Rhapsody (The Bellator Saga Book 5) by Cecilia London Read Free Book Online Page A

You can let go if you so desire.”
    “It’s cold out,” Caroline said. “I’m trying to stay warm.”
    He grinned again. “It’s 75 degrees. Come up with a better cover story.”
    Insufferably cocky bastard. He may as well have taken her hand in the first place. Caroline pulled away from him and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Screw you. I’ll see Natalie myself.” She picked up her pace.
    Jack jogged behind her. “Caroline, wait.”
    “Why should I?” she called behind her.
    He grabbed her arm. “Sweetheart, please.”
    She spun around. “What? What is it now?”
    He let go of her. “It’s okay to let me take care of you,” he said. “You don’t have to admit it, but it is. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do but I know you want to be close to me. I know you want to talk to me. And I’m here any time you want to do any of those things.”
    She did not want to start a discussion of this magnitude. Not in public. “I don’t-”
    “It’s okay to want to be happy,” he whispered. “It’s even more okay to want to be happy with me.”
    Caroline crossed her arms over her chest and didn’t speak.
    “Please let me go with you to the infirmary,” Jack said. “Don’t worry about anything else.” He touched her wrist. “I’d really like to hold your hand again.”
    She didn’t know why she held out her hand, but she barely hesitated. “Okay.”
    “Okay,” he echoed, weaving her fingers through his. “Come on, we don’t want to be late.”
    *              *              *              *              *
    “How are things going?” Natalie asked.
    “She had a migraine last night,” Jack said. “A bad one.”
    They’d just walked into the examining room and already he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “It was nothing,” Caroline said.
    “She almost passed out.”
    Caroline tried not to curse. “I thought it was my job to tell her. I also thought you were going to wait outside.”
    “I wanted to make sure you were okay first.”
    “I’m in the company of a very capably trained physician, Jack. I’ll be fine.”
    He backed toward the door, wagging his finger back and forth between Caroline and Natalie. “I’ll be right outside.”
    What was that about? Was he going to stand there with a glass against the wall, trying to listen in? Jesus, she probably should have let him stay.
    Natalie spun around. “So, how are things really going?”
    Caroline must have stared at the door a little too long. “How do you think?”
    “What happened last night?”
    She decided to stick to the medical details and nothing else. “I had some head pain. Not a big deal.”
    “It may not be significant,” Natalie said. “But I bet it didn’t feel all that great.”
    Thinking about it made her nauseated all over again. “It hurt like hell.”
    “Did you take anything for it?”
    “Jack forced me to take one of those horse pills you gave me.”
    “Is that why you’re mad at him? Today, I mean.”
    It didn’t hurt to be honest. “It’s on the list.”
    “Did the medicine help?”
    “I feel hung over. I don’t do well with heavy painkillers.”
    “I suppose it’s better than suffering through terrible pain.”
    “I suppose.”
    Natalie removed the bandage over Caroline’s eyebrow. “These are definitely coming out. If your shoulder looks good, I’ll take those out as well and save you another trip over here. Okay?”
    That gave her one less excuse to leave the apartment. Shit. “I guess.”
    “How’s everything else going?”
    “Natalie, stop prying.”
    “Caroline-”
    “I don’t want a lecture either.”
    Natalie paused in the act of removing a pair of scissors from the drawer behind her. “Is there anything you want to talk about? Why are you in such a shitty mood?”
    Had the doctor been living under a rock the past several months? “I have an intolerable roommate situation.”
    “I highly doubt that. Tell me