Hooked (18 page)
"Weird how?"
"Withdrawn. Almost angry it seemed to me."
"I'm sorry." I meant it. I didn't exactly know what I was sorry about but the look on her face let me know whatever I had done had hurt her. That was the last thing I wanted to do. "I mean it. It's all covered in cobwebs but when I woke up and saw you sitting in the sun . . . it was . . . like coming home. Like even though I found myself in a strange place with a leg that went through a saw mill you made it all okay. Just by being here."
She leaned over the bedrail and kissed me. First on my forehead, then like a butterfly on my parched lips.
"You're so beautiful, Lara."
She sat down on the bedside chair and held my hand. I drifted off to sleep, I think, but when I awoke she was still there.
"Do you remember anything we talked about before the accident?" she asked me.
"Some of it. I remember you told me you were afraid. I remember I didn't want you to ever be afraid of anything again."
"Who's Nurse Kelly?"
The name brought me up short. What had I told her? I had a feeling she knew some important things about me but I never told anyone about that. No one. Ever.
"Why do you ask?"
"You seemed to think I was Nurse Kelly when you were at the worst of your fever."
"She was very kind to me when I was little. You remind me of her."
"How funny the brain works, isn't it?"
"Fascinating. It seems my heart has a better memory than my head."
"Do you remember telling me you aren't a gazillionaire?"
"No." I wondered whatever possessed me to make that confession. But she was smiling at me. Always a good thing. "How did you take it?"
"I was glad. I hated thinking of you as a rich playboy. It gave me the chance to see you in a new light. A poor playboy." She laughed and I remembered how it sounded like chimes in the wind.
"Lara, don't leave me."
"I don't think they'll let me stay overnight with you."
"That's not what I mean. I mean tell me you'll stay by my side. I need to know you will."
"Morgan, I'm not going anywhere. You've had a terrible trauma. You're vulnerable and confused and to top it all off you have your father lurking in the wings waiting to see you. Do you remember that part of why you're here in London?"
"No."
"That will all come back to you too. I'm here." She took my hand again and rested her warm gaze on my face. I wanted to crawl inside their golden depths and lose myself forever. "But you aren't yourself and I don't expect that your need for me at this moment in time is necessarily permanent. I won't hold you to it."
"Just stay."
"I'm here."
"Forever."
"For now will have to do."
####
More from K.C. Falls
Look for Part 2 of Hooked--the Storm
Available in August on Kindle
Part 3 of Hooked--the Refuge
Available in September on Kindle
Available now on Kindle!
(Year of the Billionaire Part 1)
He looked like the kind of man even my mother would call smokin' hot. Eventually, she did.
He felt like the kind of man who didn't just break the rules, but made new ones. He led and it was follow or get out of the way.
Why did a billionaire with a voice like liquid silk and a face like a bad angel take a second look at a girl in no-name jeans, with a fifteen-dollar haircut and a beat up car she calls her "Eep" because the 'J' fell off long ago?
I didn't want to know why and when I thought I knew I didn't want to admit it. By the time I found his secret, it was already too late. His passion had me hooked like a drug. It didn't hurt that he pulled the people I love the most out of harm's way. A girl can get used to a knight in shining armor even when the armor has some very large dents in it.
(The Year of the Billionaire Part 2)
I was hurtling across the ocean, a mile high, destination unknown. I'd brought a passport and nothing else.
He seemed determined to make everything in my life brand new. He revealed me, peeling back layer after layer until all that was left was my raw intimate core. Yet, I hardly knew him.
Crazy is a pretty good word for the kind of uncertainty that comes with a man like Tristan King. I never knew what the day would bring, but I began to expect surprises. That was the biggest problem. Managing my expectations with a man who'd told me I couldn't have any.
For a regular girl, falling for a man like him was taking a very big chance. Was it really possible to love one day at a time?
(The Year of the Billionaire Part 3)
Just carrying a million dollars around is exhausting. Paying my mother's ransom was a relief but I had too much time to think about Tristan on that ferry ride. He was more than I had dared hope for and less than I deserved.
I underestimated his power and didn't give him nearly enough credit for determination. He had me on his jet again, flying high and wanting him. Consequences be damned.
Who could be prepared for what he had to say? I wasn't going to hold him to the promise he intended to keep. When he opened the heavy door to his heart we both knew it would change what we had. Trouble is, I still didn't have a word for what it is we had.
Our bodies tended to do all the talking. Sometimes, it seemed to me there wasn't much left to say.
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The Condom Conundrum
I am aware that the issue of condoms in erotica is contentious. I claim my license as a fiction writer to conjure up raw and unfettered sex. If you, dear reader, cannot bear the thought of our handsome hero and our lovely heroine going at it Trojan-less, feel free to add the following at the appropriate point in any of my sex scenes:
“He opened the Magnum wrapper with his teeth and sheathed himself with one hand, never missing a beat in pleasuring her. She shivered in anticipation at the crackle of the cellophane as she realized the moment of completion was upon her."
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