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"Leave?"
"She means leave the hospital room," Desmond clarified. "I thought she'd be more comfortable upstairs."
"Of course. As long as she stays quiet and someone looks in on her every so often, there's no problem." He turned to face Rebecca. "I'll give you some tablets, in case the pain gets to be too much for you."
Doctor Laurence fetched the wheelchair they'd used to transport Rebecca to the hospital room, while Desmond helped her finish dressing. The wheelchair arrived just as he finished, and Desmond carefully transferred her from the bed to the chair. Doctor Laurence fussed and frittered over Rebecca, until she slapped her hand against the armrest on the wheelchair and snarled, "Enough already! In case you didn't realize it, this is not a comfortable position. Get the hell out of my way so I can lie down someplace!"
The doctor leaped aside, leaving the door clear for Desmond to push Rebecca out in a grand exit. He rolled her through the Institute's wide corridors, blessing his foresight in having Evan clear the route. They saw no one.
He parked her wheelchair in the miniature park nearest the stairs to his apartment.
"Why are we stopping?" she asked.
"My apartment is not handicapped accessible."
"But you promised." Her plaintive tone wasn't quite a whine.
"I know. And you'll be able to stay there. It just means I'll have to carry you upstairs." He wished he could dwell on the erotic possibilities of having her captive in his arms. But the possibilities for jostling or bumping her and aggravating her injury loomed too darkly.
"Carry me? Up all those stairs?"
"Yes," he said, wounded pride making him brusque. Did she think he was a weakling, incapable of carrying her?
He reached into his pocket and yanked out his keycard. "Here. I'll have my hands full, so you'll have to open the doors. Just run the card through, top to bottom, with the magnetic strip on the left. Think you can do that?"
He handed her the card, distracting her for the crucial moment while he lifted her into his arms and shifted her hip muscles. She continued to turn the card over in her fingers, examining it, as he carried her to the door.
"Any time now," he reminded her. "You aren't exactly a bag of feathers, you know."
She held the keycard just above the scanner. "If you're trying to say I'm too heavy for you, maybe you should put me down and ask for Evan's help. I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem."
"That's not what I meant at all. I doubt you're more than a hundred pounds, sopping wet." He'd forgotten how touchy women could be about their weight. Especially since Olivia had needed to be reassured she wasn't too thin.
His arms tightened around Rebecca. He wasn't going to lose her, too. He couldn't.
REBECCA TRIED to ignore the feel of Desmond's arms around her, behind her back and beneath her legs. She tried to pretend the arm she'd wrapped around his shoulders encircled nothing more exciting than a fence post. But no post ever felt so warm and alive, or sent electric charges through her at their contact. Even something as inconsequential as his hair, brushing back and forth across the skin of her arm as he turned his head, tickled her with ripples of desire.
His heart beat steadily beneath her. Each strong thump vibrated her skin, echoing along her ribs where they rested against his chest. No, her weight didn't inconvenience him in the least. She was having more trouble breathing normally than he was.
They came out onto the landing in front of his door, and Rebecca placed the keycard into the scanner. But she couldn't bring herself to trigger the door. When the door opened, Desmond would carry her inside. He'd carry her across the threshold. Even though he'd promised to go along with her wishes and forget she'd agreed to marry him, the action seemed too symbolic.
Had he really said he'd forget about the marriage proposal? She replayed their conversation in her head. No. He'd agreed to respect her decision, then steered the conversation until her decision had been whether or not she wanted him to leave the hospital room. She'd naturally assumed he'd carry over respect for her decision to include the whole situation, but experience was making her cautious where Desmond was concerned. He probably still meant to hold her to her acceptance.
She pulled the keycard away from the scanner.
"Put me down. I want to walk in."
"What?"
"You heard me. I want to walk."
"Rebecca." She recognized that tone. Her demand had caught him by surprise, but now he was going to try and reason with her. Well, she had her reasons, and she was going to walk. "You heard the doctor. You're supposed to rest."
"He said rest as much as possible. That's different. If you want, you can carry me again once we're inside. But I want to enter the apartment under my own power."
He studied her face, then asked softly, "This is important to you, isn't it?"
"Yes."
