She offered a small smile and reached for his hand. She felt weak, but so much stronger knowing they all made it out of the ugly ordeal alive.
“Roman?”
“With Lucian. He hasn’t left this side. The doctors are saying had the ambulance not arrived when it did, he wouldn’t have made it.”
“Thank God for foresight.”
She pressed a palm to her head. So much relief filled her that she wanted to cry. “Everything is spinning in my head. I had such bad nightmares. I couldn’t tell what was real and what was not. I thought I’d lost you all.”
“You didn’t lose us. We are real and love you. You almost died, cariña. I couldn’t bear the thought of walking this earth without you. Please forgive us for not protecting you better.”
Matteo’s voice held so much remorse, and the emotions running rampant through her were a mirror to his. She couldn’t tell what was his and what belonged to her.
“Just like I told Lucian, stop apologizing. I was there because I wanted to be.” Matteo rested his head on her thigh and she reached for him. She ran her fingers through his hair hoping he understood her next words. “I will always be in some kind of danger. I could slip in the bathroom. Choke on a green bean. Be hit by a car.”
He lifted his head and Sevastyan’s fingers gripped her hand a little more tightly.
“The hell you say. Are you trying to jinx us?”
Her big bad mafia kings looked sick with worry. Because she spoke of things they could not control. And if she knew anything it was they liked having everything on lockdown and under their control. “My point,” she began slowly. “...is you can’t protect me every waking minute of my life. Neither of you can.”
Both men grunted.
She soothed them by placing her hands in theirs.
She pushed up, her ass numb from sitting in the same position for too long. Her shoulder protested but she didn’t flinch for their sakes.
This time they didn’t move to stop her, but Sevastyan did pull her to his chest gently when she sat up.
She tilted her face until she could look them in the eyes. “Do you love me?”
His arms tightened around her possessively, protectively like she was the start and end of his world.
“Don’t you feel it?” he countered softly.
Rhia stared up at him with a faint smile. “I do.” Her men loved her, and the notion that what they shared was fake on any level dissolved instantly when he claimed her mouth in a kiss. The warmth in him seeped into her and chased away any fear left over by the nightmares.
“I feel it in every cell in my body. Every beat of my heart.”
Matteo touched the tip of his nose against hers. “As we feel yours.”
“Who knew the big bad crime lords could go soft,” she teased, resting her head against Matteo’s shoulder. Pressed between her men she savored the moment a little longer.
“And Dimitris?”
“Dead,” Roman spoke from the doorway and she immediately threw her arms open. Her dark-haired, blue-eyed king prowled across the hospital room and wrapped her in his strong arms. His warmth enveloped her and all those tears that she’d held back came rushing down her cheeks. Matteo moved and let him in closer but only a few feet. He kept a hand on her leg, keeping constant contact.
Her world came one step closer to being perfect at that moment. She couldn’t muster enough strength to feel bad about it.
“Don’t cry, baby. You’ll make me cry and then they’ll give me shit about it for a week.”
She looked at Sevastyan and Matteo whose eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
She tucked her head into Roman’s neck and whispered, “Something tells me you’re okay.”
Roman pushed back her hair and kissed her jaw, her lips, her forehead. Anywhere he could find skin and it heated her from the inside out.
“Do you hate us? Fear us? You saw sides of each of us we wished we could hide.”