Or maybe I’m just delusional because I want this to be my period so badly.
“Rick, we need your help,” he blurts into his phone, holding me tight to his chest. “Abby is bleeding, and we—” He hands the phone to me, putting it on speaker. “He wants to talk with you.”
“Hey.” I barely recognize my voice. Kai snatches the sheet, folding it over and concealing the bloody patch, before wrapping it around my body as I shiver against his naked form.
“Talk to me. Where are you bleeding? Are you in pain?” Rick asks. “Do you have a temperature or feel unwell?”
“No. Nothing like that. I’m fine. I… I think it’s just my period.”
He sucks in a sharp gasp. “Are you sure?”
I snort out a laugh, even though this is no laughing matter. “I’ve had enough of them to know, but we’re not sure.” I swallow over the lump in my throat, locking eyes with Kai as I speak. “Could it be something else? Like what if they botched up the job at Parkhurst and something is wrong inside me?”
Kai’s face pales, and he runs a hand up and down my back, keeping me close.
“How heavy is the blood flow?” Rick asks.
“It’s not that heavy,” I confirm, feeling a tiny flow trickling down my thighs. I should really get cleaned up.
“Then it probably is your period, but you need to get checked out. Can you come up to the city tonight? I have a good doctor friend we can trust. He already offered to run tests. I’ll call him now.”
I shake my head even though he can’t see me. “Not tonight. I’m due home soon, and Charlie will only get suspicious.”
“Fuck Charlie.” Kai fumes. “Your life could be in danger. We’ll think of something to tell him. Set it up, Rick. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” He doesn’t give me a chance to argue, ending the call and wrapping his arms around me. Not that I’d protest. I didn’t want the tests before, because I was scared. Scared to confront reality, but now, in the face of new hope, I sure as fuck want them.
Tears prick my eyes, but I hold it together. I can’t celebrate just yet. Not until I know it’s not something else. Blood trickles down my legs, and I wriggle out of Kai’s loving embrace. “I need to use the bathroom.” I snatch my clothes off the floor, hugging them to my chest.
He nods, pecking my lips. “No matter what it is, I’m in this with you. You feel me?”
“I feel you,” I whisper. He plants a feather-soft kiss on my lips. “Love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Go.” He gives me a gentle nudge. “Do what you need to do, and I’ll call your brother.”
I stop my forward trajectory. “I don’t want to worry him.”
“He’ll go apeshit on your ass, and mine, if he finds out we didn’t call him. Besides, we need him to drive us. You’ve got to leave your car here, and we can hardly go in mine. And I want to hold you. I can’t do that if I’m driving.”
Be still my beating heart. Seriously, this guy. He slays me. In the best possible way.
“Okay. Call Drew,” I agree. “And ask him to stop at the store on his way and grab some pads.” Drew has done it so many times for Jane or me that I know he won’t bat an eyelash at the request except for what it might mean.
“Got it,” Kai says, shucking into his jeans as I walk toward Xavier’s small bathroom.
I emerge ten minutes later, fully dressed and cleaned up as best I can. Kai is on my cell, wearing only his jeans, with the top button open, and my libido notices. Fuck. He’s so damn hot with his ripped, toned abs, that carved V-indent at his hipbones, broad shoulders, and the magnificent ink painting his arms, chest and neck. I lick my lips, trying—and failing—not to drool. I wipe the dried blood off Kai’s lower stomach with the warm washcloth I found in the bathroom as he ends his phone call.
“You have an alibi,” he says, and I arch a brow as I pat his stomach dry with a hand towel. “Hope you don’t mind, but I got Drew to call Shandra. He told her we have a bit of an emergency without going into the deets. She agreed to tell Charlie, or anyone who asks, that you were hanging at her house tonight.”
I chew on my lip. “That’s still kinda risky. If I’m not back at a reasonable hour, Charlie might come looking for me.”
He tugs his shirt down over his head. “Shandra will cover it.” He sits down, lacing up his boots. “It will be a good way of testing her. You don’t need to tell her where you’re going or with whom, just that if anyone asks you were at her place.”
“Okay,” I concede, because I need answers, and it can’t wait.
Reeling me into his arms, he peers deep into my eyes. “Stupid question, but are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” I truthfully reply. “I’m scared to hope too much.”
