Never.
I would never say goodbye again.
I bit her bottom lip, easing another moan from her chest.
She kissed me deeper, making me harder, ensuring pain became difficult to ignore.
A flicker of being locked in Ace’s cage and at Drake’s mercy came and went. Eleanor had found her way back to me, despite me sending her away for her safety, and I’d found my way back to her, despite the blackness of my end.
I’d promised her something when I’d lain broken and bleeding in that cage.
“If we survive this, Eleanor Grace...I’m going to fucking marry you.”
“Is that a proposal?”
“It’s a vow.”
I smiled against her lips. “So, you dreamed that you married me, huh?”
She winced. “You died the moment I said I do.”
“I won’t do that next time.”
Pulling away, her lips glistened and her eyes searched mine. “What are you saying?”
I longed to push aside the hair cascading over her shoulder, to hook it behind her delicate ears, to cup my fingers around her nape and bring her mouth back to mine.
Instead, all I could do was fetter her with words. “I have a new vow to give you, Eleanor.” My heart rate picked up, exhilarating and exhausting. “The day I can walk on my own, I’m marrying you. You will say yes because there is no other option for us. You will promise to honour me, cherish me, and accept everything that I am, because I refuse to let you go.”
The room swam, black spots appeared on my vision.
I clung to awareness, forcing words through fumbling lips. “You brought me back from death, Jinx. You fought for me, and you own me in every fucking way. I know I don’t deserve you, and that I’ve done unforgivable things—things that you’ve wiped clean for me. I adore you in every fucking way a man should love his woman, but I’m warning you, if you don’t marry me, then the contract between us will be reinstated.”
I grew lightheaded and sick. The beeping of my racing heart on the monitor grated on my temper. “You will remain shere as my prisoner because if you shink you can put yourself in danger for me. That you can shtand by my side even while I hurt you, drug you, and die on you...well, you don’t shknow me well at all.”
Her finger pressed against my lips. “Hush, Sully, you’re slurring. You’re tired. I’m going to get Louise—”
I bit her finger.
I sucked it into my mouth.
I convulsed with the pain of needing her and the pain in my cock from being so hard.
I needed her to agree. To say yes, she would be my wife because I couldn’t survive with any other alternative. I couldn’t fade again and not know she belonged to me body, heart, and soul.
But I never heard her answer.
I’d reached my limit.
My eyes rolled back.
I couldn’t hold on to consciousness anymore.
I slipped.
But this time, I didn’t slip into darkness.
I slipped into dreams where I was free to touch her, kiss her, fuck her, and get on one knee to make her my wife.
Chapter Thirty-Six
NO! NOT AGAIN!
I flew to my feet.
Dread galloped through my bloodstream. Panic that he’d fallen into a coma all over again ran rampant in my mind.
Doctor.
He needs a damn doctor.
Now!
Spinning around, I bolted toward the front door. If I was lucky, I could sprint to my old villa on the beach and grab Louise. If she was fit enough, we could run and be back here in fifteen/twenty minutes?
Too long!
God, why did I send them away?
Pika and Skittles took off, flying in front of me just as I reached the front door.
I ripped it open.
And smashed into Louise who ran in the opposite direction. Our bodies collided, our hands swooping upward to push against shoulders and boobs in our attempt not to fall on our asses.
Tripping backward, she grabbed my arms for support, her skin flushed with sweat, her legs covered in sand from running. She wore a simple purple dress that I recognised from the wardrobe that was fully stocked for a goddess.
Louise blurted, “Has he died—?”
“You’re here—”
“Is he dead?”
“I was coming to get you—”
“What happened?” She pushed past me just as her two colleagues, Joe and Steph, appeared in the flickering tiki torches, running down the sandy pathway. She didn’t wait for them, barging through the living room and into Sully’s bedroom.
“Tell me what happened.” Marching to his bedside, she grabbed his wrist and checked his pulse, all while glaring at the heart monitor. “I had an alert on my offsite unit. His pulse turned haywire. Did he have another attack like last time?” She assessed his vitals all while I jogged to her side and tried to control my worried breathing.
“You had a way to track him?” I couldn’t take my eyes off Sully’s unnatural stillness.
Don’t you dare die on me now, Sullivan Sinclair. Not after asking me to marry your ass!
“Yes.” She nodded impatiently, still looking at Sully’s pale face and dark beard. “The heart monitor sends data to my phone via an app.” She reset something on the controls, saying, “I came as fast as I could. I’m sorry if you had to deal with anything stressful while I wasn’t here, but you need to tell me what happened so I know how to treat him.”
“He...he woke up.”
“He what?” She spun to face me, Sully’s wrist still in her hand. “Was he coherent? Aware of his surroundings?”
I nodded stupidly. “Coherent and aware.”
She beamed. “That’s fabulous.”
I had two emotions rioting through me.
Sublime joy and utter despair.
Tears I couldn’t control slicked down my cheeks. “He woke up.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “But he crashed only a few minutes later.”
“What was he doing when he passed out?”
I blushed and looked away. “Eh, we kissed and—”
“You kissed?” She threw me a livid glance. “Dammit, Eleanor, you two have got to stop indulging in physical pleasure when his life is on the line.” She rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath.
