Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
“I wanted to pretend for a little while longer,” she said.
Tommas arched a brow. “Pretend what?”
“That this wasn’t going to end with my heart broken.”
“It’ll never end, if you don’t want it to.”
Abriella shook her head. “You can be the optimist, Tommas, but I’ll forever be the pessimist.”
“As long as you’re the pessimist that loves me.”
“You know I do. I think I’ve always loved you.”
Yeah.
The world.
How did one give the world to someone who had become your world, anyway? He should probably figure that out.
Bloody and Broken
Tommas tossed a piece of popcorn high, tipped his head back, and caught the bite easily when it dropped back down. He relaxed into the chair at the sound of Abriella’s laughter.
“You fucking showoff,” she teased.
Tommas winked. “Don’t be jealous of my skills, Ella.”
She laughed more. “Skills, right.”
“Hey, you know my skills.”
Abriella sobered with a deep grin. “Think you could get away with showing me just how skilled you are—”
Her words stopped up short when a nurse entered the room. The young woman gave Tommas a smile that he returned, but only for show. He’d needed to charm and flirt his ass off enough as it was just to get inside Abriella’s room after hours, plus make sure no one reported his visits to Abriella’s family.
Knowing all that didn’t stop Abriella from glowering at the nurse or Tommas.
She was so jealous.
Tommas loved it.
“Nighttime meds,” the nurse said.
Abriella sighed, took the little paper cup, and tossed back her pills without much fuss. He knew the nurses had started putting a sleep aid in her night meds because Abriella wasn’t sleeping well. In fact, she woke up on and off throughout the night from nightmares that she refused to admit she was even having.
It bothered Tommas to no end.
He worried about her constantly.
Especially when Abriella tried brushing things off that he knew had to be bothering her. Things like getting shot in the back, needing emergency surgery, and almost losing her life.
But his girl was strong as hell.
A goddamn fighter.
She didn’t like to be weak.
Tommas waited out the nurse’s check of Abriella’s surgery scar to her back where they had dug the bullet out of her body, plus stitched up the back of her lung where it had punctured the organ. It was just luck that the goddamn bullet missed her ribcage or spine like it did.
Both would have had disastrous consequences.
Finally, the nurse left.
“Well, there’s your answer,” Tommas said.
Abriella pursed her lips. “She only comes in here to look at you and flirt.”
Tommas chuckled. “She does not. She didn’t say a damn word to me and you know it. She brought your meds in, thank you very much. Stop being jealous.”
“I’m not—”
“You are green all over, Ella.”
Abriella snapped her mouth closed. “Yeah, well, shut up.”
Tommas hid his smirk by shoving another handful of popcorn in his mouth. His girl turned the television on, and put the channel on one of the comedy networks she liked so much. Before long, Tommas had discarded his bag of popcorn and shrugged of his suit jacket. He climbed into the small hospital bed with Abriella, careful to avoid her IV snagging on him somehow.
Once he had her snuggled into his side, Tommas ran his fingers through Abriella’s soft waves of hair. She watched her sitcom, giggling to herself every so often when something was funny. Tommas was far too preoccupied with watching her to even care about what was playing on the television.
Abriella was far more entertaining, anyway.
He also kept an eye on the clock.
At twelve, the nurses would ask him to leave. He was pushing his luck and the good graces of others just by coming and going like he did after hours. Tommas wasn’t about to push it anymore and demand they let him stay.
He hated leaving Abriella.
She despised the hospital, the nighttime noises, and the beep of machines. She complained about the sterile smell, the scratchy sheets, and the lack of sunlight coming in from the small window.
Tommas knew what her problem really was. Abriella wasn’t a brat complaining about every little thing she could. The girl just didn’t want to be stuck in a hospital bed. She didn’t want to be ... helpless.
He could relate to Abriella’s feelings, so he sympathized with her hatred for the four, white walls currently keeping her locked up tight. It probably didn’t help that Abriella was in pain, and of course, all the bullshit going on around them.
It didn’t take long before Abriella’s eyes drifted closed. Tommas kept stroking her hair, watching her fall asleep beside him. He didn’t think the nurses had told her about the sleep aide, but she didn’t need to know.
Abriella needed rest.
To heal, her body demanded sleep.
Tommas stayed with Abriella until his time was cutting terribly close to the end. At ten to twelve, he carefully pushed out of the bed, mindful of Abriella’s back and the tenderness she felt when jostled too much. Lifting her hand from where she had tucked it in under her chin, Tommas pressed a quick kiss to her palm.