Page 48 of When a Duke Loves a Woman
“And I wanted to find your watch for you.”
“It has been in my family for generations, one of the things most treasured.” Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “But it is not of more value than you.”
Closing her eyes, she relished the warmth of his lips. The part of her that believed in mermaids and unicorns, that wove fanciful tales where happiness was always nearby, dared to imagine his words meant more than they did. That he wasn’t speaking in generalizations about the value of a person but was referring specifically toherworth. It made her heart sing, her toes curl.
She couldn’t believe how grateful she was to have him once more within her apartment, how he chased away the shadows of loneliness, how his presence brightened the room more than any lamp. When he pulled back, she wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him near.
She heard a commotion and voices in the adjoining room, realized others had entered, which managed to snap her back to reality. Silly chit, to have all those thoughts. He was merely caring for her as she’d cared for him, probably feeling responsible for her rash decision regarding Charlie. Although she did have little tolerance for those who didn’t respect the rights of others, for lawbreakers, she hadn’t been able to stop herself from imagining the look of gratitude she’d see on his face when she presented him with his cherished watch. He’d cared about it when he’d been near death. How much more he’d care about it when he was full of life.
Dr. Graves strode in, Beast on his heels, quickly followed by Aiden, not carrying a cup of tea. She’d wager the brat had been skulking near the doorway just out of sight.
“I see you’ve recovered,” Graves said to Thorne.
“Thanks in no small measure to you and this lovely lady here.”
She wanted to slip beneath the covers, pull them up over her head. No one ever referred to her as lovely. If her brothers snickered, she was going to leap out of the bed and smack them. Instead they both simply stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, as though they were royal guards.
“Let’s see what we have here,” Graves said as he bent over her and began to examine her head.
Thorne moved to the other side of the bed, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to be sitting beside her in so intimate a setting.
“Stop scowling, Aiden,” she ordered.
“I just find it odd—”
Beast elbowed him, which caused him to turn his ire on her other brother. “What was that for?”
“Don’t interfere.”
“With what?”
“With what’s going on here.”
“And what exactly is that?”
With a great gust of a sigh, Beast began shoving him out of the room. He was the tallest and broadest of her brothers and when he asserted himself in a physical way, no one could best him.
“Wait. Stop. What do you know that I don’t?” Aiden called out just before the front door slammed shut.
She might have laughed if her head didn’t hurt so much. Beast was also the most intuitive of her brothers and she wondered what he did know.
“You’re going to need a few stitches,” Graves said.
As the doctor went to work, Thorne held her hand, didn’t object when she squeezed hard. To distract herself from the discomfort of what the physician was doing, she concentrated on Thorne’s hand. Although she’d washed it half a dozen times while he’d been under her care, now she was able to experience the strength and power in it as he folded it around hers. She imagined his hands holding the reins, guiding a horse. She imagined them holding a woman as he waltzed her across a ballroom. She imagined him intertwining their fingers as they dashed across a field of daisies.
She wasn’t certain when the woman in her imaginings had taken on her characteristics, had become her. She never envisioned herself with men, but she seemed unable to visualize him with anyone other than her.
“All right,” Graves finally said when he finished wrapping a strip of linen around the back of her head and forehead. “That should do it. You have a rather large knot there, which leads me to believe it was quite a blow. Probably best not to sleep for a while.”
“What’s a while?” she asked.
“Dawn. If you haven’t lost your senses or consciousness by then, you should be all right.”
“I’ll see she stays awake,” Thorne said.
“You can’t stay here through the night,” she told him.
“Not to worry. I won’t take advantage.”
