His lips go from cold to warm in seconds and he starts kissing me back. I can feel the shift when his spirit leaves my body and enters his. His beautiful electric eyes open and for one split second, we share our first real kiss.
Then my body goes limp and darkness swallows me up. My world starts to tip as my legs give out and I fall backward. Maybe I gave him back his life...by letting him have mine.
Chapter Eight
____________
Sterling
I feel like I've been electrocuted. My eyes fly open and consciousness hits me like a rock to the head. I pull the shit out of my nose and mouth, gagging as I do. It makes the alarms on the machines go haywire and the room fills with noise. I peer over the side of the bed and see the woman who kissed me passed out on the floor.
I have no idea who she is but something...something makes me sure she's important to me. So much so that it scares the hell out of me. Something feels wrong about leaving her lying on the floor. I have her in my arms when Kane comes in.
"Ster, are you...oh God! You're awake!" A big smile spreads across his face and he comes closer to me. A wave of protectiveness rises up inside of me for this tiny woman causing me to turn and place her in the bed I just left. "Uh...did I miss something? Who the hell is that?"
I brush the golden curls back from her forehead before answering, "That I do not know but you can be damned sure bet I plan to find out."
"How the hell did she get in here? Was she sent by your brother?"
The very thought of this little...doll of a woman being anywhere near my brother makes me insanely angry. What am I going to do if she belongs to him?
"How long have I been out?"
"Two weeks and three days. I was starting to really worry we weren't going to get you back."
I don't take my eyes off the woman. She needs to be seen by someone. Why did she faint when I woke up? Why hasn't she opened her eyes yet?
The door to the room opens and in steps one of the nurses. Shock and something else flash across her face. "You....you're awake!"
"Indeed I am." I have always been good at observing others, it’s what makes me so good at business. And this woman is hiding something. Her eyes flutter about the room never really meeting my own. Finally, she lands on the woman in my hospital bed.
"Who is that?"
"My fiancée." The lie rolls off my tongue. In fact, I have to wonder about how easily it falls out considering I am a man that has never even thought about marriage.
"You...you're...," she gathers herself, "I'll alert the doctor that you are awake."
"Do that. And tell him he’s needed to check in with my future wife as well, she was so overcome by me finally being awake she fainted and I fear she hit her head. Tell him to hurry."
I wait until the door closes before turning back to my best friend and right-hand man.
"Call the office. Have Amber take my mother's ring from the safe and bring it here."
Uh...what now?" There is no need for me to even try to make him go since I can already tell he won't be leaving me.
"If the doctors and nurses come in, they're going to want to take her, and then we won't be able to find anything out until it might be too late. I don't want to take my eyes off this woman until I'm certain of where she fits in with all of this nonsense my brother has started. Have Amber bring me that ring down here ASAP."
"On it!"
He leaves to make his calls. I am certain in less than fifteen minutes I'll have the ring here. Images from the wreck flash through my mind as I try to focus on the tiny woman lying on the bed. Before I left I was on the phone with one of my attorneys. My brother was pretending to be me and had made a business deal without my knowledge. Not only was I pissed I was infuriated when the man went on to tell me he had seen a listing for the home I live in.
I was going to the office when the brakes failed on my car and I lost consciousness. That bastard. The only person I can think of that would want to even try to kill me is that good-for-nothing brother of mine. My eyes track back to the woman.
If she is a part of all of this, I will find out and make sure she is no longer anywhere around that snake.
Kane walks in, still on the phone. "Yeah, hold on just a minute. Your brother has been trying to pull the plug for the past two weeks. He just found out that you are awake. Wonder how he knew that?"
Well, it couldn't be this little thing because she's been here from the moment I come awake.