The Gender Game 5 by Bella Forrest (uplifting novels .txt) 📕

thoughts and feelings. I shook my head, a smile tugging at my lips, and her own smile grew in response.

“Ms. Dale has been working with our new recruits, but they are really, really awful, not to mention…” the young man continued, and I decided to rescue Violet. As soon as Jay drew in another breath to speak, I quickly interjected.

“Hey, Jay, can I ask you a favor?”

He blinked in surprise. “Of course! What?”

“Could you help us out and get Violet something to eat? Dr. Tierney said if she could keep down her soup, she could have a little bit of rice, so…”

Jay was already up, practically vibrating with excitement. “Of course! I’ll be right back!” He left, closing the door behind him, and I turned back to my gray-eyed girl, who looked infinitely amused.

“Well, that was excellent timing,” she said, raising her eyebrows at me.

“Impeccable,” I agreed. “But it was probably best we stopped there anyway. You’re still recovering.” I knew better than to say ‘fragile,’ which was the word I had been thinking the whole time. “And I… Well, let’s just say it’s hard holding back sometimes.”

Violet cocked her head at me, seeming mystified but amused. “Even when I’m all bald and… and gross?” she asked.

“You’ve never been gross to me,” I said honestly, moving toward her and kneeling next to the bed, level with her face. “You were beautiful even when you were about to be operated on. Even when I picked you up off the ground in the king’s palace and carried you to the car…” It was normally hard for me to say emotional things like this, but with Violet, somehow they came naturally and felt right.

She reached out her left hand to me, and I took it gently, threading our fingers together. She didn’t respond for a while, just looked at me, her storm cloud eyes brimming with emotion that said more than words could.

“I love you,” she said after a while. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for not being dead,” I murmured. “And I love you too.”

Violet smiled at me, and then her grip slackened a little bit, and she yawned.

“Tired?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah.”

I got up and leaned over her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Get some rest. See if you can eat something when Jay gets back. I’ll be in later to check on you—and tomorrow, I promise I’ll start getting you more up to speed.”

She nodded again, sinking more heavily into her pillow. “Okay. Just… you’re not going to sleep somewhere else, are you?”

I looked back down at her, smirking. “I’m a gentleman, Violet, not a saint. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sleep anywhere but next to you if it’s humanly possible.”

17

Viggo

I kept my arm around Violet’s shoulder as we stepped off the sagging porch together. It was Violet’s first day outside in the three days since she’d woken up properly after the surgery, and though it wasn’t the first time she’d walked around, it would probably be the longest she’d been upright the whole time.

We’d both managed to get some rest and recovery during those days, and now Dr. Tierney had given us the go-ahead to get her up and moving this morning, but had cautioned she should only have short bursts of activity. Violet, who had been begging the doctor to let her go out for almost all of those three days, hadn’t liked the news, but her desire to do something had forced her to agree.

“I’m still going to make you stop if you push yourself too hard,” I warned her as we stepped onto the damp grass.

She shot me a mischievous smile. “At least I’m letting you help me.” She smirked, and I looked away, my face heating. I knew she was just kidding, but the fact I had chased her off during my recuperation after my own heart surgery still speared me with feelings of regret. It was not one of my prouder moments, and she’d already reminded me of it more than once.

“I’m just glad you aren’t being as pigheaded as I was,” I muttered. “I’m glad you’re letting me help you.”

She chuckled, leaning into me. “Well, that’s just because I’m clearly better than you. You are so lucky to have a girl like me.” Her eyes twinkled with humor.

“Well, that might be true,” I agreed with a laugh, guiding her toward the barn.

The camp had been set up efficiently—Ms. Dale had taken care of that. The narrow yard had been sectioned off. Tents were erected in twin lines against the forest on either side, leaving plenty of room around the small dirt road for vehicles to pass through—and close enough to the woods that they would be harder to spot from the air. The barn was off to the right, built close to the tree line, and the vehicles we had procured, most of which wouldn’t fit inside it, were parked beside it, opposite to the road.

As we walked, I explained that most of the equipment and weapons from Ashabee’s estate had been placed in the barn. We were up to fifty-three recruits in our small army, but hadn’t yet found any more refugees to recruit—if there were any more refugees. Ms. Dale had managed to raid one of the weapons storehouses that Ashabee and the king had identified for us, so we were set in that regard. Yet now we had more weapons than soldiers to carry them, which was problematic, as there was no way fifty men and women could stand up against the entire might of Elena’s wardens.

I hid nothing from Violet, and she listened carefully as we walked, her head nodding here and there as I outlined all our problems one by one. When I got to the issue of food, she paused, cocking her head.

“There was a ton of food at Ashabee’s,” she said, her voice questioning.

I shook my head. “Yes, there was, but fifty people eat a lot. We’re going to