AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or so he has ordered.
I move to the window, looking beyond the hospital car park to where Loch Mirrin sparkles in the distance.
I’m not leaving.
No matter what happens, I’m staying in Oakheart Glen. My heart belongs here.
“Knock, knock.”
Corran’s voice is hushed as he enters the room. I watch as his expression changes from one of alarm on seeing the empty bed to delight when his eyes find me at the window.
“Are you ok?” I breathe, my voice tight with relief. “No one would tell me anything…”
“Am I ok?” he exclaims, “You are ok!”
“Yeah, I’ve got a confession to make…”
His eyes widen.
“I can’t swim.”
He laughs. “Yeah, I figured that.”
“You saved me.”
He shakes his head, his brows furrowed. “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have been in there in the first place.”
My heart aches. I wrap my arms round his waist.
“No. You saved me. You saved my life. Just like you saved me that day on the school bus.”
“What? When?” He looks confused, then his face brightens. “Oh, then. Wow, that was a while ago. I’d forgotten about that. Tyler Hargreaves. He always was a twat.”
I chuckle. “I still have nightmares about him inviting me to sit on his lap. The thrusting…urgh.”
“Not a pleasant thought.”
“No.” I wrap my arms round Corran’s neck, pressing my body to his. “Not like the thought of sitting on yours.”
He huffs out a short laugh and looks down at me, his blue eyes twinkling. “Oh, really?”
His mouth meets mine as I twist my fingers into his hair. I yield to him, my lips crushed under his with the weight of his need. My own hunger burns in my chest. I need him. I need every bit of this man. Every cell in my body is crying out for him.
I break from the kiss, panting for air. I’m not sure whether it is Corran’s effect on me or the aftereffects of almost drowning, but my legs feel a bit wobbly. I stare down at the brightly colored tableau of the hospital car park, trying to focus.
“Are you okay?” His voice, warm, gentle, is like an embrace.
“Yeah, yeah, perfectly ok. Never better. Just catching my breath. It is warm in here.”
Corran stands behind me. I sense his hesitation. Even now, after everything that has happened, does he think that I don’t want him? Does he not want me? His kiss tells me otherwise. Surely he can’t be unsure about my feelings for him? The gentle heat of his body behind me is sending waves of desire rolling down my spine.
Goosebumps sprinkle the skin of my shoulder where it is exposed by the ill-fitting hospital gown. He can’t be unaware of how I feel about him. How I’ve always felt about him but have been too stupid to realize.
The love I was searching for was right in front of me all along. Corran. The one who saved me over and over. Not just from the loch, but from the silly boys on the school bus, from loneliness, from going in the wrong direction for class, from walking into the wrong gym changing room, from dancing alone at the school disco, from giving up when exam pressure got to me, from disappointment, from a bruised heart…I could go on forever.
Corran. Who has been there every single time I ever needed someone. And I never realized. Until last night.
I reach behind me and take his hands in mine. I draw them round me, tucking myself into his arms, my head resting against the muscled expanse of his chest. I’m home.
