5

Tiana's POV 

When we got back to our suite that night, I retired to bed immediately. My initial plan was to sleep on a couch in the sitting room, but I was tired and jet lagged and decided to sleep on the bed instead.

I used some pillows to form a line at the center of the bed, to demarcate my side and Seth's. That should at least prevent any form of contact from happening. 

I changed into my pajamas while Seth made some calls in the living room. I wanted to be asleep before he came to the bedroom, I wasn't sure I would be able to sleep anymore if he met me like this. 

I couldn't stop thinking about the way he looked at me earlier. If he had looked at me like that while we were alone, heaven knew what I would have done. 

Just then, Seth marched into the room, ruining my plan. His brows arched when he saw the pillows I used in dividing the bed. 

"Really?" He asked, staring at me with a questioning look.

"Yeah, it is to create boundaries. I know you hate the idea of touching me and you are not going to but..." I didn't trust myself, but I didn't say that out loud. 

I might be the one who will ask him for a cuddle at midnight, I always did that with my exes and I was scared I would do that with Seth while I was half asleep. 

"Whatever makes you sleep at night, Tiana. This is unnecessary but I don't mind." He grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up.

I quickly shut my eyes and turned away, my cheeks turning red at how he just took off his cloth without a warning. 

Jesus, this was going to be a long trip. 

Seth turned off the light and got on the side of his bed with his back turned to me. I wondered what it would be like if we were here under a different circumstance. 

What would it be like to have Seth sleep beside me if we weren't pretending? Would he be just as cold to me or would he be different? Would he let me touch-

Christ! What was I thinking? 

'Tiana, he belongs to your sister! You shouldn't be thinking about him like that!' A voice yelled in my head. 

But how could I not think about him like that? He was right here beside me in his half naked glory. He was driving me crazy and the worst part was he probably wasn't even thinking about me that way. 

To get him off my mind, I grabbed my phone and sent a quick text to Maddie's doctor, asking if there was any sign of improvement.

-There are no improvements so far. Let's just keep praying and hoping she wakes up soon.-

I sighed as I sank into my side of the bed. I dropped my phone on the night stand and willed myself not to cry. I eventually fell asleep while praying to God to help my sister.

---

I was walking through a hallway, it was long and painted white all through.

"Tiana! Tiana! Help me!" I heard Maddie call out, she was at the other side of the hallway, I kept running to reach her but the door kept getting farther and farther away from me everytime I tried to open it. 

"Madison, I'm coming!" I cried out, my chest heaved as I kept running. I finally held the door knob and this time, it didn't move away from me, I opened the door and found myself in the ICU.

Madison was sitting on the bed with a bandage wrapped around her head, her dark brown eyes blazed with anger as she glared at me. 

"You," she pointed a finger at me, "you left me, you left me here all alone. This is all your fault!" She yelled at me. 

"Maddie, no! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." I cried out, falling to my knees as shaking violently as I wept. 

"This is your fault. You should be the one on this bed, not me!" She walked over to me and grabbed my hand, she started to pull me towards the bed while I struggled to free myself. 

"No, stop! Please, stop!" She threw me on the bed and pressed me against it. A nurse appeared out of nowhere and held out a long syringe, ready to inject me with it. 

"Got off of me!" I yelled as I continued to buckle and wrestle against Maddie, but she was too strong, stronger than I remembered. When did Maddie gain such power? 

"Tiana, it's just a dream. Snap out of it!" I heard Maddie say, but the voice didn't belong to her, it was a man's voice. 

"Tiana, come on, wake up!"

I shut my eyes tightly and when I opened them, the light was on and Seth was on top of me with his hands holding mine tightly above my head. I blinked a few times to be sure I wasn't hallucinating, but he was still there, shirtless and breathing hard like he had just finished a race. 

What the hell was going on? Why was he on top of me? 

"Seth." I called out, my voice coarse and raspy. 

His grip on my hand loosened as he stared down at me, "are you alright?" He asked in a soft voice, moving to sit beside me on the bed. 

"Yeah, I just had a bad dream." I said as I sat up. I was covered in sweat. My hair stuck to my forehead while my pajamas were wet and wrinkled. The sheets are strewn and the pillows were all over the place, I must have wrestled with Seth while having the bad nightmare. 

"I'm gonna get you water." He said as he got off the bed and headed to the living room, soon he appeared with a bottle of water in his hand. He opened it and handed it over to me. 

I chugged down the whole contents before placing the empty bottle on the night stand. 

"Do you feel better now?" He asked, voice laced with concern.

I nodded, giving him a small smile. I looked down at his chest and saw red marks like I had clawed him with my nails, I must have punched him a couple of times, "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." 

"You don't have to apologise, it's not your fault." Seth said as he sat at the edge of the bed, "has this ever happened to you before?"

"Yeah, but not often. I only get them whenever bad things happen, Maddie's accident triggered it this time." The last time I had one was when my grandmother died. I was really close to her so her death affected me a lot. 

"Sorry about that. You should probably take a hot bath or a shower, it's already six in the morning, I doubt you'll be able to sleep again." 

"Thank you, Seth." I got off the bed and headed to the bathroom. I peeled the wet pyjamas off as I filled the tub with water, I climbed into it, the hot water almost scalding my skin. 

I closed my eyes and relaxed in the water as my mind drifted back to when I woke up from the nightmare. Seth must have held me down so I wouldn't hurt myself. 

I should feel embarrassed but I wasn't, not after I saw the way he looked at me. He looked genuinely concerned, it was the first time in a long time I had seen him concerned about me.

I couldn't fight the grin that stretched my lips. I giggled but quickly stopped myself when I remembered that Seth would hear me. 

I had a quick shower and got out of the bathroom. I put on one of my own clothes that I brought and went to meet Seth. 

Seth had ordered breakfast and was already eating by the time I got to the sitting room. He observed me for a while before dipping his head.

"You look a lot better now," he commented as I moved closer to him.

I put a few toast on my plate and put some fried egg on it. I looked up and saw that Seth was still looking at me, "don't look at me that way." I laughed softly as I moved to sit on the couch beside him.

"What way?" He asked innocently.

"Like 'poor girl, she is really going through a lot', I've told you I only get nightmares when bad things happen which is not often. The nightmare only came because of my guilt about Maddie's accident, that's all. You don't have to look at me with pity." 

Seth scoffed, the side of his lips rose a little in a half smile, "I definitely wasn't looking at you like that. I just wanted to- if you don't mind, can you tell me why you feel guilty." 

I sighed and chewed the food in my mouth before answering, "I don't know, I just feel like I might be responsible for her accident. I was supposed to go get us some food but I was busy making some calls. She was really tired because of the wedding preparations but she still decided to go."

"If I had gone instead, that wouldn't have happened. It's all my fault." 

"So, you've been blaming yourself all this while?" Seth asked, his brows furrowing to me. 

I nodded in response but he shook his head and leaned forward in his seat.

"Madison got into an accident because she was hit by a drunk driver not because she slept off while driving or something. If you had gone, the same thing would have happened, Tiana. You shouldn't blame yourself for things you have no control over. What has happened has happened, we should just hope and pray that she wakes up soon." 

He had a point, I had no control over what happened and shouldn't beat myself up over it. This was the longest genuine conversation we've had since we got here. I couldn't help but smile at him and he smiled back, a real smile. My stomach did that crazy, funny movement again which made me look away from him.

"You good?" I heard him ask.

"Yeah, I am. Thank you for the... You know." I mumbled as I continued to eat. 

"How about we go to the beach today?" 

My head snapped back to him at his words, "the beach? Yes, yes!" I had always wanted to go to the beach for the longest time, but I never got the chance to because of work. And I had also secretly wanted to wear one of Maddie's sexy bikinis to the beach, now was my chance to do that.