Page 118 of The Viper
“I’m fine,” I started, but she was already reaching for her clipboard.
“I’ll have someone check it, anyway.” She leaned closer, examining the wound with a practiced glance. “Looks like a graze—lucky. I’ll send someone to clean it properly and redress it … Miss Morrow. Sit tight.”
“See?” Hannah said weakly, her lips quirking. “Still taking care of everyone else.”
I squeezed her hand again, forcing a smile through the ache. “That’s what sisters do.”
When my shoulder was cleaned and bandaged and we stepped back into the hallway, the air felt easier somehow—like the storm had finally passed.
Lucas slid his hand around my waist as we walked toward the elevators. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Better now.”
“Good,” he said, his voice low. “Because I don’t think I can go another hour without touching you. My hands need your hips.”
A laugh escaped me, startled and real. “Lucas, we’re in a hospital.”
He arched a brow. “And?”
“And it’s wildly inappropriate.”
He leaned close, his breath warm at my ear. “You being alive is wildly inappropriate to my self-control.”
I bit my lip, glancing around to make sure no one was watching. “Is it wrong that I’m actually turned on right now?”
He grinned, dark and beautiful. “It’s very wrong.”
“But you like it.”
“I love it.”
He brushed his lips against mine, quick and dangerous, before stepping back. “Come on, my love. Let’s get you home before I forget where we are.”
I smiled through the ache in my shoulder, through the exhaustion and grief and everything else. “Home,” I repeated quietly.
He hesitated, his expression softening. “They offered me a suite at Dominion Hall,” he said. “Close to Caleb, Jacob, and Ethan. I went ahead and said yes. They told me it doesn’t have to be my only place—just one I can always count on. Somewhere safe. For you, too.”
A warmth spread through me that had nothing to do with the hospital heat. Dominion Hall. The place that had saved us both, in more ways than one.
“Then that’s home,” I said. “For us.”
He smiled, brushing his thumb over my jaw. And somehow, after it all—after the blood and the fear and the heartbreak—I still had this. Him.
And that was everything.
41
LUCAS
Icarried Lexi up the stairs to our suite at Dominion Hall, her body slack with exhaustion against my chest. She'd tried to walk on her own, insisted she was fine, but the adrenaline had finally worn off and left her hollowed out. Her eyes were half-closed, her breathing shallow, and when I set her down on the bed, she didn't even protest.
"Sleep," I said, pulling the blanket over her.
"You should, too," she mumbled, already drifting.
"Soon." I brushed my lips against her forehead. "I've got to talk to the brothers first."
She nodded faintly, her hand reaching for mine. I squeezed it once, then let go, watching until her breathing evened out and her face went soft. Only then did I allow myself to move.
