Meredith closed her eyes and shook her head briskly, as if scolding herself. She opened them again and then pushed herself up before reaching for the discarded towel. “I do insist,” she said, wrapping the towel around her gorgeous breasts.
She still sat astride him, and Gray could easily imagine throwing her back down onto the mattress and exploring her all over again. The last hour had changed everything, deepened everything. He couldn’t fathom how he’d be able to be in a room with her now without touching her. They could work on the manuscript, but he might insist she do it in his lap.
She climbed off him and stood beside his bed, straightening the towel. Gray rolled over on his side to watch her, enjoying the sight of her bare legs and shoulders and wishing they could just spend the rest of the day in bed.
One day,he hoped.
“Can I borrow your robe? I don’t want to put those clothes back on,” she said, gesturing toward the bathroom.
“Sure.” Gray nodded. “It’s hanging in the closet.”
She stepped through the bathroom door and turned into his closet. Gray realized his mistake at once. He should have retrieved it for her so he could be the one to wrap her up in it. He reached over the side of the bed and grabbed his boxers off the floor, but they were still damp from her bath water.
Gray got to his feet, and the room wobbled a little. Perhaps he’d stood too quickly. He rubbed his head, his headache just now thrumming back to life, but he smiled. Meredith had made the pain disappear. She was his cure, he thought, chuckling.
He snagged a pair of boxers from his dresser, put them on, and made it to his closet just in time to see Meredith cinching his robe tie around her. The navy Turkish cotton that usually fell to his knees swallowed her. It wrapped her up with just a hint of cleavage above and her bare ankles and feet below. He never thought a men’s robe could look so sexy.
Gray grabbed her by the turned-down collar and tugged her to him. “I think you should just wear this from now on.”
Her giggles filled his closet and took up lots of space in his heart.
He bent down and claimed her lips with his, a gentle kiss, but one ripe with the intimacy they’d just shared. Gray released her lips and pressed his forehead to hers, holding her close.
“Have I told you how happy I am that you’re here?” he whispered.
Her mouth curled in a smile. “Yes,” she whispered back, threading her fingers through his hair, a sensation that turned his bones to rubber. “Have I told you that you make me so happy? And I haven’t been truly happy in…” Her voice caught, and he watched her swallow. “…in a really long time.”
Gray held her to him and fought to keep his mouth closed. He wanted to promise that he’d always make her happy, but he didn’t dare tempt fate. He could make those kinds of promises in a few weeks — provided he was well enough to keep them.
Meredith must have sensed his uneasy thoughts because she pulled back and studied him.
“You okay?”
Letting her in on his fears now would only scare her. He never wanted to scare her. It had made him feel whole again when she’d looked into his eyes and told him that with him, she was safe. He wanted to give her that forever.
So Gray smiled, and it was a genuine smile. “Yeah, I’m great.” He stepped back. “Now, go get dressed, and we’ll work.”
“Bossy.” She teased him with a shake of her head. But after she ran a hand over his bare chest, she slipped out the door, and Gray was left contemplating the inviting shape of her backside in his plush robe.
He leaned against the doorframe as she disappeared, and then he gripped it for support when the room teetered.
“Shit,” he hissed, a sickening sense of dread swirling in his gut. Gray yanked a pair of jeans off a hanger, leaned against the wall for stability, and put them on. It felt like gravity doubled on his right side. He grabbed a sweatshirt and tugged it on, listing a little to the side as he did. As he tried to compensate, he stumbled to the left, landing roughly against his closet shelves.
“Fuck.” His balance was gone. This was new. And this was serious.
Gray breathed in through his nose, attempting to quell the rising panic. Was this a stroke? He scrambled to the bathroom, gripping the counter to steady himself, and he stared at his reflection. His eyes and the line of his mouth were even. He forced himself to pull up his cheeks in a mirthless smile, and both sides of his face obeyed, though the action didn’t make him feel any happier.
And then, as he stared at himself in the mirror, Gray’s right cheek and tongue began to tingle.
He careened through the bathroom and hit the pantry door with a thud before opening it and scrambling through. He spilled into the kitchen and caught the corner of the island to keep from falling.
“Meredith…” The“th”at the end of her name felt gauzy on his tongue, but his shout carried through the house. “…call 911.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
MEREDITH RACED DOWNSTAIRSin her bra and jeans, phone pressed to her ear, and found Gray slumped against the kitchen wall, upright, but only just. Vulcan and Juno paced nervously around him. They moved back at her approach.
“Get dressed,” he ordered, a no-nonsense glare in his eyes, but the words sounded frayed around the edges.