I opened my mouth to tell him I had no idea and that he should call security, but the hold on my nape tightened in warning.
“Kieran Vaughn,” the man with the midnight voice supplied as though he had every right to be there. “I was at work when I got the call.”
What?
Surprise flashed over the doctor’s face as he looked between us. Eyes settling on my face, he said, “This is the boyfriend you told me about?”
I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the man standing so close.God, he smells good. Some guys have it all. Sexy voice, height, and good-looking.
Feeling my stare, the man who called himself Kieran nodded once.
I glanced back at the doctor. “The one you didn’t believe existed,” I said.
The second the words left my mouth, my stomach knotted and guilt assailed me. Under normal circumstances, I never would have said that. I was just so tired and in incredible pain.
At my shoulder, the man tensed, his entire body turning to granite. The hand holding me hostage suddenly let go, and I swayed, realizing he’d been the only thing holding me up.
Almost as if he realized it too, his arm slid around my waist, tugging me into his side. I glanced up at him, confusion and awe warring within me. I knew he felt my eyes, but his remained on the doctor.
“He didn’t believe you?” Kieran spoke to me but still stared ahead. His voice was gruff with a hint of warning beneath it. I wasn’t sure if that warning was for me or the doctor, but as I pressed closer into the long black trench coat he wore, I forgot to care.
“He was very confused.” The doctor defended himself. “He has a serious concussion.”
Weighted silence blanketed the hall as both the doctor and I waited to see what Kieran would say. He was the newcomer here, but it was clear he was in charge.
This time, I felt his attention when he spoke. “I’m sorry I’m late.”
The bottom fell out of my stomach, and without the weight, I felt like a balloon that might float up to the ceiling. Maybe my head injury was more serious than I realized. Maybe I was hallucinating.
Maybe I am dead and this is heaven.
I always hoped there would be someone to care about me in heaven.
“What happened to your IV?” the doctor asked, completely ruining my fantasy of being dead.
I winced and looked down at my arm, which was striped with rivulets of blood, some dry and some fresh.
Against me, Kieran tensed. Shifting around, he grabbed my red-painted arm, his lips folding into a harsh line. “Why are you bleeding?” he asked, eyes flicking up to the doctor. “Why is he bleeding?”
“I’d like to know the answer to that as well,” the doctor retorted.
Two sets of eyes moved to me, the weight of their expectations and disappointment making me shrink.
“Hazard,” he warned, and I whimpered.
The hand not clutching my bloody arm slid beneath my chin to push my face up, but it was the sound of that deep voice becoming cajoling and almost gentle that would be my undoing. “Tell me.”
That place where my stomach used to be filled with butterflies, their wings razor sharp. It was both pleasure and pain.
“I-it was an accident,” I told him.Please don’t be mad.
There was a beat of silence. And then two.
The hand around my arm let go. The body so close to mine shifted away.
The cuts from all those butterfly wings started to burn. Heavy tears pushed at the backs of my eyes. Sniffling, I dipped my chin.
All at once, the world tipped, and I sucked in a breath. My feet left the floor, and I was lifted into a set of strong arms. My eyes flashed up, disbelief on full display. He didn’t return the gaze, instead pulling me against his broad chest. The urge towrap my arms around his neck was strong, so strong that I lifted them to do it. But then I saw the blood. Remembered that this was a stranger and that I was at the hospital. My arms dropped into my lap.
