“Kassa.”
“He called you my boyfriend, said you would get upset, which was why I was telling him no. So, I set him straight. I said yes, you would be upset but that I just didn’t like him enough to want to go out with him, so you being upset didn’t come into it.”
He was quiet for a few moments before his chest shook with his laughter. “I bet you broke his little heart,” he chuckled and touched his lips to my forehead. “Good. I want that little motherfucker to stay away from you.”
“Trust me, babe, I don’t want him around me any more than you do.”
“Good, because if he comes near you again, I’m going to make him eat his balls.” He turned onto his back, and I burrowed against his side. “Sleep, Kas. I’ll be here if you get sick.”
“Hey,” I murmured and tilted my head up to meet his gaze.
“What, baby?”
“I love you.”
His eyes darkened, need flaring deep in them, but we both knew I wasn’t in any shape to go one round, let alone the two or three we normally went for. “I love you more, baby.”
TWENTY EIGHT
Kassa
Gray woke me as he got out of bed. One eye peeked open so I could watch him walk naked into my bathroom and shut the door. We had gotten home the night before, and I had never been so happy to sleep in my own bed. I was exhausted, and although it had calmed down, I was still having bouts of nausea from time to time. Still, after what I had been going through the last nine weeks, I wasn’t going to complain. It was tolerable now, and I figured that it would slowly go away as I got used to sleeping in a bed that wasn’t being rocked back and forward because the roads on most interstates were total shit.
Upon seeing the time on the clock beside my bed, I groaned and pulled the covers back over my head. It was too early to be awake, but after only being able to fit a workout in every now and then, Gray was ready to get back to hitting the gym daily. I heard the shower turn on and closed my eyes. No way was I going to the gym with him. I only wanted sleep.
A soft brush of lips over mine and a quiet goodbye whispered in my ear made me smile as I burrowed into Gray’s pillow.
“Love you,” I mumbled, already falling back to sleep.
Hours later, something woke me. At first, I wasn’t sure what had pulled me from the deep sleep. I sat straight up in bed, my heart pounding like it was going to explode. Sucking in a deep breath, I fought to calm my racing heart as I tried to figure out what had woken me.
My heart rate began to lower, but a sharp pain to my lower stomach hit me, driving it up all over again. It was like a cramp, but the most painful cramp I had ever had in all the years since I had first gotten my period. It was so intense that I fell back onto the pillow and pulled my knees up to my chest, a sob leaving me as I fought to breathe through the pain.
“Kas?” I thought I heard Kin call out. My bedroom door opened, and suddenly, she was standing beside my bed. “Oh shit.”
“I hurt,” I whispered when she just stared down at me with wide, blue eyes.
“Oh shit,” she repeated, grabbing my phone on the bed as another pain hit me so hard that I thought I was going to pass out from it. “It’s okay,” she muttered. “You’re okay.”
I didn’t understand what she was saying or why she kept repeating the same thing. I barely noticed when she lifted my phone to her ear.
“Something’s wrong with Kassa.” Her voice shook as she spoke. “There’s blood all over the bed and she’s in pain.”
“…nine-one-one,” I thought I heard my brother say loudly as Kin bent over me to touch my forehead. “I’m leaving now. I’ll call Gray.”
The pain eased up a little, but no sooner had it ended than it hit me again twice as hard. “Kin, help me,” I begged, crying because I was scared.
“You’ll be okay,” she promised, giving me a trembling smile as she called 911. “I need an ambulance. My friend is bleeding vaginally.”
“What?” I breathed and somehow found the energy to look down at myself.
The sheet had fallen off me, but I had thought the wetness I was feeling on my body was sweat from the pain. But, when I saw the bright red pool under me, the sheets already coated in it, I freaked out.
“Oh, God!” I screamed. “This isn’t happening. Oh, God. Where’s Gray? I want Gray!”
“Sweetie, you need to calm down,” Kin tried to soothe me. “Jace is calling Gray. He can meet us at the hospital.”
I was still freaking out when the next pain hit so badly that I saw stars. I pulled myself into a tighter ball, fighting to breathe. “I want Gray,” I sobbed.