Page 64 of Mating of Convenience
“Hang in there, angel,” I pleaded with my mate’s unconscious form as I dialed.
* * *
I never even thought to put myshirt back on before the two paramedics arrived. Fortunately they didn’t seem to care about my state of undress. One of them went straight to Raphael and the other said my name three times before my attention finally snapped to him.
How did he even know my name?
Oh.
Jake.
“Nathan,” he tried again. “Are you listening? Can you tell me what happened?”
“He just… We were… Can you fix him?”
“We’ll do everything we can,” Jake promised, laying one hand on my shoulder as if to reassure me. “It would really help if you could tell us what you know. We can treat him much better when we know what’s wrong.”
That made sense. The problem was that I didn’t know what was wrong either. “He got really hot. His skin, I mean, and then it was like he couldn’t hear me and then he passed out.” I tried to remember more, but my brain was all scattered, every thought punctuated by the sharp fear that I might lose my mate.
Icouldn’tlose my mate.
Not like this. Not at all.
“That’s good to know. Thank you, Nathan. Is there anything else?” Jake prompted. “Did he take anything?”
“I don’t… No, wait. He did take something, but I don’t know what. His scent was all…”
“Did he smell as if he was in heat?”
“Yes!”
“Okay.” Jake squeezed my shoulder. “I think I got a good grasp on the situation. Thanks. We’re going to take your mate to the hospital now, all right? Would you like to ride with us?” Before I could do more than nod, Jake rushed to his partner to tell him something, I wasn’t sure what.
All I could do was watch as they put my mate on a stretcher and carried him out of the house. What the hell was going on?
31
Raphael
When I woke up, my throat felt as if someone had used sandpaper on it. That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed was the pure white of the ceiling tiles above me. We didn’t have tiles like those on our ceiling at home.
Where was I?
I squeezed my eyes shut again, trying to think. The last thing I could remember was being with Nathan. We were in the kitchen and I…
I’d wanted to fuck him, hadn’t I?
Where was he now?
Opening my eyes again, I took another look around the room. This time, I realized where I was. At least, kind of. This was a hospital room. That was why it was so freaking white. There was another bed to my left, but it was empty, and the other two beds opposite me had the curtains drawn around them. I wasn’t sure if there were people in there. Not that it mattered. I found the most important person by my side.
Nathan sat on a chair next to my bed, his upper body hunched over to rest on top of my legs. A warm fondness spread through me at the sight. Obviously he’d fallen asleep waiting for me to wake up.
But why was I here in the first place?
I was fine, wasn’t I? A little tired, but otherwise okay. Tentatively, I wiggled all of my limbs a little bit. Nope, nothing broken.
As I was doing my exercise, Nathan roused.
