Page 96 of Mine

“Go to sleep or I’m getting up.”

“Oh?” He chuckled, hands sliding up under my T-shirt, smoothing over my abdomen. “You think you can do that considering that your eyes aren’t even open?”

The man was like a drug. I was warm, and his kisses, his mouth slipping over my skin, felt so good. I just wanted to be wrapped in him.

“What about my new job?” I offered. “I should sit up and tell you all about it.”

“You can tell me about it later.”

“But I need to get up so you can sleep.”

“Shhh,” he hushed me, kissing over my jaw. “Just give yourself to me, baby.”

I didn’t remember drifting off.

I WAS jostled, and when I opened my eyes, Landry was pulling a blanket up around us.

“What’re you doing?” I asked, not really awake.

“Nothing,” he said, moving half on and half off me. “Go back to sleep.”

“I need to get out of your bed,” I told him, my eyes refusing to stay open.

“Nuh-uh,” he muttered, nestling into my side, his leg between mine, head down on my shoulder. “I won’t feel safe if you move.”

“Bullshit, I’ll be right there in the chair, and the nurses are gonna make me get up when they come in anyway.”

“They’ve already been in. They didn’t care. They both said how pretty you were and how much better I looked.”

“Lan—”

“I need you right here, Trev. Once we get home, you can sleep without a Landry blanket, okay? But for now… I need you.”

I wrapped my arms around him, nuzzled my face against his neck, and kissed the smooth, warm skin. “I love you.”

Small whimper from him as I felt him shiver. “I love you too.”

“Go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

And there was silence for at least three whole seconds.

“Am I bugging you?” Landry whispered.

I squeezed him tighter and smiled into his hair.

Chapter 11

THE first thing Landry said the following morning was that he wanted out of the hospital. He wanted to go home, he needed to go home, and when he demanded that I leave immediately and go get all of his things from his parents’ house, I thought he was kidding.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” he snapped at me.

The needy, clingy Landry was gone. Landry on a tear because he wanted the hell out of the hospital, that guy was the one driving. I bailed, and as I passed the nurse’s station, I suggested that they get a doctor in there and get the man released before he made a king-sized pain out of himself. They had not seen a snit like the one Landry could throw.

Since Conrad had taken the rental car, I took a cab out to the Carter house. I called Chris and woke him up and told him I was on my way over. He was only halfway coherent, but still, he was there at the front door when I pulled up.

“Why’re you awake?” he asked me.