Ignoring his pain, he opened his eyes all the way and found her staring back at him. The electric current he had felt from her touch now reaching deep into his soul, a connection that only came when one was gazing upon his mate. The pull so hard to resist it took a considerable amount of his waning strength not to pull her across his chest just to feel her warmth against his skin. Her hand on his chest lit a fire his battered body had a hard time ignoring. He knew she felt it too as he watched her pupils dilate and her breathing speed up.
“I cannot go to a human hospital. I will heal, I promise you. All I need to do is sleep.” He couldn’t believe he had forced all of those words through his cracking lips. His tongue so swollen and mouth so dry he was sure he could drink an entire trough of water and still be dehydrated.
She furrowed her brow and narrowed her eyes. He was sure she was ready to force the issue and he was not disappointed. “But you have to…Wait! Did you say human?” Her eyes once again opened wide, “What do you mean, human? I know you hit your head but what’s the matter with you otherwise? Are you delusional or…an alien?” Kyndel scoffed.
He knew she was joking, at least for the most part. She had been through an incredible amount of stress in a very short period of time. What with caring for him while kneeling on the cold concrete and thinking she was dealing with a crazy man. His beautiful mate deserved a massage, a bubble bath and a nice glass of wine, if only he could give her those things. Unfortunately they had more pressing matters to attend to.
He once again shook his head this time resulting in black spots clouding his line of sight. “No, not alien, just different,” he said carefully. He couldn’t afford to scare her away and if the way her pulse kicked up under his hand was any indication, she was ready to run far and fast away from him. “Please, Kyndel. Help me. I just need a few hours to sleep and heal. I will explain everything to you after that, I promise.” He paused to see if his words had any effect on the beautiful woman before him. “I just need your help… please.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
She took another long look at the man she’d tripped over just a few minutes ago, realizing that arguing whether or not to go to the hospital was getting them nowhere. Then there was the pleading tone of his voice that melted away whatever resolve she had left. Sure, she never trusted anyone without putting them through her extensive, time honored, personal vetting system but there was just something about this man. Something about the way he made her feel. Something in the way all the usual doubts she had about new people didn’t surface with him. Of course, there was the way he talked like an escaped mental patient that should have made her scream her head off and pray someone came to her rescue but that still didn’t make her run off into the night. She just chalked all his crazy talk up to shock and a concussion. She was also sure, in ways she couldn’t explain, that he had done something to protect her. Call it woman’s intuition but all the noises she had heard coming from the park and the way he worked so hard, despite his injuries, to keep her close said he was here for more than a half-naked walk in the park and he definitely was not searching for her less than professional First Aid skills. To top it all off, the sexy way her name rolled off his tongue made her want to hear it over and over again, maybe even whispered in her ear. Even if she could ignore all the other reasons, there was still her granny’s voice screaming in her ear that this man needed help and she needed to be the one to help him. “Ok, I have no clue why but I am giving you three hours to ‘rest and heal’. If you are not better, I promise you, I am calling the ambulance and having you forcibly taken to the hospital.” She raised one eyebrow and gave him the fiercest look she could muster. “You got that, bub? Nobody dies on my watch.”
She watched him relax at her acquiescence. He had to be in serious pain but he was at least partly to blame. If he would go the hospital, a doctor could give him some good painkillers, patch him up and put him in a soft bed. Then he could rest and heal but no, not this guy. He thought a nap was going to cure what ailed him. She had no idea why in the hell she was agreeing to this crap. If she helped this guy and he died at her apartment, she would kill him. She noticed he was just staring at her and realized he couldn’t hear her inner monologue. She really needed to stop talking to herself. Things were bad enough without adding her special kind of crazy to the mix
No matter how much she waited for the little voice in her head to warn her that this was a mistake, it stayed completely silent on the matter. It seemed that ‘Catty Kyndel’ only reared her ugly head to point out when she was acting like a nut, just her luck. All signs pointed to the fact that she really should help the amazingly gorgeous guy before her and in all honesty, there was no way she could deny him her help as he laid there practically begging with pain etched upon his beautiful face. It didn’t help that something about the feelings he unleashed in her defied all logic and common sense and wormed their way past all of her firmly built defenses. No matter how hard she tried, she could not stop thinking about his perfectly muscled body against hers, his bedroom eyes boring into hers and his erotically calloused fingers touching so much more than her wrist. It didn’t even matter that the poor guy was hurt, bleeding and talking about being different. The only thing she could attribute her sudden insanity to was all the craziness of the day, heavily influenced by the way he looked at her. And how could she forget the way her name rolled off his tongue.