High Stakes (The Kingdom Book 2) Read Online Free

hospital, I’m here with Denham and that makes everything feel okay.
    “Please rest, Ari,” Denham says quietly, noticing my weariness.
    “I’ll rest if you will …”
    “Fine, you first.”
    “No.”
    “Arianna …” he warns, fully expecting me to be difficult.
    “I want you in my bed.” I hold up a finger quickly before he interrupts. “Just climb on and cuddle with me, please?”
    He looks at me half confused, half exasperated.
    “I won’t try anything, I promise,” I insist, holding up my hands in surrender. “I just want you close. I’ll rest better with you next to me”
    “You’re impossible,” he grumbles.
    I shrug, “I know.”
    He shakes his head at me, all the while trying to suppress a grin. He pulls back the cotton sheet that’s covering me and it’s the first time that I’ve noticed that I’m wearing only a pair of boy shorts and one of Denham’s tees. I really wish I could remember what happened but perhaps it’ll all come back to me with time.
    Denham lowers the backrest down and lies on his side. He cradles my head in the crook of his arm and strokes my hair gently with the tips of his fingers.
    “Rest, Ari,” he whispers against my hair. I let my heavy eyes close and feel content at the sound of his steady heartbeat.
    I sleep. Denham sleeps. I don’t know how long we sleep for but we are both woken with a jump at the sound of his phone echoing around the room. He fumbles to reach it on the nightstand and pulls it to his ear.
    “King,” he announces before listening to the person on the end of the line. I can hear someone talking but can’t make out who it is and what they are saying. “Yes, I call you back. Give me five.” He hangs up abruptly.
    “Is everything okay?” I ask
    “Yes, just something I need to sort out. I’m sorry it woke you. How do you feel?”
    “I actually feel pretty good … considering.”
    “Can I get you anything?”
    “I really need to pee …”
    “Okay, let me help you.”
    “No!” I squeak, mortified at the thought of Denham seeing me in the bathroom. “I don’t need help I just need to get unhooked from these damn machines.”
    “Your drip is on wheels, Ari.” Denham says, laughing under his breath. “I’ll take you to the bathroom.”
    “I don’t want you to,” I say insistently.
    “Arianna, don’t be such a baby. I’ve seen you in all your magnificent naked glory.” He strokes my cheek and whispers, “I even know how you taste …” His breath fans across my skin and provokes my senses. That one little sentence has me all kinds of flustered. I can hardly remember what we were talking about.
    Oh yes, I want to pee. But, I most certainly do not want him to take me. There are things a girl needs to do by herself and this is one of them. I mean, what happens if I don’t just need to pee? What do I do then?
    “Just help me off the bed, I’ll be fine, I promise.”
    “No, Arianna. Stop being so damn stubborn, will you? You haven’t stood upright for a little over six hours. I am not letting you go to the bathroom on your own. What happens if you lose your balance or black out?”
    I hadn’t even thought about that … but I still do not want him to see me in the bathroom like that.
    “Fine,” I grumble. “Please call me a nurse … and before you try to insist that you’ll take me, I don’t want you to … Just…” I sigh, “…please.”
    “Fine,” he concedes. “But just so you know, nothing could make me want you any less.”
    “There are just some things a girl has to do … in private,” I say quietly.
    Denham presses the call bell and at the same time his cell blares through the room, again. He glances at the screen and shakes his head. “I’m gonna have to take this, Stunner. Do not get out of bed until the nurse comes,” he orders, looking at me pointedly before leaving the room and closing the door quietly behind him.
    I’ve never been one for doing as I’m told and I manage to wriggle my way