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When they released me, Matt drove me back to the farm, despite the argument I heard between him and Ream outside my hospital room door. Matt won.
The first thing I did when I arrived home was inject myself. Then I went to the bathroom and looked at my face. It wasn’t a pretty sight, actually it was horrifying to see all the stitches across my forehead and down my cheek. I winced as I touched my finger to the bruising around my wounds. I’d always been confident with my looks, but this was pretty messed up and I felt uneasy with this new me. It looked like my outside was now going to match my inside.
“Babe.” Ream casually leaned up against the door frame. “You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever known.”
I turned away from the mirror and half-sat on the counter. “Yeah.” But it was a half-ass reply because I didn’t feel strong right now. I felt ruined and confused and like I was falling apart.
“Going to take you a week or so to get back on your feet.”
“I’m on my feet just fine.”
“And you’re the most stubborn woman I know.”
I huffed.
He pushed away from the door frame and strode toward me. A wave of need hit me and it wasn’t the desire, it was the need for him to wrap me up in his arms and hold me. I held my breath as he raised his hand and cupped my chin. His body was inches from mine, thighs so close that if I took a deep breath they’d touch.
“I let him hurt you.”
“I’m fine, Ream. It wasn’t your fault.” I knew Ream had inner demons, most likely from not protecting his sister, so it was just like him to blame himself for this.
“Are you fine, Kat? He touched—”
I cut him off. “Ream, I’m good. Really.” Yeah, I still felt his hand on my breast, my nipple, but I knew how lucky I was. I’d survived him. That was what mattered. I still wanted him caught and castrated though.
He nodded. “Yeah.” He looked down as if taking a second to gather his thoughts and then met my eyes again. “I’m giving you a week. I want nothing more than to look after you and have you all to myself, but you need to be here with your friends. For now.” His thumb stroked back and forth over the slight dip in my chin. “The doc said you need eight days then … things change.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, you need me, I’m here. But otherwise I’m backing off to give you what you think you need. Next week that changes.”
I was speechless because one, he was leaning in close and I could smell him and two, because I didn’t want to speak. I wanted him to kiss me.
But he didn’t. Instead his hand dropped from my chin and he walked out.
I slept for two days straight and I knew Ream had come to check in on me because the note he’d given me at the hospital was now on my nightstand. I’d thought the nurses had thrown it out. The third night I dreamt that he held me while he caressed my hair. When I woke I saw the indent in the mattress and knew it hadn’t been a dream.
Night after night I tried to stay awake to see if he’d come, but I was groggy from the meds and I always fell asleep. I suspected he slept beside me every night, but he never stayed, and when I asked him about it, he merely shrugged and walked away. He was quiet around me and it was so unlike Ream, and yet it was what I needed from him right now. The distance. The time to heal inwardly as well as physically. I still heard the snap of the rubber, but it was getting less and less.
For the last few days, Ream and the band were gone during the day to the recording studio, Emily was teaching a horse clinic, and I spent every waking moment painting. It had always been my way to deal with emotions. I was so good at avoiding them, and my outlet was to paint. That way I could remain hidden behind a veil of poise the rest of the time.
The cuts on my face were healing which meant they were itchy as hell, and I was glad when eight days passed, although I was also apprehensive at Ream’s reference to things changing.
It was Friday afternoon when Matt took me to the doctor’s to have them removed. He was worried about the pain killers I was on and didn’t want me to drive myself. I didn’t tell him I stopped taking the pain killers days ago. I was worried about them reacting with my other drugs. Matt dropped me off while I was getting my sutures removed so he could swing by the drug store to pick me up more vitamin D.
I walked out of the doctor’s office to wait for Matt when I saw Ream leaning casually against his car, arms and ankles crossed, looking like a lion leisurely waiting on his cliff for his mate.
And it stole my breath away. He was so relaxed and yet still so full of intensity. I walked over to him with a sultry sway and his brows rose as he looked me up and down and then the corner of his mouth curved up which made me smile because witnessing Ream smile was like being handed the sun.
When I stopped in front of him, he did something unexpected … Ream cradled my chin in his hand then leaned forward and kissed up along the scar on my cheek and then across the one on my forehead.
“I’ll kill him if I ever get the chance. For these. For putting his hands on you.” He moved to my lips and kissed me, slow and soft like the gentle touch of a feather. “You’ll always be my beautiful. Nothing will ever change that. Inside and out, Kat.”
