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She shrugged his thanks away. “It was a lot worse for you. You don’t have to thank me.”

“It feels like I do.” His stomach growled just then, very loud in the quiet room.

Both of them laughed.

“I ordered food from room service,” she said, glancing toward the door as if someone might appear any moment. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be hungry yet, but I haven’t eaten anything all day either, so I needed something. I got enough for both of us. Just in case.”

“That sounds great. I’ll eat anything at this point.”

Room service arrived just as the housekeeper was leaving with the tip Eve gave her. Between them, they ate everything Eve had ordered and then found an English-language channel on TV that was running the threeLord of the Ringsmovies back-to-back.

Those were familiar enough to be comforting but engaging enough to fill the entire evening. After they ate, they both got back into bed. Jude alternated between watching and dozing, and every time he opened his eyes, Eve was there beside him.

She stayed awake longer than he did, but at the beginning ofReturn of the King, he woke from a brief nap to discover that she was asleep.

She was on her side, facing his direction. Her eyes were closed, and one arm was folded snug against her chest. The other one was extended toward him.

It was a strange position. It made him wonder if she’d been touching him somehow as he was sleeping.

He wished he knew what she’d been doing.

It was her left hand stretched out toward him, and his eyes focused on the rings on her slim fingers.

His rings.

Engagement ring and wedding band.

The sight made his chest tighten oddly. It was like they branded her as his.

He and Eve weren’t in love with each other. They’d never even really been close. They’d had some good sex, but even that wasn’t remotely romantic.

He’d never even kissed her except the token peck during their wedding ceremony.

And any small flutters of admiration or appreciation she might have had for him as a man were surely erased completely by his abject helplessness and sickness this morning.

She’d had to flush his vomit. Wipe it off his face. Half carry him back to bed. Talk to him in soothing tones as if he’d been a child.

Any possible, half-born attraction for him would surely be snuffed out completely by now. She would pity him. Even care about him.

But she’d never want to kiss him.

She might not ever want to have sex with him again.

He sighed and shifted his position, resting his left hand on the sheet beside hers.

He wore a wedding band too.

His mother had always told him he should be a husband. His nature was too isolated, too retreating, and he needed the commitment of a marriage to show himself he could really love another person and become the person he was supposed to be.

He’d never really believed her. He’d always assumed her values were traditional, which was fine, but they couldn’t be applied to his weird, reclusive life.

But he only had three months of it left. Probably less than that now. And he’d wanted to do something—anything—to answer his final promise to her. To follow through on his word.

So he’d asked Eve to marry him, thinking it wouldn’t be much more than a gesture.

A final nod toward the man his mother had wanted him to be.

Now he couldn’t imagine making it through the rest of his life without Eve.