MasterofVelvet (22 page)

She felt so tired—so very tired. Perhaps a little nap would
help. She leaned forward, pillowing her head on her arm. Just a few moments. That
was all she’d need. She’d be fine then.

Adam groaned. He couldn’t remember having been around any horses
lately but sure as hell one had kicked him. Judging by the way everything was
aching, it must have been a bloody carthorse.

That was funny. He couldn’t remember painting his bedroom
ceiling that insipid eggshell color either. And the smell—it was the
unmistakable smell of a hospital and for a second it was ten years ago. He felt
the pain, the nausea, the shame all over again.

No, not ten years…

“Beth!” Her name came out as an almost unintelligible croak.

He tried to get up but it felt like his head weighed about
two tons. When he tried again, he became aware of several things all at once,
his side hurt like hell, even more than the rest of his body, and he was damn
near strapped to the bed by a bunch of tubes and wires. A steady beeping
provided a comforting confirmation that he was still alive.

Movement drew his attention to the left. A middle-aged nurse
with a cheerful smile was standing there. “Good afternoon, Mr. Granger, good of
you to join us at last.” She checked the displays on the monitors around him.
“How do you feel?”

“Like shit,” he rasped unapologetically. “Where’s Beth? Miss
Harrison? How is she?”

“Your young lady? I believe they’re getting ready to
discharge her.”

Discharge her? She’d been an inmate too? “Is she all right?
I want to see her.”

To his surprise the nurse chuckled. “She’ll be here soon I’m
sure. The only reason she isn’t here now is because they have to go through the
discharge paperwork. I don’t know how but she managed to persuade her doctor
and yours to let her spend most of the time here with you. She wouldn’t leave
your side unless one of the doctors ordered her out. I would imagine she’ll be
back here by the time the doctor’s done with you. He’s on his way now.”

Adam felt his eyelids closing. Bloody anesthetic. He had to stay
awake—he had to see Beth, make sure she was all right. He endured the prodding
and poking, not to mention the endless questions, with mounting impatience. He
knew he’d been lucky that it was a low-velocity round that had hit him. He knew
he’d been even luckier that it was a non-penetrating wound that hadn’t done any
lasting damage to any major organs. He didn’t need to hear the lecture from a
medic—he’d seen enough battlefield injuries to know just how fortunate he was.

By the time the doctor was giving instructions for his
further care Adam had switched off mentally from what was going on around him
and was looking beyond the hospital staff to the entrance to the ICU—waiting
for his woman to appear.

Consequently he was only vaguely aware of the doctor’s
departure. He’d spotted Beth peering into the unit and as she came toward him
relief flooded his heart. Thank God. She was safe. Pale and tired but safe and
that was all that mattered.

“You all right, little one?” They’d given him something to
drink but it was still an effort to speak.

“I am now.” She smiled but he could see the unusual shine in
her eyes. He watched her lift his hand to her cheek, brush her lips across the
back of it. “They said I could have a few minutes with you but they want you to
rest.”

“As if I have any choice.” He touched the bruise that colored
her jaw. “I shouldn’t have let this happen.”

She held his hand to her face as she shook her head. “Don’t,
Adam. Don’t blame yourself for something you couldn’t control.”

“I should have made you leave.”

She tilted her head. “Didn’t you hear what I just said?
Don’t blame yourself for something you couldn’t control. You couldn’t control
Ewan Underwood and do you really think you could have made me go anywhere
without you?”

The guilt still made him feel sick though. If it wasn’t for
him, she wouldn’t have had to fight for her life. She wouldn’t have known the
kind of fear no civilian should ever know nor would she ever have seen the kind
of violence a civilian should never have to witness.

“Dan’s coming to pick me up soon,” she continued quietly.
“He had a meeting in London this morning, something about ensuring that the
right people were made aware of what happened and the appropriate steps are
taken to deal with any consequences. What does that mean?”

Adam swallowed. His mind was still fuzzy but he knew what
Dan was up to. “It means there’ll be no investigation into Underwood’s untimely
demise. I would guess that Dan has enough material to put together a case for
self-defense.”

She nodded, taking in what he’d told her. “He also said he’d
stay at Winterleigh with me until—until you come home. He was going to take me
back to London to his place but I wanted to be here so I could come and see
you.

“And,” she added, suddenly unable to look him in the eyes,
“we need…we need to talk—but not now.”

What did she want to talk about
? he wondered.
Statements like that seldom boded well. Had she decided that the experiences of
the last couple of weeks were all too much?

All of a sudden, Adam felt an iron band tighten around his
heart—was this her way of telling him that she was planning to say goodbye?

* * * * *

Previous painful experience told Adam that he wasn’t going
to get out of the hospital anytime soon and although the doctor treating him
kept making encouraging noises about his progress, it was only Beth’s daily
visits that kept him from going insane with a combination of frustration and
boredom.

The cuts and bruises she’d sustained at the hands of Ewan
Underwood were healing well. Each day brought a marked improvement. However,
what Adam was disturbed to note was the darkening of the shadows that
surrounded her beautiful eyes. She clearly wasn’t sleeping well if at all, a
fact that she confirmed when he questioned her about it.

“Don’t worry about it, Adam,” she told him, trying to
reassure him that it wasn’t important. “It’s just a phase. It’ll pass.”

“Tell me why you aren’t sleeping,” he insisted. By now
they’d taken away a lot of the equipment monitoring his condition and were even
making noises about moving him out of the ICU in a day or two. He was already
having some physiotherapy
in situ
.

“It’s nothing.”

“So help me Beth, if it weren’t for the fact that it would
shock the hell out of the staff, I’d put you over my knee and spank some sense
into you!” Adam kept his voice low and tightly controlled. “Just because I’m in
here it doesn’t mean you can forget all about the rules!”

Her eyes widened in alarm and then he saw the moment when
her defenses came down. She glanced down at her hands, clenched together on her
lap. “Nightmares,” she admitted, her voice barely more than a murmur. “I keep—I
keep seeing you, that moment just before Dan came in but in my nightmares he’s
too late, and—I lose you. Over and over again. Some nights, I’m afraid to go to
sleep.”

And Adam knew all about that. He held out his hand and she
came to his uninjured side, resting her head against him while he held her as
best he could and murmured reassurance. “I’ll be home soon,” he promised. “Just
as soon as I can and you’ll never have another nightmare, I swear.”

“It’s not just that, Adam.” She sat up straight again. “Dan
told me what happened to you ten years ago—not in detail but enough for me to
know.”

Adam felt all the color drain out of his face, as a look of
complete horror came over Beth’s face, her hand covering her open mouth when
she realized what she’d said.

“Oh God, I never meant—“

“I don’t want your pity, Beth, and if that’s all there is
left—“

“Shh.” She touched her finger to his lips to silence him.
“Not pity, never that. Love and admiration for a man of incredible strength and
courage.” She laid her palm against his cheek, her other hand holding his. For
long moments, she simply looked at him. And then all he saw was love and want
and need. She leaned closer, her hand on his cheek coaxing his head to the
right place for his mouth to receive her kiss, a gentle touching of lips to
tell him what he meant to her. “I wish I’d been here for you then. I wasn’t and
there’s nothing I can do about that no matter how much I wish it. What I can do
something about is the future—I can be here for you for as long as you want me.
Please want me.”

His free hand reached up, covered hers and brought it to his
mouth so that he could press a kiss to her palm as she had done so many times
for him. When he spoke his voice was raw with emotion. This woman—his woman—was
nothing short of a miracle. He would never know what he’d done to deserve her
but whatever it was, he planned to keep on doing it for the rest of his life.

“You’re here now. That’s all that matters.” He curved his
hand around the back of her head, exerting just enough pressure to draw her
close enough for a further, longer kiss. “I love you, Beth Harrison. So damn
much the thought of losing you kills me. I’ve wanted you since the day I met
you and I’ll never stop wanting you. Never.”

* * * * *

Adam was settling back into bed after a frustratingly gentle
amble round the physiotherapy department when Dan Chesterfield arrived for his
first visit since Adam came out of the ICU. It was also his first visit since
Beth had let slip that the other man had told her about what had happened ten
years ago. He let his friend make himself comfortable in the visitor’s armchair
before speaking.

“Why did you tell her?” Adam knew he didn’t need to
elaborate any further.

Dan’s eyes met his. “I’m sorry but I had to, Ad,” he said
quietly. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer. You know, you really need to
train your sub better.”

Adam took in the tentative wry grin on his old friend’s
face. He knew Dan wasn’t happy about having talked to Beth. Adam also knew how
much he valued their friendship. “You’ve nothing to apologize for, Dan. You
were right, I should have talked to her. She said she wished she’d been there
for me. Can you believe that?”

“She’s Beth. I told you—she loves you. She couldn’t be any
other way.”

Adam grinned. “Where is she?”

“Right here,” a female voice, as clear as a bell, replied.
“Is this a private party or can anyone join in?”

She was standing by the door, that lovely smile on her face,
looking better than she had for a good while. Some of the shadows were gone and
she’d lost the haunted look he’d seen in her pretty eyes far too often, until
just recently.

“Beth!” Dan jumped up to offer her his seat. “Come and sit
down.”

“It’s okay, Dan. She’ll sit here.” Adam patted the bed
beside him. When Beth perched delicately on the edge he turned toward her,
timing it just right to catch the kiss she was aiming at his cheek with his
mouth.

Dan groaned. “Come on, guys, get a room! Do you have any
idea how nauseating it is for a blissfully single man to watch you two get all
loved up?”

“Ignore him, sweet. He’s just jealous.”

“Maybe we should do some matchmaking,” Beth suggested
mischievously.

This time Dan’s eyes rolled. “Heaven preserve me! Just for
that I’d make you walk back to Winterleigh, except he’d beat the crap out of
me.”

The three of them talked a while longer, as only three
people bound by one single, terrifying incident could talk. If any good could
be said to come from such an event, it was that it further cemented the
friendship between the two men, strengthened the love between Beth and Adam and
created an unbreakable bond between all three.

Eventually Dan stood up. “Right. I’m going to get the car
and bring it round to the front. Anything to get me out of here while you two
do the kissy-kissy thing.”

“You’re just jealous, Danny-boy!” Adam hurled the comment at
his friend and received a silent but cheerfully and expressively obscene parting
gesture in return.

Once his friend had gone, Adam turned to Beth, his
expression becoming serious. “There’s something I have to ask you, love. The
things you saw, the things I did—“

“Shh.” She placed a finger on his lips. “I know it was
self-defense. What terrified me most was the possibility of you being hurt.
When I saw the blood—” Her voice trailed off, eyes fixed on the area where he’d
been wounded.

“It looked worse than it was, little one.”

Her face spoke volumes about the degree of her skepticism.
He could understand her point of view but given the experiences that had
already left their mark on him, a glancing gunshot wound was next to nothing.

Her breath came out in a huge sigh. “I wish I didn’t have to
go home. I hate being without you.”

“It won’t be for long. I promise.” He kissed her fingers.
“I’m going to get out of here just as soon as I can.”

As he watched Beth, felt the small, comforting movement of
her thumb over the back of his hand, a sense of soul-deep rightness swept over
Adam. This was how his life was meant to be.

It was how Beth’s life was meant to be too and the radiance
of her slow, gentle smile told him that she wasn’t about to argue. She was
home.

Contrary to statistics and the forecast, there was a white
Christmas that year.

It was Beth and Adam’s first Christmas together. The events
of autumn were behind them now if not forgotten and since then there had been
many changes in both their lives.

For all practical purposes Beth had moved out of her flat
the night her ankle was injured in the mugging—she had returned only to collect
her belongings and arrange for larger items to be transported to Winterleigh,
all of which she had done without a hint of regret. Nor had she been back to
the office for one very significant reason—there was no office for her to go
back to.

Well there was, but it no longer belonged to the man walking
hand-in-hand beside her through the snow. Adam, still recovering from the
lingering effects of his wounds, had sold the business and even given up the
lease on his London apartment. He was now deciding what to do with the rest of
his life—besides supporting Beth in her new career as a writer.

Adam had finally managed to persuade her to let him read her
novel. He’d provided some constructive criticism and then encouraged her to
submit it to a suitable publisher. The news had finally come about ten days
prior to this wonderful Christmas Day that her manuscript had been accepted for
publication.

That had been Beth’s second-best Christmas present. The
first had been Adam’s release from the hospital—a little earlier than the
doctor would have preferred but Adam had insisted.

At least it had given Beth the opportunity to boss the big,
bad Dom around while she supervised his recuperation—and to fall even more
deeply in love with him. He’d been every bit the difficult patient she expected
him to be but she’d managed to keep him in line with promises of what he could
do to her when he was fully recovered. A somewhat rash decision on her part
since she’d barely been able to sit down for three days once he’d regained his
strength. She smiled, hugging the memories to her like a warm blanket.

“What are you grinning at, Beth? It’s bloody freezing out
here! I don’t know how you managed to talk me into this route march.”

“I seem to remember that this route march was your idea,
Master,” she reminded him. “Let’s go for a brisk walk, you said. It’ll blow the
cobwebs away, you said.”

“Did I say that? Are you sure I said that?”

He was teasing her. Again. Over the last few weeks, since
he’d sold the business and moved to Winterleigh full-time, since they’d settled
into the routine of being a couple, he’d been more relaxed and playful than
she’d ever seen him. Unless—perversely—they were playing, of course. Then he was
every inch the Dom—her Master. At those times, she just melted with wanting
him.

She’d also succeeded in persuading Adam to return to the
therapist to exorcise the demons from his past. Beth had sat beside him through
every session, holding back the tears as Adam had gone into the details of his
ordeal, passing her love and her strength to him through the simple act of
touch. On more than one night, she’d held him while he wept in her arms. The
tears had helped to cleanse his soul and then one night, after what had turned
out to be his last session, instead of the tears he had kissed her and made
love to her with heartbreaking tenderness.

“Oh, I’m absolutely sure.”

He shrugged. “Whatever. You didn’t answer my question.” He’d
switched on the Dom tone, his sure-fire way to get what he wanted from her.

“I was thinking of when you got your own back on me for
making sure you rested when you came out of the hospital, Master.”

“And if you tell me you didn’t enjoy it I won’t give you
more of the same when we get back home.”

Eyes narrowed, Beth shot him one of her looks while trying
to ignore the desperate need growing between her thighs.

Adam had decided that they would be spending most of the
festive season enjoying each other in a variety of ways and on New Year’s Eve
he was planning to take her to Club Apollo for the first time.

“Here we are.”

Adam had brought her to a secluded clearing in the woods
that formed part of the grounds of Winterleigh. He turned to face her. Gloves
removed, he framed her frozen face with toasty-warm hands, his gaze intense as
he lowered his head to kiss her. It was a kiss that claimed ownership of
everything that she was, everything she would ever be.

“I love you, my sweet sub,” he declared with a controlled,
powerful passion. “I don’t tell you that often enough.”

“You don’t need to say the words, Master. Your actions tell
me that every day.”

And they did. Beth knew she was loved, protected and
cherished beyond measure. She also knew she loved and trusted this man with all
her heart, all her soul and all her life. He owned her yet she felt freer than
she could ever have imagined possible.

“Do they tell you how much you mean to me, little one?”

She kissed his palm, something she had done many times
before—the act had come to symbolize her total devotion to him. And she knew
exactly how much she meant to him. This man had risked his own life to save
hers.

In the weeks that followed that terrifying incident, the
truth had come to light about Ewan Underwood and the motivation behind his
actions. The tragic event of his younger brother’s death while on active
service under Adam’s command had sent Ewan completely off the rails—and in the
years between Jimmy’s death and the incident at Winterleigh, he’d been in and
out of prison, each sentence providing him with the opportunity to pick up the
skills he’d needed to exact his revenge.

“As much as you mean to me, Master.”

He kissed her again, this time wrapping his arms around her
to hold her hard up against his body. “I brought you here today for a reason,
Beth. In spring this clearing is particularly beautiful—it’s my favorite place
on the entire estate—but I couldn’t wait ‘til spring. Not for this. This is too
important.”

He released her, so that one hand could delve into the
pocket of his winter-weight parka. What he brought out remained hidden beneath
clenched fingers.

“Bethany Harrison, a man could wait his entire lifetime and
never find a woman like you. I consider myself lucky beyond all any man could
hope for, that you chose me to love.”

Beth’s smile radiated the love she felt for this special,
unique man. He was wrong about one thing, though. “As if I had any choice. You
are an irresistible force, Master.”

His grin clearly communicated his satisfaction with her
assessment. The fingers of his clasped hand slowly opened, revealing a platinum
and diamond solitaire engagement ring. “In that case you’ll know that this is
not a question. Marry me.”