“I’m glad you came.” The words rushed from my lips, and I meant them. It wasn’t a hit to my pride to admit it. I was happy she was there, and I wanted her to know that.

“Come here,” I said, reaching out my free hand. I didn’t want her to be afraid of me. She was the last person in the world I’d hurt. But I needed her close to me.

She moved stiffly toward the side of my bed and swallowed hard, her throat bobbing up and down.

“I’d never hurt you, Lyla. Not ever.” Truer words had never been spoken.

Her eyes scanned my face once more, and then she moved closer, her thigh rubbing the rail of my bed. Slowly, I lifted my free hand toward her as if I were about to pet a wounded puppy, and when my fingertips met her cheek, she closed her eyes and sighed as if she felt as much pleasure from my touch as I felt from touching her.

This was really happening. I’d dreamed about it for weeks, but she was really there and I was touching her. Letting my fingers linger on the side of her cheek and then down her neck, I watched as her eyes dilated and her cheeks flushed. I wanted to follow the flush with my fingers when it moved down her neck and into her top.

Shaking herself, she reached down and plucked a clipboard from the side of my bed. I watched as her jade eyes scanned the document, and a tiny smile twitched her plump lips.

“You’re going to be okay,” she said.

She had no idea how right she was. I was definitely going to be okay. As long she was there and I had her full attention, nothing could hurt me.

“I am now.”

And I was. I was more okay in that moment than I had been in my entire life.

CHAPTER 13

LYLA

I COULDN’T BELIEVE what I was doing. I was being as manipulative as the inmates. I was lying to get what I wanted, and I wanted to get to X.

Seeing him cuffed to the hospital bed was unnerving. He didn’t look like himself. He wasn’t the X from the block. His usual dark nature had been wiped clean and all that was left was a pale version of him—weak and unsure of what was going on inside his body.

But when he touched me and gazed up at me with warmth in his eyes, I wasn’t sure I wanted to acknowledge the emotions that moved over my heart. His promise to never hurt me had touched me all the way to the very depths of my soul in a place I’d never been touched. And even though everyone else was afraid of X, I knew he was telling me the truth. He’d never hurt me no matter what.

He’d had opportunities to over the last few weeks, and yet, he was the one person in the prison who’d gone out of his way to save me. Why would he do that if he had any plans at all to hurt me himself?

His thumb shifted beneath my eye, the calloused pad rough against my cheek, and I melted into his palm. All my inhibitions lifted in that moment, and something unseen passed between us. He had somehow managed to make me his, and I wasn’t even sure he knew it.

“How’d you get in here?” he asked, his big, warm hand engulfing both of my frozen ones.

“I walked in.” I shrugged.

I didn’t want to divulge all the manipulative things I’d done to sneak in to see him. It wasn’t something I was proud of, and trust me, the little angel conscience on my shoulder was bitching me out for it.

I took a seat in the chair next to his bed and removed my hands from his. When he was touching me, I couldn’t think straight. All my focus went to the point where his heat met my cold skin, and that was all I could think about. The COs outside his door laughed out loud, making me startle. It wouldn’t be long before they were coming in to check on me.

“Before I left work, Dr. Giles got a phone call from the hospital. I watched as he wrote your room number down in his files.”

He listened, not saying a word as his royal eyes moved over my face, landing on my lips. They were so deep, pools of emotion that I wanted to dive into.

“How’d you get past Ramirez and Reeves?” he asked, nodding to the door where the two COs were posted.

Pulling papers from my purse, I held them out for him to see—papers I’d taken from the infirmary—with Dr. Giles’ signature, which I’d forged.

“I showed them these and told them they couldn’t come in with me because of confidentiality. They’re outside waiting for my call. I’m supposed to scream if you try to attack me. Although…” My eyes flickered to the hand that was handcuffed to the bed. “I’m not sure there’s much you could do even if you wanted to.”

“You lied for me,” he stated.

I nodded.

“Why?”