Page 31 of Devoured

What the hell was she doing? I caught her in my arms before she fell off the bed. I kept my arms firmly around her as I set her back down. "Penny, stay still. The doctor will be here any second. You're going to be fine.”Please be okay.I sat down on the bed next to her and rubbed her back.

She immediately threw up down the front of my shirt. I tried not to flinch. I just kept rubbing her back. This was probably good. To get all the alcohol out of her system.Let it all out.

"I'm so sorry," she groaned.

"It's okay." I held my breath. "It's okay.” But I did need to get out of this shirt or I was pretty sure I’d start throwing up too. “Stay right there. I'll be right back." I hurried out of the room, tore off my shirt, and chucked it in the trash. I took a deep breath of clean air as I grabbed a bottle of ginger ale out of the fridge. I took another deep breath. She was awake. She was going to be okay. She had to be. I’d never be able to forgive myself if she wasn’t okay.

I walked back into the room. And for the first time since seeing her at the party tonight, I felt a little more relaxed. Because her eyes still trailed down my abs the same way they always did. I climbed back on the bed beside her and handed her the ginger ale. “Drink this.”

"I'm so sorry," she repeated.

"Please stop apologizing. All of this is my fault." I looked down at my watch. What was taking Dr. Ridge so long? "Where the hell is he? He should have been here by now."

Penny reached up and grabbed my chin, slowly turning my face to hers. "You're hurt."

"I'm fine, baby. I'm fine." I removed her hand from my face and kissed her palm. The last thing she should be doing was worrying about me. I just wanted to take away her pain. I brought her hand to my lap and stroked my thumb along her palm.

"No." Tears started to stream down her cheeks again as she stared at my face.

I must have looked pretty rough. "You should see the other guy." I tried to smile, but I could tell it looked forced. And I was pretty sure she could tell too.

"Was this my fault?" she asked.

Not in the slightest.I continued to rub my thumb against her palm. "No. It's mine."

A buzz sounded through the apartment. "Finally." I climbed off the bed. "Don't move." Not that I was worried she’d try to after almost falling a minute ago. I walked over to the elevator just as the doors dinged open.

“James,” Dr. Ridge said. “What is going on? Ian said that some girl was unconscious?”

Some girl?Penny wasn’t just some girl. But I was relieved that Ian hadn’t gone into too much detail. I tried to keep my voice low so Penny couldn’t hear. "Thanks for coming, Steven. She’s awake now. But she just threw up.”

"Has she been drinking?"

"Yes. But that's not why I'm worried."

"How much?"

I didn’t think the alcohol was why she couldn’t remember what happened. But maybe she’d had even more to drink than I realized. "I don't know."

"Let me see her."

"Steven, she fell. She hit her head hard. She's disoriented. She doesn't even remember what happened."

“Where is she?”

“In my bedroom.”

He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything about it. “And what’s her name?”

“Penny Taylor.”

He nodded and walked past me toward my bedroom. "Miss Taylor, I'm Dr. Ridge."

"Hello," she said. Her voice was so quiet and scared.

It’s going to be okay, baby.

"Can you tell me what happened tonight?” Dr. Ridge asked.

---