Page 108 of Craig

"You might dislike what he did, but you don't hate him." Lifting their joined hands, she brushed her lips over his knuckles as he often did to her.

"And look how well it turned out. We found each other."

"That's beside the point."

He was weakening, dammit.

"It's exactly the point. I want him to live."

Craig made a rude sound in the back of his throat, which had her smiling.

"I know you."

"Do you?" he asked mildly, his anger spent to be replaced by worry. And dammit, she was right.

He was worried.

"Hmm." She moved into him, settling her head on his shoulder.

Immediately, he felt the contentment stealing over him. She could do that, be that for him.

"Focus on the end result. He was instrumental in bringing us together. Would you regret that?"

His eyes flared. "How can you ask me that?" he blew out a breath and shook his head.

"You're right. The end result is having you."

He lifted their joined hands and brushed his lips on her knuckles.

"You're the best thing that ever happened to me. I'm not going to thank him for it. I'm certainly not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he did something right, not after the way he went about doing it."

She merely lifted a brow at him.

"What?"

"We entered into a fake marriage."

He sighed again. "You're determined to make me see reason, aren't you?"

"What do you think?"

"I think-" They both turned as the doctor came into the room.

"George?"

Regina felt his fingers tightening on hers.

"We had to perform an angioplasty-" the chief surgeon waved a hand.

"I won't go into details, but he's in recovery and will not require a bypass now. He's going to have to change his lifestyle significantly. And cut back on a lot of things."

The man's gray eyes regarded the couple steadily.

"He's insisting on seeing you even though I advised him that he needs rest and sleep." A grimace crossed the man's craggy face.

"You know how he is."

Regina squeezed his hand. "I'll wait here-"