Chapter 97: Forever: Hannah
When I entered my husband’s hospital room early the next morning, I expected to see him, at best, sound asleep with a pillow over his face to block out the sounds of the bustling hospital behind me.
For the past few days that I had entered his room, I was shocked to see he was still sound asleep with the pillows over his eyes. The doctor had told me this was something that all patients in recovery experienced, so I didn’t question it.
What I did not expect, however, was to see him sitting near the window in one of the chairs and tables provided. His laptop was in front of him. His back was straight as he vigorously typed away at the small keyboard.
Roman was still dressed in his hospital clothes; however, papers and documents were sprawled out in front of him as he played with his glasses between his fingers and looked from the physical reports to the electronic ones on his screen.
I rested my hands on my hips as my eyebrows furrowed together.
I stared at him for what felt like a solid minute, exasperated, before yelling out his name. "Roman Thaddeus!"
I heard a snicker from Marcus behind me before I closed the door to the rest of the world and barged over to my husband.
His face had a panicked look, which told me he knew exactly that what he was doing was wrong. When I had brought his laptop from his office at the mansion upon his request earlier that week I expected him to use it to wind down and entertain himself.
I should’ve known better that Roman Thaddeus was unable to keep himself away from work for more than a handful of days. Hell, it seemed like not even a bullet to the gut could stop him!
"Hello, sweet girl, how are–" He attempted to distract me, but I was pulling at his arm and slamming his laptop shut before he could even finish his sentence.
"Oh, don’t you ’sweet girl’ me." I pushed him down on his bed and only looked once at the wide grin he gave me. "You’re supposed to be resting and not working away, slaving over damn reports! You just got shot– Oomph!"
A breath left me when instead of pushing Roman down onto his bed completely he grabbed me by the waist and pulled me down on top of him. A moment of panic surged through me when I realized I had landed on his chest.
"Relax," he told me and then lifted his shirt up to show me the stitches on his stomach.
To my surprise, there was a large padding covering it.
"There are less there than a few days ago when I got the surgery, and the padding prevents any disturbance. This means I can..." He didn’t finish his sentence and instead opted to pull me closer on top of him and smothered my face in kisses.
I pulled away after a moment, relishing in the kisses but still angry at him for going against his doctor’s orders and over-exerting himself by sitting up straight and working.
The look on my face must have told him about how I was feeling because he gave a deep sigh and blew into my face as if he were trying to blow the distasteful expression I had away.
"Don’t look at me like that. I’m injured, you know?" I rolled my eyes and moved to sit on his lap. I believed him about how well he was healing, but I didn’t want to put any unnecessary pressure onto his still healing wound.
"Now you’re injured." I shook my head at him. "But where was this injury when I came in two seconds ago and you were doing work like it was an average day at the office?"
He only huffed a laugh at my accusation. "I was just checking in on the business and how it was fairing without me. I am still the CEO, you know? Bullet wound or not."
"Bullet wound or not you’ll find yourself without a wife if you continue to work yourself to death. It won’t be the bullet wound that takes you out but me." I attempted to joke at the situation, but the air quickly turned tense when Roman’s smiling face turned into a frown.
"Don’t joke like that." Roman’s grip on my waist tightened as he pulled me closer. "Take it back."
I tried to blink at the rapidly changing atmosphere as Roman put his head in my neck, muttering to me to tell me to take my words back.
"S... Sorry?" I tried, not knowing what it was exactly I had said wrong. Roman had been rather clingy lately—a lot more than usual. And I wondered, for a small moment, whether getting shot was something that had put his life into perspective.
Of course, any normal person would think about their achievements and life goals up to the present every once and a while. But I didn’t think Roman fell into the category of normal people.
I was thinking all that over when I noticed the way he was now staring at me.
It was like he was asking me something I could not, for the life of me, figure out.
"Tell me you’ll stay with me forever," Roman demanded. I found myself finding it hard to believe that this was the scary, powerful CEO who had taken a bullet to the gut and survived.
"Roman, you’re behaving like a child." I laughed at him and tried to pull him away, but he held a strong grip around my waist and shook his head. God, this man truly behaved like a puppy sometimes.
"Fine!" I rolled my eyes at his behavior but secretly loved whenever he became clingy like this. "I’ll stay with you forever until the world ends and we’re the only two people alive."
"Bit of an exaggeration, wouldn’t you say?" He smirked as he pulled his face from my neck. "Kind of sounds even a little bit obsessive... If you ask me..."Roman was relentless in his teasing and I only clicked my tongue at his change in behaviour.
My mouth fell open at his change in attitude, and I pushed him back on the bed. Roman let out a slight huff as he stared up at me. I started to move from his lap, but he held me there by my hips.
It felt like my heart was doing somersaults in my chest with the way he smiled up at me, big and toothy with those dazzling eyes of his.
A knock sounded from the door. We both turned our heads to the side. Quickly, Roman let go of my hips so I could climb off of him and get into the chair beside his bed before the visitor appeared.
To the surprise of both Roman and I, Kirsten walked in through the doors carrying a small basket of what I supposed was baked goods. By the smell of it, it was good.
I got up to give her a hug and greeted her.
"I heard about what happened. Sorry I couldn’t come by earlier but... I made these..." She spoke to both Roman and me before putting the basket down onto the table at his side.
Roman looked at me as she did, so I gave him a small encouraging smile as we shared a look of adoration for the girl in front of us.
"Thank you, Kirsten," he told her softly. "You didn’t have to do that."
She shook her head immediately. "No, no I wanted to. And if those girls you saved that day could, I know they would want to too. It’s the least we can do for what you did for us, really..."
Roman stretched out his hand to her and gave it a reassuring squeeze. To our shocking surprise, Kirsten quickly burst into tears in front of him at his action. His eyes went wide as he looked at me.
I mouthed to him to hug her, and he awkwardly followed my instructions. I watched in adoration as he tried to soothe Kirsten and told her that it was all alright.
"You could’ve died." She wept into his shoulder as he rubbed her back lightly. I was reminded of the many times Lori would come to me distraught about something and I would comfort her in the same way.
"I didn’t, Kirsten. I didn’t die. Look at me. I’m feeling good. Let’s have some of these cookies you brought, yeah? They’re sure to fix me right up." He looked at me for help. I moved forward as I undid the fastenings of the basket and handed them each a cookie.
"Mhmm." Roman groaned as he took a bite in it and exaggerated his glee. "This is so good! What did you put in here? Love?"
Kirsten and I both choked from laughter as he began spouting nonsense. Her tears eventually began to dry up.
