Sheltered(33)

I jerk awake when a kiss lands on my neck. “Wake up, baby. The doctor is coming in.” My eyes flutter open, and I realize I dozed off for a second. I want to get him to send the doctor away so I can curl up and go back to sleep. My body feels so heavy now as a few aches start to set in. I know I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. But Ryker is insistent, so I settle in knowing he wants me to be checked out, and I want to put him at ease. For some crazy reason I want to do this for him so that he will be reassured. A trace of guilt still hangs over me that I caused all of this in the first place.

Ryker strolls over to the bedroom door and opens it. A man in his late sixties shuffles in looking like he was pulled out of bed in the middle of the night. I’m guessing he was.

“Ryker,” he greets, holding his hand out to him.

“How are you enjoying the new wing of the children's hospital?”

The doctor smiles at Ryker, and I realize we have another one of Ryker’s loyal followers. He’s got his own personal fan club.

“It’s been amazing. We’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

“Take care of my girl, and we’ll call it even.”

“That I can do.” The doctor looks over at me, a smile on his round face.

“She allergic to penicillin, had tubes in her ears when she was four and has a small scar under her chin where she fell and hit it on a coffee table at seven. It took five stitches to close it.” Ryker spouts off my medical history and I sit there with my mouth open. “Oh, and her blood type is O positive.”

I brush my fingers under my chin, where I can feel the small scar. I often forget it’s even there, so how does he know? I should be surprised, but I’m not. He knows all there is to know about me, and something about that is endearing. All this time I thought no one cared about me, but he did.

“I know. I read her files when you sent them over last week.” The doctor shakes his head before holding his hand out to me. I reach out to take it, but Ryker moves between us, making the doctor laugh. He drops his hand and smiles softly at my protector. “I’m going to have to touch her.”

Ryker has his arms folded over his chest, but nods. “Fine,” he grits out before coming to sit next to me on the bed.

He watches the doctor as he checks me over and asks me a few questions. He checks everything twice and then determines I’m fine. I might be a little sore for a couple of days, he says, and suggests I take some Advil if I need it. When the doctor says it, I look at Ryker and give him a smug smile, but then remember how worried he was and how he came to my rescue, so I try not to gloat.

After the doctor leaves, I crawl under the warm blankets. Ryker comes to join me but stops when there is another knock at the door. He curses before stomping over to the bedroom door, only opening it a crack.

I sit up when I hear Johnny’s voice.

“Yeah, she’s fine. A little bruised up, but she just needs rest,” Ryker tells him.

Johnny says something that I can’t hear before Ryker closes the door and comes back to bed. He turns the light off and pulls me into his body. I don’t fight him or go stiff in his arms this time. In fact, I turn into his chest and bury my face in his neck. I know he’ll chase away the rest of my fears about what happened tonight, and I selfishly take his comfort.

“Johnny is a good man. Please put him out of his misery and talk to him tomorrow,” Ryker says, stroking my back. “Your silent treatment is going to kill us all.”

“Okay,” I mumble into his neck.

He pulls me into him even more so every part of me is now lying on top of him and we are completely wrapped in each other. I know after tonight I won’t be able to sleep without him, but right now I don’t care.





Chapter 16





Blair





Water surrounds me, and I try to fight it. Hold on. He’ll come, I think to myself over and over again. My mind searches for who he is, and a face flashes before my eyes. Ryker. He’ll come. He’ll always come. I know it deep down without a doubt.

“Cricket, baby. Wake up.”

My eyes fly open at the sound of Ryker’s voice, and I’m suddenly staring into his bright green eyes. He leans over me with a pained look on his handsome face. The lamp on the side table fills the room with soft light, and relief floods me when I realize I’m safe in bed. He’s here, watching over me, and nothing can hurt me anymore. It feels so good to have that security, I don’t know whether to cry or laugh.

“I’m so sorry, Cricket.” Anguish is clear on his face. “I hate that you’re having nightmares over this. I know how much you hate storms.”

I reach up, stroking his face. Something inside of me needs to comfort him, too. He always makes me forget everything else when he’s this close to me.

“It was just a dream,” I tell him. “I’ve had worse,” I admit. He’ll likely learn that if we carry on sharing a bed, and at this point that looks to be the case.

He closes his eyes as he leans into my palm. “The point of taking you was to make sure you never had nightmares again. It may have been the selfish thing to do, but I want to be the one to take all your clouds away.”

I have to fight back tears at his sweet words. No one has ever really cared that much about me. Not like he does. I was holding on to so much anger at the idea of being taken and no one knowing that I’d even disappeared, I forgot to see what was right in front of me—this man I know nothing about but am starting to feel like could be my world if I let him. He’s trying to make sure he’s my world. My mind bounces to all the small things he’s done for me, and then I wonder if maybe he’s making me the center of his world.