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"Please. " His tone of voice was hard, his expression remorseless.
The doctor grunted.
"I'll let her leave then. I'll get what I need and be at your apartment within the hour. I want her to stay in bed tonight and tomorrow. "
"I have a job," she bit out.
"You won't have one long if you don't listen to the doctor," Timothy snapped furiously. "For God's sake, Kia, when did you get so damned stubborn?"
"While you weren't looking. " She felt as querulous as she sounded.
"No doubt in my mind, because if I had been looking we might have had to discuss it, little girl," he informed her, obviously covering his fear with his anger.
She glared back at him. "Are you staying at Chase's, too?" She looked at Chase. "You didn't mention staying with you. "
Her head was splitting. She knew she really needed to protest this, but she just couldn't find the energy.
"You don't have a spare room for the doctor," he told her.
Of course, he had a reason. She sighed and stared at her hands. It wasn't because he wanted her there.
"Well, hell," she said. "I guess your couch is just as good as mine. "
Chase flinched. He wasn't about to tell her exactly where she was going to be sleeping. In his bed. Right beside him.
He glanced at Rutherford, and knew her father knew. He was glaring at Chase. His expression promising retribution if Kia ended up with a broken heart.
"Sweetheart, you can come home with us," Cecilia told her.
She looked at Chase and he saw panic in her eyes. Oh Lord, no. Her mother would flutter around her and weep and worry all night long. She couldn't handle that.
"She'll go home with me," he told them. "Sanjer will be fine at the apartment, and both of you can come in the morning and stay as long as you like. Hell, follow us back if you want. "
He didn't care a bit to bail her out of this one. He had no intention of allowing her to be anywhere but with him.
"Since when do you decide how she should be taken care of?" Timothy barked.
"If you don't stop arguing over me like two dogs with a bone, then I'm going to go home by myself," she informed them, pressing her hands to her temples. "God. I don't care where I go, I just want to sleep. "
She was unaware of the concern that filled the air. Timothy had never seen his daughter bloody; Celia knew she'd have nightmares for years to come over it. And Chase. Chase felt as though rage was going to destroy his sanity. So help him God, if he found out who did this, he was going to kill.
"I'll get her signed out of here," Sanjer promised. "I'll be there in an hour, Chase. Have my room ready. And some food if no one minds. My dinner was interrupted tonight. "
Chase moved around the bed, holding Kia's attention, seeing in her eyes the vulnerability there, the almost hidden fears and desires. He didn't bother to hide his. He wouldn't make the same mistake he had made earlier tonight. He had dared to take his eyes off her when everything inside him had screamed at him to go with her, to chase after her.
She was stuck with him now, and he wondered if that might ultimately end up destroying both of them. Chase had never been one to let go of anything that belonged to him. And he was starting to feel as though Kia… belonged.
He picked her up in his arms, feeling how light she was, how fragile. He held her gaze.
"I told you," he whispered then. "It doesn't change. Only the circumstances do. "
"And I told you," she whispered back. "Bet me!"
Chapter 17
Dr. Sanjer checked Kia again after Chase took her to his apartment and put her to bed. She knew it was his bed. The monstrous four-poster had to be his. Only he was tall enough to climb into it easily.
Now she lay silent, staring at the ceiling, counting off the hours as she tried to figure out exactly how she had ended up in his bed. With him in it.
