Read Online Listed: Volume V by Noelle Adams - Free Book Online

her voice and fighting like a wildcat. He couldn’t
hold her still. She fisted one hand in his shirt and pulled it so hard it
ripped the seam.
    Paul’s
eyes glazed over with rising panic, just as he always felt when she reached
this height of fever-hysteria. But it seemed worse this time. It ripped his
heart out. She used to fight him in her delirium. Now she seemed to be fighting
to save him.
    “I’m
right here,” he rasped, trying to gather her again in his arms and hold her
still enough to carry her to the tub.  She was so incredibly hot he didn’t
think it was possible to survive it. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”
    She
was unnaturally strong, contorting herself out of his grip. When he’d released
her briefly to reposition himself, her spine arched up dramatically. Her eyes
were wide open in terror, a shocking blue against her pale skin, and her mouth
was wide open in a silent scream of anguish.
    Paul
couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stand it. She was suffering so much, and there
was nothing he could do to fix it. The pain was so sharp he just froze, staring
down at her.
    “Oh
my God,” Stacie mumbled, coming over to the bed. There were a couple of tears
on her face. “It’s just awful. The poor thing.”
    Her
words managed to distract Paul from his paralysis, and he bent down to gather
Emily up again. This time, he was able to grip her tightly enough that he could
drag her squirming form up from the bed and carry her to the bathroom.
    She
started screaming again, begging him to stay away, not to come close, to get
out of the fire. At one point, when she kicked out against his grip, he almost
dropped her.
    He
managed to reach the bathtub, however, and knelt down on the floor as he tried
to lower her into the tepid water. She was still struggling, so he had to lean
over until he was halfway in the tub himself in order to hold her still.
    “Can
you make sure she doesn’t bang her head or get her face underwater?” he asked Stacie,
who was behind him. He was appalled to hear how weak and strained his voice
sounded.
    Stacie
came over immediately and held Emily’s tossing head while Paul restrained her
flailing arms and legs.
    She
was still screaming desperately—now it was mostly just, “Paul, no! Paul, no!
Paul, no !” Over and over again.
    “Why
does she think you’re going to burn?” Stacie asked at one point, clearly deeply
upset by the violent delirium.
    Paul
just shrugged. He knew. He was almost certain he knew, but it wasn’t something
he could tell a stranger. It wasn’t something he could tell anyone .
    Emily
thought that his loving her would break him.
    She
might be right.
    *
* *
    The bath lowered
Emily’s fever. After several long minutes, she grew quiet. Although she still
shifted restlessly in the water, she stopped her frantic screaming and
flailing.
    Paul
let her soak for a long time, relieved when her body finally softened and her
eyes closed. She seemed almost unconscious now, but she was still breathing.
And she was finally not actively suffering.
    When
the crisis had been averted, Stacie got up and said, “If you’re all right with
her for now, I’m going to send Chris home.”
    Paul
nodded distractedly. He’d actually completely forgotten about Chris.
    Paul
stayed kneeling on the floor of the bathroom, leaning on the edge of the tub
and wiping Emily’s warm face with a cool washcloth. She seemed almost peaceful
now, and he started to hope that maybe this round of fever had broken
completely.
    If
it had, its span had been incredibly short. And maybe—maybe—that was a very
good sign.
    He
tried not to hope too much, but he desperately needed some sort of encouragement.
Emily’s body was small and pale in the water. Her face looked delicate, almost
childish, with her hair pulled into the two ponytails.
    She
wasn’t a child, though. She was an incredibly generous, strong, resilient,
sunny, smart, loving, extraordinary woman. And he wasn’t sure what he would do
without