Dark Deceptions: A Regency and Medieval Collection of Dark Romances(98)

Adam sat at the edge of a chair beside her bed. “Can you save her?” he asked hoarsely.

The doctor studied the front of her shoulder. Then the back. “I’ll not lie to you. Her condition is dire,” he said bluntly. His mouth set in a firm line. “I’ll do everything I can to save her.”

For three days, the doctor did just that. When fever set in and Georgina’s body shook from chills he laid cold compresses on her wrists, her ankles, her brow. Through it all, Georgina writhed and screamed.

Then the nightmares came and Adam tortured himself with his wife’s plaintive whimpers. Her head tossed and turned as she battled the demons in her sleep. At those times, the only thing he could do was crawl into bed beside her and wrap his body around her until she eventually stilled.

He lay beside her, head propped up on his elbow, and simply studied her. Memories poured over him like a gentle rain.

“Are you Eve?”

She angled her head. “My name is Georgina.”

Adam touched his lips to Georgina’s sweat-dampened temple. The eerie pall of silence punctured by her harsh breathing served as a bleak reminder that if she didn’t awaken soon she most likely never would. He drew in a shuddery breath, willing her to hear him, needing her to come back to him.

“There are so many things I want to say to you, things I want to do and see with you. I want to dance with you in the moonlight until your cheeks are flush with color.” He caught a long, curled tendril and rubbed it between his fingers. “I want to sit with you in the still of the night until the sun comes up.” His throat worked. “And I want to have a family with you. I want to have feisty daughters with your heart and spirit and my… No. I don’t want them to have any part of me, Georgina. I want them to be just like their mother.”

Adam spoke until his throat was hoarse and still the words kept coming. “My beautiful, perfect Georgina. You’ve known so little happiness. If you come back to me, I will spend the rest of my days filling your life with joy.” He lowered his brow to hers, rubbing it back and forth. He would spend the remainder of his life endeavoring to deserve her. There were so many wrongs that could never be forgiven.

He directed his gaze to the ceiling. “Please let her live. If you let her live, I will be anything and everything you want me to be. Just let her live.”

There was no lightning from above. Adam curled into a ball at his wife’s side and sobbed. Great, big, gasping breaths tore from his chest.

“I don’t want to live without you.”

He wept until his lungs burned, and only when he couldn’t cry anymore, did he sleep.

*

Georgina struggled to open her eyes and when she did, promptly closed them against the sun streaming through the window.

When she’d been given her first horse some years ago, she’d taken a tumble off the beautiful creature. Her arms and torso had bore nasty greenish-blue bruises for the hard fall she’d taken. Her body felt much as it had that long ago day.

What happened?

She forced her eyes open once more and made a move to push herself up on her elbows. Her shoulder screamed in protest, and a wave of agony robbed her of breath. Georgina fell back against the pillow.

Father.

Jamie.

…Adam had walked out on her.

In the span of moments, she’d lost every single person in her life. She closed her eyes, revisiting the scenes from the warehouse. Jamie saved me. He killed Father. Her heart tightened painfully. She struggled to recall the events that had transpired after she’d placed herself between the bullet Jamie had intended for him. Only then did she become aware of the tall, muscular figure pressed against her side.

She froze. Her heart flipped over.

Her husband.

A bitter smile played about her lips as she remembered her father’s damning revelation. Adam wasn’t really her husband.

In sleep, the hard lines around his mouth had relaxed. A stray golden lock hung over his eye and she ached to brush it back. She wanted to remember him like this forever, for in this moment they might have been any couple in love, sleeping peacefully in their bed, wrapped in each other’s arms. She wanted this moment before she forced herself to accept the truth. Adam had never loved her.

Life had reminded Georgina what she’d deluded herself into forgetting…dreams did not exist.

Adam’s eyes flickered open and closed. Then popped open.

“Georgina!” he gasped. He lurched upright.

The sudden movement sent a lightning-quick pain up her arm.

He scrambled to his knees. “Forgive me. Are you—?”

She shook her head. “I’m all right.” Except she wasn’t. She didn’t understand why he occupied the spot beside her. She scanned the foreign surroundings and struggled to place her location. “Where am I?”

“The Duke of Aubrey has a townhouse on the outskirts of London.” Adam ran a solemn gaze over her face.

She struggled for some hint of affection but his face was set in a stoic mask. Silly ninny. Adam didn’t care for her. He’d made it abundantly clear on Lord Ashton’s terrace how little she meant to him, and in the warehouse…she’d never be able to forget how easily he’d walked out on her.

“You shouldn’t be here.” She squeezed the words out through dry lips. “We aren’t even married.” No, he’d made it perfectly clear that he didn’t want to be wed to her.