Surrender 01 - Surrender

realized how famished she was until the aromas from whatever had been delivered assailed her.
    “Come on, Ari. Sit up and eat your soup,” Rafe said, an obvious smile in his voice.
    She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her do what he wanted, but her stomach decided to growl again, and she was too starved to play further games. With frustration and great effort, she tossed away the pillow and slowly propped herself up to a sitting position.
    Rafe placed a tray across her lap and she practically drooled when she looked down at the bowl of soup and warm bread. Without further hesitation, Ari ripped off a piece of the soft bread and dipped it in the soup before lifting it to her lips and taking a bite.
    Her taste buds exploded as she carefully swallowed and then dived further into her meal, appeasing her hunger. When she’d cleared everything from the tray, she realized her head wasn’t pounding at all anymore, though exhaustion was quickly consuming her. She didn’t care. She could sleep a while longer, and when she woke, it would be a new day with hopefully no pain, and definitely no Rafe.
    Carefully, she lay back down and closed her eyes. Just as Ari began drifting to sleep again she heard Rafe on his phone. Just a little later, she barely heard his last words, thinking they weren’t anything other than a dream.
    “Ari, we have to move to my place. I have work I have to attend to, and I’m not leaving you by yourself. The pills I gave you take the pain away, but they also make you drowsy, so I don’t want you shocked when you wake up in a new bed… Ari…are you listening?”
    Ari mumbled something, though she had no idea what. Thankfully sleep took over and her pain slipped away.

Chapter Thirteen

    Ari awoke feeling better, but not at a hundred percent. Stretching her arms above her head and arching her back, she didn’t realize she wasn’t home until she turned and felt the cool satin beneath her fingertips.
    There was no way she was in her own bed. Had she died? Was she now feeling what heaven was like? The sheets were amazing and she felt as if she were floating in a cloud of soft cotton, the bed was so comfortable.
    Opening her eyes, Ari was bombarded with natural light as she looked across the huge room and out the open curtains belonging to at least eight-foot-high windowpanes.
    “I was beginning to think you were going to sleep the entire day away.”
    Ari jumped at the words and whipped her head around to find a young woman in her mid-twenties standing next to the bed.
    “Um, where am I?”
    “You’re at Mr. Palazzo’s residence . He said you might still be a bit unsettled when you woke up, that you’d been drugged. I’m so sorry you've had to go through this . The doctor looked at you again this morning and said your fever is down and you’re almost back to full health, but he also said you needed to be looked after for another twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
    “Forty-eight hours? What day is it?” Ari asked as panic began to set in.
    “It’s Monday, just past ten in the morning. You’ve been here for two full nights, but you spiked a fever yesterday and the doctor gave you a heavy dose of pain relievers. Your coloring looks much better now. ”
    “I have to go! My boss is going to fire me,” Ari exclaimed as she jumped from the bed. The room began to spin slightly with her quick movements and she found herself falling back, thankfully landing on the soft mattress.
    “Whoa, slow down. Mr. Palazzo already called in to your workplace and they know you’ll be out for a few days.”
    “He doesn’t have the right to do that. He certainly doesn’t have the right to abduct me from my home!”
    The woman looked at Ari as if she were mentally ill. Maybe she was, considering the mess she’d gotten herself into, Ari told herself with a mental shudder, but she was angry that he’d swooped in and taken over her life. She refused to be in debt to the man. She thought back over the events of the last few days, and the hospital incident a while before that , and she shook her head — she couldn’t seem to get away from him. But she couldn’t afford to owe him anything more .
    “It’s OK, Misty. I’ll take care of Ms. Harlow now.”
    Ari’s head turned sharply and her breath caught at the sight of Rafe standing in the doorway. Though she hadn’t given her eyes permission, they drank in his massive frame. How she could despise everything the man stood for and