“Yeah, you. Come up here, Iona.”
She was shaking her head before he’d finished his sentence. “The nurses won’t like it. Besides, you just had surgery. I’m sure you’d be more comfortable without me beside you.”
“You are dead wrong.” He patted the space beside him. “You want me to rest, right?”
“Of course.”
“I won’t rest unless I’m positive you’re safe.”
“And you’ll rest if I’m beside you?”
“Now you’re catching on. Come to me, Iona.”
“For a few minutes. I don’t want the nurse to throw me out.”
“She won’t.” He looked at Grant.
His friend nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”
Iona carefully stretched out beside him on top of the covers. “You’ll tell me if I hurt you?”
“You won’t. Now close your eyes and your mouth so I can take a nap.” Even though he was teasing her into doing what he wanted more than his next breath, Elias knew Iona could use a nap, too. She drove herself harder than she pushed her team when they were training.
He’d wanted to hold her in his arms since the day he met her, but he hadn’t found the courage to approach her for a date in all those months. That made him the biggest sap in the history of saps. After all, the worst that could happen was that she turned him down. Women had rejected him before, and he’d survived.
But this was different. She mattered to him. A lot. Iona turning him down would kill something inside him. He didn’t want to look too deeply into what that something might be.
Elias slid his uninjured arm around her shoulders and settled Iona against his side. At first, she held herself stiffly until the warmth of his body seeped into hers. Soon, both of them were drifting off to sleep. Knowing Grant and Brent had them covered, he allowed himself to let go.
When someone knocked on the door later, he opened his eyes, wishing he had a weapon on him to protect himself and Iona.
Brent opened the door and stuck his head into the room. “Another nurse to check you out.”
Lovely. Not. Man, he had to go home in order to rest at all.
The nurse, who looked about as old as his kid sister, checked his vitals and recorded all the information in a laptop, and left. Satisfaction filled him. His vitals were normal, and she hadn’t said a word about Iona sleeping beside him.
Elias looked at Grant, who signaled that all was well. Good. Perhaps Iona would get the rest she needed. The dark circles under her eyes and the obvious fatigue weren’t lost on him. She pushed herself too hard without giving her body time to recover. He ought to know. He was guilty of the same thing.
Elias turned his head toward Iona and rested his cheek on top of her head. What he wouldn’t give to hold her with both arms. Unfortunately, his injured shoulder prevented that for now.
The night passed with a nurse coming in every hour to check his vital signs. That didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was Iona sleeping through every check. He hoped she subconsciously knew he was safe, that Brent and Grant would die to protect them, and maybe knew he would die to protect her in a heartbeat.
Near sunrise, Iona stirred and opened her eyes. “How are you?”
“Better. No more nausea, and the nurses seem pleased with my vitals overnight.”
Her jaw dropped. “The nurses have been in this room?”
“Every hour.”
“That can’t be true. I would have heard them.”
“He’s right.” Grant sat up. “A nurse came in every hour to check on him.”
“How did I miss that? I should have woken up.”
Elias squeezed her shoulders briefly. “If anything had happened, you would have reacted instantly. However, you knew Brent and Grant had the watch, and you could sleep.”
