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“It’s needed, and I don’t want to have to explain it to you. I want you to accept what I give you, without hesitation, without concern. It’s only a phone, my little pet. There are so many other things you will need to simply accept. Do you understand?”
It’s tense between us for only a moment.
“Yes, Declan.”
“I will not make changes that aren’t necessary,” he tells me, standing closer to the bed. He pulls the covers up closer to my chest as he adds, “You know that, don’t you?” I nod in agreement with him. When I do, he kisses my temple.
Do I know that, though?I know he spoils me, I know I feel safe with him. I know I love what he does to me and that there’s something about him that has always pulled me to him. I know that I don’t want to lose him and that a phone isn’t worth a fight.
So long as I can talk to my mother.
“Are you monitoring it?” I ask him and he gives me a smile as he replies, “Of course I am.”
I swallow thickly and pull slightly away from him.
“It’s for your protection,” he tells me and the machine monitoring my vitals gives away my anger as my heart beats faster. The bastard beeping earns a glare from me that makes Declan smirk.
“Hey,” he says, bringing my attention back to him and I’m met with pleading eyes and a calming voice. “There’s no reason to be upset or angry with me. Every one of us has a phone with a tracking and monitoring device in it. When I say it’s to protect you, I mean it.”
“Okay,” I concede, far too tired to argue and acutely aware of the power imbalance between us to think that I have any say at all.
I am his. I suppose it’s only just now dawning on me exactly what that entails. One thing that hasn’t left me is that I’m scared of him. That fear holds me back more than he knows.
“I’m going to get you some soup from the restaurant next door. My brother said they have the best and he would know, given he’s been in this room more times than all of us combined.”
“Which brother?”
“Carter.” His name stiffens my shoulders. I’m not sure he ever won’t intimidate me.
“He likes you. He’s … hard and cold, with no people skills to speak of … so it might not come through,” he tells mewith a crooked smile. As if it’s a joke. “I know he isn’t exactly approachable.”
“If you say so,” I tell him and a wave of hot and cold come over me. I wish I could break this fever. I don’t know I’ve ever had a fever for so long. I blame the stress. It’s a killer.
“You have your phone … call me if you need me,” he tells me and doesn’t move to stand. He stays by me, hovering over me as I lie in the bed, waiting for me to agree. “Understand?”
There is something in his hazel eyes, something that tells me he needs me to give in to him, when he stares down at me. I’m entranced by it as his fingers travel down the side of my neck, his thumb along my throat. It’s the gentlest of touches, yet so possessive, so him. “Yes, I understand.” He’s a powerful man, far stronger than I’ve ever truly given him credit for. But it’s not the physical dominance that eclipses this moment, it’s something else entirely.
“Good girl,” he whispers and kisses my cheek. My eyes close and I breathe in his scent. When he does that, comforts me and calls me his “good girl,” it’s like nothing else matters. I’ve grown far too fond of it, far too … reliant on it to feel well. The warmth of Declan’s touch is gone the moment the room to the private door closes with a resounding click.
Alone in the room, I’m left with the steady beeping from the monitors my only company and the hope that the pain meds will kick in soon. I stare at the door a moment too long and my thoughts go astray. Back to the unsettling feeling that what happened before will happen again.
That I know better than to be with someone like Declan and my greatest fear now is that it’s no longer my choice if I’m with him or not.
With that spike of fear, I consider pulling off the contraptions monitoring my vitals and running. Going anywhere but here. It’sall too much and not what I signed up for. My throat goes dry at the thought.
Go where?My inner voice sneers,They’ll find you. They’ll kill you and he would never forgive you if they didn’t end your life.
Despite everything that’s happened, I trust Declan. More than that, I fucking love a piece of him even if other pieces of him terrify me. But he did say, the only way anyone would ever put their hands on me again is if I left him. As for the implications of what that truly means gets the better of me, a chill runs through every inch of me right down to my bones. I try turning in the bed as if I can get away from it all, as if I could simply stop the reality from weighing on me like it is.
What the fuck have I done?
My thoughts are interrupted by a knock at the door and my heart races yet again reflecting in the rapid beeps of the monitor. A voice I don’t recognize calls out, “Ms. Lennox?”
“Yes. Come in,” I answer and attempt to calm myself.
An older man with glasses and white hair, clad in a white lab coat and name tag reading Dr. Jacobson, walks in. His gaze immediately zeroes in on the machine beeping far too quickly. His thin lips press into a firm line and then he gives me a smile when he looks back at me, a clipboard in his hand and a sympathetic look in his eyes. He might not know the details, but I’m certain he knows this room is for the Cross brothers and that there’s more than one thing that ails me.
“Let’s see how I can help you, Ms. Lennox.”
