: Chapter 26

No … don’t do it.

A devilish voice played inside my head. Why not? You’ll make her feel good. Do it. Do it, you pussy.

My eyes rose from Sloane’s exposed tits to her face. She looked so peaceful sleeping. And it was only five in the morning here in New York. My internal clock had me up extra early on a Saturday because I’d only flown back in last night. I’d always racked up a lot of frequent-flier points going between London and the States, but the last few months had been nonstop. This time it had been a little over a week, but I couldn’t seem to spend more than a few days away from Sloane unless business forced me elsewhere. Each trip back home became shorter and shorter so I could get here faster.

I looked over at my sleeping beauty again. God, I wanted to be selfish. Climb on top, sink deep inside, and return to my happy place. But she liked her sleep. And she was the kind of woman who made you want to do the right thing—day in, day out, every day. Even when I wasn’t with her or she was sleeping with her tits calling my name. So instead of waking her, I snuggled in and tried to fall back asleep.

I was just about knocked out when an alarm went off—a high-pitched chirping. I jumped out of bed, thinking it was some sort of fire alarm and I needed to get us the hell out of here. When Sloane’s eyes opened, she sat up calmly and reached over to her nightstand. “Sorry.”

“You set an alarm?”

She shook her head. “It’s my insulin pump. It has an alarm.”

“Is everything okay?”

She pushed a bunch of buttons and fell back into bed. “Yeah, it’s been happening every once in a while, and I have to reset it.”

I raked a hand through my hair. “Shit. Okay.”

“Sorry it woke you.”

I climbed back into bed, smiling at my girl. “It’s alright. I almost woke you, so we’re even.”

She laughed and turned on her side, tucking two hands under her cheek. “Why did you almost wake me?”

“Because I woke up wanting to do very bad things to you.”

Sloane bit her lip. “Like what?”

“Like spread your legs and feast.”

“Oh my.” She giggled. “That doesn’t sound very bad to me.”

I guided her onto her back and climbed on top, dropping a kiss on her chin. “Just like Christmas morning…”

I spent the next hour opening my gift and playing with my favorite toy.

Later that morning, Sloane was in the shower while I sat at the kitchen table with my second cup of coffee, sorting through emails on my phone. Since I was just visiting for the weekend, I hadn’t brought my laptop. Andrew had sent me a forty-seven-page contract to review, and the thought of reading it on my little device gave me a headache. I wondered if Sloane would mind if I left a laptop here? Maybe some shoes and a shaving kit, too. On my last trip, I’d been rushing to catch an earlier flight from London and only packed one dress shoe to wear with my suit. I wound up having to put on sneakers—a look I didn’t particularly like, but it was popular with athletes so at least no one looked at me too strangely. Maybe she could leave some things at my place, too, make it convenient until we moved in together.

My finger froze on my phone screen when I realized what I’d just thought—until we moved in together. Holy shit. Six months ago, if a woman left her umbrella at my place, it freaked me out. It meant I had an obligation to see her again, if only to return it. And now, I wanted Sloane’s shit in my place. Was I nuts that I wanted her self-help books piled on my nightstand, wanted her wedding magazines strewn all over the counters, wanted her gentle snore to be the first sound I heard each day when I woke up, even wanted her—

Thump.

A sound echoed from down the hall.

“Sloane?” I stood and started toward the bathroom. “Babe? Was that you?”

No answer. A sick feeling formed in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like it. Didn’t like it one bit. When I got to the door, I knocked.

“Sloane? Are you okay?”

But that feeling in my belly didn’t have much patience, and I didn’t wait more than two seconds for an answer before I busted in the door. My heart stopped.

“Sloane!” She was on the floor, slumped into a ball, eyes rolled back into her head as her body twitched—short, jerky movements like someone kept shocking her with bursts of electricity. I ran into the shower, water pouring down on both of us, and lifted her. It dawned on me as I stepped over the lip of the tub that maybe I shouldn’t have moved her. Was a seizure like a fall, and you should leave the person exactly where they are? I had no fucking idea, but she was in my arms already so I kept moving—out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. Setting her on the bed, I didn’t want to take my hands off of her but I needed to call 911.

Thirty seconds into talking to the operator, the twitches stopped. “She’s not seizing anymore!”

“That’s good. Medical attention is on its way. Has your girlfriend ever had a seizure before?”

“Not when I was with her.”

“Do you know if she hit her head recently?”

Fuck. Was I too rough this morning and it smacked against the headboard? “Maybe? I’m not sure.”

“Is she a diabetic?”

Oh shit. The alarm! In my panic, I’d forgotten all about it. I hadn’t even led with that information when the 911 operator asked me if I knew what happened. “Yes! And her pump alarm went off this morning.”

Sloane’s eyes fluttered open. I held my breath while she stared into space for a solid minute. Eventually her vision came into focus, and she tried to lift her head. “What happened?”

I held my hand up. “Don’t move. You had a seizure.”

“Where am I?”

“Home. You were in the shower when it happened. You fell.”

She reached up and rubbed her wet hair. “My head hurts.”

“You probably banged it on the tile when you went down.”

“My cell. Can you get my cell?”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“It controls my pump.”

I’d completely forgotten I was still on the phone with 911 until the woman on the other end spoke. “Sir, the paramedics are pulling up now. Why don’t you stay with your girlfriend? You can grab her cell when they get to you.”

“Okay, yeah.”

A minute later, there was a knock at the door. I was glad the paramedics let themselves in because I wasn’t leaving Sloane’s side.

“We’re back here,” I yelled. “In the bedroom.”

As footsteps approached, I realized for the first time that Sloane was still completely naked. “Shit.” I ripped the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around her just as two paramedics walked in, followed by a half-dozen firefighters. I was confused as to why there were so many people, until one of the firemen knelt next to the bed.

“You’re Will’s little sister?”

Sloane nodded.

“You’re going to be fine. Your brother’s on a call, so we didn’t let him know because we don’t want his head elsewhere when he’s fighting a fire. But we got you now.”

One of the two paramedics working on her tore open the Velcro blood-pressure cuff. “Low but stable.”

The other guy pricked Sloane’s finger and tapped a dot of blood onto a testing strip before sticking it into a handheld machine. The number fourteen came up. I had no idea if that was good or bad, until the guy frowned. “Let’s give her a gel pack orally now. We’ll start an IV with fifty-percent dextrose in the bus on the way to the hospital.”

Less than a minute later, they were carrying Sloane down three flights of stairs on a stretcher and loading her into the back of an ambulance. I went to climb in with them, but one of the guys held his hand out. “You’ll have to follow to the hospital in a car or taxi.”

The older fireman rolled his eyes. “It’s the captain’s little sister, jackass.”

“Oh … okay.” He put his hand down. “Right. Come on in.”

The older guy smiled as I hopped in. “You should’ve seen your face. I should’ve let you kick his ass just for fun.”

The hospital was a ten-minute drive with lights and sirens blaring. They took Sloane in through the ER, but wouldn’t let me go into the treatment area with her. So I found myself a seat in the waiting room and waited.

The nurse at the desk had told me they’d call me after the initial exam, but that was forty-five minutes ago now, and I was freaking out. I went up to ask if I could see Sloane for a third time.

“Sir, I still don’t have an update for you.”

I held up Sloane’s cell phone. “Could you at least give her this? It reads her insulin pump, and the doctors might need the history.”

The woman sighed, but slid the glass window open and took it. A few minutes later, she opened the actual door. “Mr. Hayes?”

I practically ran over.

“Follow me. Your friend is in bed eight.”

The emergency room was a big, open space with a nursing station in the middle and glass rooms around the perimeter with numbers on top. I spotted Sloane’s hair as we walked. The muscles in my neck loosened slightly, seeing her sitting up in bed. She was hooked up to an IV and a bunch of monitors, and she looked a little pale, but she was alive. I rushed to her side and took her hand.

The grumpy admitting clerk smiled and shut the door behind her.

“Are you okay?”

Sloane nodded. “My blood sugar went low. But I’m fine. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“Is that why the alarm went off this morning?”

“I guess I shouldn’t have ignored it. But I’ve gotten so many false alarms lately, and it always just needs to be reset.”

I frowned. “Until it doesn’t.”

“Sorry.”

I lifted her hand and kissed it. “You scared the crap out of me. How’s your head?”

“It feels a little better. But they’re making me get X-rays and a CAT scan since I lost consciousness and don’t know how hard I hit my head. But the headache can be from the seizure itself, too.”

“Have you had seizures before?”

“A few times. But not in years.”

“I had no idea what to do. I felt so damn helpless.”

She smiled. “You did fine. You found me and got medical help. That’s always the safest bet.”

“I sort of broke your bathroom door lock.”

Her smile widened. “It’s okay.”

While Sloane seemed to think everything was back to normal, I couldn’t shake my worry. What if I hadn’t been there? She could’ve been in the bathtub instead of the shower and drowned.

I dragged a hand through my hair. “I can’t stay in London.”

“You mean when you go back on Monday?”

I shook my head. “No. I don’t want to be that far away from you.”

Sloane’s eyes went soft. “That’s really sweet. But I’m fine, really.”

“I don’t care. Maybe—”

Whatever I was about to say was interrupted by a half-dozen firemen in full gear marching through the ER. Her brother Will was leading the charge. His face was black with soot, as were a few of the others.

“You alright, Peaty?” he asked from the doorway.

“I’m good. You didn’t have to come. I told the other guys before they left.”

“That crew is going to be running ten miles every morning and every night for not telling me you were brought in.”

“They didn’t want you to worry while you were busy.”

“Don’t care.” Will seemed to notice me for the first time. He nodded. “What’s up, man?”

“Just recovering from the heart attack your sister gave me when I found her passed out on the ground having a seizure.”

Will shook his head. “What happened to your pump?”

“I reset it when the alarm went off.”

“And didn’t check your sugar?”

“I thought it was a false alarm. It’s been happening a lot lately.”

Will pointed two fingers spread into a V at his sister. “You and I are going to talk when you got out of here. That was dumb.”

I smiled.

Sloane caught it out of the corner of her eye and squinted. “What are you happy about?”

I pointed. “I’m glad he’s around. Because I feel the same way, but I’m a little afraid of you.”

Will smirked. The nurse stepped in. “Umm … we love seeing all you boys, but I’m going to have to ask some of you to wait outside.”

Will nodded. “You got it, Renee. How’s my sister?”

“She’s going to be just fine, Captain.” The nurse thumbed at me. “Pretty sure this one is going to wrap her in bubble wrap when they leave, so I predict she’ll be well taken care of.”

I wished I could wrap her in bubble wrap after today. Maybe carry her with me everywhere I went, too.

Will laid a hand on my shoulder. “I gotta get the truck back to the house. You staying?”

“I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”

He leaned over and kissed his sister’s cheek. “Check in within an hour or I send the entire house here.”

“Yes, Dad.”

The guys were barely gone before the nurse, Renee, came back in. “We’re going to take Miss Sloane down to get a head scan in a few minutes. The admitting desk just called to tell me her dad is here. You won’t be able to wait in the treatment area while she goes to CT, so maybe you can update her father out in the waiting room?”

I nodded. “Yeah, sure. How long will the scan take?”

“Probably an hour or less, depending on how backed up they are.”

“Okay, thanks.”

I kissed Sloane and walked out of the glass examination room with the nurse.

“You’ll call me when she’s back?”

She smirked. “Yes, I will.”

“Alright. Take good care of her.”

Out in the lobby, I found Harry standing at the desk. I walked over and gave him the details. He pointed to the exit. “It sounds like she’s going to be a little while. Why don’t we get some fresh air? You’re looking a little green, son.”

“That sounds good.”

Outside, I bent over with my hands on my knees, gulping air.

Sloane’s dad smiled. “You care about her a lot. I can see by how worried you are.”

“I do. It was scary as hell finding her like that.”

He nodded. “Sloane’s mother, Lily, was diabetic. Only had a seizure once, but it was something I’ll never forget. Saw plenty of medical emergencies in my years on the job. It’s not the same when it’s someone you love.”

I blinked a few times. “Holy crap. I do love her.”

“You sound like you’re just figuring that out now.” Harry chuckled. “Haven’t you ever been in love before? I could have told you that two months ago, dumbass.”