Page 38 of Shark’s Rise

As she watched, I squeezed body wash into my palm and then made a lather between my hands. I started with my flat palms against her shoulders and upper arms, stroking her skin with sudsy fingers.

“Mmmm,” she moaned. “That feels so good.”

She tilted her head back under the spray again. I took a moment to simply gaze at her, captivated by her gleaming and brilliant glory. My hands were guided by the force of my need for her, washing across her chest and collarbones and then carefully down over her breasts. Her nipples stood at attention through the bubbles when I skated my fingers across them. She winced when I grazed the tight buds, and I studied her features as I did it again.

“What’s wrong, Abbi? Sore?”

“Uhhh…yes. I guess you were a little rougher than I realized, Mr. Shark.”

As she blatantly referenced our marathon lovemaking from a few days ago, I merged my mischievous smile with hers. But not for long. I was too distracted. “I do love these tits, baby. So damn pretty.”

I touched her nipples again, wanting to thumb the stiff peaks, but she startled backward and covered them. “No. Too much. I’m…sorry. I’m just hurting everywhere. I’m really sorry.”

She frantically dropped her gaze. I didn’t miss a second of it.

Hmmm. The floor was mighty interesting to her tonight. She couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off it.

I washed the rest of her body with even more care. Knowing we weren’t in the shower as a precursor to a lovemaking session, the movements were purely me caring for her. I didn’t want to put her on edge.

I pushed her back a step so she could rinse off, making sure she was free of all the soap suds, and then shut off the water. Two towels were hanging over the door, so I pulled one down and wrapped her hair up in her cute turban style. We both grinned when the wrap was in place, enjoying a quiet remembrance of the first time I’d done that for her. Our love story—and yes, that was what it was—had moved at five times the speed of most, but in so many ways, I felt like I’d known this extraordinary human for a lifetime. The thought of her not being in my world was completely unacceptable.

The resolve was a welcome helper as I patted Abbi dry, making sure every drop was wicked from her sensitive skin, and then grabbed a towel off the rack and secured it around my waist. I wasted no time in guiding her back into the bedroom.

“Do you have some pajamas you want to put on?” I asked her along the way, deliberately ignoring the slight shrug she gave as response. “Perhaps a T-shirt and some leggings?” I pressed and started opening the drawers of the dresser, one after the other, until my increasingly frantic search finally led to stuff that resembled pajamas. I grabbed the most conservative pair in the stash and walked back over to the bed.

“How about these?” I offered the light-blue cotton sleep set to her.

“Thank you.”

I let her quietly dress before I spoke again. I feared the next bit of news would send her over the edge, but my decision was irrefutable whether she liked it or not.

“Abbigail.”

“Hmmm?”

“It’s time, baby.”

She sighed while letting her hair tumble free from the towel. “For what?”

“I told Elijah to make a call. There’s a doctor on the way to examine you.”

She shot her eyes up to mine. Took in a huge, meaningful inhalation. My gut wrenched when she probed my features with her stare. “Sebastian…”

“We have to figure this out, okay? You’re not well. If anything awful happened to you…”

My world would end.

I would end.

She waited for a moment to say anything more, seeming to think better of it. She dropped her head again. “Oh, Sebastian.”

“Baby.” I plunged to my knees at the side of the bed and pushed my way between her knees. “Talk to me, Abbigail. What is it?”

She dipped her shoulders but managed to raise her head—at least high enough that I could see the tears brimming in her eyes. Every one of her tears was a new sting in my heart, even as they collected on her lashes then spilled over onto her cheeks. As they plopped, over and over, onto the cotton fabric lapel of her pajama top, she started to speak again. Stopped. Started. Then again.

I circled my arms around her waist. Flattened my face along her belly. Barely managed to hold in my own bewildered sob.

Holy. God.