Honestly, if I didn’t know the strength of his feelings for me, I would feel intimidated…but instead I just took the time to appreciate it.
Yates’s platinum hair was soft-looking and styled back away from his handsome golden face, which was etched in a level of stress and concern I wasn’t comfortable with. His impossibly silver, almost unnatural eyes, seemed to be metallic in the shadows of the room. They matched his sweater, which fit against his muscular, lean chest, almost perfectly. My eyes darted down to where he had pushed his sleeves up his forearms.Lord have mercy.I was way too attracted to this man. Heck, I was way too attracted to all of them. It couldn’t be healthy for my sanity. Right?
“I love you.”
Yates’s eyes flared with darkness at my words, causing him to stand up and lean over the bed, grasping my jaw gently. I kept his gaze as he examined my expression, looking for something before laying a soft kiss on my lips.
“Dahlia, you are everything to me. My world rotates around you. ‘I love you’ doesn’t seem an accurate enough way to express the intensity of how I feel about you. You are just…everything. Fucking everything. Understand?”
I did understand, and his obsession, healthy or not, was something I craved.
His voice started to deepen with a roughness that matched the guilt on his face. “I promise you that nothing will ever take you from me again.”
I fully believed that. This situation had escalated far faster than they could have prepared for, and I had barely accepted their feelings for me before being tossed into a reality where an entire criminal enterprise was at my fingertips. It should have felt like too much, but the lightning pace seemed to soothe something inside of me. Maybe it was the absence of the insecurity I’d felt for so long, not knowing how they felt?Now I want all of it. All of them, all at once.
It was possible that that sounded far dirtier than I intended…or maybe I also wanted that.
Yeah, I totally wanted that at some point.
“Tell me you believe that,” Yates demanded after another soft kiss.
“I know you won’t let anyone take me again,” I murmured. “I trust you. Completely.” It was like the rain clouds parted, and the smile Yates gave me was so gorgeous it melted any walls I’d tried to erect to protect myself from my emotions while away from them. It was like my words were ones he had been waiting to hear for a very long time.
That was when reality hit into me, and I tried to piece together what had happened between falling asleep in King’s arms and now.
“How long have I been asleep? When did we get back? What happened after—”
Yates sat back, offering me a concerned look as I let out a slow breath, trying to not get overwhelmed. When I attempted to sit up, he gently pressed down on my shoulder, shaking his head.
“No, bunny, you can’t get up yet.” I could practically see the worry radiating off of him, which freaked me out more than anything.
I huffed, but when he was sure I had relaxed back into the blankets, he told me what I wanted to know. “It’s Monday afternoon. You slept for nearly two days. We can handle everything that happened later. You are perfectly safe now, and you have been healing. You had bruises all over from the attack, and abrasions on your wrists that were bleeding…” Yates went silent for a minute, trying to gather himself before speaking again. “But mostly bruised ribs. You are going to be very sore.”
“Bruised ribs?” I frowned. “How long does that take to heal?”
“Normally three to six weeks, but yours aren’t as bad as the doctor had originally thought, so she is hoping less than that.”
My brain kicked into high gear, thinking about the possible injuries my men had suffered, considering the blood they had been covered in. I examined Yates, nearly in a panic as I asked, “Is everyone okay? Are you okay? What about Stratton—”
“Breathe, bunny.” Yates’s voice was calm and soothing. “Everyone is fine, I promise. We suffered some minor injuries, but we’re okay. The person we were most concerned about was Stratton—thought he had a possible concussion—but the doctor checked him out and he’s completely fine.”
“Okay.” I nodded, though I wouldn’t be completely at ease until I could lay eyes on all of them myself. “I really do need to get up. Can you help me? I’m super thirsty and more than a bit hungry.”
“You want me to get you some food?” The adorable, determined expression on his face had me realizing that he very much needed something to do, some way he could feel like he was fixing this.
“That would be amazing,” I admitted as he gently helped me to sit, the pinch of pain when I inhaled and then slowly exhaled making me realize that while I was sore, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the pain I’d felt originally. This felt more like being sore after a strenuous workout…if my workout was being kicked and thrown in a truck while being kidnapped.
“Let me go grab something.” He stood up fully and pointed towards the bed. “I don’t want you moving from the bed.”
I was totally going to move from the bed, but I nodded as he pressed a kiss to the top of my head and walked towards the door. My eyes darted down to my arm, where I could feel more pain than elsewhere…reminding me of the not so little tracker incident.
“Oh, Yates?” I called out, and he immediately turned back to look at me. He offered an arched brow as I smiled. “Next time you want to do something a bit crazy—you know, like installing a tracker in my neck?—try to give me a heads up.” His eyes went wide at my words as I tacked on the most important part. “Also, ask. Asking would have been good.”
I watched his ears turn red, heat flashing in his gaze as he leaned in the doorway of the bedroom. “Would you have let me if I asked, bunny?”
I wasn’t going to bother lying to him anymore.
“If you felt like it would keep me safe? If it would make you feel better? Probably.”