“Okay.” I lean against him and take a deep breath, exhaling and feeling a little better when his tentacles tighten around me. “I have to take some pills, and then I’ve been told to rest.”
“Then you’ll rest. Anything you need, I’ll get. I don’t want you to worry about anything until it’s over.”
Dr. Love said there'd be cramping, which makes me think… “There might be bleeding so… don’t freak out.”
I look around the room at the three closed doors. “You do have a bathroom, right?”
“Of course.”
He points at the furthest door. “That is the bedroom. There is a bathroom beyond it.” And then he points at the closest door. “There is a second one here.”
“Two bathrooms. Fancy.” I smile, but it feels forced.
“Take your pills and then I will make sure you rest.
He unseals the carafe and pours a glass of water for me while I dig through my bag for the pill bottle and read the instructions printed there. It’s a one and done sort of thing. The other ten pills in the bottle are pain meds… if I need them.
When I take the pale capsule, it feels large and jagged in my throat, but I drink all of the water and manage to get it down.
“Pills taken?” he asks, taking my empty glass from me with one tentacle, picking up the carafe with another, and wrapping yet another around my waist. “Now let's see about getting you that rest.”
He leads me to the door he said opens into the bedroom and I pause on the threshold.
It’s a human bed.
Kita always made fun of the flat surface and asked if I ever rolled off. She sleeps in something more like a hammock.
I don’t see that anywhere in the room. “Is this where you sleep?”
He nods. “Ive been getting used to it.”
I almost ask why, but I stop myself. I know why, and I’m grateful.
Helping me undress down to my underwear, Sirin sheds his uniform before he lifts me against him and gets into bed, holding me close, like he’s also afraid I might roll off the bed.
I’m so tired, my eyes can barely stay open as I snuggle down into the pillow and he draws the covers over me.
“Promise me you won’t leave.” It’s a question, but I say it like a demand. I think I’ve earned at least one of those.
When I tip my head back, so I can force my eyes open to look at him, he says, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.” I exhale to drive some of the prickles from my skin. “I just want to be with you right now.”
His brows pinch and he brushes his lips across mine. “There’s nowhere else I would be right now. I love you.”
“You do?” I force my eyes open and meet his.
“I have for a while.” He sighs and a soft smile pushes at the corners of his lips. “When I’m not with you, you’re all I think about. When I am, I don’t want it to end. When you’re happy, I am too. When you’re not, I can’t be.
“I love you… I’ve wanted to tell you for too long.”
I reach up and trail my fingers along the planes of his face. “I love you too. And when I wake up, I will tell you all the ways I do, but my body feels like it’s turned into lead… I don’t know how much longer I can keep my eyes open.”
He catches my hand, bringing it to his lips to kiss my fingers. “Sleep. We’ll figure out the rest later.”
CHAPTER 4
Achill on my spine wakes me and I drag the covers closer, bundling them against my face, but they’re not my covers.
