Rose Garden [book two]

Chapter Eleven

"You're pretty banged up, aren't you?" Niall hovered over me as I leaned over the sink in the bathroom. He twisted my hair into a tight coil to release the water from hair and down the drain because I couldn't do it myself. After I sat on the lid of the toilet, Niall stood between my legs, holding my face by my chin and forcing me to stare up at him. The light above his head appears too bright, making his face disappear. I squint in order to see him.

"Yeah," I answered silently, closing my eyes as he then towel dried my hair for me. The pressure of his fingers through the towel rubbing my scalp made me drift into slumber as well as the mixture of my drugs in my system that were prescribed to me.

"Rose, baby," Niall's voice brought me up from the deep end of my sleep. "Stay up for five more minutes."

"I can try," I slurred to him, allowing my chin to sink into the strong hold of his hand. The fabric of his shirt tickled my nose and I laughed softly.

"Rosie," Niall cooed into my ear. His breath tickled too.

"Hm?"

I was surprised my hearing aids still worked. I'd probably wake up with a shortage in them, but I didn't care as all I could concentrate on was the motion pattern of Niall's hands.

"Talk to me," he said.

I could tell that this was his poor attempt to keep me awake, so I had began complaining.

"My shoulder hurts..." This was because I had dislocated it while trying to smash the window open so that Addison and I could get into the car.

Initially, Addison had tried her fist, only to break her thumb and fracture her index finger and not cause so much as a crack in the window. Six shoves with my shoulder and the window had shattered. Lucky for us, our destination was the hospital anyway.

"You would think a fragile little person like you would have needed screws in her shoulder after that," Niall sighed. He snagged a strand of my hair from under my sling, then combed his fingers through my entire head of hair.

"I'm stronger than you think." My eyes had become low again.

"You're right. I underestimate you sometimes," Niall kissed my forehead and it felt like he was smiling. "Especially after all that you've been through..." This had been true. I'd been stabbed in the back literally and slashed in the stomach with a knife. I took a huge needle in my hip bone and dislocated my shoulder in less than forty-eight hours. I'd even suffered great loss in my life from people dying to even being abandoned.

These things still affected me both physically and mentally, but I chose not to mention those tribulations in my life, instead allowing the vulnerableness to envelop me. With that being said, being fragile and vulnerable required being carried. So after Niall helped me change into dry clothes, I pretended that I didn't have control over my legs and he carried me to the bed next to Rosemarie's hospital bed. She was sprawled out on her bed comfortably, tucked in.

With my right arm outstretched—my good one—I cupped my hand around Niall's hand before he could leave me.

"Wait," I said and he crouched his stature down to my face.

"Yes?"

"Sleep with me," I pleaded. It took him some time to adjust his body around my fragile one. As I was drowning into slumber, Niall seemed merely keyed up and wide awake. I almost felt that he wanted me to go to sleep fast so that he could leave, as though I were a child. But at least he had the decency to wait.

His fingers had caressed by scalp in my sleep while I nuzzled my face into his neck. I could almost smell his warmth. My body felt so enthralled by Niall while nearly asleep. Every move he made seemed to have some kind of effect me. When he coughed, my breathing halted. When his fingers froze in my hair, I floated to the surface of consciousness. When he finally slid from under my body some hours later, I awoke, whining.