He suddenly wanted to get up, get away and stop this.
But before he could move, she hugged him fiercely around the waist, laid her hot face over his thudding heart. Her lips trembled against his skin as she spelled out her offer. “If you can’t have enough of me, as I can’t have enough of you, this doesn’t have to end. I don’t want to lose you, and I’ll do anything, stay anywhere, as long as I can have you like this. I know once you get married your situation will change, but you don’t have to leave me behind to have the family, the heritage and the heirs yo
u’ve planned to have for so long. You can have me indefinitely if you want, and also have everything else you ever craved and deserve.”
Raiden’s head filled with cacophony, every response that screamed in his mind jumbling together, paralyzing him, muting him.
She was giving him a carte blanche to her life.
It was again the last thing he’d expected. Not that he’d expected anything, being tossed about in last night’s tumult.
But if he’d been able to think, he would have come to one conclusion. That it was no longer a possibility he’d give her up on their agreed-on date, or at all. He couldn’t even think of a life without her now. Couldn’t think of another reason to live but being with her, being hers. He was finally free to face that he’d loved her from the first moment and had never stopped loving her. But he now loved her with a profundity he hadn’t thought himself capable of. And he now knew she reciprocated his emotions in full. If he’d thought at all, he would have thought he’d be the one to plead with her not to leave his side.
But she’d preempted him, offering herself without reservations, relegating herself to a permanent position in the shadows in his life.
What hurt most was that she believed it was her natural place, that it was all she was worth, to be hidden as if she was a shameful secret. She believed she was, saw herself as tainted with a stain that would never be cleansed.
Before he voiced one of a million vehement arguments to the opposite, the color suddenly drained from her face.
“You—you don’t want any more time with me, let alone indefinitely, do you?” Her bloodless lips contorted. “It—it’s just when you said... I thought you... Oh, God, I’m sorry I—”
Her stumbling apology came to an abrupt end as her eyes rolled back in her head and she sagged back on the bed in a dead faint.
The detonation of terror almost made him follow suit.
He didn’t, only because he’d turned to stone with fright.
Then shock splintered and he pounced on her, his heart rupturing. “Scarlett... God, Scarlett, darling...”
She didn’t move when he shook her. His hands were shaking so hard, he couldn’t detect her pulse....
Stop it. Get yourself under control.
He heard himself barking the self-admonition, tried to force himself to think, but could only think she was lying there, ashen, unmoving. And he couldn’t rouse her, couldn’t tell if she was breathing.
Yet even panicking, his mechanisms of performing under maximum duress kicked in, making him go through emergency procedures.
Then he did the one thing he’d always done when he or any of his brothers was injured or unwell. He called Antonio.
As soon as the line clicked open, Raiden choked, “Scarlett fainted. I can’t wake her up.”
Without preamble, Antonio went into doctor mode. “Place her on her back, remove any constricting clothing, raise her legs above heart level about twelve inches, then check her airway for anything blocking it. Watch for vomiting. If she vomits, immediately place her on her side.”
“I did all that, and she still won’t wake up.” His voice barely came out, futile tears starting to run down his cheeks.
“Give me her vitals.”
He gritted out her breath and heartbeat count.
“Slow, but not dangerously so. Neurologic status?”
“Reflexes are normal. But she won’t wake up!”
“That on its own means nothing. Whatever the reason she’s unconscious, she isn’t in any immediate danger.”
“You can’t know that!”
“Given your report, I can. Did you call an ambulance?”