Page 45 of Frozen Heart
The next morning, I went to roll out of bed and the movement sent my stomach and brain spinning in opposite directions. I grabbed the mattress and lay very, very still.Everythingached and when I tried to reach for my water glass, my arms felt like blocks of lead. The sheets were damp, and my hair was clinging to my face with sweat.
I was sick.Reallysick, thanks to the immunosuppressants putting my body’s defenses on vacation.Fuck.
“What’s the matter?” asked Radimir. He stalked over and stood over me in just a towel, a rugged, shower-damp colossus.
“Nothing,” I lied. “I’m fine.” I tried to prove it by getting up but wound up flopping on my back like a sweaty, belly-up turtle.
Radimir frowned and he laid a palm on my forehead. “Call Jen,” he ordered. “You’re not going to the store today. I’ll look after you.”
“But you have work.”
“I’ll take the day off.”
Had he ever taken a day off in hislife?“But you’ve got your meeting with thesenator!”
“The senator can wait.” And as if to make a point, he pulled on some gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt. I’d never see him in anything but a suit. I hadn’t been sure he even owned casual clothes. But he looked amazing in them, the t-shirt showing off his biceps and the sweatpants giving occasional hints of the bulge between his thighs.
I grudgingly messaged Jen, who was happy to watch the store for the day. I knew she needed the money, but I hated asking so much of her when I couldn’t take her on full time.One day,I silently promised.
Radimir helped me sit up a little and brought me painkillers. Then he brewed me a cup of fragrant, clear tea. “Ginger,” he told me. “To settle your stomach.”
It worked. By lunchtime, I was less nauseous. Radimir banged around in the kitchen and I heard him chopping and frying. A strange smell filled the penthouse. Then he returned carrying a bowl, which looked absurdly small in his big hands. He perched on the edge of the bed, hulking over me.
“What is it?” I asked weakly. It was steaming and violently red.
“Borscht.”
“What isborscht?”
“Beetroot soup.” He spooned some of it up.
“You don’t have tofeed me!I can—” I tried to grab the spoon but couldn’t focus on it, and my hands were shaky. “Fuck.”
Radimir lifted the spoon. “Open your mouth,” he ordered. Which shouldn’t have sounded as sexy as it did. I reluctantly opened and he started to feed me. The soup was actually really good, tasty but light enough not to upset my stomach, and I finished the whole bowl.
After lunch, Radimir tidied the kitchen and then prowled around like a big, sulky bear. There was nothing more he could do to heal me, and I was learning that he wasn’t a man who could sit on his hands. When I threw my book down and groaned, he was there in a second, eyebrows raised. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head, which made it spin, and I groaned again and lay down. “I was going to read to take my mind off things, but I can’t focus on the words.”
Radimir stared at the book. Then he marched over and sat down on the bed. He grabbed the book and turned to the bookmark.
“What are you doing?” I asked cautiously.
He cleared his throat. “After the dazzling sunshine, the barn is dark, with only laser beam shafts of sunlight lancing down from the cracks between the planks. My eyes adjust and I glimpse him, plaid shirt half off, water droplets sliding down his bare chest as he?—”
I sit up. “Stop!”
He stopped and looked at me over the top of the book.
“You can’t read that,” I mumbled.
“Why?”
“It’s romance.”
“That much was clear. Lie down.”
I lay back down, squirming a little. But he didn’t read it mockingly. He sounded a little bewildered, if anything, but he did his best. “—as he glugs from a water bottle. Then he sees me and lifts the brim of his Stetson. ‘I checked in on Shana just now. Don’t worry, she’s doing better.’”Radimir looked at me. “Shana is...her sister?”