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Once the doctor departed, I dragged a chair up to his bedside that wasn’t laden with tubes and cables.
Luca stared at me with wide eyes. “I’m so sorry. It should be me taking care of you right now.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll worry about me later. Do you think the bed has room for two?”
He shuffled over and I climbed in carefully, wrapping an arm over his chest. The moment my purr kicked on, his body started to relax, the numbers on the heart rate monitor descending bit by bit.
“You should ask them to check you over,” he said quietly.
“I’m not going to sit in the ER for hours for that. I can book in with the omega clinic this week.”
“You promise?”
I pressed my fingertips to his mouth. “Shhh, you’re resting.”
It took about two hours before the doctors were comfortable letting him go. I selfishly took my own comfort in being this close to him. Letting my brain focus on Luca instead of the viciously tangled thoughts about the rest of the night kept me steady. Seeing his heart rate slowly tick down made me feel like I was doing something of value.
“Keep doing what you’re doing,” the doctor said. “By morning he should be back to normal, but please come back if any of the symptoms return.”
Luca kept his hand on my thigh on the drive to the hotel, and after we had checked in and gotten into our room, he pulled me into his arms, resting against the door. “How about you let me get that purr going because you want it to happen and not because you’re trying to make me feel better?”
“How do you propose doing that?”
“The tub on their website is pretty swanky. How about we turn on the jets, order some dinner, and I’ll braid your hair for you before bed.”
It was a little sad that merely the offer of it had my purr starting. “Yes to all of the above.”
Luca dipped his head and breathed deeply, his nose against my throat. I let him inhale my scent to his heart’s content. If I was in heat, the scent would have pain-relief properties too, but this was better than nothing.
We ordered fresh pizza from the shop next to the hotel to replace the ones scattered in my apartment hallway, and before the tub had finished filling, the food had arrived. Luca cuddled me onto his lap in the water, the jets bubbling happily around us. He dug his fingers into the tense muscles of my shoulders while I ate slowly, melting into his touch. Luca worked carefully down my body, patiently undoing as much of the stress from tonight as he could before tenderly washing my hair and guiding the curly strands into neat braids.
“I’m getting pretty fond of these braids,” he said with a soft smile. “They look so cute on you.”
“I like them a lot more when you do them for me.” I lifted my hands from the water, revealing my wrinkled fingertips. “I’m starting to prune. Sleep?”
“I was about to ask.”
After a thorough rinse, we dried off, put the leftover slices pizza into the mini fridge, and climbed under the sheets. I arranged us carefully, putting Luca’s head on my chest so he could listen to my purr as he fell asleep. I set my palm against his head so the scent gland on my wrist was easy access to keep him calm while he slept. I should’ve known he would be just as thoughtful. Luca pressed us close together, cradling my head with his hand, carefully slipping one leg between mine before settling his weight properly into the bed. He’d made sure I was cradled, but not squished, and utterly surrounded by the protection of his body.
His grip on me slowly loosened as he tumbled into oblivion, the gentle touches and sleep-laden nuzzles against my skin reminding me that how others had treated me tonight wasn’t what I had to focus on. I would have to deal with it, but for now Luca gave me a reprieve I desperately needed.
My whole life might be ruined come Monday, but at least Luca was here.
“Ineed to talk to you.”
Allie looked up from the coffee she was stirring. “We’ve been talking since we both got here.”
“I can’t tell you about it at the coffee station. Can we go to your office?”
“Of course. Is it good or bad? Your tone’s kind of freaking me out.”
I sighed and picked up my own coffee cup, gripping it so hard my knuckles turned white. “It’s not great. But nothing about you.”
We rode the elevator to the next floor and slipped into Allie’s office. I closed the door behind us and leaned against it while I gathered my thoughts.
“Are you okay?”
“It was a shitty weekend. I don’t want to get into it, but I think I need to. Trying for personal growth, and all that.”
