Edge of Disaster (16 page)

Terri was a different story. While her injuries were still considered critical and she was in the ICU, Pearce said she would be okay too.  She’d ended up with a collapsed lung and an injured trachea. But her pelvis and right leg had been pretty much crushed. They’d patched her up but she would have to have a couple more surgeries to get her back in working order.

I gave a bit of a snort and Pearce looked at me oddly.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing she’s dating an orthopedic surgeon.”

He just rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah, but he’s gonna be out of commission for a while with that separated shoulder of his.”

I went into the hand thing again and just got fixated on his. I grabbed them and held them tightly to me. The thought of something happening to him made me cringe.

“What?” he asked. He felt me shudder.

“I don’t think I could stand it if something ever happened to you.”

“Hey, I feel the same way.”

I loved being in his arms.

“I need to ask you something,” he said in my ear. His voice was low, throaty and smooth.  I felt his breath fan my neck and I wanted to straddle him, kiss him and rip his scrubs off until he was sitting in front of me with nothing on but his beautiful skin.

“What?” I murmured.

“Did you really mean it?”

I was at a loss. “Mean what?”

“That you’d marry me?”

“Ask again and maybe you’ll find out.”

In one point two seconds, I found myself sitting on my ass facing Pearce as he knelt on one knee in front of me. He laced his fingers with mine and looked me boldly in the eyes. My heart started beating so fiercely, I felt it all the way in my throat.

“Alexia Hammond, would you do me the greatest honor and become my wife, my partner in life and walk side by side with me for the rest of our days here on Earth?  I love you more than the air I breathe and without you beside me, I’m only half a man.”

Doubt filled his eyes, a look I was profoundly shocked to see. This man, who lived and breathed confidence in everything he did, was still unsure of my answer. I jerked our clasped hands toward me and kissed his lips.

“Yes, yes, yes! I will marry you Pearce Middleton.”

I was in his embrace and his lips were on mine and I barely noticed the clapping of everyone taking place in the room. All I wanted to do was to be alone with him. I wanted him all to myself so that I could show him with my hands, lips, mouth and the rest of me just how much he meant to me.

I felt him shift and he abruptly broke our kiss. His eyes smoldered as he looked at me. I was so moved by him my heart pounded and my breath caught in my throat.

“I’ll always remember how you looked this day, right here, for the rest of my life.” Then he leaned in and whispered in my ear, “I’m getting you out of here and taking you home. I need to be with you...really with you.”

“Yes! I do too Pearce.”

He rose to his feet and pulled me to mine and when we turned, everyone was just staring at us smiling. They all congratulated us, and we made a hasty departure.  My face heated up because I knew they had a pretty good idea of what we were up to.

“I don’t give a fuck,” Pearce said when I told him, “I want to make love to my future wife and damn it Alexia, I can’t wait another minute.”

He hustled me out to the car and thankfully, he only lived about seven minutes away from the hospital.  We were tearing our clothes off as soon as we closed the door to his house. By the time we got to the staircase, we were both naked and he was carrying me up the stairs. My legs were around his waist and he was kissing me.

“I’m sorry Alexia, but I need you now honey. I can’t wait any longer.”

“Same here. I didn’t think we’d ever get here.”

We never made it to the bed. He turned and put my back against the wall and was inside of me in one slick move. I wrapped my hands around his back, beneath his arms, and matched his movements.  The way he swiveled his hips into mine as he thrust into me had my body reeling in sensation.

“Tell me again,” he groaned. The emotions pouring from his eyes touched my heart and I knew exactly what he wanted...what he needed.

“I want to marry you Pearce Middleton. I love you so much.”

“Ah Alexia. You’re my world.”

When the last word left his lips, my orgasm crashed into me and I cried out for him. He followed right behind me.

We stood together in that odd position for a lot longer than I would’ve thought possible. His arms still held me, but as he said, they cupped my ass so he was happy as hell.

When he finally moved away from the wall, it was only to walk the few steps that it took to take us to the bed. Pearce just flopped down, with me still wrapped around him and him still inside of me.  He rolled on his side and just looked at me. He walked his fingers across my brows, down to my cheeks and across my lips, where he rubbed his thumb back and forth.

He finally said, “I’m the luckiest man that ever lived. Thank you Alexia.”

I looked down for a minute because his words had stirred me so, I felt a gargantuan lump forming in my throat and my eyes were quickly filling up with water. I hated that this happened to me.  I didn’t want to get this emotional, dammit. I just couldn’t help it though.

“What is it honey?”

“I’m so happy and I’m so honored that you fell in love wit
h
m
e
.”

He tilted my chin up and asked, “Why do you always look away when you cry?”

“Because I feel so foolish.” I put my forehead on his chest.

“Don’t ever feel foolish over anything around me, okay? I love you no matter what. I told you that from the very beginning and I meant it Alexia. I’m here till the end.”

“I’m the luckiest girl alive. And I do feel honored. Thank you Pearce for putting up with me and all my issues. I love you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

It was pouring rain when we woke up in the morning. I was snuggled next to Pearce with my head on his chest.

“Good morning,” he whispered as he kissed my hair.  “I was getting ready to get up to head back to the hospital.”

“I’m there with you.”

“You didn’t let me finish,” he said, rubbing my back in those tiny circles that always made me hum. “I was going to say I was gonna shower until I started looking at you lying in my arms and then I realized I didn’t want to go anywhere for a while.”

“Hmm, sounds like you have a plan.”

I felt his chest rumble as I was flipped onto my back.  And boy did he ever have a plan.  My guy had all sorts of plans. We did end up going to the hospital, but it was a couple of hours later.

The two patients were doing well...I should say as well as could be expected.

Terri looked like hell. Her face was bruised all up and she was in a cast from her waist on down. Well, half of her was anyway. It was too complicated to even try to explain. They were going to have to go in and pin something or other in her leg. Whatever Pearce was talking about was way over my head.

Justin was freaking out. All he wanted to do was to go and see Terri, but they wouldn’t let him do that yet. He was really pissed off. Terri couldn’t be moved either. Pearce tried to reason with him and ended up storming out of his room, throwing his hands up in the air.

“I’ll go talk to him.” I went in and Justin looked like he was about to lose it.  “Hey, Justin, she’s okay. I just left her room and she’s resting comfortably.  She’s going to be fine. You know, the best way for you to help her is to get better. She going to need your help later...when she’s out of here.”

“It’s all my fault this happened.”

“No! It was an accident.” I knew exactly how he felt.

“I was looking at her Lexi. I wasn’t watching the road like I should have been.”

Shitfuck! What to say to that?

“Look, Justin, everyone does that when they drive. A glance here or there. No one expects a deer to fly out of nowhere and crash into them.  Whatever you do, don’t blame this on yourself.  And please trust me on this.  I’ve been there. I know what you’re going through. This is so not your fault.”

He looked at me and the anguish and guilt in his eyes tore through me.  I sat on the side of his bed, even though I probably shouldn’t have and I picked up his hand in mine.

My voice was firm, not tender when I spoke. I knew I had to get his attention now. “You listen to me and you listen good. This was a fucking accident Justin.  Nothing more. Yes, Terri is injured. No sugar coating that. Yeah, she’s gonna go through some tough times ahead but she’s also a tough cookie and she would be pissed as hell at you right now for blaming yourself for all of this. So stop it. You can’t go down that road because if you do, it will fuck you up. Trust me on that. I have firsthand experience on this one and if you want, I’ll share it with you one day. Are we clear on this?”

He looked at me like I wasn’t who I was...like I was someone he didn’t even know.

“Look, I’m sorry I you think I’m being a total ass, but I was driving in a car that crashed and someone ended up dying. I blamed myself for years. If it wasn’t for someone that I recently met, fell in love with and would die for, I would still be blaming myself.  I’m going to ask you one question and I want you to answer it honestly.  Did you intend for your Range Rover to spin out and crash after you hit that deer and for Terri to get hurt?”

“Hell no!”

“Then you have to stop blaming yourself. That’s why they call it an accident.”

It was like a light bulb clicked on in his eyes and the tension flowed out of him.

In a small voice, he asked me, “Do you think she’ll forgive me?”

“Justin, there’s nothing to forgive.”

I bent down, kissed his cheek and left his room.

Pearce was talking with his parents in the ICU waiting room when I joined them and they wanted to know Justin’s status. I told them I think he was calmer now and we all decided we needed to grab some lunch since none of us had bothered with breakfast.

While we were eating, Susan brought up the wedding.

“Have you two set a date yet?”

“Um no.”

“We haven’t even talked about it Mom,” Pearce said, coming to my rescue.

“Well, do you have any ideas of what you might want?”

“Mom! We haven’t even begun to discuss it. This is going to be all about Alexia. It’s her day.”

“Wait Pearce, you get a say in all of this. I really don’t care either way. I would like a small ceremony though.”

“Honey, what about your family?” Susan wanted to know.

“Huh uh. They don’t get invited. I’m not even telling them Susan.”

Pearce and Susan exchanged glances and I knew what was coming so I headed them off before they even got the chance.

“Look you two, I know what you’re both thinking. But seriously, my parents literally dumped me in my biggest time of need. They dragged me out of the funeral home after Peter died and screamed at me and told me it was all my fault and that I was the biggest disappointment of their lives. That was when I needed them the most and they pretty much kicked me to the ground. So at this point in my life after I’ve picked up the shattered pieces and glued myself back together, and only because of you Pearce, they don’t get to share in this joy.  They would only bring me back down to that horrid place I was and nothing on this Earth is going to spoil the most important day of my life.”

All three of them stared at me and then Henry said, “I believe Lexi has made up her mind and I have to say I am on her side.”

“So am I,” Susan joined in.

Pearce smiled and agreed too.

“So,” I went on, “I’d still like a small ceremony, and then you all can plan whatever kind of reception you have a mind to. I’m open for anything.”

“Oh God Alexia, do you know what you’ve just done?”

“What?”

“You’ve given my mother permission to run the show and what a show it will be.”

Susan sat there and grinned and rubbed her palms together. Henry watched her and laughed.

“We have to wait until Terri can walk you know. She’ll be my maid of honor.”

“I’m fine with that. With the way Justin acted, he’ll be supervising her physical therapy.”

Everyone laughed, although I worried about what Terri would have to endure. I knew she was in store for some difficult times.

Later that afternoon I texted my manager to ask him if he minded if I took the next day, Monday, off of work. I wanted to spend the day with Terri. They were transferring her from ICU to a regular room.  He texted me back that it would be fine with him.

That night Pearce and I were sitting in bed and he was going over his schedule for the week. He had Monday off, but then he had call for the next five days. He’d linked his schedule with my calendar so I knew when he was on call.

“I have some errands to run in the morning. I’d like to take you to dinner tomorrow night to Josette’s.”  It was the most exclusive restaurant in town.

“Really?”

“Um, yes. Is that okay?”

“You’re kidding right? I’ve never been there. I’d love to go.”

“Good. I made a reservation for seven. And Alexia, wear your bracelet.” He smiled.

I instantly found myself squirming under the sheets.  I looked at him and swallowed.

“What?” he asked, all innocent like.

“Put down that damn iPad now, or you might find you’ll need to buy another one.”

“Yes ma’am.”

I was on him like a moist blanket, ready and willing. There was something about him...no everything about him...his smoky gray sexier-than-hell eyes, his full sensuous lips, the way he ran his tongue along them, his thick black wavy hair, his sculpted muscles and the way they rippled as he moved, his hips as he thrust into me and the sounds he made as we made love. There would never be enough Pearce for me.

“Fuck Alexia, you drive me wild.”

When he talked to me while we made love, his voice was deep and husky and it turned me on even more. I leaned over him and kissed his neck and then started to nip at his ear. Then he went really crazy on me. He flipped me on my back and threw one leg over his shoulder as he rocked into me. I raked my nails across his back as the sensations became so intense.

And then came his words...the ones that always drove me over the edge.

“Alexia,” he purred, “open your eyes and say the words for me.”

I did as he commanded and the air suddenly thickened between us. I sucked in my breath at his beauty. “Oh Pearce, I love you.” And I was falling over that cliff of ecstasy. He was right there with me as he laced his fingers with mine and held my hands above my head.

Then he started kissing me like a man who’d just been given water after he’d been dying of thirst.