Page 119 of Beautiful Exile

“I know you’re okay,” I lied. I didn’t know at all. But I held on anyway.

43

LINCOLN

“If you even think ofgetting out of that hospital bed, I will tie you to it myself.” Arden’s voice cut through the incessant beeping and other annoying hospital sounds.

I turned on the edge of the bed to give her my most charming smile. “Kinky. I like it.”

“Linc,” she warned. And I should’ve taken that warning because the woman had been on the warpath for the past twenty-four hours. The second a flicker of pain showed in my expression, she was paging nurses. When a doctor showed, she peppered them with questions, listing off things she’d read in articles about abdominal wounds and all but threatening their lives.

“Vicious,” I said, lifting a hand to beckon her over.

She didn’t come. Instead, she crossed her arms in a way that thrust up those perfect breasts and pinned me with a glare.

“The doctor is signing my discharge paperwork right now. I can get up.”

“He said you have to wait for a wheelchair.”

“I don’t need?—”

“You had surgery,” Arden snapped.

“Barely. They cleaned the wound and stitched me up. That’s it.”

A shadow passed over Arden’s eyes, turning them stormy, and I knew it hadn’t felt like nothing to her.Hell.“Come here.”

She still didn’t move.

“You don’t come here, I’m coming to you, and you really didn’t want me out of this bed.”

Arden let out a soft huff of air and dropped her arms, walking slowly toward me.

The moment she was within arm’s reach, I grabbed her T-shirt—the fucking adorable death metal unicorn one Fallon had brought in the change of clothes—and tugged her between my legs. I took her face in my hands, thumbs stroking the soft skin there. “I’m good. Barely in any pain. The doc told you at least five times that the bullet didn’t hit anything important. No organs or arteries. The stitches will come out in a week. That’s not even a bad gash.”

Arden stared down at me, so much emotion swirling in those captivating eyes. “What if he’s wrong?”

“Baby,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to one cheek, then the other, then her forehead. “You bombarded him with eighty-two million questions. You talked to the surgical nurse, the anesthesiologist, and cornered an orderly. I’m good.”

“I needed to make sure I was getting the full story.”

My mouth curved. “I love you, Vicious.”

“Linc.” My name was a choked-out rasp as if her vocal cords were wrapped around the syllable, not wanting to let it free.

I dropped one hand from Arden’s face and placed it over her heart. “You don’t have to say it. Won’t make it any less true.”

Her eyes closed, squeezing as if in pain. “I’m trying to keep you safe.”

My brows pulled together. “Keep me?—”

“All right, you two lovebirds,” a nurse said as she bustled into the room. “I’ve got your marching orders. The doctor would’ve brought them himself, but I’m just gonna be honest with you and say thathe’s scared shitless of this one over here.” She inclined her head toward Arden.

Arden stepped back and out of my grasp, shaking off the pain in her expression. “I wasn’tthatbad.”

The nurse arched a brow. “Honey, if he had the choice between you and a bunch of rabid dogs, he’d go with the rabid dogs every time.”

Arden’s jaw dropped, and I struggled not to laugh.

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