Read Online Transcending Nirvana (Dark Evoke #3) by V. L. Brock - Free Book Online

prompted me to lift my head to look at him. I didn’t care for the equally grave expression he was donning. “You can’t lie about this. You need to tell them everything. Okay?”
    It was only 8 a.m., but I was absolutely exhausted. The ability and strength to talk was spent, so I simply nodded my head before snuggling back into position and relaxing myself. Unconsciously, my fingertips skated across thin, crinkled flesh before reaching the healthy surface. “Do you mind me tracing this?” I whispered summoning the energy from God only knows where. “I’m finding it relaxing.”
    My head rose as his lungs were filled to bursting point and a kiss was planted on my head. “Funny enough, I do, too…”
    At 1:05 p.m. we pulled up outside MA General. Peeking past Laurie and out of the window to my right, a shudder spawned and paved its way up my spine. The awning, the car lot, the fucking building, everything around me was feeding my anxiety.
    How could so much happen in three short weeks? It felt like I had lived two lifetimes during that stretch. I suppose in a way, I had.
    “Are you sure you’re going to be alright, darlin’?” The affectionate hand on my knee amplified his concern. My focus dithered from the hospital when I felt his assuring grip tighten with a form of encouragement on my flesh. I glanced back at the man beside me.
    “She’ll be fine, cuz. I’ll be with her.”
    Laurie’s words of promise made no dent in his raptured focus upon me. Without a sound, Walker repeated his question in a gesture of widened eyes. I nodded blandly. “I should be okay.”
    “Are you sure, because I can put off this errand and come with you for support. I’m more than happy to do so, it’s no problem.”
    “Walker, for the love of God, man,” Laurie’s exuberant yet very much vexed tone had me stifling an amused snort. However, grinning widely was unavoidable. “I’m not chopped fucking liver; I’ll be there with her. I promise she’ll be fine. Now, come on, girlie, don’t want to keep the nice doctor man waiting,” she tugged gently on my right arm as the sounds, which were drowned out by the solitude of the truck, became alive and consuming when she hastily shoved the door open.
    A hand equally dry and cracked with hard skin cradled my face. His flesh may have been rough, but his touch was the softest I’d ever felt. My eyes were searched while he muttered, “I’m sorry, darlin’,” with a small flail of his head. “I don’t mean to…I mean…I just want to keep you safe.”
    My hand lifted and eclipsed his. Licking my lips, creases began to burrow into my brow as realization overtook. Any other time, I would have leaned into his tender touch, but not then. Not with those seven words holding up a crimson flag in my mind. They may have been ones of concern and consideration, and they may have been uttered in the rich, velvet Irish tone I was familiarized with. Still, they were an echo of Him. An overawing sense of déjà-vu had me curling my fingers around his upon my cheek. Walker’s eyes tapered and his lips pursed when I removed his hand, letting it drop into his black, denim clad lap.
    Ordinarily, I would have braved a smile and tiptoed around my true feelings, making certain that those fragile eggshells didn’t crack beneath my weight, however, that red warning flag which was being frantically waved in front of my very eyes, was merely goading my anger. It had to be said. I had to be honest. “So did He,” lurched from my mouth in a scathing manner, and I watched on, pained, as Walker’s breath caught while his eyes darkened with a wall of moisture as well as secret regret. And guilt was the sole cause of my now billowing heart.
    “Kady, come on. I know your appointment is never usually on time with these things, but I need to get coffee before heading up anyway.”
    Removing my attention from one of the strongest men I knew, who was wounded by three simple words, was proving difficult.