Torture to Her Soul(29)

"An invalid?" I raise an eyebrow at her. "Are you calling me worthless?"

"Well…" She gives me a playful smile as she steps toward me. "If the shoe fits."

"I'm wounded."

"You are," she points out, motioning toward my side. Her expression shifts the closer she gets to me, worry lining her face. The tranquility fades as once more turmoil takes over. Pausing in front of me, she reaches up and cups my cheek. "You're sweating like crazy, Naz. What are you doing standing here?"

"Thinking about how beautiful you are."

It's the truth.

That's exactly what I was doing.

I don't think I've told her that enough.

She rolls her eyes, the flush on her cheeks deepening, as she reaches up to feel my forehead. "You've got to have a fever."

Grasping her wrist, I pull her hand away from me and shake my head. "I'm fine."

"So you keep saying." She steps back and hesitates before walking over to where her purse sits on the counter. She searches through it for a moment, pulling out two orange pill bottles, and turns back to me. "I went and got your prescriptions filled, grabbed some other stuff while I was waiting for them. I didn't know what kind of health insurance you had…"

"I don't have any."

She looks genuinely surprised. "None?"

"No."

"You should really have some."

"Do you have health insurance?"

She doesn't. I know she doesn't. Her shake of the head doesn't surprise me a bit. Insurance means records, which means a trail of paperwork that can lead someone straight to you.

"Well, I don't need any," I say. "My doctor takes cash payments instead."

"Anyway," she says, disregarding my statement as she holds up the pill bottles. "I went ahead and just paid full price for them, you know, since I didn't know if you had any coverage, and I didn't want to wake you up to ask."

"I appreciate it, but you shouldn't have bothered," I say. "I have no plans to take them."

Her expression falls quickly as she looks between the pill and me. "If you're worried… I mean, if you think I messed with them, I swear I didn't. You can count the pills… check them. You'll see."

"It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't like being medicated."

"But you need them," she says, shaking the pill bottles at me. "Ones an antibiotic. You don't want to get any sicker. And the other's just for the pain. I know you have to be in pain."

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not," she says, raising her voice, the last word cracking a bit as she forces it from her lips. I can see the gleam in her eyes from where I stand, unshed tears building around the edges. "You're being stubborn. You won't eat my soup, you won't take your medicine, you won't rest… I had to fight with you to get you to accept a damn blanket. You tell me I overthink things. Ha! Look at you! You're worse than I am!"

She's yelling at me.

Yelling.

She's beautiful when she yells, too.

A smile cracks my face, but it does nothing to calm her down. If anything, it gets her more riled up. She glares at the sight of it, cocking her head as she studies me. "What are you smiling at?"

"You," I admit. "You're still so beautiful."

"And you're goddamn delirious," she says, her voice dead serious as she steps toward me again, thrusting the pill bottles right at my chest. I wince as she hits me, nearly stumbling backward, letting out a low hiss as the jolt in my body makes the fire in the wound rage. Her expression shifts as if she's been doused with a bucket of ice water, eyes wide with regret. "I'm sorry, I—"

"Don't apologize," I say, clutching hold of the bottles. "I figured you'd like seeing me suffer."

"Yeah, well, you figured wrong," she says. "Believe it or not, I'm not that kind of person. I'm not a sadistic freak who gets off watching others struggle."

I stare at her as she takes a step back away from me. There's a fire in her today, stronger than it's ever been before, but I don't think she has it in her to be intentionally cruel. "Like me, you mean?"

"What?"

I palm both bottles in my left hand, reaching for her with my right. She startles as I run my fingertips down her neck, my hand coming to rest at the base of her throat. "A sadistic freak who gets off on others struggling."

"I didn't mean it that way. I wasn't calling you—"

Before she can finish, I pull my hand from her skin and turn away from her, shaking the pill bottles. "I'll consider taking the antibiotic."

"What about the pain killer?"