Read The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four for Free Online Page B

fresh cuts on Adam’s arms.
He steeled himself against the stinging of his raw flesh from her
salty tears.
    Dear God, his suspicions were correct. She was a damsel in distress. The worst kind, if she was too
afraid to seek medical help even though she was one hairsbreadth
away from death. People wanted to kill her. Who? Why?
    “Okay,” he said. “I won’t take you to the
hospital, but I have a friend who’s a doctor and I’m going to call
him. I can trust him. He wouldn’t tell anyone about you. Is that
okay?”
    She nodded.
    He reached into his pocket for his phone only
to realize that he’d left it in the car. He picked up hers from the
nightstand. It was dead. Her charger was nowhere in sight. That’s
why she hadn’t answered his calls earlier. He was grateful she was
able to make the last call to his hotel before the device went
completely dead.
    He glanced around the chaotic room, hardly
able to breathe in the foul air. Soiled clothes, used tissues, and
dishes with leftover food were strewn everywhere, but he noticed
the two empty gallon water containers on the floor. At least she’d
been drinking water to ward off dehydration. It was probably the
reason she was still alive.
    She’d been sick for three days. Sick, alone,
and scared to seek medical help. That’s why she hadn’t been back to
the café. Felicia had said that she came in at least three or four
times a week, and always on Thursdays for the special lunch buffet.
Yesterday was Thursday and Tashi hadn’t shown because she was
sick.
    Adam’s gaze landed on the trashcan he’d
bumped into in the dark. Now he could see the gross contents inside
it. She’d started using it because she’d become too weak to walk to
the bathroom. He shivered as a small black rodent scurried from one
corner of the room to the next and disappeared behind the
radiator.
    Adam shook his head with disgust. He couldn’t
ask Erik to come here. He didn’t want his friend to see Tashi in
this condition, in this place, this neighborhood. He glanced down
at her again. She needed a bath, and so did he now that he too was
covered in her waste.
    “Tashi. I’m taking you to my home. No one
else is there. It will just be the two of us,” he said, just then
deciding that his entire household staff would be enjoying a nice
paid vacation for however long it took to nurse Tashi back to
health. “Is that okay?”
    She nodded, then closed her eyes and groaned
as another cramp apparently ripped through her. As he held and
caressed her through it, the heat from her body seemed to burn off
Adam’s clothes and flesh.
    When she went limp again, he eased her back
down on the mattress and stood to his feet. She curled up into a
ball, trembling. He hated to leave her side, but he had to get
going. He took the trashcan into the bathroom and flushed its
contents down the toilet.
    “I’m going to clean you up a bit and change
your clothes before we leave,” he said, returning to her bedside.
She needed a good soak, but he didn’t want to spend any more time
than necessary in this dump. A quick wipe-down would have to
suffice for now.
    He walked to a bureau on the other side of
the room and quickly scanned the contents of the top drawer—a
neatly folded colorful pile of silk and lace thongs on the left
side, and a pile of practical cotton panties on the right. He
grabbed the first item from the right pile—a pair of pink boy
shorts with white polka dots and the word “Angel” printed on the
front.
    Two side steps brought him to her tiny
closet—more like a hole in the wall. He pulled a lime green dress
from its hanger, and a clean bed sheet from the shelf. He set them
on the nightstand, next to a box of sanitary napkins, then walked
into the bathroom. He took a washcloth from the shower curtain rod,
lifted a plastic tub from the floor and half filled it with cool
water. Grabbing a bar of soap, he returned to the bedroom, took off
her nightgown—the only piece of clothing she