I shrugged. “You might want to buy up some stock in the Lifeproof company. It was the only reason—”
“Just stop.” He cupped my face, then covered my mouth with his. Visiting hours this morning didn’t include any softness, and definitely no sweetness. He devoured me. His grip escalated in direct proportion to the wildness in his kiss until I was half off the bed. His breath was labored against my throat, my scalp burning from his fingers twisted in my hair.
I clutched the lapels of his charcoal wool suit. “I’m fine.”
“Just twenty minutes more and the water would have been over your head.” His eyes were bleak. “Twenty,” he whispered.
“You found me.” He buried his face in my hair as I wrapped my arms around his neck. “You found me,” I said again for him, maybe for me. I hadn’t relied on anyone except my grandmother in so very long.
Footsteps in the hall broke us apart. I glanced over his shoulder. The doctor was outside speaking with one of the nurses.
He eased me back into my bed. I fussed with the positioning arrows until I was semi-presentable and sitting up.
Blake paced back and forth, his gaze straying to his watch.
“Another meeting?”
He shook his head. “No. I just want to get you home.”
I opened his mouth to disabuse him of that term. I didn’t live with him and he was quick to remind me of that, but now didn’t seem to be the time. He really was wound up about it.
Finally, the doctor came in with a cheery, “Good morning.”
Blake pounced. “When will she be released?”
Dr. Perrault ignored Blake and stopped at my bedside. “Mari tells me you’re moving around a bit better this morning.”
I nodded. “I’m ready to blow this pop stand.”
He dug into his pocket and pulled out three Life Saver lollipops. “I agree. Pick a color and you’re out of here.”
I plucked the orange one out of his hand. “Just like old times.”
Dr. Perrault grinned. “Mari is emailing you your ankle instructions. I want you to stay off of it as much as possible. You’ll be ready to walk on it before the weekend.”
“Thank God.”
The doctor used a stylus to put something in the chart at the end of my bed. “I’m ordering your discharge papers. You should be able to have lunch at home.”
I ripped the wrapper off my lollipop and popped it in my mouth. “Perfect.”
“Now, can we keep our meetings to checkups, Ms. Copeland?”
“Definitely.”
“Good. Keep out of trouble.”
“No chance of that,” Blake muttered.
I grinned around the stick in my mouth. “Thank you, Dr. Perrault.”
When he left, Blake pulled his phone out.
“You’re supposed to have that turned off.”
Blake simply lifted an eyebrow at me. “I’m having my housekeeper ready our room.”
I rolled the lollipop around my teeth. “You don’t have a housekeeper.”
“She only comes in once a month to do a full clean. This is a special occasion.”
That had to be a fairly recent development, because I knew Blake had…issues when it came to hiring help. “We’re going to the beach house,” I said.
He paused from his furious thumb strokes. “Pardon?”
“Did you know I designed the stained glass that arched over her back windows?”
He slipped his phone back into his pocket. “It doesn’t surprise me. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Beautiful work, Grace. You’re very talented, Grace.”
“You know very well that your work is superb. You don’t need me to tell you.”
Of course he’d say that. “It’s nice to hear, you know.”
“Is there a point to this story? You know, so I can tell you no. Because we are not going back to that house. You’re going back to the townhouse to recuperate.”
I ignored him. “Every inch of glass had been chosen by me.”
He sighed. “All right, I’ll play along. What does that have to do with this particular conversation?”
“When I was searching the house, I started looking at all the glass. It seemed to be the only common denominator.” I paused as he fisted his hands. “Did you really sic Jack on me?”
“I was left out of the loop on that particular operation.”
“Oh. Hmm.”
“I’ve had a limited amount of sleep even by my standards, Grace.”
I sighed. “A few panes of glass had been replaced in my design.”
He frowned. “Covenant glass?”
I nodded. The fact that it had been in my house, under my nose the entire time was also something I was trying to work out as well. My grandmother had hidden that journal for a reason, and she’d used Blake’s security glass to do it.
Just how well had Blake known my grandmother?
He’d told me they’d never been lovers, but that was it. Getting information out of him was like solving a jigsaw puzzle blindfolded.
“I want to go back to the cove.”
His face closed off into that mask I hated so much. “No.”
“Blake…”
“Absolutely not.”
Chapter Seven
I peered up at Blake from the passenger seat of his Range Rover. “This was not what I had in mind.”