Unwritten Rules (Filthy Florida Alphas 3)

I rub the back of my hand over my face, drying my eyes.

“Sorry… I was…” I trail off, not sure how to explain the nightmare I just had.

“I understand,” he says, patting my shoulder gently. “I thought you could use this,” he says handing me a coffee.

“Thanks. Where’s Tess?”

“She wasn’t feeling great this morning and Maddie needed snuggles.”

“You should be with them,” I tell him, bringing my hand down to Marcum’s. I squeeze it, hoping he knows I’m here—but mostly I do it to reassure myself he’s still here. His touch is still warm, though his color is still gray. There’s so much equipment hooked up to him, the mechanical noises and beepers are slowly destroying me.

“You need to go home and rest, Toi. You’ve been here nonstop for a week.”

I blink. I hadn’t realized it had been that long. One week since my world was destroyed. I look up at Marcum and sigh.

“I’m not leaving.”

“Sweetheart, Marcum is a stubborn asshole. He will kick my ass when he wakes up and finds you’ve been here the whole time and not taking care of yourself.”

“No offense, but I don’t care as long as he wakes up.”

Max sighs and sits down beside me. He takes a drink from his own cup and looks up at me.

“Has there been any change?”

“Not much. The latest test results were encouraging—at least that’s what they’re telling me.”

“Still no movement?” Max asks and my hand goes to Marcum’s by reflex.

“None….”

“Toi maybe—”

“He’ll come around, Max. He will. He’s just resting his body right now. He’ll come back to me,” I reassure him.

He has to…77Marcum“Marcum, enough is enough. It’s been three weeks. You promised me a life together. You promised me babies. Are you just going to break that promise? I started my period today you know. The last thing I need is to be in this damn hospital room. I need to be back home, in bed, while you rub my stomach and feed me chocolate. Instead, I’m here putting lotion on you and hurting.”

Toi…

“I hate having my period. You promised me a baby and I wanted that… I deserved that. And why did we never have pictures of the two of us? I know life was hectic, but you have pictures of everyone in your life but me. Do you know how that makes me feel? You told me you loved me, did you lie? Of course you also told Ghost to take care of me apparently. It’s so nice of you to give me away. You arrogant asshole.”

Pictures…

“Is that what you want? To see me move on to another man? Have another man father my children? Live life with another man? You think it’s okay for you to just give me away?”

No!

I can’t get the words out. Fuck, it’s still black, I can’t even manage to open my eyes. I feel like I’m in the ocean and the undertow is dragging me down.

“Fine. If that’s what you want, Marcum Kincaid. That’s what you’ll have. In fact, there’s a doctor here that’s been giving me the eye every day. I think I’ll talk to him. He can give me babies and a white picket fence and pictures! I deserve fucking pictures!”

That’s it. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but hearing Toi talking about another man is more than I can handle. I fight to open my eyes—and it is a fight. I open my eyes and immediately close them again. The light is too bright—too harsh. I blink several times, trying my best to adjust. Finally, I squint to look through the room.

Toi is standing at the foot of my bed. Her blond hair is pulled up on top of her head, she doesn’t have any make up on, and even though my vision pretty much sucks—I can see dark circles under her eyes. She’s rubbing something on my feet and she’s talking the entire time, but now I can’t seem to grasp what she’s saying. All of my attention is just on looking at her. I watch as she tucks a blanket back on my feet. I moved my toes, but I don’t think she even noticed. She walks back to the side of the bed and is washing her hands with some sanitizer, drying them on her jeans. Jeans that are hugging her body closely, accenting every damn curve she has. I may feel like death, but when she turns around to put a paper in the trash and I see the way the denim caresses against her ass, my dick still jerks.

That’s when I notice the pain.

Pain everywhere, and damn it, I feel like someone has taken a sledgehammer to my head.

“I’ve been here every day and night for three weeks, Marcum. Three weeks. I’ve waited on you long enough. It’s time you hold up to your promises. You’re not the youngest man on the block you know. You’re wasting time and it’s time we don’t have.”