“Thanks.”
She should probably be the one to tend to Kade since she’s the doctor, but I have a need to do it myself. Kade pulls me onto his lap and I don’t stop him, knowing it will be pointless.
“You can talk while she does this,” Vaughn points out.
Everyone in the room is waiting for Kade to speak. I should be dying to know, too, but for some reason I’m not. All I care about is making sure he and I are okay and that he knows I’m not going anywhere.
“I think a few of you could use a little cleaning up too.” Lula pulls out more supplies and some ice packs. She hands one to Vaughn and throws another at X. It hits him hard but he catches it.
I turn my attention back to my husband and I can feel his hard cock pressing into me as I clean him up. “How can you be turned on right now?” I whisper to him, fighting a smile. My body heats and I know this isn’t the time either but I can’t help it.
“You’re a loud whisperer. You don’t remember that about yourself?” my sister says with a laugh.
My whole face flushes, knowing everyone heard me. I did forget about that. Kade smiles at me like I’m the most adorable thing he’s ever seen in his life. I lean in and brush my mouth against his, forgetting about the embarrassment. Technically everyone here is my family and Lula is my doctor.
“Nothing you can say is going to upset me,” I reassure him, and he might as well get this over with. Then maybe his brothers will leave us alone and I can have Kade all to myself. We have our own things we need to clear up, like consummating this marriage.
“How can you be so sure of that?” he asks, his face serious.
“I just do.” Just like I knew marrying him was going to be the best decision I ever made. I felt it, even in the hospital when I woke up, I knew that he was mine. As long as I have him everything will always be okay.
His face softens. “I was trying to protect him but at the same time I’m being selfish.” His hand comes up to cup my face. “I should have walked away from you and got my shit handled first. But I just couldn’t let you go.”
“It would have broken my heart if you walked away from me.”
His thumb traces my bottom lip. “I wasn’t going to. I couldn’t. From the second you came falling into the elevator there was no going back. I knew I had to make you come with me and leave the city.”
“Leave the city?” X says. I don’t bother to turn to look; all my attention is on my husband.
“Before you came into my life I was in the middle of trying to take down some very bad men.”
“What the fuck?” Vaughn mutters.
“Let me talk,” Kade cuts him off. “I’d gotten into a new business deal that looked like it could be very profitable. Then I started to see it would be a little too profitable. I knew something wasn’t right. Red flags were popping up everywhere and I could see very early on everything wasn’t on the up and up with these men. They were clearly in the mob.”
Lula lets out a gasp but Kade keeps going.
“I was pissed I hadn’t picked up on it earlier. I was going to turn it all over to the FBI and wipe my hands of it. I figured it would be easy enough after I told them I wasn’t interested in working with them on the new development they were building.” He gives a small shrug. “Then the FBI asked for my help. They told me how bad these men were and that I could help put them away for a long time. I knew it was risky but I thought I was only putting myself on the line so I agreed to the plan. I helped the feds and I thought it was the right thing to do at the time.”
“It was the right thing to do. If they were bad men they should be put away. There’s nothing wrong with doing the right thing,” I agree.
“But then I had everything to lose.” His hands move to my hips as he grips me tightly.
“Me?” I smile. It warms me so deep that I mean everything to him. It makes me feel special in ways I know I’ll never feel with anyone else.
“I guess we’re just chopped liver,” Vaughn teases, but then his voice gets serious for once. “That’s why you sent us out of the country for our last projects?”
Kade nods, keeping his eyes on mine. “I was going to get us out of town next. They found out about you and then the accident happened.” He pulls me closer to him and touches his lips to mine, reassuring himself I’m fine.