He wrapped her tighter in his arms and they stood there as the firemen cleaned up their gear, the officers processed the scene and the stars stared down on them.
“Hunt?”
“Yes.”
“I think I’m going to pass out again.”
She fainted in his arms.
He didn’t panic. He simply picked her up and put her in the back of the ambulance; the paramedic put in an IV because, yes, she was dehydrated again. As they hauled ass to the hospital, he held her hand and thought to himself that his life before Cyn had been dull and boring.
With Cyn, it was fraught with danger and fear and close calls that left him worrying that he could lose her. But there was also all the good stuff. The way she smiled at him and said his name. The honesty they shared and acceptance of each other for who they were, not something they wanted the other to be. The way she made him feel when she kissed him. The love and caring she put into every touch.
The way she surrendered to being with him with her heart open, even when they took another step deeper into intimacy and their relationship, because she knew he was right there with her, wanting the same thing. Something that would last.
She opened up to him in the same way he’d opened up to her.
He couldn’t lose her.
They were just getting started.
But if they were going to have the life he wanted withher, he needed to eliminate the threat that kept trying to take her away from him.
Rad was more dangerous now than ever.
Hunt vowed that this was the last time Rad ever hurt Cyn again.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cyn stepped out of the shower and into the towel Hunt held open for her. It had been a late night at the ER. They wanted to keep her overnight. She wanted to be home with Hunt. If she kept going back to the hospital this often, they were going to have to just hold a room for her. It had taken hours for them to scan her lungs to be sure there was no smoke damage. The doctor told her that she was lucky—only minor inflammation. They gave her an inhaler to use twice a day for a week.
They numbed her arm, cleaned out the gunshot wound, then sewed her up. They checked the other stitches running down her calf and along her head and neck. Everything looked good. No infection. So, eventually, they let her go home.
Hunt gently rubbed the towel over her, drying her because she was simply too tired and grief-stricken to do it herself.
She looked down at the stitches in her arm. “The bastard ruined my tattoo.” The stitches went right through Angela’s butterfly, leaving only Lana’s right above where the scar would be. It was like Rad had stricken her from this world and her arm.
Hunt kissed her right above the stitches. “You can get another one.”
She went right into his arms and laid her head on his bare chest. “I don’t have to get one for you.”
“I don’t expect you to, sweetheart.” He hugged her and kissed her on the head. He hadn’t stopped touching her in some way since she woke up in the hospital.
She looked up at his handsome face, his blue eyes filled with warmth. “I don’t need to because your name is already etched all over my heart. It’s like you’re imprinted all over me. I felt it before, but then I watched those flames rise and come after me and all I could think about was that I’d never get another day with you. Thank you for saving me again, Hunt.”
He scooped her up into his arms. “It was purely selfish.” He walked out of the bathroom with her. “Because I can’t stand to be without you.” He laid her out on the bed, pulled the towel right off her and tossed it, then did the same with the one wrapped around his waist. His body covered hers and she welcomed him into her arms, the soft glow of the firelight dancing on his warm, strong body.
She brushed her fingers through the back of his damp hair. “I don’t think I’ve ever been reallyinlove. Have you?”
“Yes. Once,” he said, kissing her softly before he looked her in the eye again. “I’m so in love with you, my sweet, kind, determined, stubborn, smart and sexy Cyn.”
She smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. “I love you, too. More than I thought possible. My heart is so full with it at the same time it’s breaking for my sister.”
“I know. You’ll get through this, sweetheart.”
“I will, because you make me happy. You make me think of what we’ll do together tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.”
He traced a finger down the side of her face. “Can we do things that don’t end with us in the hospital from now on?”