Urgh. Maybe that wasn’t a good idea.
She opened them with a gasp. “Stop!”
He immediately ceased the rocking. “What is it?”
“Sick.”
Suddenly, Wolfe was there, taking her from Caleb. He quickly carried her away from the swing set then set her gently down, bending her over with his arm a steel band under her breasts, holding her up as she vomited into the bushes.
Yuck. She hated vomiting.
Tears ran down her cheeks, mixing with snot.
So pretty, Genevieve.
“Easy, easy.” Aleki was on the other side of her, rubbing her back.
“Sorry. Sorry.”
“Hush,” Caleb growled from behind her. “That was entirely my fault. I should have known you’d feel ill and dizzy from the movement.”
“Yes,” Wolfe growled. “You should have.”
“Give her back to me,” Caleb told Aleki. “I’ll carry her back to the clinic.”
“I have her,” Aleki said quietly, he pulled her up, cradling her against his wide chest. His scent hit her. Sandalwood and sugar.
She sniffled, wishing she had something to wipe her face. And a drink. God, she hoped he couldn’t smell her vomit-breath.
Urgh. This was all so embarrassing.
“Wipe your face on my T-shirt,” Aleki told her.
“Ick. No, I’m not doing that.”
Aleki sighed. “Do you have to fight us on everything?”
“I don’t fight you on everything.” Where did he get that idea?
“Really? Do you think you’ve been cooperative up until now? You won’t tell us what’s going on. You’re barely eating or drinking. You were hooked up to an IV only a few hours ago. What were you gonna do with that port anyway?” Aleki asked.
She touched the port in her hand with a grimace. “Um, likely leave it in.”
“Good plan,” Wolfe said sardonically. “When it got infected, you could end up back in the hospital and on another dose of antibiotics.”
She glared at him.
“Here.” Caleb produced a handkerchief. Trust him to have one. He gently wiped her cheeks. “Blow.”
Embarrassed, she reached for the hanky.
“Uh-uh, you’re gonna have to learn how to obey, jelly bean,” Caleb growled. “I didn’t say hold it. I said blow.”
All of them were silent, watching. Shit. She blew. He wiped. “And again.” She blew. Another wipe and she was ready for death. Was there anything more embarrassing than having a hot guy blow your nose for you?
Oh yeah, having two hot guys watch.
Don’t be silly, Vivi. There’re more embarrassing things. You could be naked. Or you could have peed your pants.
Oh wait, she’d already done that.
“You don’t always have to fight, Vivi,” Aleki told her. “Sometimes it’s okay just to give in and let someone else be in charge.”
Caleb ran his hand over her hair. “You don’t have to be strong all the time. It doesn’t make you weak to need help or to not make all the decisions or to trust someone else to look after you.”
“I’m so used to doing it all myself.”
“Now you have us,” Caleb said confidently. “You don’t have to.”
If only she really did have them. “You’re not angry I took off?”
“It’s been eight years and trust won’t be rebuilt quickly,” Caleb told her. “But if you open up and let us in, I promise that we will look after you.”
God, she wanted that so badly. To tell them everything. To not carry it all herself. To have them close again. It was an ache that had never gone away.
“How about we talk about this back at the hospital,” Aleki suggested. “She’s exhausted and she needs to be checked out by the doctor.”
11
By the time they got back to the building that housed the private hospital, she was squirming in Aleki’s arms.
“Stay still,” he ordered.
“You shouldn’t carry me so far. I can walk and what about your back?”
“There’s nothing wrong with my back. And you weigh hardly anything. You need to start eating more.”
“I’ll get her some dinner,” Wolfe said as they stepped into the elevator.
“And you shouldn’t be walking on that foot,” Caleb told her. “I can’t believe you walked two blocks on it and in flip flops.”
“I couldn’t get a shoe onto it. And I didn’t know where they were anyway.”
Jesus. She really had to go. She pressed her thighs together. She’d always had the tiniest bladder.
“I threw them out,” Wolfe told her.
“What? Damn it, they were the only pair of shoes I had other than these.” She waved her hand at her flip flops.
“They were covered in mud and other substances I don’t want to get into,” Wolfe told her with a grimace. “I’ll buy you more.”
She ground her teeth together.
“Hey, don’t do that.” Caleb cupped the side of her face, peering down at her worriedly. “What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”
“No. Yes.”
“Well, which is it?” Wolfe asked.
“It’s nothing,” she told them.
“What talk did we just have?” Aleki growled at her. “About letting other people help you and opening up?”
“I just really have to use the bathroom,” she muttered. “Okay? It’s not that big of a deal. But I’ve already sucked my thumb, vomited, and had snot running down my face in front of you all. I’m kind of at my limit for embarrassing shit.”
Not to mention she was carrying around a toy pig.
She bet that Caleb’s little white dude had crawled back into his shell.
“Can we stop calling my cock a little white dude?” Caleb moaned as they stepped out of the elevator.
Whoops. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Aleki strode into her room and headed straight to the bathroom. “You guys sort out food and the doc, I’ll get her settled.”
He shut the door behind them, not giving Caleb and Wolfe any choice but to do as he’d ordered. She raised her eyebrows at him
He grinned back. “What? They need a bit of their own back every once in a while. Bossy bastards.”
He set her down but held onto her hips as she kept all her weight on her good foot. She tried to move towards the toilet but he held her still. “Stay where you are.”
“But I really gots to pee.”
Okay, why did her voice sound so childlike? She hugged Piggles tight, feeling a bit uncertain.
“I know. I’m going to help you. Hold onto me and keep your weight on your good foot.”
“Not this again,” she groaned. “I can go to the toilet on my own, Aleki.”
“Again?” he drawled. “Someone else has been helping you pee?”
“Um, Caleb did. Once.” Was he jealous? He couldn’t get jealous over someone else helping her pee, right?
“Well, then you should be used to some help,” was all he said. Then he bent and drew her pants and panties down. She blushed hotly. At least her T-shirt was long enough to hide everything. He helped her sit on the toilet.