‘Please, Alex. I don’t want you here. I’m gross. I don’t want you to see me like this.’
Her voice was hoarse and weak.
Alex sighed and slowly rose from where he was crouched next to her. He left the room for a few moments, jogging back to his hut. When he returned to her side, her face morphed into a shocked expression. He knew he should be offended, but he realised, maybe, she just wasn’t used to someone looking after her the way she should be, and the thought enraged him. He quickly tried to squash that thought and focus on nothing but the sick girl in front of him.
Looking down at her, he made sure to soften his tone before he spoke, ‘You thought you could get rid of me that easily, Trouble? Not a chance.’
He passed her the bottle of water he’d gone to retrieve and with shaky limbs, she reached out to him, accepting the water. Every protective instinct in him was on high alert in that moment, and he was trying to keep his own anxieties at bay and just focus on making sure she was okay. She remained slumped there, making no attempt to drink the water her body so desperately needed.
‘Drink.’
His commanding tone left no room for argument and, in her current state, all traces of Noa’s feisty and usually stubborn personality were nowhere to be seen.
She took small, slow sips. Alex’s shoulders fell a little as he let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
‘Good girl,’ he coaxed. ‘Keep going.’
He used his hand to smooth down her hair, encouraging her to let him take care of her in that moment.
She looked up at him like she wanted to argue, and he didn’t know whether it was her lack of energy or that she’d seen in his eyes how much he needed this, but all protests died on her tongue and she continued to drink. He needed to take careof her, and the relief he felt that she wasn’t fighting him on it immediately washed over him.
They sat like that for a while, the two of them on the bathroom floor side by side, the room barely big enough for them both. Noa’s eyelids began to flutter open and shut, like the effort to stay awake was too much. Taking her tiny, clammy hand in his, Alex started rubbing soft soothing circles on her wrist.
After a while, her breaths became shallow and her head lolled onto his shoulder. His heart twisted. She looked so peaceful, but her face was still pale and her wispy hair clung to her sweat-coated skin. There was a furrow to her brows that he wanted to press his thumb between until he smoothed out the creases.
Slowly and careful not to wake her, Alex lifted her to his chest with one hand behind her back and the other under her knees. She was so soft, warm, and pliable like this. Even sick, he couldn’t help but notice how well she fit there in his arms. He carried her the few short steps to her room and placed her down on the bed, stroking the top of her head and watching her sleep like a creeper. He couldn’t bring himself to care, though. The need for her to be okay was overwhelming.
Soft snores escaped her lips, and he just smiled down at her, continuing the massage through her sweat-soaked hair. Soon, though, she started to stir.
‘Shhhh, baby. Go back to sleep. You’re okay. I’ve got you.’
And he meant every word.
Unable to fit beside Noa in the single bed, and fear gripping him at the thought of leaving her alone, Alex slowly lifted her head, resting it back on his lap as he used the wall to lean against. Muttering something indecipherable in herslumberous state, she nuzzled into him like, even sick, she too, couldn’t get close enough. Resting his hand on her chest so he could feel the steady rise and fall for reassurance, he remained right there. Late into the night, sleep finally took him.
Chapter 33
Noa
Waking up, Noa’s head felt heavy, but at least the roaring pain in her gut and the non-stop vomiting she had dealt with yesterday had finally ceased. She’d heard about people getting ill when travelling on her routes, but she had come to think she had outrun it. Clearly, she’d been wrong.
With a groan that sounded more bear than human, Noa flung her legs over the side of the small bed and put her head in her hands. Her body felt like lead, and she knew the pounding in her head had to be from dehydration.
Images of last night flooded her mind—her on the cold toilet floor, vomiting for what felt like hours, strong armswrapped around her, hands comforting her and massaging her hair. Had she dreamt it? She imagined she’d feel a lot worse today if it hadn’t been for Alex coaxing water down her throat. But she had never seen that side of him before, and that had her questioning whether she should be adding ‘hallucinating hot men playing nurse’ to her list of symptoms. Just when she started to rise to her feet, gently swaying as the gravity of how weak she really felt kicked in, the light that had been streaming in from her doorway was suddenly blocked. She looked up to see who it was.
Bright amber eyes met hers, and she could see concern swimming in them. Her heart pinched at what that meant—to have Alex, the no-strings-attached bad boy, genuinely care about her and worry about her well-being. She remembered his confession about his feelings for her last night before she had run away. It was almost too much, and she had to swallow down the lump that was building in her throat.
‘How you feeling?’ he asked.
‘Like I’ve been hit by a herd of angry wildebeests four or five times before falling down six flights of stairs as I made my escape,’ she croaked.
Alex raised one eyebrow at her.
‘That’s awfully specific. Wildebeests, though? How many of those do you see round here?’
She let out a loud exasperated groan.
‘Wow. That bad, huh? Can’t even think of a way to curse at me for being a know-it-all?’