Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

December 18 th

12:18 A.M.

Her head throbbed, and all she wanted to do was sleep for about a million years.

Everything was too bright, too loud. Even though the hospital room had the lights turned down low, it still hurt her eyes. The only sound was the soft snores of her son as he slept curled up on Donovan’s lap, but even that was enough to aggravate the pounding behind her eyes.

Not that she wanted the sound to stop.

It reassured her that her son was okay, alive and safe, mostly untraumatized by the events of the evening.

Jessica would be forever grateful that he hadn't been with her when she’d been attacked.

“You should be sleeping,” Donovan told her, voice soft and low so as not to wake the sleeping boy, but she was sure also so he didn't make her headache worse.

“Can't. I feel …” She couldn’t even put into words exactly what all the emotions tumbling around inside her were. Fear for sure, anxiety, un certainty, embarrassment, shame. She was a cop and yet she hadn't paid attention to her surroundings, hadn't let the seriousness of the situation with Donovan’s stalker keep her alert, and had paid the price for it.

A price that was much lower than it could have been.

Instead of sitting in a hospital bed with a concussion and some mild hypothermia from lying out in the snow, she could have been seriously injured or even killed.

The stalker had lost his wife, so it made sense that he might want to take any woman Donovan had in his life.

“I'm so sorry,” Donovan told her. The guilt in the gray eyes looking back at her made the nausea swirling in her stomach so much worse. He was not responsible for the choices his stalker made. He was every bit as much a victim as she was, more because he was the target and had been for months now.

“Not your fault.” When she wiggled her fingers against the mattress he reached out and grabbed them, clinging tightly.

“Of course it is.”

“We don’t know for sure that it was your stalker who attacked me. Could have been anyone.”

Donovan scoffed. “Yeah, you just happened to get knocked unconscious by a random weirdo at a family theme park at the same time that I have a stalker who threatened you.”

“It’s a possibility,” she told him. Just because she agreed with the timing and there was a good chance it was his stalker, didn't make it so. There very well could have been a “random weirdo” watching the happy families and waiting for a chance to make a move. Besides, it wasn't like Donovan’s stalker could have known she was going to walk away from the crowd and right toward where they were hiding if they were following Donovan around.

“Not a very likely one,” Donovan muttered. “I’ll understand.”

“Understand what?” Between the headache and tiredness, she had no energy left to figure anything out. If he wanted to say something he was going to have to be clearer than that.

“If you want to break things off with me.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Because you almost definitely were attacked tonight because of me. Because someone wants to blame me for stealing money from my company and my clients, and then getting caught. For the fallout from having all their assets seized and their wife deciding she’d rather end her own life than deal with it all. This is my fault.” The hand holding hers moved to sweep across the bandage taped to her temple. “And I wouldn't blame you if you don’t want to put yourself or your son in danger because of me.”

Reaching up, Jessica reclaimed her grip on Donovan’s hand. “I'm not blaming you for someone else’s actions. I don’t want to leave you,” she assured him. She would however be taking better precautions from here on out. Especially since the concussion would put her at a disadvantage for at least the next couple of weeks.

“You don’t?”

“Course not. Don’t be silly,” she said with a yawn.

“I'm always going to feel responsible for this.” Donovan’s fingers tightened around hers, and she could feel the guilt and fear rolling off him in waves.

“I don’t want you to.”

“Can't help it, green eyes.” He gave her a one-sided smile, and then his face grew serious. “At least let me take care of you while you're healing. You have a concussion, you shouldn’t be going home alone, especially when you have a seven-year-old to care for.”

“You want to come stay with us?” The idea actually made her smile instead of filling her with panic that she couldn’t have a man staying in her house, not this soon in their relationship, not when they were still in the getting to know one another phase, it was too soon.

None of that was how she felt, though.

All she felt was a pleasant sort of warm and fuzzy feeling at the thought of him wanting to take care of her. Even when they’d been married and she’d been sick, heck, even when she was pregnant with their child, her ex had never been one to want to look after her.

Caring for others was her job. She was the woman. He was the big, strong, tough man whose sole purpose was just to bring in the money.

“Actually, I was thinking you and Freddie could come and stay with me at my mom and stepdad’s place. I’ve been staying there since the stalker started targeting my penthouse. They live on a beautiful estate, there’s good security, you’ll be safe there and you won't have to worry about anything but getting better, I’ll take care of everything else.”

Stay with Donovan?

At his parents’ house?

Despite him saying otherwise, she still believed his mom didn't like her.

Wasn't staying with him going to give Freddie the wrong idea?

Only was it really a wrong idea?

Sure, they were in the early stages of their relationship, but she wouldn't have let a man meet her son if she wasn't serious about him, and every indication he’d given said Donovan was just as serious about her.

About them.

Both of them.

Because he was taking good care of her son right now.

Hoping it wasn't the concussion leading her to make bad decisions, Jessica prayed this was not going to be something she wound up regretting.

“Okay, we’ll stay with you while I'm healing.”