Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
“You’re needed. Zyair will drive it back. Keys are in it, right?”
Rainier called to the dogs and indicated the Jeep. Both raced to the vehicle, where Zyair crated them.
Harlow jogged after Rainier. The last thing she wanted to do was hold up treatment for Raine, so she wasn’t about to protest.
Chapter Four
The commotion in her home seemed loud and chaotic after the peace and quiet of the Twin Devil boulders. Loud male voices came from the front bedroom, something entirely unacceptable when Wilder was so ill.
Harlow hurried through the great room toward the clashing voices, suddenly grateful Rainier had insisted she go with him, rather than get out when Rush took Raine out of the helicopter and ran toward a building she’d never seen before. What looked like a team of nurses and techs met him with a gurney just at the door. She didn’t like leaving Raine, but now, with the harsh male voices raised, she had an inkling as to why Rainier insisted she return to her home.
“What do you mean you lost her, Falcon?” That was Wilder. She’d never heard him raise his voice. He’d never needed to. He could sound scary as hell when he spoke in low tones, but just raising it a couple of octaves put him on an entirely different level of dangerous.
“Get the hell back in bed, Wilder. You’re going to tear everything loose again.” Falcon didn’t sound intimidated in the least.
Harlow stepped into the room, sweeping past Falcon to find Wilder swaying, pale, beads of sweat on his body but determination stamped into every line of his handsome features as he stood beside the bed, gripping a pair of fatigues in one hand.
“Wilder, what are you doing?” She took the trousers from his hand and tossed them into a chair, all the while scowling at Falcon. “You should know better than to upset a patient.”
“Me?” Falcon stared at her incredulously. “I wasn’t the one who upset him.”
Wilder dragged Harlow against him, slamming her body so tightly against his she could barely breathe. He might be severely injured, but he had the strength of ten men. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to break every rib in her body.
“What the hell, mon rêve, you scared the crap out of me. Where were you? No one knew; no one could find you. I thought…” He broke off and tightened his hold just as it was becoming bearable.
She rubbed his back and allowed her fingers to smooth out the hair at the nape of his neck before she gently pushed back against his arms. “You need to get back in bed, Wilder. Whatever’s upsetting you, we can deal with.”
She used her nurse voice, the one everyone listened to. Apparently, everyone with the exception of Wilder. He buried his face in her neck. She felt his entire body shudder. Wilder made it impossible for her to fall back on her profession when she tried to deal with him. It left her uneasy, uncertain, confused and feeling desperate. He was the only person she didn’t quite know what to do with, and she didn’t understand why.
He made no sense when he was around her. Like now. He was acting as if he had been terrified for her, his emotions all out of proportion, when Wilder was every bit as calm as Rainier always was. In every other circumstance, Harlow could fall back on her nurse’s training or even all the years she spent in a political family living her life in front of a camera, but with Wilder she was off-balance.
She made every effort to be professional, keeping her voice calm. “Let’s get you back in bed, and you can explain to me why you were so worried about me. I go out all the time. I have a photography business. That means I take pictures at all hours of the day or night. You know that about me, Wilder. You shouldn’t, but you do.”
All the while she talked, she put pressure on him to back up to the bed. He complied but didn’t let go of her, so when he sank onto the bed, inhaling sharply against the pain, he took her with him, so she nearly fell on top of him. She was able to steady herself, but only by putting both hands on his shoulders. She found herself leaning over him in a precarious position. She didn’t dare look at Falcon. Rainier’s men seemed to find everything amusing.
“Rainier got your mail this morning,” Wilder said, as if that explained everything.
She indicated for him to swing his legs back onto the bed and waited until he complied before she gave a little shrug. “Why would that make you worry about me?”
“There was a folded-up piece of paper someone had put into your mailbox. No envelope, just the sheet of paper with letters cut from a magazine.”