Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
My monitors started beeping rapidly again, and Reid grabbed my hand and held it tight, running his thumb over my knuckles to soothe me.
“Shh, princess, it’s okay. Hunter is fine. He played dead so the men wouldn’t take his phone, and he texted me the second he could. He was patched up while you were in surgery.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, that bouquet over there with the daisies and the little bear, that one is from him. An apology for letting you down.”
“He didn’t—”
“He did.” The tone in Reid’s voice was enough to make me drop it for now, but I made a mental note to talk to Hunter later and tell him he had nothing to apologize for.
“He’s okay.” Tears of relief started to spill down my cheeks.
“Be careful. You cry for another man, and I might get jealous.”
He was teasing, but it reminded me of him storming off that morning.
“Reid, I need to tell you something.” My voice started going hoarse again, and he grabbed the cup, letting me take a few long pulls of the icy water.
“Slow down, princess. Take it easy. I’m not going anywhere. And I need to tell you something first.” He took a deep breath, and I braced myself for whatever he was about to throw my way. “Charlotte Maeve Manwarring, I love you. I will never let you out of my sight again for as long as we live.”
“Reid.” More tears sprang to my eyes.
“Shh, don’t say anything, baby.”
“I still need to tell you, that morning, before the charity event, after our… night together. As soon as you left, I called Luc. I told him I was going to tell Father I refused to marry the baron. That it was time I started making my own decisions.”
“What are you saying, Charlotte?”
“I’m saying I love you too, and I don’t ever want to be with anyone else.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” Reid surged to his feet, leaned over me, and sealed his lips to mine.
At first his touch was gentle, not wanting to hurt me.
My hands went to his arms and then up to his shoulders, and my fingers, all except the one with the blood oxygen monitor on it, laced through his hair and pulled him tighter to me. The kiss heated up, and I melted into it, loving the way he explored my mouth with his tongue and seemed to claim me at the same time.
He kissed me like he owned me, and I loved it. I craved it.
His kiss reminded me how good it had felt when his lips explored my body, how amazing it had felt when he’d kissed me as he pushed inside my body, invading me for the first time. I wanted him, only him. And he wanted me.
My heart rate monitor sped up again, and as he pulled away from me, I tried to pull him back.
The movement caused a jolt of pain through my body, and I bit back a cry.
“Press the button, princess. I will be here when you wake up, and we will figure everything out.”
I nodded and reached for the button I’d left at my side. Reid reached for the remote to lay my bed back down. He placed a kiss on my palm as the bed went flat, and as the drugs worked their way into my body, my eyelids closed.
One final thought echoed through my head.
“How am I going to tell my family? My father is going to lose his mind.”
CHAPTER 33
CHARLOTTE
“How many forbids is that?” Olivia asked.
She was perched on the edge of my hospital bed, snacking on a little bag of pretzels she’d picked up from the vending machine down the hall because, according to Olivia, a show like this needed salty snacks.
“Fifteen, I think,” I answered, reaching for one of the mini pretzels in her bag.
“Seventeen,” Luc corrected. His eyes were closed as he sat back in the chair next to my bed, his feet propped up at the foot of my bed.
“Are you sure?” Olivia asked. “I counted fifteen, too.”
“Positive. You missed two of them while you were texting Marksen. By the way, is he going to try to make it to the rest of the show or…” He let the question hang as we both turned to listen to our father on speaker phone start another round of ‘absolutely not’ and ‘over my dead body’ and calling all of his children worthless and ungrateful.
After I had woken up the second time, I was starting to feel more like myself.
Reid was still by my side, holding my hand as the doctors came in and gave me a rundown of everything that had happened during the surgeries to remove the bullets and what was going to be required to get me back on my feet.
Unfortunately, I had lost so much blood that they wanted to keep me inpatient for at least a week to make sure that there were no other complications and that the gunshot wounds would heal completely.