She rolled her eyes. "I used to be fat, Zane. If I keep eating like this, I'll gain all that weight back."
"Good. You were never fat. Eat," he insisted.
She had been overweight, but she wasn't right now, and she actually needed to put on some pounds, a novel experience for her since she had been chubby since she was a child. Being able to eat without guilt was the only bright spot in this otherwise nightmarish experience.
As she shoveled food into her mouth, she could feel Zane watching her, but when she looked at him, he looked away and started filling a plate for himself.
Between bites, she told him, "God, this is either really amazing food, or I'm so hungry that anything more edible than hospital food tastes good."
"It's good," Zane confirmed, seating himself in a chair next to her bed and starting to eat. "It's the best Asian food in the area. I've tried every one of them. It's one of my favorites, too."
Ellie watched him covertly as she ate, her heart flip-flopping just as it always did whenever she saw Zane. Now that he was her rescuer, it made her youthful infatuation spring to life again.
It's hero worship. It has to be. Zane was responsible for saving my life. I absolutely am not really attracted to him.
Irritatingly, Ellie had to acknowledge that she wasn't totally convinced her desire to devour him along with her food wasn't all about the fact that Zane saved her.
Something about Zane Colter had always attracted her like a giant magnet. She'd never figured out whether it was because he was amazingly smart, or if it was the fact that he was the hottest guy she'd ever seen. His dark hair was a little too long, and occasionally some of those black tresses fell onto his forehead, making him seem more approachable. He had the trademark Colter eyes, gray and ever-changing in shade, depending on his mood.
She could say Zane was nice, but one would never know it. She knew because she was acquainted with him, but he was often distracted or quiet, not because he was a jerk, but because he simply had nothing to say.
Ellie was pretty sure he didn't give a damn about status, or what kind of clothing he wore. Mostly, she'd seen him in jeans and flannel shirts. In the summer, he opted for a T-shirt. His big feet were usually in a pair of hiking boots, and his hair had no semblance of order or even a definitive cut. Nope. He definitely wasn't a guy who spent a lot of time trying to look trendy. He never had been. Maybe that's why she'd always liked him. He was naturally hotter than hell, but never acted like he knew it.
He had been as socially awkward as she had back in high school. While people said he was shy, she'd never seen him that way. Problem was, Zane was too smart to be happy having a conversation he thought was irrelevant. He'd been too busy trying to figure out every scientific mystery that existed on the planet. Most other high school guys had just wanted to get laid.
"I'm stuffed," she groaned as she pushed her plate back.
He looked up from his plate. "You hardly ate anything."
"My stomach is smaller," she informed him.
"You're too skinny," he replied gruffly.
Ellie laughed. "I've never had that problem before." She was still thin, but now that she was being pumped full of nutrition and hydrated, it probably wouldn't take long for her to gain weight. It never did.
She smiled at him, liking the fact that he was blunt and always said whatever he was thinking. His words were rarely censored, and he didn't seem to care whether they were tactful or not.
"They're going to let you go home in a few days. I thought we could go to my house in Denver, but it's a media circus outside. I think you'd be safer in Rocky Springs. My property there is secure, and if they set one foot on Colter land, they'll be arrested. We can take off from the helipad on the roof."
"Zane, I can't go home with you. I'll stay with Aileen for a while if I need to, try to figure out what I'm going to do. You've already lost enough time trying to find me and then taking care of me. I'm going to have to get my shit together pretty fast."
"You're staying with me, even if I have to toss you over my shoulder and take you to my house. Mom's home isn't secure. Hell, she doesn't even have an alarm system. My property is fenced. I have a small lab there, and it needed to be secure." He took her plate and started to finish off her food after dumping his own empty dish into the garbage.
"My apartment-"
"It's been rented. All of your stuff was sent to my house, and the furniture was put in storage."
Ellie's heart sank. "I didn't think my landlady would evict me."
In a kinder voice, Zane answered, "Nobody believed you were even alive anymore, Ellie. You were gone seven months. She didn't exactly evict you."
You believed it, or you wouldn't have kept searching. Ellie still wondered why Zane had kept searching when even the police had given up hope of finding her alive.
She sighed and started plucking at the white blanket nervously. "I suppose. Life moved on without me."
"Not for everybody. And never for me," Zane told her in a graveled voice as he dumped her now-empty plate and opened the bag of candy.
"Why didn't you and Chloe give up? Why didn't you just assume I was dead or gone?" Ellie knew Zane was analytical and realistic. He was a scientist. After seven months gone, the likelihood of him finding her alive had been pretty much nil. A brain that was as rational as Zane's should have told him to quit looking.
He pinned her with his intense stare, his eyes smoky and dark. He took one of the chocolates he'd unwrapped and held it to her mouth.
It was a strange sensation, having a guy feed her, but she opened her lips and sucked in the round chocolate, the explosive taste of sweetness making her bite back a moan of pleasure.
Finally, Zane answered, "Because I didn't want to believe it, Ell. Until I had positive proof that you were gone, I wasn't going to stop looking for you. It's as simple as that."
The use of his shortened version of her name surprised her. Nobody had ever called her that but him, and not since they were teenagers. She'd always kind of liked it when they were young. Ellie looked up at him, mesmerized by the fierce expression on his face. Zane was a scientist. Of course he would have wanted to find her body for her family and Chloe, but she sensed his reasons were somehow … different. Like a personal mission he wasn't willing to stop. "But there was no hope."
"Bullshit. I always had hope, Ellie. I know you well enough to know you're a fighter, and so does Chloe. Neither one of us ever believed the bullshit assumption that you just left in your vehicle and never came back. It made no sense. Both of us discounted that theory as soon as the police threw it out."
Thank God for that! If he hadn't been so tenacious, she'd be dead by now.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I'm grateful you never gave up on finding me." If he had stopped looking for her, she wouldn't have lasted much longer alone. Her doctors had told her bluntly she probably couldn't have survived another day without water, food, or warmth.
"I would have never given up," he grumbled.
He fed her another chocolate, preventing her from responding. Eventually, they needed to talk about his plans to take her home with him. Until then, she'd savor both the sweet treat and the man who had given it to her.
His desire to help her, and his gruff tenderness, were a side of Zane she'd never seen before. Of course, she'd seen little of him since he'd left for college, and he'd turned into one hell of a grown man. She'd just never spent enough time with him to realize just how special he'd grown up to be.
However, he'd done enough for her, and he'd eventually see the sense in her staying with Aileen until she was fully recovered. The media would find another story and stop hounding her after a while.
She knew she'd have to stop depending on Zane. He'd been her rescuer, and that was enough. Somehow, she'd pick herself up and recover from the damage that had been done to her body, mind, and soul.
As he offered her another piece of candy, she shook her head. She was going to have to learn to resist temptation. Somehow, she was pretty certain that avoiding chocolate wouldn't be her most difficult test in the near future, but it was definitely a place to start.
Two days later, Ellie still hadn't convinced Zane to be more reasonable or sensible. Exactly when he had become so hardheaded and bossy she wasn't certain, but he could be relentless and uncompromising when he really wanted something, or thought it was the best solution.
She knew she had to either cut her ties to him now, or she'd end up needing to see him every time she was afraid.
"I'm not going home with you," Ellie told him stubbornly as a nurse pushed her toward the elevator in a wheelchair after she was discharged.