Auctioned By The Ceo

That voice again, rough, gravelly, with that deep command which sent a flurry of activity around her. The hairs on her arms rose in response to the air displacement around her. Maybe she was in heaven, and she was floating? She flinched as something cool touched her forehead, and tried to turn away, but that just made her head thump even more.

“Hush, little dove, lie still. Let the nurse take care of you. You’ll feel better soon.”

That sounded like Logan, but that made even less sense. If it was him, he didn’t sound like himself at all, all choked up and just, well odd, as though he cared, and she knew he didn’t. Not in the way she cared about him, not in the way she needed him to. Tears rose behind her closed eyelids, as she drifted back off to sleep. Every time she struggled back to consciousness that crushing weight on her chest got heavier, as she recalled what led up to her being here, in this hospital bed. She finally realized that’s where she was, hooked up to machines and with oxygen tracks under her nose. Hospital made so much more sense than dying. If only she could remember why she was here. She’d been ill, she remembered that. Rhia’s virus, the visit by the social worker. Logan’s fury at hearing his brother had to all intents and purposes abandoned Rhia, and his utter bafflement when she’d said he loved Rhia.

Hannah woke up with a start, silent tears running down her face. That horrible weight on her chest had gone, at last, but her heart was breaking in two.

With a clear mind came the realization what she had to do. To stay in this marriage, when Logan would never return her love, it hurt too damn much. Rhia was getting too attached to her as it was. That moment she called her Mummy…

Priceless and yet so painful, because she could never be her mummy. She would have to end this charade. Oh, as far as the courts were concerned, they would stay married. There was no way she would jeopardize his chances of gaining full custody of Rhia, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t live with him anymore. More useless tears spilled out of her eyes, and she made an ineffective swipe at them with her hand. Hard to do with the cannula stuck in the back of it. She followed the line leading out of it and forgot to breathe a moment. There slumped in a chair sat Logan. Head at an awkward angle he was fast asleep, and he looked…

looked awful. Was that the suit he’d worn the day of the home visit? Why was he still in that, however many days later? It had to have been days, because he sported an almost full beard on his jaw. Deep purple smudges marred his usually even complexion, and … she sniffed. There was a definite not so

the button to work her bed, and Hannah slowly rose in a more upright position. The shift in position made the room spin,

that better? I’ll check with the nurse to see if we can get rid of these.” She touched the tracks under Hannah’s nose and smiled. “The drip will have

across at still

left your side since you were brought in, and at times I thought he’d get

those vocal cords. You’ve been out of it for days now.” She held up a cup with a straw, and

a

chart at the end of her bed, and

really nasty. As it was, it took a rather aggressive cocktail of drugs to get the sepsis under control, but you’ve been on the mend for the last twenty-four hours or so. Still, he—” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder at Logan. “He still refused to

grinned at her, and clipped the notes back to

be in to assess you properly