LOGINHis eyes stayed on my face.Beep.Beep.“Zach, don’t you dare—”His palm cupped my jaw, firm enough to keep my face turned toward him. His thumb rested beneath my cheekbone, far from the injection mark on my neck. His other fingers slid into my hair behind my ear.He leaned down.His mouth closed over mine.I flinched.My body tried to pull back, but the pillow and raised head of the bed held me in place. My hand lifted too late, my left palm only managing to touch his chest. The hard muscle beneath his shirt didn’t move an inch.Zach’s lips were warm.Too warm.Too familiar.The faint taste of black coffee and tobacco touched my tongue. Then something small and slick passed from his mouth into mine.Bastard.I closed my throat, pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth, and tried to push it back. Zach deepened the kiss before I could.His mouth moved over mine with the calm of someone who knew I didn’t have the strength to truly fight him. His hand remained cupped around my face, sup
He stayed seated on the edge of the bed, lifted the glass to my lips, and let my two fingers remain curled into his shirt while I drank.The last of the water went down more easily.Zach pulled the straw away before I could take another sip, then set the glass on the table. His hand returned to my face, his thumb brushing slowly beneath my cheekbone, as if making sure I was still solid and wasn’t about to turn into expensive dust all over Mama’s Egyptian cotton sheets.“I’m finding out who screwed this up,” he said.I blinked. “At the club?”“Everywhere.”No doubt.Zach Romano never investigated one room. He was probably tearing apart three countries, two pharmaceutical companies, and someone’s childhood just to find out who bought the needle.“And before you ask,” he continued, “I’m not telling you anything.”I scoffed. My voice was still rough, but the sound came out with respectable quality. My body might have nearly died, but apparently my irritation had been given priority care.
I stared at him.He stared back.My mouth felt dry. “Water.”The word came out clearly.Low and rough, but whole.I froze.I swallowed, the pain only a small scrape now. “Water.”My voice.Actually my voice.It still sounded like I’d swallowed asphalt, but it was no longer dead air trapped in my throat. It had shape. It had tone. It had me.Zach’s eyes moved to my mouth.“It’s back,” I said quietly.The corner of his mouth shifted almost imperceptibly. “Sadly.”I smiled. My facial muscles did better this time. Both sides moved, though the right was slightly late, like it always had somewhere else to be.“Water,” I repeated. “Before I change my mind and die just to inconvenience you.”Zach picked up the glass from the table. His hand went straight to the bed controls, pressing the button with his thumb.The head of the bed began to rise. My body lifted with it, but my back still wasn’t strong enough to follow gracefully. My head slipped to the side. My neck tightened.Zach’s hand slid
I looked toward the window.The light outside had changed. The sun was no longer white and high. Its color was warmer now, clinging to the glass and the flowers like watered-down honey.I didn’t know what time it was.I didn’t know if it was evening or just an afternoon that had grown tired.My eyelids lowered on their own.Mama was still discussing food with someone outside. The broth had to be strained twice. The chicken could not come from the hospital farm. Very little salt. No cream. The potatoes had to be mashed until not a single lump could be considered a threat.Papa remained seated beside me. His fingertips moved through my hair. Once from the crown of my head. Down to the back. Then back again.I closed my eyes.Sleep came without pulling me under.No black water filled my ears. No invisible hands dragged me down. My body no longer felt like something heavy abandoned at the bottom of the ocean.I was light.So strange.Like every bone had been removed one by one, cleaned, t
Mama was still staring at the sheets with personal offense when Dr. Keller returned with a nurse and a woman in glasses carrying a small tray.On it sat one white bowl, a glass of water, several spoons in different sizes, and something pale cream that looked like food that had lost the right to have texture.I stared at it.The woman in glasses smiled at me. “I’m Dr. Rivas. I’d like to check your swallowing before we give you any food.”Mama immediately glanced at the bowl. “That’s the food?”“Rice porridge and thickened chicken broth.”“It looks like wall paint.”Dr. Rivas paused for one second. “The texture is designed to make it safer to swallow.”“Safe and appetizing don’t have to be enemies.”Papa lowered his face and rubbed his chin. His shoulders moved slightly because he was laughing.Dr. Keller took her place beside the bed. “We’ll start with ice.”The nurse touched a small piece of ice to my lips.Cold.The sensation arrived quickly this time, not three days later through ec
Thumb.I sent the command down to it.Nothing happened for one second.Two.Then the tip of my thumb shifted.Barely. So embarrassing.“Good,” she said.Don’t patronize me with kindergarten praise, doctor.“Index finger.”I concentrated.My index finger moved more easily. It only bent slightly, but it moved.“Good. Now your middle finger.”Ah.My favorite.Finally, a task suited to my natural abilities.I tried.Nothing.I stared at the finger.Try again.No.A tiny twitch started at the base, then died before reaching the first joint.Dr. Keller wrote something on her tablet. I turned my head toward her.She stopped writing.Papa sighed beside me. “Don’t kill her.”My eyes moved to him.“Your recovery will take longer if we have to fly in another doctor from Zürich.”I blinked once.Disagree.The corner of his mouth moved.Dr. Keller looked between us. “What did that one blink mean?”“She wants to kill you,” Mama said as she picked up a warm cloth from the basin. “But don’t take it p
I woke up with a tight breath, my throat dry and raw like I’d been screaming in my sleep. The digital clock on the nightstand blinked 2:04 AM in angry red, like the bored eyes of some lazy demon.I sighed, bent my knees, and stared up at the ceiling. How long had it been since I last slept without
Dusk melted slowly into the horizon, painting the sky in streaks of orange and red like old wounds that refused to heal.His horse stepped carefully down the rocky slope, carrying us toward the beach, where the sand was already turning cold under the bite of the sea breeze. Zach’s body was still be
The sky above the villa had turned a pale shade of blue, signaling that afternoon was slowly giving in to evening. I stood by the tall white wooden fence, watching a row of horses in the stone stables at the east end of the property. Chestnut brown. Snow white. Midnight black. The stable’s ceiling
I didn’t know what kind of curse lived in this place, but I woke up with a light head and a back still warm from thick linen sheets in that damn stone room.Which was wild, considering I’d spent the whole night staring at the ceiling, listening to the echo of my own breath, replaying that kiss.Tha







