Billionaire Bachelors 7 ; The Billionaire's Final Stand(85)

"Mr. Anderson?"

"Yes. That's me," he said as he faced the approaching doctor.

"Sorry about the wait. I understand you're the one who came in with Ms. Shelton?"

"Yes."

"Are you family?"

"Well, it's complicated," he hedged.

The doctor looked at him for a few moments as if trying to decide on what he should or shouldn't say. Being that Austin was the one who'd come in with her, the doctor conceded, "She has deep bruising on her arm. It's going to be sore for a while. From my understanding, her attacker hit her in the face. She has a slight crack in her cheekbone, but it will heal. Until then, she's going to have swelling and it's bruised pretty deep. She's going to be sore for a few days. At this time we don't see any brain damage or anything else wrong." 

Austin wanted to punch something, as rage boiled. He knew that piece of crap was somewhere in the hospital and he wanted nothing more than to hunt him down and do some major damage.

"Ms. Shelton has agreed to press charges, which is good. We have the cops with her attacker now. He'll go from here to jail. I'm not supposed to say this, but you broke his jaw," the doctor said. He didn't look heartbroken over it.

"Thank you," Austin told him, feeling a bit better that Jack wasn't getting off pain free.

"She's being moved to a room for the night. We'd like to keep an eye on her in case there was something we initially missed."

With that, the doctor left and Austin walked to the front desk, receiving directions to her room. He walked the long hallway, then hesitated outside her door. He didn't know what kind of reaction he was going to get from her. He knew he couldn't go in there showing the anger he was feeling. Of course, it wasn't projected at her, but she still didn't need to see it.

He stepped inside to find her sitting up in bed. Her head turned when he came through the doorway, and their eyes locked together. Fury once again overwhelmed him at the bruising on her arm and the deep purple overtaking the left side of her face.

"Hey," he lamely said.

"Thank you, Austin," she whispered.

"I'm so sorry, Kinsey. I should've been there sooner."

"I'm glad you got there when you did. I have a feeling I'd be a whole lot worse off, otherwise," she said as a tremble racked her body. He wanted to take her pain away, to hold her.

He walked to her bed and sat down with her watching him warily.

"I can't believe he touched you," Austin growled.

"I'm fine, Austin. Really, I am. My face and arm are a bit sore, but I'm fine," she promised.

"When I saw him hit you, I … "

"I know. I'm just glad you happened to be around," she interrupted. He should be grateful she was admitting she was happy to see him, even if it had taken her getting attacked first.

His hand came up and gently caressed the uninjured side of her face. Her eyes grew wider as she took in a deep breath and watched him.

"Kinsey," he practically begged her.

"I can't … "

"I just …  I need … "

Austin stopped trying to vocalize how he was feeling and he leaned in and gently took her lips with his. She didn't try to stop him. He didn't want to hurt her any further, but he needed to taste her lips, needed to reassure himself she was really okay, that she was there with him. If something worse would've happened, he didn't know what he'd do. He couldn't let himself even think about it.

He leaned closer, his hand moving to stroke the back of her neck, his touch on her lips careful as he slid his tongue along her bottom lip. It wasn't about passion or fulfillment, it was about reassuring himself she was real, she was there, she was his.

He felt heat rush through him, a warmth that seemed to focus on his heart, and enlarge it ten times its normal size.

Finally, he pulled back and slowly opened his eyes to look at her face. She opened her own eyes as if she were in a trance, gazing at him with such wonder and awe in her expression, that if he hadn't been sitting already, her look would've knocked him to his knees.

"Let me stay here with you, Kinsey. Let me hold you."




 

 

She looked at him as the fog started to clear. Her eyes filled with tears - pain, need, confusion all mixed in her expression. He knew the answer before she uttered the word. He was tempted to kiss her again, to prevent her from saying it.

"No."

"Why? Why do we have to make this complicated? It's just one night," he asked. He'd never before begged a woman for anything, but she was causing all kinds of firsts for him, it seemed.

"It's just too …  complicated. One night won't fix or change anything."

"We want each other, Kinsey. We care about each other. It doesn't need to be more complicated than that," he said. He felt a glimmer of hope at the hesitation in her eyes.