She felt his heavy gaze. Across her skin. All over her body. But especially, in the tiny thumps of her heart.
Anna wanted to say something to him. Anything at all but words escaped her.
Within the next few minutes, doctors stepped in. Working around her body and asking her questions. Her wounds were tended to and the bandages were changed.
Michael had stepped out at some point to give her privacy when they took off her blouse. He stepped back in later, stood in the same spot and continued to stare at her.
"How is she?" he calmly asked.
"Very good actually. It's a miracle." The doctor said and they all smiled. Except for her and Sullivan though.
"Two and half months of bed rest has done a lot on her." Another doctor responded, adjusting the pillow at her back.
"Two and half months?!" Anna sat upright wincing a bit at the slight ache in her side. "I was asleep for that long?"
The friendly doctor smiled at her. "Yes. It's a miracle though because your heart had stopped for a minute when he brought you in. We expected you might be in a coma for years." He explained before his gaze moved to the other doctor and he stepped aside.
The elderly doctor picked his role, staring at Anna with a gentle smile. "We would like to ask you some questions to be sure everything is fine. Is that okay?"
She looked to Sullivan who was standing by the side before she gave the man a nod.
"Do you remember how you got into the accident?"
Anna nodded. "The car wouldn't stop so I crashed.." she glanced at him when she said this. ".. and got into an accident."
The elderly doctor asked other questions, to which she replied in ones and twos, not giving away too much information should it put her in danger.
They left minutes after, leaving her with the stoic looking man who kept boring holes into her head.
When minutes passed and it appeared he wouldn't say a word, she turned her head to look at him, shocked by how blatant he stared at her. Those amber colored eyes twinkling as the rays of sunlight shone on them.
"Are you going to keep staring at me?"
He didn't respond.
She took in his appearance. It was the usual black on black attire. When she first knew him, she thought he had been on his way to a funeral. Until she found out it was his daily color. The man despises color like they had a hand in his previous death.
His nose was a little crooked. It had been like that from the start, the typical imperfect Roman nose but it fitted perfectly with his face. The high cheekbones, slightly plum lips that were pulled into a taut line, lashes gently fluttering against the soft flesh of his face.
Michael has always been attractive. Attractive didn't cut it. The man is breathtaking.
As if the heavens were trying to prove her point, the sun changed directions, glowing against his skin, painting him in an eternal magic like film.
One would usually say he was basking in the sun except that this time the sun was basking in Sullivan's glory. At a good 6'5 he had the height many wished for. The one she had to strain her head to look at even with her 5'8 height.
Sullivan is an image many ladies worship yet the man had been as scandal and women free as a monk.
"Stop staring, it's getting creepy." She comments.
He blinked. And as if he had just been aware of the sun shining on him, he squinted his eyes and stepped away from the light dragging the stool so he could sit next to her. "Do you feel better?" He asked and she gave him a sure nod.
"You? Did I hit you?" Her voice was gentle. "With my car?"
He shook his head. "No."
"How is your building?"
"Construction was completed last week. Nothing to worry about."
Anna went silent for a few seconds. "Don't sue me. I have no money for the insurance." It was supposed to be a joke but given his serious expression, she knew he didn't find it funny.
Does the man even have a sense of humour at all? Any blood in that gorgeous, delicious looking body of his?
"Who was it?"
"What?"
"The one who did this to you. Give me names." He sounded serious. Like he actually meant to do something about it.
And it brought a smile to her face. "Why? Are you going to prove to me that the rumours are true?"
"What rumours?"
"That you have no regard for human life?" She tests hoping she wasn't crossing her boundaries. This was a man that avoided women by all means possible. And their current situation—the one that made her hide from him—didn't really speak well for his reputation.
"I have no regard for human life. You of all persons should know that." He smoothly answered not denying her the truth or his eyes at that. His response made her heart skip in fear, her mind flashing back to the unspeakable event between them.
She never knew Sullivan was a starer. But God he could stare and he didn't hide it as well. "And my life?" She jokingly asked bringing her hands to her lap.
He moved. Just a tiny bit and raised his hand to get a strand of hair from her face. When he relaxed back into his position, he kept his gaze on her. On her nose, her lips. Finally settling on her eyes.
Those dark eyes dangerously holding her captive under its entrancing view.
"I hold your life in a regard higher than mine Annabelle."
She couldn't breathe. Couldn't speak. It was as if she had forgotten how these basic things worked.
Like she was under a spell. Like she was under his spell. Scientists would probably call it The Sullivan's spell.
Before she could dwell too much on it or overthink it, he spoke again.
"Was it Fary?" She refused to speak. Fary was nothing but a puppet. Gigi is the brain box behind it all. And she had a feeling Gigi wouldn't leave her alone. Not after the incident that led to the way she found out about their betrayal.
To think such a thing has been going on for so long and she had not the simplest idea. She couldn't feel any more than a fool.
"I don't remember very much." She tried to brush it off but he was seeing right through her. "Can we…can we not talk about that for now?"
Sullivan pressed his lips together. It was a bit frustrating. He was itching for blood, for the warmth of it to bath his skin and coat his lips but here she was refraining information.
Perhaps it was the wrong time to tell her he had out of anger beaten up her ex husband two months ago. So much that the bastard had been in hospital for over three weeks.
He had promised himself not to do anything rash. They were lying low and keeping their names off the mouth of measly humans—excluding Annabelle of course.
If he were to act now, no doubt the rumours would surface again. And he can't afford attending those meetings that talk about nothing but him taming his strengths.
The things he had to endure in a human society.
"Why did you crash into my building Annabelle?"
She bit her lower lip, feeling the ache in her side again. "I had no one else."
"But I am not your person Annabelle. You made that clear."
She smiled. A warm gentle picture on her face that made his heart skip beats and prolonged his intake of breath.
God! She is a goddess. That beauty is unmatched. That smile could melt his entire being.
"I know right." She raised her head to look at him, the ghost of smile still on her face. "Why did I do that?"
Silence engulfed the room for the next two minutes or so before Sullivan broke it.
"Will you tell me later?" She looked at him and he expantiated. "About who did that to you."
"Why do you insist?" she teased. "Will you beat them up for me?" He didn't respond and she already knew why. "Will you arrest them?" That wasn't his style.
"What would you like me to do?"
"You will do what I say?" He nods. "Anything I say?" He nods again with that certain look in his eyes. So assuring it made her skin tingle as prickles of heat poked at the surface of it. The machine going off at weird sounds for some seconds before stabilizing. "Even if I want them dead?" She probed.
He was good at that. Probably.
Sullivan moved closer. "Even if you want their heads on a stake."
She wondered in that moment, where he had been her whole life. If he was willing to do this for her despite their limited time and few interactions in the past, then she would tell him their names. Everything he needed and all he wanted.
She would tell this man before her, the one who looked at her like there was nothing better in the world he would rather look at than her.
Like she was a view of mirror reflecting all things beautiful. All things fascinating.
Has it always been like that though? Had he always had that look in his eyes? Or did she just refuse to interact with him back then because of what she had seen him do?
The one she kept hidden at the back of her mind. In the darkest shades of her heart.