Whatever the cause, Carter felt himself loosening. His limbs softened. His body went limp. His eyelids closed and didn’t open for hours.
Chapter Thirteen
Carter slept the rest of the plane ride back to Fort Worth. The bumpy landing as they touched earth during the middle of stiff Texas winds awakened him. After that, it was a matter of getting up, getting down the ramp and into the waiting car, then travelling from the Costas’s private airfield on their extensive property back to the mansion and his own rooms there. Throughout it all, Ellie stuck by him, including the next couple of hours as Sean’s face, then Ciara’s, wavered over him, speaking words about how he was safe now and they were glad he’d made it back. Once he was in his rooms, on his bed, he thought maybe the ordeal was over. No, a couple more medical personnel were already there, waiting. Ellie, holding his hand, explained they were going to give him meds and get him stitched up. He didn’t argue. The procedure passed in a fog, and so did the rest of the morning, far into the following day.
By the time he awakened, afternoon sunlight filtered through and around the curtains someone had drawn over the floor to ceiling windows facing the Costas’s expansive lawns and small, private lake. Dappled shadows from the naked tree branches outside danced across the carpet, the floor. For a moment, Carter was confused, wondering how he was here, back inside his space in the Costas mansion when he’d gone to Washington to see Ellie. Hadn’t he?
The confusion quickly waned as he reached up to rub his face. He felt the pull in his side, the place where he’d been sliced and stitched back together. Memories, many of them muddled, especially of the intervening hours between Blake’s attack and now, came crashing back. The attack Carter remembered very well. He also remembered awakening to his hospital bed being bumped and seeing the wendigo.
Remembering that made him remember her.
“Ellie?”
No response, but a soft snore attracted his attention, and he glanced to the opposite side of the bed. To his amazement, she was curled up on the far side of the queen bed, the blankets puddled around her waist. Judging by the even fall and rise of her shoulders, as well as her snores, she was still asleep. No surprise there. She’d had a long night too. Probably longer than him in some ways. He’d been in and out of consciousness the entire time, thanks to medication and painkillers, whereas she’d been awake, doing his job, handling all the details, protecting him.
For the longest time, Carter found himself simply sitting there, staring at the woman in his bed. He couldn’t help remembering the first night they’d been thrown together, the night she’d seen Nosizwe’s shifters attack the Costas family and had been thrown into the war between Sean Costas and his rival. The assumption by Nosizwe’s shifters that Ellie was already involved, and on Sean’s side, had led to a nasty attack on Ellie. More than one. With Sean charging him to protect her, he’d finally gotten her to a safe place for the night, a rundown motel in a low-rent, red light district of Fort Worth where they could safely vanish for the night. Ellie had gotten into bed and passed out almost immediately, and, after showering, Carter had joined her there. But hadn’t stayed. He’d felt guilty about lying alongside her, knowing she wasn’t the type of girl to get in bed with a stranger.
She still wasn’t that type of girl, and he wouldn’t have dreamed to see her lying next to him in his bed, but there she was.
What had changed? The fact that they were legally, if only temporarily, married? Could such an absurd arrangement make that big a difference to her? Remembering her assertions that she hadn’t dated anyone during the past months because they were married, he realized it probably did and had.
Maybe, even deep in her sleep, Ellie felt the tug of his focus because she stirred. The cadence of her breathing changed. She rolled her shoulder, stretched her legs under the blanket, then swept the hair out of her face. He saw her go still and then sit up abruptly, turning to face him, reaching for her glasses on the nightstand.
“Carter?”
He heard the concern in her voice. Her first waking thought was to check on him. In spite of himself, he found that oddly touching.
“I’m okay.”
She smiled when she saw him sitting up, awake.
“Wow, you sure look different than you did night before last. How are you feeling?”
“Better,” he told her, and it was the truth. The pain had lessened. He figured after getting properly stitched up and rested he was already starting to heal. “Night before last?” he added trying to pin down the timeline. “Have I been out that long? “
“Over twenty-four hours,” Ellie confirmed. “I’m so glad to see you looking better. I was really worried about you.”
Carter caught a quip before it could escape, a joke about for her to be here in bed with him she must have been worried. Truth was, it was kind of…nice, waking up and seeing her there. He didn’t want to embarrass or scare her, make her run.
“I survived. So did you.”
“It was pretty hairy there for a while,” she agreed. “I was so glad—” She stopped on a yawn. “Sorry. It’s been a rough couple of days. I haven’t slept much. I didn’t want to sleep or to leave you until I was sure you were okay. Finally couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. Decided to take a nap here. Hope you don’t mind.”
His first instinct was to build the innocent remark into something a lot racier. Instead, “Don’t mind at all, but you look like you could use some coffee,” he observed. She still looked tired. Probably needed more of a nap than she’d gotten.
“I still don’t drink it,” she reminded him.
“Maybe you should.”
“Maybe. I’m sure the caffeine would be nice.”
“You want some hot tea or something instead?”
Ellie gave him a funny look.
“Are you offering to go get it for me? You shouldn’t be playing host right now. Besides, it’s not even your house. You still need to be resting.”
“I’m not getting up and making it, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m going to call down to the kitchen and have it sent up. I was about to send for breakfast, anyway. You hungry?”
“Breakfast?” She chuckled, kicked away the blankets, and stood. “It’s way past breakfast time, but, sure, why not? I haven’t eaten a real meal since before I came to see you in your hotel room. Gosh, that seems like a year ago.”
“It was a wild night.”
“You don’t know the half of it. It was a lot like the first night we met. Not quite that bad, but bad. Until I saw Tracy at the plane, I really doubted we were going to make it.” She paused, a teasing smile curling her mouth. “So, does this make us even? You saved my life that night, I saved yours last night?”
“Make us even?” He considered that. “Maybe.”
“Awesome. That means, now that we’re even, we can go back to fighting and arguing like we used to. All of this being nice to each other is getting to be too much.”
She winked, letting him know it was a joke, before disappearing into the bathroom and closing the door.
Carter picked up the phone to call down for breakfast, even though it was really getting closer to suppertime. However, he wanted breakfast food and he didn’t mind requesting it. He picked up the phone, pressed 3 for the kitchen, and asked for the works: pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausage. Coffee for him. Breakfast tea for Ellie. Charlene, who ran the kitchens, asked how the tea should be served. He didn’t know what, if anything, Ellie would want in it, so he told her to send up cream and sugar.