“Yeah, let’s not do that again, okay?”
