Page 67 of Love & Heart Braking

And I knew no more.

15

I stretched, moaning low at the deep-rooted ache in my bones. This state felt familiar… as though I’d reached this level of wakefulness too many times to count in recent times. I considered my two options.

To wake.

To return to slumber.

“She’s not awake yet, no,” a silken voice said.

I smiled. Devereaux was here. That made my mind up. I took the path of wakefulness.

“Nothing more. The carriage dropped her off. Vera Calzane is also yet to wake. Her butler assured me it was a normal reaction to the loosening.” He paused. “I’ll call as soon as she’s up.”

Swallowing a few times, I said hoarsely, “I’m awake.”

I forced my eyes to open, then had a moment of swimming confusion before the setting made sense. I’d given the butler Devereaux’s address. Though how I’d made it here in one piece with the ambush rate in Durita was a feat in itself.

Devereaux rushed in and froze at the sight of me.

I rolled, taking the soft blanket with me.

“You’re awake,” he said.

I nuzzled into his pillow, his smell surrounding me. I could get used to this. “What’d I miss?”

“Two days.”

Two days? I blinked. “She wasn’t kidding about the tiredness.”

His brows slammed together. “What did she do to you?”

Hopefully a lot. And I could think of no better person to test it on. “Listen, I’ll tell you everything, but I really need to pee.” My stomach chose that moment to rumble too.

“You’re hungry,” he said quickly. “I’ll make you something to eat.”

“Lasagna?”

Some of his worry ebbed, and his lips curved. “Coming up, sweetheart. There’s a towel in the shower. The water takes a while to get hot, and it’ll go from boiling to freezing if you shift the handle too much either way.”

He was so fucking adorable and sexy. “I’ll figure it out.” I sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry to disrupt the last two days for you. I was passing out, and I didn’t have time to think about where I should go.”

Devereaux crossed the room and gripped my chin. I caught my breath at the seriousness in his cool gray gaze. “You didn’t disrupt a thing. Promise me you’ll always say my name when you’re in trouble. I want you to.”

I licked my lips. “Here to see Dev Vincori?”

He dragged his focus from my mouth. “That’s my girl.”

My girl. Melt!

Listening as Devereaux started making noise in the kitchen, I stood on wobbly legs and picked my way to the bathroom. I turned on the shower first, then tried to pee as quietly as possible. I’d lived with Soleil who had good hearing, and over time I’d just ceased to care that she could hear everything, but having the sexiest guy on Earth listening to me pee was different. Even though I knew predators just tuned that shit out.

Cheeks burning, I flushed, and shrugged free of a large T-shirt of Devereaux’s that I’d be smuggling out of his apartment.

When I emerged from the shower wrapped in a towel, he was on the phone again.

Without a word, he passed the handset over, eyes heating as they took me in. His towels were smaller than mine—or he’d just given me the smallest one.

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