She’d been like that all day, but it had started the night before. Her throat was scratchy, her body tired and sore, and she knew she was in for a rough few days.
She’d barely had enough strength to hydrate and order food for later—there was no way she’d be standing long enough to cook for herself. She just wanted to lie there, in peace, and stew in her fever.
Which was what she would have continued to do if the buzzer from the apartment building entrance hadn’t jolted her out of her state of catatonia.
Throwing the blanket off her, she reached for her glasses on the nearby table and headed over to the intercom to buzz the delivery person in. When the doorbell rang, she had to pretty much shuffle to the door in her socks for all the energy she had.
The moment Maddy cracked open her door was when she realized that maybe she was sicker than she thought she’d been.
Maybe she’d fallen asleep and the fever was subjecting her to some very vivid dreams.
Maybe the hallucinations had finally claimed her.
Those were the only plausible options to coming face to face with Nate Keaton right outside her apartment door.
And she would have been a staunch supporter of option number two if the reality of the situation wasn’t seeping through the cracks of her crazy theory.
Because there was no way that her muddled mind would be able to conjure up the painful details of that face. Or his smell that reminded her of pine trees. Or those piercing, dark eyes that were now trained on her with an intensity that made her short of breath.
“Are you delivering my food?”
Nate blinked before his eyes strayed to the plastic bag he was holding, which subsequently drew her own eyes there.
Hewasin fact carrying something.
“I guess?”
God, that smooth voice.
“I don’t think that’s the food I ordered,” she said, her brain clearly having taken a hike. Maybe shock did that to people.
With great effort, she peeled her eyes off the bag and turned to glance back at the beautiful man that was gracing her doorstep.
“Am I hallucinating?” What the hell, she would ask him. Maybe he’d know.
Nate’s intense expression was now accompanied by a flash of a lethal half-smile that tilted his lips.
“Fuck, I missed you, Mads.” His voice was low, and hoarse, and throaty, as if he was the one with the scratchy throat.
Wait.
What had he called her?
Maddy’s heart sped up dangerously, which did nothing to help the dizziness she’d already been feeling.
She swallowed since it was the only thing she could do right then.
“Nate? Is it you?”
She hated how her voice trembled, how it was full of hope for something she’d given up hoping for. At least she could blame it on her weakened state.
Nate nodded, never taking his eyes off hers.
“It’s me.”
It was at that moment that the spell of dizziness got the better of her. She swayed on her feet and she knew she would have collapsed if a broad chest and a pair of strong arms hadn’t gently broken her fall.
“Madison!” Nate’s voice rang sharp as he cocooned her in his arms for a few moments while she gathered her bearings.
