Page 12 of Playing For Keeps
“Where is the fucking ambulance?” I yell.
“Selena, look at me,” Joseph pleads and I oblige. I stare into his warm blue eyes. They’re so calm and clear, almost like the ocean.
“I love you more than life,” he tells me.
“I love you too. You’re not allowed to fucking die on me, okay?” I say through tears and he chuckles weakly.
“I won’t,” he tells me and then he loses consciousness.
The moments before and after we reach the hospital are a blur. I remember calling Thomas and telling him what happened. I remember feeling fear so intense, it felt like my insides were burning. I remember praying to God to save him.
Then I remember the doctor coming to meet me. She informs me that the bullet didn’t go in too deep into his arm. He’s lucky and he’s going to be okay.
I hear those words and I take my first easy breath in 5 hours.
He’s going to be okay and that’s all that matters.
Later that night, I enter his room. I place a light kiss on his forehead and then I rest my head on his bed. He’s still unconscious. He’ll be for a few more hours. I lace our fingers together.
“I’m never letting go of you again, Joseph Kessler. I love you more than life,” I tell his sleeping form. And then I drift off to sleep as well. As long as he’s with me, I’ll be okay.
Epilogue
(Joseph)
______
I grin when Selena walks into my hospital room. She finally listened to me and left the hospital to go and have a warm bath at a hotel.
“How are you feeling?” she asks as she nears my bed. She’s still worried sick. The bullet just grazed me. My injuries weren’t life-threatening at all.
“I’m fine, Lena. Seriously.”
She nods, but her expression is still somber.
“You know, I hate that I had told you to come with me. If I hadn’t whined about it, you would never have delegated Ritchie to cover for you with the pregnant client, just so you wouldn’t disappoint me. If you’d escorted her as was planned, you wouldn’t have been at the court and wouldn’t –”
“Shhhh,” I whisper, shutting her with a finger pressed across her lips.
“If anything had happened to you, though,” she continues.
Her voice cracks and I immediately feel bad. Selena can be so strong but when it comes to me it’s like she loses her armor. I love that about her. I love that she’s always letting me see through the cracks. She walks closer to me as I sit up on the bed. My injuries are superficial but Selena is looking at me like I just woke up from a coma. She walks over and plops down beside me.
“Nothing happened. I’m fine. Evan’s guy was a lousy shot,” I tell her with a grin. Just like I expected, talking about Evan Ross makes her entire face light up.
She finally got her revenge. The man was stupid. He attempted murder in broad daylight, in front of a courthouse. The hitman was caught and he immediately confessed to who ordered him to do it. Turns out Evan Ross hadn’t really believed that Selena had left the country. He had given the hitman specific orders to shoot to kill as soon as he caught sight of her. Ross was arrested and charged for a lot of things. I can’t remember them all. All I know is that he’s going to jail for a very long time. It’s making the woman I love immensely happy.
“I love you so much, Joseph,” she says to me and my heart swells.
“Really? I can’t tell. Why don’t you show me how much?” I say suggestively.
“We’re not going to have sex,” she tells me with a sly smirk and I groan.
“But, I guess I could get you off.”
My eyebrows rise and I grin happily.
“Fuck,” I say in a heavy breath as Selena slides down to her knees. I reach out and comb her hair out of her face and then I hold the back of her head. Selena loosens the stings of the flimsy hospital gown I’m wearing and then she takes my cock out of my boxers.
