Well, her head was resting on someone’s lap.
She snuck a glance up, and gasped again, this time louder, which made her head pound.
She must be more injured than she’d thought.
Because when she looked up, the person who was holding her was Garrett Hudson. That simply was not possible.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Shhh. Lily. It’s okay. You’re fine.” A cool hand brushed over her arm. “Nothing’s broken, as far as we can tell.” The cool hand moved, and brushed over her cheek. “Try to relax.”
Slowly, she took a deep breath. She carefully opened her eyes and tilted her head back. Yep. It still looked like Garrett. And that deep, sultry voice sounded like him too.
Was she hallucinating? Was she so far gone that she was imagining Garrett had rescued her? And not only had he rescued her, instead of calling 911 and dumping her off with the nearest medics, he was handling the first aid himself?
“How do you know my name?”
The man muttered under his breath about amnesia. Then he seemed to hesitate before asking, “Do you not remember me? From your bachelorette party?”
Okay. This had gone on long enough. “Help me sit up.”
The man did as she asked. He held onto her, but he helped her until she was upright, and then he moved her easily until her back was resting against a rock.
A few feet away, there was another man who resembled Garrett, although he looked a little more rugged. Garrett noticed her looking.
“That’s my cousin, Jackson. He’s a firefighter, so he’s trained in first aid.” Jackson lifted his hand in a wave. “We didn’t want to move you too much until you woke up, but now we can leave for the hospital.”
“No. I’m fine,” she said.
“If you don’t remember me, then you’re probably not fine.”
She scrunched up her nose. “You can’t be Garrett.” He was just as sexy. And his face was just as handsome. He wore shorts and a thin t-shirt with hiking boots, but he managed to look like he belonged in a wilderness magazine. Meanwhile, she was a dazed, sweaty mess.
“I am.”
She stared down at her legs. One of her knees was bandaged. The bandages looked like the ones she’d packed in her gear bag. “Okay then. If you’re really Garrett, then I remember you from my bachelorette party.”
“Good. I’m glad you didn’t lose your memory.” He motioned to Jackson, who came over. “He’s going to look at your eyes again, and take your pulse now that you’re awake, okay?”
She did everything Jackson asked, and he checked her over again, feeling along her scalp and asking her about any pain she might feel in her ribs, neck, arms or legs.
While Jackson asked her questions, Garrett just stared at her. She was also really glad she hadn’t lost her memory. In spite of what happened the next day, she valued the night of her party. She would never forget what it felt like to flirt with Garrett. “What are you doing out here?”
Garrett picked up a bottle of water and handed it to her. “Drink that. And I was doing the same thing as you were. Rock climbing.”
She unscrewed the cap and took a long drink. “Are you the one that caught me?”
“Yes.”
“Well. Thank you for saving my life.” Her stomach churned. She was out here trying to get herself motivated to try getting over her ex, and she’d nearly fallen to her death. But here she was alive, thanks to Garrett.
“You’re welcome.” His jaw clenched for a second. “But if I may, I have to ask you not to go out alone again. Not at one of these remote areas. It’s not safe.”
She chewed on her lip. “Yeah. I figured that out.”
“Good. And I still think you need to see a doctor.”
“I don’t think I can face that now.”
“We’ll tackle that when we get back to town. I’ll probably be able to find someone to come to you. In the meantime, is there anyone I can call to stay with you? I’m not leaving you alone.”
But she didn’t mention her ex-fiancé. She wasn’t ready to talk about that yet. Especially not with Garrett. She cast her eyes downward and stared at the ground. “No. Everyone went back home.”
“Everyone? All your bridesmaids are gone? Even your fiancé?”
“Yes. Even my fiancé.” She did her best to fight the tears, but they came anyway.
“Hey. It’s okay. We’ll call him for you.”
“No!” She realized she must seem crazy, shouting at him not to call the man she was supposed to marry after she nearly died on a pile of rocks.
Garrett’s warm hand landed on her arm. “It’s fine. It’s your choice. If you never want to tell him, that’s fine by me.”
“Sorry. I know I’m kind of all over the place right now.”
“It’s understandable. You had a big shock. You fell, bumped into a rock, and then you passed out.” He pulled away from her. “Let’s get you in my Jeep, and then we can get back to the hotel.”
His cousin stood up as well. “I’ll go start the car.”
Garrett lifted her from the ground with no effort at all and carried her to his Jeep. While he walked, she closed her eyes and let her head rest against his shoulder.
After a few minutes, she heard a car door open, and then he was settling her into the front seat of the SUV and buckling the seat belt for her. “I’m going to go get our stuff and make sure we cleaned up.” He pointed in the backseat. “Jackson’s going to stay here with you. He’s got his headphones on, but he’ll hear you if you need anything.”
“Okay.” She had no idea what to say to his cousin. She peeked in the backseat where Garrett’s cousin was reclining against the door. Sure enough, he looked like he was listening to music. “Thank you for helping me.”
He grinned. “Just glad we were there.”
Before long, Garrett was back.
“I thought I was going to die,” she whispered.
His hand landed softly on her shoulder. “I’m really glad you didn’t”
“Me too. What were you doing all alone out here? Rock climbing alone is really risky.”
“I know.”
She looked down at the floorboard. “I was trying to escape.”
“Escape? What do you mean?” He asked.
“I was purposefully doing things that were on the risky side. I called them adventurous, but they were really just stupid.”
Garrett slowed down and pulled the Jeep over. He turned his entire body to face her. “Lily. Were you trying to harm yourself? Or did you just not care what happened?”
His handsome face was twisted into a frown, and his eyebrows were drawn together.
She glanced into the backseat again, but Jackson didn’t seem to be paying attention. She was a little self-conscious about speaking freely in front of him, but she felt so at ease with Garrett.
“No. It was nothing like that,” she told him. He wasn’t touching her right then, but he was so tactile, and each time he’d touched her, it made her feel better. “I got some bad news earlier this week, and I was out trying to trick my brain into being happy again.”
“I’m glad it wasn’t on purpose.” He sighed.
For the first time since she walked in on her fiancé, a warm feeling spread through her chest. Garrett was just as kind and considerate as he was good looking.
He looked in the rearview mirror and pulled the Jeep back on the road.
He squeezed her hand. “Go ahead and sleep. I’ll wake you up when we get back to the city.”
She woke up to someone tapping her arm. “Lily. Hey. We’re back at my place.” She blinked up at him.
“You can take me back to my hotel. I really will be fine.”
“Not going to happen. I can carry you in, but a few people might see us.”
“Oh no. The paparazzi will be after you, won’t they?” Now she realized why he wouldn’t want to take her back to her room. She had a nice suite, but it wasn’t secure. Dozens of people would be able to see him car
rying a woman in his arms. Some would take photos, and videos, and it would be up on social media and gossip websites within seconds.
“Nah. Not too much. You can’t get in here without a code, and I have a private elevator that goes up from the parking deck. But there might be other residents.”
She’d been so addled that she hadn’t even given a thought to the fact that a famous rock star had just spent the last several hours taking care of her.
“I think I can walk,” she said. Flustered, she tried to pull away from him. She put weight on her feet, but she wasn’t expecting her leg to throb so much. She cried out in pain, and fell forward, but he caught her.
“Hey.” Once again, she found herself in his arms.
“I really hate how much trouble I’m causing you,” she said. “It didn’t even occur to me until now, but you were out trying to rock climb, and you had to quit because of me.”
“I live here. I can rock climb any time.”
“What about Jackson?”
“Jackson will be fine. He’s welcome here anytime.”
Jackson flashed her a grin. “Very true.”
They were both gentlemen. A few minutes later, they were in Garrett’s penthouse in the MGM Grand Hotel. She looked around in awe. She’d been in penthouses before, but this one was spectacular. From what she could see, the balcony had a panoramic view of the city. She’d have to ask him if she could have a tour before she left.
He took her into one of the spare bedrooms, and laid her down. “Don’t move,” he said.
She was going to have to move at some point, to use the restroom, but luckily that wasn’t an issue yet. She heard Garrett making a few phone calls, and then he told her a doctor was going to visit. She dozed off and woke up to speak to the doctor and answer her questions.
“You did a good job with her injuries,” the doctor said to Garrett as she cleaned Lily’s cuts, applied some butterfly bandages, and then rewrapped them in gauze. She also prescribed her some antibiotics and told her to take Ibuprofen for the pain.
“That was my cousin,” Garrett said. “He’s a firefighter. If it had been up to me, I’m afraid she might have been a little worse for wear.” Then he winked at Lily.
She flushed, then Garrett and the doctor left the room, and Lily drifted off again.
When Lily woke up, the room was completely dark. The only light came from the window, where the lights from the strip were visible.
She had to go to the bathroom. She stood up, and was happy to find that her leg didn’t buckle again. She managed to use the restroom and wash her face before stumbling back toward the bed.
When she made it back, she let out a loud yelp.
Garrett was sitting on the plush sofa in the room where she’d been sleeping. “Sorry,” he said. “I was worried you’d need something.”
“Were you sleeping there?”
“Yeah. I planned to stay up and read, but I guess I fell asleep,” he said.
She crawled back into the bed and pulled the covers up. She wasn’t sure what made her confess. Maybe it was the cover of darkness, or maybe she just needed to talk. She didn’t plan it, but she found herself blurting out the truth to Garrett. “My fiancé did leave town,” she said.
“Yeah? Why didn’t you go with him?”
“He’s not my fiancé anymore.” She sniffed, but she bit down on her lip. She was not going to cry again. Her ex was not worth it. “We broke up.”
“You broke up? Right before your wedding?”
“Yes. I had no choice. He cheated on me. And I saw the whole thing.”
6
Garrett
What the hell? The man Lily had been engaged to marry had cheated on her?
Garrett couldn’t believe a man would cheat on someone like Lily. That kind of betrayal was unthinkable to a dragon shifter. He knew humans weren’t wired in the same way. He’d been in Vegas long enough to know just how much infidelity humans engaged in, but right before a wedding?
That wasn’t right.
He would like to pay this male a visit and make him see just how much he’d hurt this lovely woman. He planned to do just that, even if Lily was done with him for good.
“What happened?” he asked. He could sense that she wanted to get this off of her chest.
“I went out with my friend Carmen. It was late, and we got… silly. I even had my shoes off.”
Even though he was pissed, Garrett had to smile at the image of her having fun and shedding some uncomfortable shoes.
“I told my friend I wanted to surprise my fiancé. So I stopped by his room. I could hear noise coming from inside. He was supposed to be with his guy friends, so I didn’t think much of it.”
She took a long, shuddering breath. “I was still feeling silly, so I yelled out that I was with room service. Then a woman opened the door. She had on a silky robe. A really short one.”
Garrett understood. “I think I get the picture.”
“You probably do, but there’s more. She wasn’t the only one.”
Holy shit, her ex had a threesome in the days leading up to their wedding?
“There were two more women in the bed. One was mostly naked. And there was another in the hot tub.”
“Four women?” Garrett had participated in some crazy nights, but he’d never been with more than one woman at a time. He didn’t have a problem with it as long as everyone was on the same page, but four seemed excessive. And this asshole wasn’t single. He’d hurt Lily.
“Yes. Four. And he had the nerve to try and convince me that we could still get married.”
“But you refused.”
“Of course!” She leaned back against the pillows. “That’s when I started feeling numb inside. I didn’t like the way it felt, so I decided I was going to make this most of this holiday.”
“That’s very admirable of you.”
“Yeah, well you saw how well it went today.”
“We just have to find you some ways to cope without endangering your life.”
What the hell are you talking about? There’s no ‘we.’ She doesn’t belong to you.
His dragon roared. Garrett ignored him, but his dragon was insistent, and Garrett couldn’t sit still. He stood up. He wanted to rip something apart. Growing up, he had hurled boulders off the cliffs, or he’d uprooted a tree to stave off frustration. He couldn’t destroy property like that now, not without scaring the hell out of Lily.
Lily had nearly given Garrett a heart attack when she’d passed out. He’d wanted to fly her immediately to the emergency room, but Jackson had talked him out of it.
She’d refused the hospital, but he’d been going out of his mind with worry. Jackson had laughed at him, but quickly sobered when Garrett had charged at him.
Jackson had pressed his lips together and held his hands up, but Garrett could still see the smile tugging at his lips.
There were doctors that made house calls, for the right price. Garrett thought they were called concierge doctors. His agent had offered him one, but of course, as a shifter, he didn’t need that particular service. He’d claimed that he kept his physician from home when asked.
He braced himself to hear her mention her fiancé. And then she’d said the words he had not expected to hear.
We broke up.
He could see how much she was suffering.
But his dragon was reacting.
His dragon was triumphant because Lily was single. But the human part of him was well aware that it was far too soon for him to make a move on her.
With any other woman, he might have seized the opportunity that had been handed to him. But Lily was different. She was special. He wasn’t going to insult her by trying to hit on her while she was grieving for her shithead ex-fiancé.
But the possibility of being with Lily would not leave his mind.
In so many ways, she was perfect for him. He hated to be so crude, but her wealth made it easier for him to relax around her. He didn’t care if a woman was
rich or poor, but he’d had to fend off more than one woman who wanted access to his money.
For years, he’d been seen as an easy conquest. And he’d played that role, and even enjoyed the hell out of it.
But there was something about Lily that made him want to quit being such an asshole. He wanted to be a better person for her.
Her bottom lip trembled, and he crawled onto the bed next to her. He wanted to take her into his arms. Resisting was becoming more impossible by the moment.
When she began to cry in earnest, he couldn’t stop himself. He scooted next to her and pulled her close, cradling her in a warm embrace. “Tell me where he is,” he said. “I’ll kick his ass.”
She stopped crying and sniffled. Then she even let out a small laugh. “I have no doubt you could beat him to a pulp. But I don’t want to think about him anymore. I want to move on.”
Yes. Mine!
Shut the fuck up, he yelled back at his dragon.
He settled onto his back, and pulled her close, careful not to jostle her too much. She was going to have one heck of a time waking up tomorrow. Garrett had learned that from traveling with his human crew for years. Sometimes they did stupid shit, like dirt biking. They usually fell off the dirt bikes, and busted their asses, and then the next day they were sore as hell.
He didn’t know what it was like to wake up in pain, but he was thankful for all the humans he was close to; he knew that he could take care of her.
Maybe he could get her to take some aspirin or something like that before she got out of bed. And he could run a hot bath for her. That always helped the guys he traveled with when they pulled muscles.
He inhaled her lovely scent. Despite her rough day, her hair smelled like roses, and the scent of the desert also clung to her skin. Being a shifter, he always appreciated the scent of the outdoors.
With her in his arms, everything in his world was right for once, and as her body relaxed, he felt himself drift off to sleep.
“Oh wow,” a feminine voice said.
He woke up with a start. Next to him was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, but they were both fully clothed, lying on top of the covers.
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