AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He turns his head and nuzzles his face into my hair. “Happy birthday, baby.”
Tears burn my eyes. I blink them away. “Thank you.”
“Don’t cry. I fucking hate when you cry.”
I tuck my face into his shoulder and laugh. “How do you know I was going to cry?”
“Is that a joke?” he grunts.
“I’m all out of sorts right now. Be gentle with me.”
He kisses my head. “I’m not gentle with anyone.”
“You are with me.”
A deep rumbling noise comes from deep in his chest. “You’re mine. It’s not the same.”
“You had me terrified, Noah,” I say on an exhale.
“I know.”
“It was him, right?”
The bicep beneath my neck grows hard, and I snap my attention to his bandage. No new red spots.
“Yes.”
I fill with dread. Noah lifts the arm resting at his side and brings it across his body before grabbing my hand and linking our fingers. He rests them on his sternum, over his heart. I choke back a sob at the familiarity of the touch.
“How bad does it hurt?” I ask.
“It doesn’t.”
The IVs in the hand wrapped around mine are making sure of that. I don’t remember half the names of the medications that are pumping into him right now.
“Are you tired?”
“Are you?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
He squeezes my hand. “Sleep with me.”
“I’m sorry,” I blurt out. “For asking you to go get that ice cream. I’d rather have gone myself. I’d rather it be me in this bed instead of you.”
“If you were in this bed right now, I would be in prison. This is the way it was supposed to be,” he growls.
I ignore that. “He hurt you because of me. I will never forgive myself for that.”
Cold fingers prod at my jaw, forcing me to look at him. Brown eyes clash with my silver ones. “There’s nothing to forgive. I would die for you. That’s never going to change.”
“Stop.” Fear wraps its thin fingers around my throat and tightens and tightens— “Nobody is dying.”
“He will.” It’s a dark promise.
“Are you trying to make me an accomplice to murder right now?”
“Never. Now, sleep, birthday girl. We’re done talking about this. When you wake up, you can have the gifts I got you.”
