Fall From Grace

I wander around his house. Only feeling slightly bad about it, but he did let me come here alone. I walk into the kitchen and grab a bottle of water, then make my way upstairs, never having been up here before. There are two guest bedrooms and an office. Everything gorgeously designed. But the bedrooms look untouched, a thin layer of dust on the furniture. I make my way back downstairs and walk into his room. It’s then I finally notice the entire empty side of his closet. It’s a huge walk-in. One side is filled with his suits, but the other remains empty. Like even he can’t get past his fiancée moving out. I almost want to move his clothes over to both sides so the pain he feels every time he walks into the closet will disappear. But I don’t. I feel like that is intruding a little too much.

I have every intention of sleeping on his couch. But I sit on his bed for a second. I feel weird sleeping in here alone. And the guest bedrooms are too neat. The couch is fine. I can grab a blanket and take a quick nap to get this headache to go away and then be on my way.

Except I lean back into the pillows for just a second to balance the dizziness hitting my brain and close my eyes.

* * *

I wake up to the sound of running water. I blink, unfamiliar with my surroundings. Then I realize I am in Carson’s house. I sit up and am immediately hit with a bout of nausea, my head pounding. I grip my forehead with one hand and my mouth with the other.

“Whoa there.”

I peek through my fingers and see Carson walking out of his bathroom in nothing but a towel. I try to move but he is quick to reach me and pushes me back into the bed.

“Lie back down, Grace.” His hand cups my face then pulls the hand off my mouth. “Unless you think you are going to puke.”

“Maybe,” I groan.

His hand brushes my forehead. “You’re burning up.”

“I’m fine.”

He smirks at me and if I wasn’t feeling like shit, I would find it adorable.

“Let me get you some meds,” he says.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask, confused.

“Because you’re sick as a dog and I can’t have my best employee out of commission.”

I pinch my eyes shut. “Oh.”

He leans forward and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I care about you too, Grace. And you definitely have a fever and you obviously still have a headache.”

“I’m fine,” I mutter even though we both know it’s a lie.

He pulls the blankets up to my chest. “If you were fine, you would be giving me shit because you would realize I took your clothes off.”

My eyes bulge out of my head as I push him away and realize he did, in fact, take my clothes off, leaving me in just my bra and panties. “Why would you—”

“I came home and found you half on the bed with just one shoe on. You looked uncomfortable as hell and I can only guess you’d been lying like that for over six hours.”

“Six hours?” I try to sit up again but my head keeps me from moving too quickly. I notice the clock on the nightstand and see its after eight. “Oh my god. I should get home.”

Carson pushes me back down. “No, you shouldn’t. You need to rest. You need quiet. And you need to sleep.”

“But Owen…” I trail off because I don’t know what to say. I mean, there is no way Owen knows I am here. Hell, he probably doesn’t even realize I’m not home unless he was looking for my car in the street.

“Don’t worry about Owen. He doesn’t know you are here. He probably figures you went out.”

He has a point. Not to mention that with the newborn, he has hardly paid any attention to me. No talk of my “secret” relationship. “My head hurts,” I acquiesce as I settle into the blankets.

“I think there might be some migraine medicine around here that Tiff left.” He hesitates like he just realized he said his ex-fiancée’s name without realizing it. As far as he knows I know nothing about her.

“Do you have something I can wear?” I ask, changing the subject so he doesn’t have to make up an excuse for what he just said. I can see the pain on his face from just saying her name.

“Umm yeah, let me grab you a shirt.” He stands up and adjusts his bath towel so it doesn’t fall off and wanders into his closet. He walks out with a T-shirt and I struggle to sit up as the fever and the migraine take over my body.

He tosses it on the bed, then helps me sit up. “Are you sure you don’t need a hospital?”