Seduced by the Baron (The Fairy Tales of New York Book 4) (23 page)

The day progressed at a snail’s pace considering the constant rapid background beep, beep, beep of the heart monitor. Her father stirred briefly every now and then, her brothers trickled in and out sitting for a while, trying to convince Faith to take a break, to eat something but she couldn’t.

She hadn’t been there for him last night but she was now.

Mercy and Dawn took turns sitting in with her too. They were better company than her brothers in the way women often were with their purposefully distracting prattle.

Just after lunch Mercy sat herself down in the chair on the opposite side of the bed. “Raf’s outside,” she announced.

Faith looked up, startled from her activity of twisting her father’s wedding ring round and round his finger. “
What?
” She’d been ignoring his texts and phone calls all morning.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “He texted me. You ran out on him, Faith, and there was a bunch of missed calls from me last night. He was half out of his mind. So I told him what had happened. He’s worried about you.”

Her pulse tripped. “Tell him I’m fine.”

“Tell him yourself.”

Faith glared at her. “I can’t deal with him, Mercy.”

Mercy shook her luxurious locks. “Don’t do this, Faith. Don’t punish Raf for this. Or yourself. You’re entitled to a life.”

Faith bit down hard on the emotions that were threatening. That’s what she’d thought too. “My father was having a heart attack while I was getting naked with Raf. A man who is just a
fling
. Who told me his grand philosophy on life was to
love the one you’re with
. A man who is
leaving tomorrow
. My
life
does not involve him.”

Mercy reached her hand across the bed and grasped Faith’s hand. “People can change their minds, you know? Maybe he’s just never found that one special woman?”

Faith snorted. “Raf doesn’t believe in the
one
and he’s certainly not looking for her. And, by the way, neither am I,
especially
not now.”

She withdrew her hand from Mercy’s grip and resumed her endless twisting of Pop’s wedding ring.

*

At five in
the evening Faith stood to stretch her legs. They were stiff from lack of activity and she was drifting off. Considering she’d only had a few hours sleep last night it wasn’t surprising.

The room shifted as she let go of the bed and she swayed, grabbing for the mattress as everything tilted.

“Right, that’s it,” Zel snapped, storming around to her side of the bed. “You’re going outside for a break and eating something immediately.”

Faith plopped down in her seat, her head still spinning. She flapped away Zel’s fussing. “Just bring me something in.”

The nurse and Zel exchanged a look. “No eating at the bedside, I’m afraid,” she said.

“Right,” Zel said all bossy. “That solves it. Up you go.”

“I’m fine,” Faith insisted as a wave of nausea hit her.

“
Faith Sullivan
. Do I have to go out there and get Ty to pick you up and throw you over his shoulder, because you know that man will do anything I ask.”

Faith gave a half laugh. Never had truer words been spoken. “Okay fine,” she said, flapping Zel away again as she stood, the wooziness no longer present. “Promise you’ll stay here with him?”

“Cross my heart,” Zel said.

Faith pulled Zel into a fierce hug. She had truly been blessed with her wonderful friends.

*

The first person
Faith saw as she opened the door to the waiting room was Raf talking with her brothers like he’d known them all his life. Like he hadn’t been debauching her in a Waldorf suite while their father was having a heart attack.

She stood and stared at all his Levi’d perfection. “What are you still doing here?” she gasped.

He stalked over to her and didn’t stop until he’d yanked her into his arms and wrapped her hard against his chest. “I wanted to see you.”

Faith knew she should push him away. But she’d been holding herself together today by sheer force of will and it felt good to lean into someone.

To lean into him
.

Everyone else had intimate support, somebody to lean on except her. Even Casey and Ronan had their freaky twin connection. And sure, they’d
all
supported her throughout the day but not like this.

He pulled back after long moments, his hands on her upper arms. “I’m so,
so
sorry about your father.”

Faith swallowed a lump the size of Ireland as he searched her face. Looking for signs of guilt and regret? And maybe blame too? Blaming herself. Blaming him. After all if he hadn’t asked her to the ball she would have been there for Pop.

She stepped out of the temptation of his embrace. “I can’t talk now. I just need to get some sugar into me and go straight back.”

“Let me take you to the coffee shop in the lobby.”

Faith spied one Krispy Kreme left in an open box and a half-open packet of Twizzlers. “This will do,” she said, plucking the doughnut out of its box.

Raf shook his head. “You haven’t eaten anything since last night.”

Faith thought back to her last meal. Key Lime pie right off the Waldorf room service menu. She’d smeared the last spoonful on his belly and licked it all off.

“You’re going to get indigestion,” he said as he watched her devour the doughnut in thirty seconds.

She shrugged as she swallowed the glut of sugar and dough in one huge lump. “I’ll live.”

“Please, Faith.” His hand slid onto her arm, his voice dropping an octave. “I’m not going to leave until I’ve spoken to you.”

Determination turned his green eyes stormy. Faith sighed. He was deadly serious. Maybe it was just best to get it over and done with. She wiped the sticky doughnut residue off her mouth. “Okay,” she conceded. “But I need to be quick.”

“I promise.”

They made their way down in the elevator and Raf insisted she find a table to sit at while he ordered them coffee and paid for their pre-packaged sandwiches. The place was busy but she found a table at the back.

When he arrived she stood to go. “Sit,” he said. “We need to talk.”

“We can walk and talk.”

He put a stilling hand on her arm as she tried to walk away. “You can’t go back into your father with food anyway so you might as well eat it here.”

Faith had to admit he made a lot of sense and the earthy aroma of the coffee was sending her taste buds into overdrive. She sat back down and took a sip.

“You were gone when I woke,” he said after she’d devoured one half of her sandwich.

“Yes. I got up to go to the bathroom and I turned my phone on to check the time and there were all these missed calls.”

“I wish you’d woken me,” he said. “I could have come with you.”

A boiling hot helix of suppressed emotions spiraled through her chest. What was he doing? Why was he pretending to
care
so much when he’d been adamant that he wasn’t after that kind of relationship? Was it
his
guilt speaking?

“Why?”

He shot her a measured look. “To be here for you. To support you.”

“We’ve known each other for a month, Raf. You’re leaving tomorrow. For
Australia
. We’re…fuck buddies.”

She hurled the word at him hoping to wound him with it but it deflected immediately, bouncing right back, piercing her straight through the heart with the full horrible truth.

She’d fallen in love with him.

Here, in a hospital, with her father in a CCU bed, with the walls of her world falling down around her, she’d fallen in love with him.

And they were a fling. And he was leaving.

Her heart crumpled in her chest as if it were made of paper. So much for not being able to fall in love in a handful of weeks – her mother had been right. When you knew, you knew.

Funny…this was not how she’d pictured such a moment. Where were the rainbows? Where was the choir?

God.
What a disaster
. Falling for the player. What a sap she’d been. What a fool. And she didn’t even have the space in her head to contemplate it right now.

His green eyes clouded like a squall way out to sea. “This isn’t your fault, Faith. Being with me last night did
not
cause your father’s heart attack.”

“I know that,” she snapped. “But I still should have been there.”

“Everyone coped, Faith.” His hand snaked across the table to cover hers and she saw desperation in his eyes. “Getting away once in a while isn’t a crime. Everyone pitched in and helped for a change.”

Faith blinked, the helix in her gut spinning hot and fast now. She snatched her hand back. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He rubbed a hand over the stubble on his jaw clearly frustrated. “They take you for granted, Faith,” he growled. “He’s their father too but they let you do the lion’s share of the caring.”

“I
like
doing it,” she snapped loud enough to cause heads at nearby tables to swivel in their direction. Tears spilled down her face and her nose started to run and she knew she must be a snotty mess but none of that mattered. Her father was sick and she loved Raf and she couldn’t do anything about either of them and it was driving her crazy.

“It shouldn’t be your whole life, Faith.”

“Oh, you want me to choose
you
who I’ve known for a handful of weeks over my family?”

“No, Faith.” He shook his head. “I want you to choose
you
. Choose what
you
want every now and then.”

“So I can be like you? Mr. Love The One You’re With? Drifting through life with no commitments? And why do you care anyway? You were just in it for a roll in the hay, right?”

His jaw clenched hard, turning white right at the angle. “Don’t say that,” he demanded, his voice an angry whisper. “It was more than that. Maybe
we
could be more than that?”

Faith blinked, her heart leaping at the strange statement while her brain brought a sledgehammer right down in the middle of it all. “No. We can’t. You’re leaving tomorrow and I’m staying here where I belong.” She stood, picking up the remains of her sandwich and takeout mug. “Go home, Raf.”

And she walked away, her heart breaking wide open.

‡

R
af sat in
the coffee shop for a while after Faith left, grappling with a storm of emotions.
Go home, Raf
. Her edict had been clear and there’d been nothing about her demeanor that had suggested she wasn’t one hundred percent serious.

But how could he do that? How could he just leave,
go home to the other side of the world
, with all this worry weighing her down?

God…what if JP died? How could he leave the woman he loved to face that?

Yes.
Love.
He loved her.

Sitting here listening to her talk about them, about
him
like he was nothing but a
fuck-buddy
had sealed it for him. He’d known then and there that he felt so much more. That he’d fallen for her.

It had been so clear.

He’d been in lust. He’d been in like. He’d even been in thrall but he’d
never
felt like his heart had been ripped from his chest and stomped all over. He’d never felt like someone else’s life mattered more than his. That he’d give his own life to take away her pain.