I breathed through him; I fed myself on him.
His absence had made me sick and nearly drove me insane. There was no cure for the devastating kind of love I had for him.
“You should rest,” he said firmly after a little while, breaking the kiss. I immediately felt the loss of his lips. He was surely stifling his own desires because I was hurting, but if he’d tried to make love with me right then, I would have given in. I would have let him peel away every reasonable thought I had and sink down deep into my soul once again. But my body was in no shape to keep up with him.
Fortunately, he had some common sense even if I didn’t.
“Yeah…” was all I said, my cheeks aflame. I felt like I was burning up, and I wasn’t at all sure it was just the fever. Neil slowly guided me back down on to the bed. I kicked off my shoes this time and slipped beneath the blankets to cover myself.
He sat down beside me.
He arranged the blankets over me, revealing a sweetness that I hadn’t seen in him before except with his siblings.
“You worried about me now? Surprising…” I bit my tongue, but it was too late; his eyes moved from the blankets back to my face, and I was embarrassed by the dumb comment. He just gave me a small yet head-spinning smile and didn’t say another word. Then his stare turned blatant, delighted by my spreading blush. I held his gaze, sucking in a breath when he laid a hand across my forehead.
“You’re sick. I’ll stay with you until the fever breaks.”
An odd warmth spread through my chest at all the attention he was giving me. It was a kind of tenderness he’d never shown me before. His big hand felt cool against my overheated skin, immediately soothing.
“Tomorrow you’ll have a fever too if you stay close to me. You just kissed me,” I mumbled, blushing again when he gave me a cheeky smile.
“Don’t care. I’d die for a kiss from you,” he answered sincerely, and there wasn’t even a flicker of mockery in his eyes.
My heart did somersaults in surprise.
Did he really just say that?
Or had the fever started burning off brain cells?
I didn’t say anything in response, just snuggled down under the blankets and rested my head on the pillow, seeking some sort of respite for my worn-out body.
The clean softness of the material all around me had my eyelids drooping.
I tried to ignore the chills that made me shiver constantly.
I fell asleep once again, but nightmares troubled me, made me mumble nonsensically.
I woke up a few hours later and looked around for Neil, but I couldn’t find him.
Did he leave already?
The room had been swallowed up by darkness, with only a hint of light coming in through the window. It was enough, however, to see that I was alone. I didn’t move; I held still and tried to endure the throbbing pain in my head.
“Neil?” I called out in distress after a few moments. I calmed down when I heard footsteps heading toward me and then the sound of blankets being pulled aside as someone got into the bed with me. I felt his breath on my face and his hard chest pressed against me. He wrapped an arm around my waist and drew me to him.
“I’m right there, Tinkerbell,” he said in a gentle whisper. He held my icy hand in his to warm it up.
“I’m…going to die…” My head hurt so bad, and my eyes were struggling to perceive the world correctly, so I narrowed them as I curled up against him. My body shook all over, and Neil wrapped me in a tight, protective hold.
“No, Babygirl, you’re not going to die. You just have a very high fever,” he answered in a soothing tone, but I still wasn’t completely sure he wasn’t a figment of my imagination.
Did he really stay with me? Or was I still dreaming?
“But what if I am dying, though?” I said in a barely lucid mumble as I relaxed against his powerful body.
“Then I’d die with you,” he answered immediately, a strange certitude in his voice.
“Like Romeo and Juliet?” I insisted. I was genuinely delirious at that point, and he was patiently indulging my nonsensical rambling.
