A Perfect Lie by Shirley Wine

Author:Shirley Wine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romantic suspense, revenge, contemporary, series romance, new zealand setting, rural romance, heroine on the run, clean and wholeseom romance, katherine bay romance
Publisher: Shirley Wine

Chapter Fifteen

She heard the sound first. A rhythmic bleeping interspersed with a soft snuffle. It was a struggle, but Ashlyn managed to crank her eyelids open.

Just a crack.

It would take more effort than she possessed to open them fully. The room was dim, but not dark—and not at all familiar. A weird smell made her nose wrinkle, but the smell lingered. A familiar smell, but one she couldn’t quite place.

I need to think about it a little more.

She tried to move her hand, but found it pinned to the bed by a heavy weight—a warm heavy weight.

She was in bed, but what bed and where?

She wriggled her hand and the weight moved a little. Why was she in this strange bed? Her mind was so sluggish it took some time to process the jumbled thoughts.

With an enormous effort, she turned her head. Shards of pain exploded, streaking and shrieking as it ricocheted inside her skull, and a groan was wrenched from her.

With a soft moan, she closed her eyes and the pain subsided. She cranked her eyelids open once more, and squinted. The weight on her hand was the pressure from a man’s hand, a capable hand, tanned and sprinkled with dark hair.

This time, careful to keep her head still, her gaze followed the hand upwards to its owner. Slumped in the chair beside the bed, bent forward, a man slept with his head on his bent arms close to their joined hands. He didn’t look at all comfortable.

Recognition, memory and an enervating sense of relief, solid and tangible, shivered through every cell of her body. While Jace was close she was safe.

Jace.

My husband.

My hero.

He was rumpled, dishevelled and more like the pirate who’d snatched her up in that dark alley. As she studied him, an absolute sense of rightness squeezed her heart—I’ve been looking my whole life for the place where I belong, and here he is.

The thought wasn’t new, but it was right.

How did I get so lucky?

Several days’ growth of whisker stubble darkened his face.

Asleep, he possessed a vulnerability that was invisible when he was awake. How long had he been there? She freed her hand from his, and he stirred. With trembling fingers she smoothed a dark curl off his forehead, curls usually kept ruthlessly tamed now rioted in luxurious abandon.

The movement small as it was, jerked him awake.

“Ashlyn.” He sat up and rubbed a hand over bloodshot eyes. He was weary and rumpled, but so worried and so endearingly lovable. “You’re awake?”

Her heart stuttered. “Where am I? Why are you sitting here?”

“Thank you God,” he whispered closing his eyes on a heavy sigh. “I began to think you’d never wake up.”

The soft squeak of rubber soled shoes on the floor had her turning her head toward the sound. The incautious movement hurt and she groaned.

“My head.” She closed her eyes as more jagged shards of pain pierced her brain. I am going to die.

“So you’re awake.” A smooth, cool hand touched her cheek. “I’ve paged your doctor.

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