by Ann King
Cory was dead.
“Yeah,” I managed to squeeze the words out through my swollen lips. They’d felt so tender. I knew I must have looked like a gigantic watermelon head or something. “Oh, Grandma,” I murmured, pain gripped my throat.
“Shh. Don’t say a word, darling,” she said as she moved over to me, stroking my forehead the way she did when I was little. Her touch was therapeutic. Soothing. “The doctor will be right in. Are you feeling alright. Should I call the nurse to get you something.”
I reached my hand to touch her wrist as she continued to fix my hear, my limbs still felt weaker than my usual self. “I’m okay. I’m just…tired,” I said as I pressed the button on the side of the bedrail to adjust the angle of the bed so that I would be propped up a bit more.
Grandma’s grey eyes looked dreary, filled with despair and probably God knew how many sleepless nights worrying about me.
“How long have I been here?” I whispered.
Grandma looked over at Gramps who sat in another chair in the corner of the room, his eyes were closed, he had drifted off to sleep. I was so glad they could both be here with me. If it weren’t for them I would have had no one here by my side, waiting for my recovery.
Grandma sighed heavily. She looked weary. Oh, God! I had messed around with a lot of people close to me, haven’t I? First Peter, then Cory, now my Grandparents had me to worry about. If only I hadn’t been so stupid to head out knowing there was a storm brewing. The trouble was, most forecasters today could barely predict to a hundred per cent accuracy these days. Not with the environmental changes going on in the world. I really thought I could drive to New York before the eye of the storm hit. Boy, was I stupid. And not only had I paid a price, Cory had too. With his life.
“Well, your granddad and I haven’t left your side since you’ve been in here. We’ve been taking turns bringing you warm home-made chicken soup and talking to you. Just like the doctor had suggested. She’s a nice woman, that doctor…what’s her name? Languini I think. Dr. Languini. Nice lady doctor. And then there’s that nurse. A man. Well, I’ve never seen one of those before…not while growing up…” she rocks back and forth and holds her hands in her lap now.
I grinned at the way grandma had spoken about the male nurse and the female doctor. She was so old-fashioned in some ways, bless her heart. She wasn’t use to seeing too many female doctors or surgeons back in her day and she still had some backward thinking about women being at home raising their children so that children grew up right. Yeah, in another world maybe. Working was not an option anymore. It took two incomes to make it these days. But try telling that to dear Grams.
“Yeah, I’m sure she’s nice.”
The warmth in me faded fast when and a chill ran through my blood at the thought of Cory somewhere in the morgue. His lifeless body. His brothers, his father—they’d all blame me for his death. For his demise trying to save my life.
“Oh, God!” I cried out holding my head. And the tears stung my eyes and spilled over on my cheeks. Again.
I was never going to be able to live this down.
I had hated Cory for not making a move on me first when I had a crush on him back in grade nine.
I had hated him for stepping by when Peter asked me out.
I hated him recently when I learned that…Peter wasn’t into types like me. But yet he hadn’t told me then. Would I have listened?
Cory gave his life to save mine.
“What is it, dear?” Grandma got up from the chair and sat down beside me on the bedside leaning over to me hugging me.
“It’s going to be alright dear. You’ll be fine.”
“No, Grandma. No, I’ll never be fine,” I cried out, rocking back and forth in the bed like a patient in the mental ward.
My head was held down and the heaviness resurfaced.
Just then the knock on the door sounded. I hadn’t bothered to look up. I didn’t really care to see the doctor or any of the nurses. I just didn’t care about anything. I wasn’t going to talk to anyone.
Then…
I heard my name called. It was a familiar voice. A chilling feeling slithered down my spine. I was hallucinating again, wasn’t I? I smelled the fresh brew of Starbucks coffee and a delicious scent of expensive cologne like the one Cory had one the day he…
“Hey, everything okay? Should I get the nurse?”
I looked up and my heart leaped into my throat.
“Cory?” I cried out. “You’re…are you here? You’re…you’re alive?”
“Well, I sure hope so, or somebody owes me a serious explanation,” he said in his smooth, sexy deep voice that sent electricity pulsing through my veins.
Cory was alive?
But…
“Well, dear. Of course, he’s alive,” Grandma chimed in. “He was the one who called us here to the hospital.” Grandma looked astonished at my reaction.
“But…” I was dreaming. I knew I was. I was going to wake up and it would all be over. “But…the doctor. The nurse. They…they said you had died trying to save me.” My voice trembled in my throat. I could barely keep my body from shaking.
What was going on?
“I did?” Cory cocked a brow. His beautiful tall, muscular frame stood over me as he placed the tray with coffees on the side table. He knew I liked Starbucks double, double and that’s what he had on the tray. What was going on? Wasn’t he supposed to be dead?
Not that I was complaining. I just wanted to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating or dreaming this all up.
Grandpa continued to snore loudly. Grandma got up and gently swatted him with the newspaper on the side table. “Wake up, Ernie. Let’s go for a walk.”
Aww, Grandma wanted to give Cory and I a chance to figure out what the heck was going on. What had Cory told them? Grandma was so willing to give us privacy.
Cory gazed lovingly into my eyes. His beautiful dark, sexy eyes held me gaze and pleasure rippled through my body again. The memory of his soft skin and hard muscles over me, bringing me to erotic heights, days ago in the middle of the storm in his SUV. Oh, God! I loved him. I wanted to be with him. Only him. But I was confused about everything right now.
“Now,” Cory said with a charming dimpled grin on his face as he sat down beside me. He ran his hand down my back and shivers of delight danced through my belly—a warmth came over me. Yes. He was real. This was real. I wasn’t dreaming. I was feeling him—again.
“Who told you I was dead?” Cory asked, matter-of-factly as if amused.
“I overheard the doctor and nurse saying DOA that he…you died saving me.”
Cory wrinkled his dark sexy brow and then a grin touched his lips. “Yeah. I get it now. It wasn’t me, Kate. Some dude happened to be driving by and saw us on the lake. Me trying to pull you out. He came to give a hand but I told him to get help. He did but then he came back. He must have been pushing seventy.”
“Seventy?” my voice spiked. “An old man?”
“Well it’s not that old…but yeah, he was old enough to be my old man’s old man but I think it was his time. He didn’t really look too well. He was a nice guy trying to give me a hand but I had told him to stay back. I didn’t want to have to rescue two of you at the same time. One casualty was enough,” Cory finished. He leaned in closer to me.
I let out a deep sigh of relief but more than that. My heart was beating normally again. The pressure in my head wasn’t so unbearable now.
“Oh, God! Cory!” I cried into his chest, snaking my arms around his waist. I thought I had lost him. Cory was alive.
Thank you, God! I was getting what so many people didn’t have—a second chance to make things right. And that second chance was something I was so not going to screw up.
“Listen, I’m sorry for being out of line back at the car…I shouldn’t have…”
“No, Cory! It wasn’t your fault. You were right. I wanted the truth and I needed the truth, even if the truth stings.”
“Yeah, the t
ruth does hurt…but it is also the one thing that can set you free, Kate. I wasn’t going to stand by and let you blame yourself for a life you probably wouldn’t have had with Peter anyway. He really did care about you though. I mean, what’s not to like about you, Kate. You’re sweet. In every way,” he trailed off in a low, sultry voice.
“Oh, Cory!”
“Yeah,” he said as he held my hand and gave me a warm squeeze that sent new energy through me.
“I want us to, you know…start over. I mean, I want to get to know you more. To be…with you.” There I said it. I wanted to be with Cory. I didn’t care if he was going to reject me or not. I got a second chance to tell him how I’d felt and that was golden.
“Yeah, I want to be with you, too, Kate. I want nothing more in this world than to love you, care for you, cherish every inch of you like you deserved to be cherished, Kate.” His voice was wavered with heavy emotion. I had never seen Cory like this in all the years I’d known him.
“I want that to, Cory,” I said looking into his eyes and seeing the depth of his beautiful soul, his caring eyes. The sexiness was just one side of him. The crazy way he could bring my body to soaring erotic heights was just one part of him. I wanted more of Cory. To be with him and by him. Always.
“First let’s drink the coffee before it gets cold.” He reached over to grab two Starbucks cups and handed me mine.
“Thank you,” I said as he handed it to me. Our fingers touched and electric sensations of pleasure shot right through me. I had never felt this way with Peter before. Ever. I was meant to be with Cory and I knew it now. I was grateful for a second chance to make it right now.
Right now I had one burning question that was stirring my curiosity.
“Cory?”
“Yeah,” he said turning to me, love glowing into his eyes.
“How…how long have I been here? At the hospital?”
“A year and a half.”
“What?” I almost dropped my coffee on my lap when my grip had weakened. He grabbed the cup in time. “I lost a year of my life without knowing it?”
He grinned, that mischievous sexy little grin that made his boyish looks so adorable. “Relax, girl. You should know me by now.”
I rolled my eyes.
He then redeemed himself when he lifted my hand to his sweet soft lips and pressed his lips to my skin. I shivered with delight. Oh, how I wanted him to explore my body again with his tender, magical lips as he did when we were stranded together.
“I love you, Kate. I was too stupid before to realize it. I want to spend my life with you.”
“That’s great,” I smiled sweetly. “I can’t imagine my life…without you, Cory! I always want to be…with you.”
THE END
Thank you for reading WITH YOU. If you enjoyed reading this romance, please share the good news with other readers. You can write a review at the retailer where you purchased this book, or you can rate With You on Goodreads.com. For more delicious reads from Ann King, join her mailing list at [email protected] She loves to hear from readers. It really makes her day. Other sizzling erotic romances by Ann King:
31 Ways to Catch a Billionaire (series)
Claimed by the Billionaire (series)
Falling for her Fake Boyfriend (series)
Claimed by the Billionaire (Mega Collection) *On sale now for a limited time only!!! $4.99 USD – The complete collection of fourteen novellas over three series (31 Ways to Catch a Billionaire, books 1-5, Claimed by the Billionaire, books 1-7 and Falling for her Fake Boyfriend).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ann King enjoys reading and writing sizzling stories of love and seduction with a happily ever after. She enjoys indulging in sweet, milk chocolate and romantic fantasies that make your toes curl and your heart smile. She loves to hear from readers. You can send her an email at [email protected] Or follow her on Twitter. Her username is annking_author
