He didn’t move. Just hovered.
Heat lingered between us like a third presence.
“The remainder of your recovery will take place under my roof,” Rafael said. “You have stayed here long enough. We are leaving.”
Before I could point out that I had not been discharged and that the doctors would likely object, he bent and lifted me into his arms.
A startled breath caught in my throat.
One moment I was lying on the hospital bed; the next, I was cradled against his chest, my feet no longer touching the floor.
I tensed instinctively, one hand catching at his shoulder out of reflex, the other hovering in midair as I tried to orient myself.
“Rafael—” I started.
He didn’t respond.
He simply carried me out of the hospital, and I was too disoriented to register whether anyone tried to stop him.
We moved quickly.
I felt the shift as he reached the car, heard the door open, and then I was lowered gently onto the back seat.
“Lie back,” he said flatly.
Before I could argue, he adjusted me into position, making sure I was resting properly before closing the door.
A moment later, the driver’s door opened and he slid in.
The engine started.
The car began to move.
Exhaustion weighed down on me in waves.
I was too weak, too drained to form a single question, let alone protest what he had done or where he was taking me.
The rhythm of the road blurred everything into a heavy, drifting haze.
I must have fallen asleep.
Because the next time I became aware of anything, the car had stopped.
The door opened.
And Rafael was there again—lifting me out of the vehicle as though I weighed nothing, carrying me toward the house without a word.
The air changed immediately—the outside night replaced by the familiar interior scent of polished wood.
His steps were steady.
I hated that I could feel the difference.
A few moments later, the motion stopped. He had carried me into a room—but it wasn’t mine. I realized it the second I inhaled. The scent was wrong. Masculine, unfamiliar, clean in a way that didn’t belong to me.
The mattress dipped beneath me as he lowered me down with careful precision.
As if I still required handling.
