Stolen Desire (The Lust List: Kaidan Stone #3) Read Free

of a cliff, about to go over.
    “I want to hear it from you.”
    “The paps were trailing me all morning, and one hit me. That's it.”
    “I heard you were driving recklessly,” he says tightly.
    “Excuse me? I was trying to lose them. They caused the accident.”
    “Well, you won't have to worry anymore. Charles will take you anywhere you need to go from now on.”
    I sit silently for a moment, my chest getting tighter and tighter until I feel like I'm suffocating. “Did you or did you not have him follow me?” I choke out.
    “Yes.” He doesn't sound one bit sorry.
    “I don't need a babysitter.”
    “Apparently you do.”
    “Wow.” I sink back into the seat, my fists clenched tightly at my sides. My heart hurts. This is the kind of shit my dad used to do to me. Having one of his guards watch my every move so his assistant could punish me for stupid things. “You know the paps weren't all over me before I started dating you. They pretty much left me alone.”
    Kaidan stiffens beside me as we stop at a red light. He stares straight ahead, jaw clenched. “Maybe you shouldn't be dating me then.”
    My lips part, and I cross my arms over my chest. “Why are you doing this? You could have just let the ambulance take me to the hospital.”
    He doesn't answer, just looks straight ahead, driving carefully until he pulls into a parking lot in front of a gorgeous building that looks more like a home than a doctor's office. But a small gold-toned sign out front says Dr. Azim Nassef.
    I get out of the car the second it stops and start marching for the door. If Kaidan wants me checked out, I'll get checked out. Then I'm going home. My heart's beating a wild rhythm in my chest, and my breathing is labored when I reach the door. I really don't feel so good. My head hurts, and all my emotions are threatening to overtake me in a wave. But I'm determined to hold it all in until I get home and can cry alone.
    “Hayley.”
    I whirl around as I reach the entryway. “What?”
    Kaidan's hard expression melts away as he reaches me. He searches my face and brushes a strand of blond out of my eyes. I flinch at the touch, and his eyes soften.
    “I don't care about the paps. I won't let anyone get between us,” he says, his voice low.
    For some reason, his words are like a stab in my heart, and I can't stand looking at him anymore. I push his hand away. “No one else needs to,” I say quietly. “You’re doing a great job of that yourself.”
    I push open the door and walk into the waiting room beyond. The place is decorated like a high-end hotel lobby, with marble floors, Persian rugs, and plush upholstered couches. A crystal chandelier hangs in the center of it.
    “I need your information,” Kaidan says from behind me. I shove my purse at him and stand there as he heads for the front desk. I'm wavering on my feet, suddenly feeling light-headed because I can't breathe.
    The nurse leads us right back, down a hallway with wooden floors and walls decorated with impressionist paintings.
    She takes us to a room that looks more like a boutique hotel room than an exam room—if it wasn't for the line of metal machines against one wall and the exam table in the center of the wood floor.
    Kaidan still has my purse, and I avoid looking at him as he sits down with it in the armchair off to the side of the exam table. The nurse takes my vitals while the awkward silence between Kaidan and me intensifies, and a few seconds after the nurse leaves, a tall, dark-skinned man in slacks and a button down shirt enters.
    “Mr. Stone,” he says in a thick accent, inclining his head. Then he looks at me. “Hayley? You were in an accident, I hear.”
    I nod, unable to speak as he checks my heart and feels my scalp. “Are you sensitive anywhere?”
    I point to my forehead, and he looks at it and checks my eyes again like the paramedics did.
    He asks me the same questions the EMT asked me, but this time I realize I am feeling a few of the