Sweet Affliction [Sweet Awakenings 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Nicole Morgan Read Free Book Online Page A

suddenly was spinning, and he was overcome with the need to vomit.
    “Are you okay?”
    Despite being only a few feet away from him, she all but ran to his side as she placed a hand on his forehead. Her hand was soft and felt so cool against his skin. What was the temperature in this place anyway? He felt like he was burning up.
    “Oh God. Wait right here.”
    He closed his eyes and waited for the nausea to pass. Wait here? Yeah, sure thing. Where the hell was he going to go? Oh hell, he didn’t have the energy for sarcasm.
    A sound echoed inside his head like everything was magnified. It was her and her father. They were back. Their voices were calm as they discussed something, but despite their even tones it felt like they were screaming inside his head. Somewhere on his head was a small circus monkey banging symbols together over and over. With every clatter of the brass circles clashing he could feel someone jabbing two very large knives into his eye sockets.
    Opening his eyes, the pain intensified. A bright white light sliced at his pupils, nearly blinding him. He howled in pain and felt his insides roil and curdle like he’d just chugged year-old expired milk. Not a moment later he was covered in his own vomit. The wrenching smell flared his nostrils in disgust as he smelled bile and other scents he didn’t know his body was capable of.
    He listened to the two discuss things that didn’t make sense. There was mention of apologies, of doing the right thing, of sacrifices. He thought he heard her cry, and he felt an unknown tug from his insides. Despite all her crazy emotions he didn’t like the sound of her sadness.
    He closed his eyes, spent and exhausted. Sleep took him as he listened to the man promise his daughter that she was strong enough.

Chapter 7
     
    All six of them climbed into the SUV. No one complained when Adam insisted on driving. They knew it occupied his mind and kept him from processing his grief. None of them agreed with his methods, but it worked for Adam, and no one relished the idea of challenging him on it.
    Rex looked at his wife and covered her hand with his. She had been a rock for him during the service. Her hand had squeezed his tightly at almost every time he felt moisture was approaching his eyes. She had stood patiently by his side as he shook hands with some teammates he hadn’t seen in years and offered polite condolences to everyone she met. His Shelby had been through a lot of things, and it amazed him how well she had healed. Her strength, although she never admitted to have any, left him awestruck.
    The thought brought his attention back to Adam. Chelsea sat beside him in the front seat, holding the wooden box bearing the trident in her lap. Their marriage had taken Rex off guard. Adam was never a one-woman man as far back as he could remember, but that obviously changed back when he’d been engaged to the woman, Alie, that no one was ever to mention. Even after that though, he seemed broken. Chelsea, for all her sweetness, had swept in under Adam’s radar and managed to hook him.
    Their relationship was the opposite of conventional. Adam had a roughness that never seemed to leave. He at times was rude and curt, and more than once Jack and Rex had wondered if he was trying to push his new bride away. She seemed to understand him though. She almost always knew when to retreat and wait patiently while he came back from his dark moods.
    Despite Adam being a puzzle that Rex didn’t think he’d ever solve, he was glad that Chelsea seemed to have most of the pieces in place. She grounded him in a strange way. For all his quietness, the only time Rex ever saw a tender moment was when it involved Chelsea.
    Hell, even the short eulogy Adam spoke at the service was absent of emotion. He simply stated that his buddy Slater was going out to sea where he most felt at home. He commended him on his duty to service, his years of admirable work, and how he was always a trusted brother that