A Game Of Temptation

Beep.

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Beep.

That was all I kept hearing. The sound wouldn’t fucking leave my head.

I tried to open my eyes, but they remained firmly shut. My lids felt like two lead weights and lifting them felt like a herculean task. When I finally did, I must have been looking straight at the sun because it was so bright, I winced and shut them immediately.

The second time when I opened them, I did so slowly, and that was when I realized that I hadn’t been staring at the sun. The room I was in was bright, painted with white all round, but it shouldn’t have hurt my eyes like that.

The fact that it had meant only one thing; My eyes had been closed for a very long time.

Swallowing past a painfully dry throat, I looked around. There were machines connected to my body and the steady beep I’d been hearing was from one of them.

The room…

The machines…

I was in a hospital. What the hell was I doing in a hospital?

Bracing my hands on the pillow, I made to sit up on the bed, only for me to gasp at the sheer magnitude of pain that coursed through me.

It felt like there was a sledgehammer slamming against my skull from the inside. My entire body hurt in a significant number of places, the main one being my head.

What the he-

The accident!

That car had been driving towards me at high speed without showing any signs of slowing down and Alex’s car brakes had failed to work.

A fresh wave of pain and regret shot through me because I knew that I had probably damaged Alex’s car.

Where was he?

With great effort, I turned my head to the door and as though I’d summoned him with my thoughts, the door cracked open quietly and he stepped into the room.

“Alex?”

He had his head bent when he came in so he didn’t see me at first. On hearing the sound of his name, his head flew up and surprised eyes landed on my face. “Laura? You’re awake?”

Pushing the door shut, he hurried towards me, looking for all the world like he wanted to lift me off the hospital bed and crush me to him, but then he clenched and unclenched his hands by his sides. Then he pushed a lock of hair away from my face with shaky hands.

“How did I get here?” I forced out, my voice coming out small and scratchy. “How are you here?”

Alex exhaled shakily.

He dropped onto the chair beside the bed and took one of my hands in his. “Laura, you…” He swallowed, looked away, then looked back at me. “You got in an accident, Laura.”

“Yeah, I-” I coughed.

In a flash, Alex shot up from the chair and placed a bottle of water against my lips. I drank a little, then drank more, only now realizing just how thirsty I really was.

Before I could take in any more, Alex took the bottle away. “That’s okay for now.”

He placed the bottle on the table beside the bed and retook his seat, jerking it closer to the bed until he was close enough to brace his elbows on it, right next to my waist.

Alex’s eyes were blood-shot red and his hair stuck out in every direction like he’d been running his hands through it. Said hands were shaking and he looked so weary and tired, like he’d aged an extra ten years in the past-

I blinked. “How long have I been sleeping?”

“Sleeping?” He asked, incredulous. He got up from the chair again and stabbed his fingers through his hair, pulling on it so roughly that it had to sting. “You’ve been unconscious for five hours, Laura.”

My stomach bottomed out.

What?

I searched around for a clock but couldn’t find one. “That’s impossible. You’re telling me I just, like, slept off for five hours in the middle of the day?”

He swiveled around. “You didn’t sleep off. You were unconscious!” The blast of anger surprised me and I stared at him, eyes wide. “You left the house and I got called less than an hour later that you had been involved in an accident. Laura, I felt fear unlike anything I had ever felt before. I thought I was going to lose my fucking mind!” He was breathing hard, his face flushed. “When I got here, you were unconscious, Laura.” His voice broke on the word ‘unconscious’ and I felt my heart breaking right along with it. “You were unconscious and I couldn’t do a damn thing. I felt so fucking-”

“Come here.” I cut him off, opening my arms and praying like hell that he would come to me because, once again, I was being a bitch.

I’d just come out of an accident where I should be glad that I hadn’t lost my life and instead, I was focused on the fact that I’d lost five hours of my day.

Alex loved me.

God help him, but he did. And I could only imagine the emotional toll this had to have taken on him.

I felt a tightness loosen in my chest when he closed the distance between us and dropped onto the chair, placing his head on my stomach. It hurt a little bit, but not very much and besides, having him with me like this made me feel ten times better than I felt before.

We stayed like that for a while with me running my free hand through his hair, soothing him and apologizing without words for my behaviour, because as it turned out, I wasn’t very good with my words.

Suddenly, Alex jerked up and I quickly pulled my fingers out of his hair so that I wouldn’t hurt him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.” He gestured to my stomach. “You’re obviously in pains and I should be comforting you. Not the other way round.”

“I actually don’t feel much pain right now.”

“That’s because there’s a fuck load of painkillers in your system.”

Of course there were.

I extended a hand to him. “Can you help me sit up?”

Placing a hand on either sides of my waist, Alex lifted me up gingerly until I was sitting up straight and propped up a pillow behind me, which made me feel more comfortable.

“What happened, Laura?” He asked when he had taken his seat beside me. He still had my hand in his. It was almost like he didn’t want to stop touching me.

Like he was scared the moment he let me go, I would disappear into thin air.

I squeezed his hand. “I’m so sorry that I scared you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just tell me what happened.”

Staring out the window, I thought back to those last few moments in the car. “I remember seeing a traffic light and wanting to stop, but I couldn’t. The car just kept on moving and there was a car coming towards me at high speed and I…” I exhaled shakily, tremors travelling across my body as I relived the accident again in my head. I turned to Alex, who was staring at me with a pained expression. “The car just kept moving, Alex.”

“Then what happened?” He almost looked like he didn’t want to hear the answer to the question.

I gave it to him anyway. “We slammed into each other.”

He shook his head and looked away, hands trembling in mine. “Thankfully, the other driver stopped just before they could hit you, so you ran into them. And you weren’t at full speed which was why the impact was not very severe.”

My mouth fell. “Oh God.”

He nodded. “If he hadn’t stopped sooner, Laura, then we wouldn’t have been having this conversation. I could have-” Alex lost his composure and he looked up at the ceiling, his throat working.

Seeing him like this completely destroyed me.

He stared at the ceiling for a while before looking back at me when he had finally managed to get himself under control.

“What did you mean when you said the car wouldn’t stop?” He asked suddenly.

I shrugged as much as my body would allow. “The brakes didn’t respond.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. “That could not have been possible. The brakes of that car work just fine.”

I sighed. “I know what I’m saying, Alex. I was the one driving the car.” I remembered vividly how I’d stomped on the brakes several times without getting any response. “The brakes failed. They weren’t responding.”

His breathing had picked up now. “Where were you when the accident happened?”

Why was he asking me such odd questions?

“I don’t remember exactly, but I was on my way to work.”

“Did you notice any issues with the brakes when you were driving from my place to yours?”

I frowned at him.”No, what-”

The door fell open and a doctor walked in, effectively cutting the conversation short.

He paused when he saw the close proximity of Alex and I, and for no good reason, I blushed.

Freaking blushed.

“Ah, I could give you guys a minute.” He was already retreating with one leg out the door when Alex stopped him.

“No, it’s fine.” Alex stood quickly. “Please come in.”

The man nodded. He closed the door and walked in, eyes swiping over my form and a small smile settling on his face. “I’m glad to see that you’re awake and feeling better.”

I nodded, mustering a small smile.

“Now, other than a mild concussion and the few cuts that have already been attended to, I’m glad to inform you that you have no other injuries.”

“Thank fuck,” Alex muttered.

I shared the same sentiment, but I couldn’t really celebrate yet because I could already see a ‘but’ coming from the doctor. It was written all over his expression.

“However, when we ran your blood test, we found something.”

My heart literally stopped beating then.

“What is it?” The words came out on a whisper.

The doctor’s eyes flitted to Alex. “If you could please excuse us-”

“No, it’s fine.” I cut the doctor off. “He can stay.”

But the doctor seemed hesitant. “Are you sure you want him to stay?”

“Positive.”

I trusted Alex.

If it turned out that I had an illness, a condition, or that there was something wrong with me, then he should know. And I trusted him to not do anything with that information, but keep it between the both of us.

“Very well then.” The doctor looked me in the eyes. “You’re pregnant.”