Back where they’d started.
He should’ve taken that drink from Jaime’s flask.
“My blood pressure was high.” She frowned, sinking back against the sad little pillow. “Or maybe it was my heart rate. I can’t remember. Anyway, they checked it last time when I was giving my statement. Two police officers in the room, hounding me. Like I wasn’t going to be?—”
“How many stitches, Fontana?”
She glanced at her arm, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. “Twenty-two,” she whispered, slumping in defeat to the thin mattress.
“Son of a—” Jaime had said acoupleover the phone.
He was pacing, one side of the room to the other, before he could get another breath out. He jabbed the boombox’s pause button. Billie Holiday was wasted on this bullshit.
“I had to, Cam, or we’d never be free. Push him to do what he’d threatened for so long, meaning they’ll lock him up for good this time.”
He halted, bracing a hand on the dented metal rail of the hospital bed to stop himself from touching her. Ripping that awful gown off, sliding into her, losing himself in the one place everything else disappeared. The urge to mark her, markhimself, was visceral. It would be the easy way out, and he wasgreatat easy. “You could have told me.”
“Told youwhat, exactly?”
“That he was coming back!”
A charged silence swirled as they stared, gazes locked.She could back down. Or he could.But. No. One. Moved.He’d never met anyone who challenged him like she did—engaged him, enticed him, enthralled him. His brain, his heart, and his dick couldn’t agree on who liked this combo more.
“You’re sorry you met me,” she finally whispered. If even one tear fell, he was done for. A dead man. “I’m trouble. Is that it?”
He shook the bedframe, wanting to shake sense intoher. “I’m grateful to whatever force in the universe dropped you, and that broken-down Jeep, into my path. If it was some slice of cosmic karma, I’ll take it. No argument.My win. I can’t even begin to list the reasons you fascinate me. Why you’re all I think about. All Iwant. For starters, you’re the strongest person I’ve ever met, and today only put an exclamation point on that belief. I’m in awe?—”
He bumped his glasses up and rubbed his eyes. “I’m all over the place, messing this up.”
“Cam,” she whispered, a world of emotion in her voice.
“I need you to understand what this—us—is about. But I’m not doing it here.” He slipped his glasses down and gave the room a slow, loathing once-over. “I hate this place, and I’m two steps from hungover, sleepless insanity. The drive to get to you was a nightmare I never want to repeat.”
“Visiting hours are over,” a nurse called with a rap on the door, using the same tone Coach Parker had when he caught Campbell smoking under the bleachers in high school.
No matter how old you were, that pitch still carried a dose of dread.
“Nurse Ratched,” Fontana murmured, lips curving in a wry twist. “Kicking out my best buddy.”
Campbell’s lips curved in an answering smile as a wave of longing swept through him. “I thought Jaime was your best buddy. He advises you on sexy panties and brings you music.”He jerked a shoulder toward the boombox. “I show up empty-handed in a blind panic.”
She gave him a look he couldn’t for the life of him label. Or maybe he was too scared to try. “Nah,” she said softly. “My best buddy intro’d me to this music. Talk about giving.”
Campbell circled the bed, fully intent on,hell, climbing in there with her, pulling the sheet over their heads, and losing complete control. She was injured, but he’d be careful. Orgasms were healing, or so he’d heard.
They had been for him.
Another knock hit the door, more forceful this time. “Two minutes.”
“Fuck,” he ground out, halting mid-step, hands flexing uselessly at his sides. The moment, the impulse, slipped through his fingers. “What is this, prison?”
Eyes glittering, Fontana released a pent-up sigh, maybe because she’d seen the desire flash in his gaze and wanted to take advantage. The thought made Campbell feel a little better.
She fiddled with her bandage, nervous in a way he rarely saw. “I’m in a secure area—kind of—until they get him out of here. You must’ve missed the officer posted at the end of the hall. Alias is upstairs, but he’s still considered a threat. You only got by because you’re on the list.”
Yep. Gut punch. “At least I made the list.”
Softly: “That’s not fair.”
