Only Pleasure(114)

"Hey, bro. Dinnertime." Cameron swaggered into the room, a greasy bag in one hand, two cups of coffee in a holder in the other.

He looked at Kia, his gaze flashing with compassion before his attention was distracted by his fiancée moving in behind him.

"Is she asleep?" Jaci whispered, her big green eyes concerned.

They had stuck by him the past two days, Cameron and Jaci, sleeping in the chairs in the hallway or stretching out on the couch in the waiting room when they could. They hadn't left until that evening to rest and shower before coming back.

Khalid had a bodyguard outside her door just in case there was further trouble and another doctor had been flown in from New York to consult with Sanjer, just to be on the safe side.

Friends surrounded her. Ian and Courtney, Ella and James, Terrie and her husband, Jesse. They had all been there. Even Devril, Lucian, and Tally had cut their vacation short to return home and visit her in the hospital. Saxon and Marey, friends of Chase's who Kia hadn't met yet, had called several times from where they were visiting with Sax's family in California, and Kimberly and Jared had been in to see her several times. Flowers filled the room, and he hoped she felt the friendship.

She would never be alone again, Chase promised himself. No matter what happened, there would always be friends surrounding her.

"Come on, Chase. Coffee and food." Cameron tapped his shoulder, drawing his attention. "She's going home tomorrow, and everything's going to be fine."

"She's coming home." And he could finally believe it. Finally, that lonely, dark apartment full of the memories of a life that had ended when he was a child would be a home.

Because of Kia. Because she had taken pleasure and turned it into love. Because she had filled his heart, just as he knew she was going to fill his life.

It wasn't only pleasure anymore. Hell, Chase knew, it never had been.