The Mulleins of Katherine Bay by Shirley Wine

Author:Shirley Wine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance family saga, romance books with family, romance australia, rural romance, romance and suspense, romance adult contempory, romance and rancher, romance action romance book series, romance action suspense, romance 3 pack
Publisher: Shirley Wine

Chapter Fifteen

She heard the sound first. A rhythmic bleeping interspersed with a soft snuffle. It was a struggle, but Ashlyn cranked 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 her jumbled thoughts.

With an enormous effort, she turned her head. Shards of pain exploded, streaking and shrieking and ricocheting inside her skull, and wrenched a groan 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.

Rumpled, dishevelled, with several days’ growth of whisker stubble darkening his face, he more closely resembled the pirate who’d snatched her up in that dark alley. She watched him, and an absolute sense of rightness squeezed her heart—I’ve been looking all my 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?

Asleep, he possessed a vulnerability that was missing when he was awake and fully alert . 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 was thinking you’d never wake up.’

The soft squeak of rubber-soled shoes 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.’

Doctor? She was in the hospital? She wrinkled her nose.

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