Page 81 of Trick
“I understand from the nursing staff that you plan to stay with Lauren?”
“Absolutely,” he answered firmly, and the doctor nodded.
“Someone from transport will be along shortly to move you to the observation unit just down the hall.” She smiled warmly, then patted my arm. “The beds there are a little more comfortable than the ones we have here in the emergency department. There’s also a chair that reclines for your friend, although,” she cautioned as she gave Jase a head-to-toe glance, “I’m not quite sure how well he’ll fit on it.”
I snickered as Jase assured her it would be fine, then thanked her again for her help.
“Get some rest…both of you,” she instructed before leaving.
True to the doctor’s word, a man showed up a few minutes later to take me to the other unit. He insisted that I had to ride in the wheelchair he’d brought, even though I felt perfectly capable of walking.
“Get in the chair, darlin’. Did you forget you’re wearing one of those hospital gowns that flaps open in the back no matter how tightly it’s tied?”
Jase smirked as I scrambled to sit down, and to his credit, the man pushing the wheelchair tried not to laugh.
It didn’t take long to get settled into the new room. Jase pulled the recliner as close to the side of the bed as he could get, and as the doctor predicted, his legs hung off the end by a good ten inches.
He clasped my hand through the bedrails, and I closed my eyes and relaxed as I started to doze off.
My eyes fluttered open a few minutes later when I heard him whisper into the darkness, “I love you, darlin’, and I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you.”
Chapter 25
Trick/Jase
I hadn’t meant to say the words out loud and didn’t even realize I’d done it until Lauren gasped and sat up in her bed.
I kicked the footrest down on the recliner so I could stand up, then reached for her hand again. In the dim light filtering in through the window, I could barely make out her features, but I could tell she was staring at me in disbelief.
I dropped my head, then reached over and flipped the switch to turn the small light on over her bed.
“Jase?” Her voice was raspy and filled with uncertainty.
“Don’t talk, Lauren. Just listen to me for a minute, OK?”
She nodded, wide-eyed, and gripped my hand tightly.
“I’ve been attracted to you since the first time I heard your voice.” I inwardly winced as soon as I said it, hoping she didn’t realize I was talking about the night she saw me in the hallway with Melina, but based on her pointed glare, she’d connected those dots.
Dammit, I was fucking this up already.
“Then I saw you in the common room, talking to Jagger, Molly, and Ella, and I thought you were the most stunning woman I’d ever seen. When I told Everly the story about Prince Jason and Lady Lauren, everything I said was true. I wasabsolutely fuckin’ captivated by you, and I desperately wanted to get to know you better. That’s why I made a damned fool out of myself by flirting with you every chance I got, even though you shot me down every damned time,” I chuckled.
She smiled and ducked her head, then peered up at me again.
“Just when I thought I might be making headway with you, you told me about Beau, and how you’d had reservations about getting involved with him because he was a total player. I knew that you saw me the same way.”
She started to object, and I silenced her with a finger over her lips. She huffed, then nodded her agreement, so I dropped my finger.
“When I looked at myself through your eyes, I was ashamed of the way I acted in the past – Iamashamed of it – but I can’t change it. All I can do is promise you that I am nothing like Beau in any other way that matters.”
“You are the only woman I want, the only woman I need, and the only woman I’ve ever felt this way about. I’m in love with you, Lauren darlin’, and I’m begging you to give me a chance to prove that to you.”
Tears welled in her gorgeous green eyes, and she gave me a tremulous smile.
“You’ve proven it already, Jase. You opened up and shared the deepest parts of your soul. You trusted me with things you’ve never told anyone else. You protected me and made me feel safe when my world was turning upside down. I’ve never felt this close to anyone else.” She swiped at the tears running down her face and laughed softly.
“I was attracted to you from the beginning, but I started falling for you when you introduced me to Prince Jason. I felt like I was seeing the real you, for the very first time.”
