I woke as the door opened, and my hand tightened around the phone Logan left. I lifted my head, then exhaled as I saw him creep through the door and lock it behind him. He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry to wake you. How do you feel?"
"Terrible." I buried my face in the pillow. "Everything hurts."
He took his shoes off near the door and approached, digging something else out of the duffel bag before sitting on the mattress next to my hips. He rattled another bottle of pills. "Half of one?"
I tried to sit and the breath hissed in my teeth as my shoulder and back objected. I took the half white pill he handed me, gulping it down before I tried to wiggle out of bed. "I should go —" and I trailed off, looking at the bathroom door but not wanting to announce that all the coffee I'd had before the incident was coming back to haunt me.
Logan immediately picked me up and carried me the twenty feet to the bathroom, and I laughed. "I can walk, thank you."
"Not if I'm here," he said, putting me on my feet and opening the door for me. "I don't want you to fall or trip or bump yourself."
I shook my head and hobbled through the disaster of wet clothes and towels in the bathroom to take care of business. He stood at the front door, talking to someone, when I limped back out. Carter leaned around his brother and looked at me a little mournfully. "Hi Natalia. Are you okay?"
My chest constricted. The feeling of Joey's arm against my throat, choking me, rushed back, and I froze. I struggled to smile, hugging myself. "Yeah. Thanks for asking, Carter."
Logan almost closed the door in his face as he returned to help me back to bed.
I tried to smile as I eased into bed, though I lay on my side facing away from him. "Have to get over it eventually."
He touched my shoulder, the lightest touch before retreating. "At your own speed. He's changing the locks on your door, adding a chain and a few other things. So you'll be safer."
Tears prickled my eyes. I might not have told him, but the flimsy door bothered me even before Joey attacked me. I cleared my throat. "Thank you."
"What else can I do to make you safe?" He touched my tangled hair, my back, almost desperate to comfort me. "Natalia, tell me. Please."
The painkiller, whatever it was, slowed everything down again and lowered a fog around me. Everything felt warm and close. Sleep beckoned as the sharp agony in my knees and shoulder faded to a dull throb. I managed to reach a hand back to him. "Will you lie down with me?"
"Of course." His weight dipped the mattress behind me, the sheets and blankets rustling and moving as he settled. Logan spooned me, pulled me close to his chest and draped his arm over my side until he covered me almost as closely as the sheets did. He arranged the pillows and blanket, absently kissing the back of my neck. "Are you comfortable?"
"Cold," I murmured. My eyes wouldn't stay open, lead weights dragging my lids down. I wiggled and relaxed, sighing.
"That I can help with," he said. Drew me closer and that delicious rumble sparked in his chest, tickling me as he breathed deeply from my hair.
"You purr a lot," I said. I pressed my face against the pillow of his arm. He felt like a furnace, warming me all the way through until cold was a distant memory.
The rumble quieted. He said something that I didn't catch, a narcotic haze dragging me away. I yawned and stretched, then settled closer to him. "You smell good."
"So do you," he murmured, voice husky. His mouth left a trail of kisses along my neck and behind my ear. "Distractingly good. Go to sleep, baby. We can talk when you're feeling better."
It sounded like a good idea. Darkness settled around me, despite the tinkering sounds from the door, and I yawned again. "I feel better with you here."
"I'm glad." His arm tightened around my middle, held me securely in the curve of his body. "I feel better that I'm here, too."
I meant to say more, to thank him for everything, but I opened my mouth and everything went dark.