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“Then comfort me,” he joked, and moved his eyes over her body suggestively.
Sam cleared his throat. “I’m going to leave you two alone.”
Ali chuckled and wiped at her tears, waiting until Sam disappeared. “How are you so fine with this?”
Nik pulled on her arm, and she sat on the bed next to him. She ran her hand over his chest, double checking that he was real and he was here. He was safe here in front of her and he wouldn’t slip through her fingers. This was real.
“I’m alive.” He placed his hand over hers and she felt his chest expand, as if providing the evidence she needed. “I’m alive and you’re here.”
She leaned over, careful not to put any weight on him, and kissed his lips. Gently and slowly, she savored the way his lips fit into hers. She could taste the blood on his cracked skin, but she didn’t care. She needed more evidence that he was alive. He moaned when her tongue slipped into his mouth. His hand wandered up her thigh and settled on her hip. His head lifted off the pillow to kiss her more passionately, but then he winced.
Ali reluctantly broke the kiss and brushed the hair out of his face. “You need to rest.”
“Stay.”
Ali studied him. What were the odds that he would actually rest if she stayed? He gave his best pleading look through swollen eyes, though, and she found it hard to resist him.
“I’ll stay.”
She settled next to him. The bed was hardly big enough to fit her unless she lay on her side, pressed into him, careful not to jostle him. She stifled the lantern on the bedside table and the room went dark. “You have to promise to sleep.”
“Mm, I don’t like to make promises I can’t keep.” He grinned, but he closed his eyes, nevertheless. She tilted her head into his shoulder, and he kissed her forehead. His warm breath blew through her hair and was a persistent reminder that he was still here. He was alive and lying next to her. Everything would be okay.
“Ali?” he whispered softly, his lips moving against her temple.
“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” she reminded him.
She heard him swallow, felt the ripple of his throat against her forehead. His voice was desperate when he responded. She could hear his pain, and his fear brought tears to her eyes again. “Ali, I don’t ever want to lose you.”
Something wet hit her hair.
Ali stirred and could barely make out his features in the dark. He flinched when she reached up and ran a thumb under his eyes, wiping away a tear.
“Sorry,” she said, remembering the bruises covering his face.
“Don’t be.” His eyes searched hers for something she couldn’t decipher. “Don’t leave me behind. When you go, will you take me with you?”
Nik wanted to leave. He wanted to leave with them. He would give up his life here in Rysburg to come with her. The thought rattled her to the core. She could have it all. She could have him.
“Of course.”
***
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nik spent most of the next few weeks in and out of sleep. Sam frequently brought Ali by after she finished work for the day. He tried to sit up and stay awake whenever she was around, but it was hard on his body. He wanted to feel her next to him at all times, but he hated to admit his own body ached when she bumped a bruise or brushed up against a healing bone.
At one point, she called him out on it after catching him clenching his jaw. She stopped sleeping next to him after that, even though she was what his body craved the most. Instead, she pulled up a chair and rested her head on the edge of the bed, holding his hand as he slept.
But today, all of that would change. Today, he would go home.
Nik untied his hospital robe and slid into the clothes that Ali had brought him the previous day. It made him feel human again to be dressed like himself and not like a helpless victim. But a healer had to help pull his shirt over his head, reminding him just how helpless he was. He still had a long journey of healing ahead of him.
Ali would be here any minute. She had promised to walk him back to his house. He had played up his helplessness until she’d agreed to assist him.
The curtain around his bed pulled back. Nik turned around expecting to see her, but instead Jameson walked through. In the years that Nik had worked for the guard, he had never had a personal visit from the head commander. It was a complete shock to see him standing here in Nik’s infirmary room.
“Jameson. What can I do for you?” Nik straightened instinctively and winced at the dull pain in his leg. It happened every time he stood upright.
