Page 3 of Rock the Boat
Iblinked and tried to swallow, but my throat was dry and painful.
“Careful,” a soft voice spoke, and a straw scraped my lips. “Drink this slowly. You’ve been out of it for a few days.”
“Who are you?” I croaked. I tried to scan my surroundings, but I saw nothing except blinding lights and white. And then I remembered. “Matthew?”
“There was no one with you.” The voice coming from the side of me sounded hesitant, but there was also something else.
“Where?”
“You are in my clinic. I’ve been looking after you since your ordeal.”
“Hospital?” I didn’t understand. Clinic? Not the hospital?
“No.”
My eyes widened. Had I been kidnapped? Was Matthew looking for me? Had the person who stabbed me taken me away? Although from what I remember, this person sounded vastly different from the mugger. “Why? What?” My head was spinning, threatening to take me under, but I needed answers.
I couldn’t hold on, and soon, I succumbed to the unconsciousness that wanted to claim me.
* * *
The next timeI woke up, I heard someone shuffling around to my right. “Matthew?”
“I’m sorry, but he isn’t here. It’s Dom.”
“Not a sub.”
He chuckled. “Not a dom, but Dom like Dom DeLuise. Do you remember?”
“Okay,” I whispered as I fell asleep again. Was I in heaven, or was it hell?
* * *
“Nell, can you hear me?”the voice I’d been hearing asked.
I didn’t want to answer. I just wanted to sleep, but I hummed in response. My body felt heavy, but it hurt too.
“Nell?”
“Hmm?”
“Can you open your eyes?”
Slowly, I cracked one eye open and then the other before squeezing them shut again. It was too damn bright, and I was the furthest thing from a morning person. Didn’t Matthew know better than to try and have a conversation with me before I’d had a cup of coffee? Especially when I’d been up studying late.
But wait. That wasn’t Matthew’s deep voice, and this person called me Nell, not Bell.
My eyes popped open again. I attempted to move my head but hissed with pain. I wasn’t going to be doing that again. Where the fuck was I? It looked like a hospital room, but it didn’t at the same time. Where was Matthew? How did I get here? Why wasn’t I in the hospital? What the fuck was going on?
A handsome face moved into my line of sight, and I thought I recognized him, but I couldn’t recall from where. “I’m Dom. Not a dom, but Dom like the actor Dom DeLuise. You might be too young to know who he is. Do you remember me?” His joke felt like déjà vu.
I knew exactly who he was referring to, but I was not laughing. He slid out of view and brought a cup with a straw close to my mouth. I wasn’t lying completely flat, but I also wasn’t sitting up. “Where am I?” I asked before I took a single drop of whatever was in the cup.
“My clinic. I found you and brought you here.”
“Matthew?” The fog was clearing.
“There was no one with you when I found you.”
