“Baby, just let me help you. You’re going to cause yourself a world of pain trying to prove your point, and I don’t want to see that happen. I’m going to pick you up and set you inside and then carry you back to the bed, are we clear?”
Being the intelligent person that she was, Suzy knew when to pick her battles. When you were about to pee all over yourself and felt as if someone had stabbed you, was not the time to stage a stand-off. She closed her mouth and linked her arms around his neck as he gently picked her up. At the best he could do, it was still an excruciating trip and she stayed on the toilet longer than necessary trying to recover enough to return to the bed.
Suzy had to give Gray credit; he made an incredible nurse. He was gentle, caring and smelled good enough to eat. If not for all the pain she was in, she’d be seriously tempted to pull him down in the bed on top of her and finally take care of this ache she had inside whenever he was near. Heck, she could almost have an orgasm just hearing his sexy voice on the phone; she could only imagine how good the real thing would be.
When Gray had her settled back into the bed, he called the nurse and asked for more pain medication despite her protests. She needed to think clearly where he was concerned and how could she do that when she was constantly in la la land? The nurse came in and quietly injected medication into her IV. When she left, Suzy looked at Gray in a haze and said, “You know I’m not staying with you.” She tried to hang on a little longer to finish her sentence just barely managing, “And I’m not falling in love with you Gray.”
As she finished those last words, Gray held her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against the palm, whispering, “I’m afraid you have to, from the moment we met, I ceased to exist without you. You’ve put me off as long as I can take. Ready or not Suzanna, I’m coming for you, and I don’t intend to stop until I have you..forever.”
~~~
The next morning, Gray left the hospital when Beth arrived. He’d convinced a realtor to show him some property bright and early. He hit it lucky on the third house and within two hours, he was signing papers to make it his. Luckily, the house was empty, so he’d be able to move in immediately. An offer well above the asking price had both the realtor and the owner anxious to accommodate anything that he needed so he could keep all the furnishing, for the time being. Later when Suzy was settled in, he’d be happy to let her change anything that she wanted, but for now, it was a bonus to be able to move right in. He called Nick and asked that he handle having his personal items moved from the penthouse to the new place and also have it fully stocked with supplies. He’d then talked to Beth about packing some items for Suzy.
As he was getting back into his car, his cell phone rang. Afraid it was the hospital, he didn’t even spare a glance at the caller ID, instead answering it on the first ring. His blood ran cold as a mocking voice filled his ear. “Well, hello my darling, have you missed me?”
“Reva, how did you get this number?”
Laughter filled his ear as she said, “You should know by now Gray, what I want, I get. I told you when you broke up with me that I wouldn’t just tuck my tail and run like all the other women you have thrown away.”
“I didn’t break up with you Reva. That would imply that we had a relationship, which we didn’t. We went out for less than a month.” What Gray didn’t add was the only reason it had lasted that long was because he was desperate to take his mind off of Suzy. It hadn’t taken long though to figure out the whole love the one you’re with thing didn’t work for him.
He’d met Reva at a launch party for an author friend. Warning bells should have been ringing wildly at the way she pursued him all evening before he finally agreed to have dinner with her the following evening. Truthfully, he had had little interest in Reva, and he was paying the price now for letting it get out of hand. They’d gone out to dinner a few times, and he’d been her escort to various charity functions over the course of a month. Finally, after several weeks of pressure, they had ended up in bed together. Gray knew it was a mistake as soon as it happened, and he ended things afterwards. He didn’t see leading her on when he knew it was going nowhere. Even if Suzy wasn’t in his life, he’d have no desire to become seriously involved with Reva.