AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s a private wing, made more exclusive by the presence of the Morellis. There are guards outside the elevator, outside the double doors leading into the wing, and outside her room.
Low voices float out into the hallway as I approach, softening my footsteps out of habit. From this vantage point, I can see through the open door.
Leo and Eva are with her. Eva leans onto the bed, her chin propped up in her hands, and Leo sits next to Daphne, her head leaning on his shoulder. All three of them are looking at his phone. Aside from the phone, the pose is similar in many of the works I’ve bought and sold over the years. It’s a shorthand for closeness among the subjects.
Eva points to something on the screen, and Daphne laughs. It’s good to hear her laugh. I’d have forgiven her if she became serious and withdrawn after the ordeal. I’d have understood. But she hasn’t. The opposite, in fact. She’s made it a point to enjoy her family. They started arriving half an hour after the ambulance did, and they’ve been in and out ever since. They’ve taken over a large waiting room down the hall. At least one catered meal has arrived.
Daphne’s sister sees me at the door and taps Leo’s leg.
“Come in,” Leo says. “We were about to step out.”
“He’s lying.” Daphne smiles at me. “We were picking a movie in case you needed more time.”
“How’s your dad?” Eva asks.
“He’s fine. We talked.” It feels more than a little awkward to share this with anyone other than my brothers, but this is Daphne’s sister. I’ll have to get used to her. I don’t mind.
She and Leo get to their feet.
“We’ll be right outside,” Leo says. “Do you want anything?”
Daphne shakes her head. “I’ll tell you if I do.”
They go out into the hallway, leaving us alone. I can hear them talking to one of the nurses. Daphne’s siblings like to hover.
I sit down on the bed next to her, take her face in my hands, and kiss her as softly as I can manage.
I didn’t want her to be hurt, but she was. A shadowy bruise darkens one of Daphne’s eye sockets. She has cuts on her face from the tree branches. Both of her wrists have been bandaged to protect the skin broken by the zip ties. Her right knee was badly bruised when she leaped from the van, and a fall in the woods strained some of the ligaments in her ankle.
The sight of those cuts on her skin makes me feel murderous. I want to go back down to my father’s room and beat the living hell out of him for making it happen. It wouldn’t be a fair fight. And it wouldn’t heal Daphne any faster. The urge for violence passes quickly when I’m touching her. All that was in the past. She’s the future.
She pulls me further onto the bed and nestles into my chest. Hospital beds are a pain in the ass for this, but I don’t care. A half-lowered railing pushes into my spine. I don’t know how Leo was sitting here acting like it was comfortable. He’s probably always done that for her. Pretending comes naturally to the Morellis.
“Do you need water?” I ask her. “A pillow? A phone charger? Anything?”
“Just you.” Daphne tips her face up and kisses me again. It’s too hard for a woman who’s been injured, but I’m a bastard. I can’t help myself. I kiss her back until I brush over one of the cuts and she winces.
“I’m sorry, little painter.”
Daphne does not accept my apology. She drags me closer by the front of my shirt, which is actually borrowed from Sin.
“No,” she murmurs. “I need it to hurt right now. I need to feel alive.”
“How can I help?”
Her eyes heat with filthy wanting. Daphne drags her mouth over mine, licking my bottom lip as she goes. “You could keep looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you want to fuck me.”
“I’m going to do more than look.”
I’m careful, but not gentle, when I drag her to the edge of the bed, push her hospital gown up, and lower my head between her legs.
There. Now she feels alive. She’s instantly fighting me, like the sensation is too much to handle and not enough. She gasps once, then twice. Her fingers curl through my hair. Her hips rock into my face. I pull back and look at her from between her thighs.
“Your family is outside,” I warn. “They’re going to hear you.”
