The beeping grows quick as I start to panic. Fuck the pain—I need to get out of here. I’m not going to be subjected to his cruelty. I force my eyes open and they water from the harsh light. When I sit up, my arm tugs against something, and I hiss. I look down to find an IV in the crook of my arm.
I’m alone in the room. There aren’t any other beds. Mine is the only one in here, and it doesn’t look like a typical hospital room. I have no idea where I am, but I have to get out of here before Kendrick comes back and punishes me. It will be a terrible punishment.
One filled with pitch black rooms for weeks, scraps of food, and only enough water to wet my tongue. He’ll lash my back with a belt, yelling at me, telling me how hates disobedient bitches. When he makes my back bleed, he goes off on a tangent about how I’m going to be presentable if I don’t know how to behave.
I have no idea what that means.
I have a sick feeling he is in some sort of gang or sick religion; I’m not sure. I know it isn't anything good.
Voices coming from down the hall has me laying back and faking sleep. I shut my eyes and wait for Kendrick.
“She’ll wake up,” one of Kendrick’s goonies reassures him.
“She has to.”
My eyes fly open when the voice I expect to hear isn’t there. It’s better, deeper, a bit broken and sad. I sit up in the bed, forgetting about the pain to see if I’m where I think I am. Maybe I am dead. This is Heaven. Sebastian has been my heaven for so long, he is the only brightness in my never-ending dark days.
My heart pounds, crashing against my chest, a wild freight train on the loose. The door opens. The heart rate monitor speeds up. I wait to see his face. I clutch the blanket in my fists, tears gathering in my eyes as a sob breaks from me before he enters the room.
But once he does … oh, god, once he does, and I see his face, I can’t hold back anymore. The torment rips from my chest, and I cup my hands over my mouth and weep when Sebastian fills the doorway. He pauses, staring at me with wide eyes, like he can’t believe what he us seeing.
“What’s the hold up?” someone asks behind him and pushes him forward.
Sebastian catches himself on the end of the bed, and I gasp, afraid he’s hurt himself.
“Oh, I’ll give you guys some alone time.” The stranger turns around and closes the door behind him, leaving me alone with a man who I thought would forever be a distant memory that would eventually fade.
There is nothing worse, living day after day and only remembering certain things about someone. The more time that passes, the more things I can’t conjure up, like how he really looked. I knew he was handsome, but I forgot how sharp his jaw is, how intense his eyes are, and how thick his hair is.
His hand moves on the bed, inching closer to me. “Gabriella?”
“Sebastian?”
His eyes shine like glass as he hurries to my side and cups my face with his hands. His thumbs rub along my cheekbones, soft and tender, a gentle touch I haven’t felt in an awfully long time. My eyes close as a tear slips free from my lashes, and instead of punishing me for crying, he wipes my tears away.
“It’s really you,” I sob, lifting a hand over his, needing to be closer. “It’s really you.”
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” he says, pulling me to his chest as he wraps his strong arms around me, holding me as if I’m about to fly away or disappear. He kisses the top of my head and runs his fingers down my back. “I never fucking thought I’d see you again, baby. God, when Owen brought you to me, you weren’t breathing. I did, Gabriella. I fucking died seeing you like that.” He pulls away and presses his chin against his chest, staring those beautiful eyes into mine. Sebastian bites his lips together, and his eyes turn from glassy to swimming with tears. He leans his forehead against mine, and his lips whisper over mine, not in a kiss, but a heated promise, a gesture that shows control.
Another quality of a man I’m not used to.
“You can’t do that to me. You can’t die. I thought I had broken every bone in your ribcage when I did CPR. You weren’t breathing, and I—”
“Sebastian,” I catch him off-guard and swipe his tears away just like he did mine. It has been a long time coming, this moment. I hate it has to be like this, in a hospital room, where I know I looked half-haggard and dead. “I’m here now because of you.” I leave out that I survived every day over the last six years for him. I don’t want to put that on his shoulders. “You saved me. You have no idea just how many times,” I admit, cupping the back of his neck with my hand. “I thought for certain Kendrick was here, and then I heard your voice, and I thought I must finally be dead and in Heaven.”
“Please, don’t talk like that.” He leans away from me and stares at the wall. I already miss the warmth of his forehead against. “You have no idea just how close you were to death. What happened, Gabriella? How did you wash up on shore? It was sheer luck Owen found you; if he hadn’t…”
“I would be shark food.” I try to lighten the mood, but his eyes narrow.
“It isn’t funny, Gabriella.” He yanks his hand away from mine and stands, pacing the room. “I can’t believe you would even joke about your life like that.” He runs his fingers through his luscious head of black hair and then scrubs a hand down his face. “Do you value yourself so little?”
“Yes,” I answer truthfully, turning my head to the
left so he can’t see the shame and embarrassment written on my face. “You have no idea what my life has been like, Sebastian. It’s been horrible. Kendrick is a heinous man. He has something on his agenda for me. The day you found me, he had introduced me to his friends for the first time. He made me stand there with my robe parted.” I touch my belly, feeling the hospital gown on me instead of the robe. Someone changed me. Was it Sebastian? Did he see me? Did he like what he saw even with all the scars? “They talked about me like they had a serious plan for me. Then one touched me…”
“Touched you? What the hell are you talking about?” Sebastian sits and takes my hand.
“A stranger… I-I didn’t know him. He cupped me between my legs, and I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t want to be part of their plan, whatever orgy or fucked-up scenario they had convinced themselves of. I smashed my head against him, grabbed a knife and ran, but I had nowhere to go. Except to jump.”