Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 580

He lowered his mouth to my ear, his voice rough and broken. "I love you, Scarlett." And then he came inside me, his body tensing, his groan muffled against my neck as he spilled into me, holding me so tightly I thought I might break.

We stayed like that, tangled together, for a while, the only sound in the room the beating of our hearts slowly settling. Eventually he pulled out of me, soft and spent, and I lay on the couch, boneless and warm. He looked down at me, intertwining our fingers, staring at me with so much love in his eyes that I had to look away. He reached out with his other hand and caressed my hair.

"It looks funny seeing you shy," he said.

"When did you ever see me shy?" I asked.

"I can tell from how red your cheeks have become."

I chuckled, but then I suddenly gasped and sat up.

He frowned. "What's the problem?"

"Tasha," I said. "Tasha must have returned home by now and found neither of us there. It's very late, and her state of mind seems fragile."

He nodded. "Okay. We'll head home now." He picked up my clothes and handed them to me, then began to dress himself.

He finished before I did and leaned against his desk, watching me get dressed. "You need to tell Tasha about the new development. She needs to know the plans concerning her, Big Bryan, and our relationship."

I nodded. "I'll tell her the moment I get the chance."

"Good," he said.

The doctor's expression turned thoughtful. "Has anyone in your family suffered from hypertension before?"

"Yes," I said. "My sister told me that our dad battled with it for years. And when my mother died giving birth to me, the shock affected my dad terribly. His blood pressure shot up, he suffered a partial stroke on the left side of his body, and his heart didn't survive it."

Sparrow took my hand, holding it tightly, but I had long since come to terms with all of that. It was only the loss of Lynette that still brought tears to my eyes.

The doctor nodded gravely. "Sometimes hypertension can be hereditary, but there are other factors that can trigger it as well. Your blood pressure was extremely high when you were brought in last night. It had climbed to two hundred and forty over one hundred and forty."

I stared at him in shock. "Two hundred and forty?"

"That's dangerously high," the doctor confirmed. "At that level, you were at serious risk of complications. You could have suffered a stroke if someone wasn't there to catch you. And the fact that you lost consciousness makes it even more concerning, which is why we're keeping you here for monitoring and treatment."