Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 352

Chapter 352

I set the fork down. “I want to shower.”

He nodded toward the bathroom, and I gathered what I needed and went in. I brushed my teeth, then stood under the warm water for a long time, washing off the hospital and the sweat and the last traces of the night, When I came out in the clean clothes he had brought, I felt like a different woman.

I cleared the plates quietly. Dominic stood with his back to me, speaking on his phone in low tones, and I let him be. I looked at Pat, still sound asleep, and then at the room. Two beds. Pat occupied one. The other sat empty, freshly made.

I took the duvet Dominic had brought and laid it over the empty bed, smoothing out the folds. Then I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing my cheek to his back. He ended the call, turned, and pulled me into his arms, and we stood there in the dim light of the hospital room, holding each other, his heartbeat steady under my ear.

“I will walk you out,” I murmured. “Then I will come back and sleep.”

He pulled back, staring at me. “Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I smiled up at him. “I do not want you walking out of here alone.”

“But I am not leaving.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I am spending the night here too.”

For a moment I was dumbfounded. Then I found my voice. “Dominic, you do not have to. I can take care of Pat. It will not be stressful, I promise.”

“It is not that.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Have you forgotten that I am clingy?”

I laughed despite myself. “You are not clingy.”

“I am. Very clingy.” His thumb traced my cheekbone. “Yes, I am worried about Pat, because she matters to you, and that makes her matter to me. But there is no way I am leaving you here alone while I go home and sleep in our bed without you. That is not happening.”

I argued. I told him the couch was hard, the chair was worse, he would be miserable, he should go home and sleep properly. He would not budge. Every argument I made, he met with that same patient smile, until I gave up.

“Fine.” I marched to the empty bed and made it up more carefully than it needed to be. “Then at least sleep properly.”

I patted the mattress. “Here. This one is yours.”

Dominic walked over, studied the bed, then looked at me. “That bed is too small for two people.”

“So you sleep here alone. I will take the couch.”

“You will not take the couch.”

“I do not like hospital beds.” I crossed my arms. “They make my back ache. The couch is fine.”

He gave me a long, knowing look. “You are only saying that so I will take the bed.”

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“I am not.”

“Your legs are shorter than mine.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I almost laughed. “The bed will be more comfortable for you than it will be for me.”

I looked down at my legs. They were long. Long enough that if I had pursued modelling, I would have done exceptionally well, and I had been told so more than once. But he had a point. His legs were longer. There was no arguing with that.

I sighed, climbed onto the bed, and pulled the duvet up to my chin. Dominic settled onto the couch/folding his long frame onto it as best he could, his head relaxing against the armrest.

I watched him for a while. He looked ridiculous, all of him folded onto that little couch, and yet somehow peaceful. I stared until something in my chest twisted, and then I threw the duvet off and got up.

“What are you doing?” He half sat up.

“If we cannot share the bed, I refuse to enjoy it alone.”

I carried the duvet to the couch and sat down beside him, draping it over both of us. Then I leaned into him, my head finding the hollow of his shoulder like it had been carved for it.

He shifted closer, and I turned to look at him. In the dim light of the ward, with Pat sleeping a few feet away and the city humming beyond the window, we looked at each other in silence for a long moment. Then he lowered his face and kissed my forehead, soft and slow.

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