FOURTEEN YEARS LATER

“You’re looking good today, Dr. Boone,” Jenn said, as she rubbed her voluptuous curves against my back as she squeezed past me.

“Thank you, Nurse Allen,” I said, throwing her a flirtatious glance. She’d just started her shift, and I knew, just as it happened the last few dozen times we worked together, we’d end up locked in my office before the end of the night.

The emergency room kept us busy, but there always seemed to be a few moments of calm, and a few moments was all we needed.

The sparks between us were hot and fast, and the sex had been that way as well, in the most satisfying way possible.

Hot and fast, with no strings attached, just the way I liked it.

I didn’t have time for anything else, even if I’d wanted more. Luckily, I had no desire to settle down right now, and that suited Jenn just fine, too.

Maybe someday, I kept telling myself…and anyone else who asked.

Mostly, that meant my adopted family. Ryder and Grace and the gang that made up the Gods of Chaos family were always trying to encourage me to find a woman to spend time with. Since my father died, after serving them so graciously for decades, they’d welcomed me with open arms.

I’d tried from the very beginning, but Ryder wouldn’t let me join up. Instead, I went back home to Colorado and finished up my last year of residency. Once I was all done, I applied for a job out here so I could be close to the Gods. I’d been lucky enough to land a position working in the emergency room of Oregon’s largest hospital, Oregon Health and Sciences University. OHSU is the most prestigious teaching hospital on the West Coast and I couldn’t be prouder that I was able to start my career there.

My life wasn’t all work, though. I played just as hard. Just like I couldn’t wait to play later with Jenn, there were a few unpaid benefits to the job.

Jenn wasn’t the only one, though. There were other stolen moments with some of the other nurses, as well — Fran and Donna and Lauren, to name a few.

Working in the emergency room together, surrounded by endless trauma and pain and stress…we all needed to let off a little steam every now and then.

After a year working long shifts at the hospital and stealing away on my Harley on my days off to hang with the Gods, my schedule was full. There wasn’t room for a relationship, even if I wanted one.

That didn’t mean I didn’t have needs.

Lucky for me, the nice, willing nurses were able to meet them, and then some.

“It’s kind of slow in here right now,” Jenn said, saddling up to me again. She was wearing green scrubs, but they hugged her curves like a glove, putting her treasures on full display and just begging me to caress them. “Wanna steal away for a minute?”

I raked my eyes over her body, those hips, those lips…and my desire for her ignited quickly.

“You bet your sweet ass I do,” I growled, my voice a husky whisper in her ear. “My office. Five minutes. Get naked, bend over the desk, and wait for me.”

She shuddered, her eyes dilating with lust before she turned and walked away with a silent, secret smile. My cock twitched at her quick obedience, swelling with hunger, as I watched her hips sway with every step.

Quickly, I finished the chart notes I was working on and threw the patient file on Lauren’s empty desk, before beginning my journey down the long hallway that led to my office. I was halfway there when the doors burst open behind me, a stretcher flying through them as the paramedics shouted for help.

“Code red,” one of them yelled. “We’re losing her fast!”

Instantly, my team of doctors and nurses, including Jenn, who burst out of my office door like lightening, sprang into action. I ran over, barking orders as I tried to assess what I was looking at.

“Female. Early twenties. Found unconscious and alone on the side of the road by an elderly couple,” the other paramedic began filling me in. “Multiple contusions on her legs, arms, face and back. Gaping wound in the back of her head. Possible leg fractures.”

“What else?” I asked, the group of us rolling her into a nearby trauma room.

“She appears to be pregnant, too,” he said. I looked up at him quickly, a young man, no more than twenty-five, his green eyes shining with worry. “I don’t see how a baby would have made it through what she’s been through.”

“I’ll take it from here,” I said. “Good job, thank you.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” they both murmured, backing away as we took over. The nurses didn’t need much instruction, they knew as much as I did about how to treat her.

Lauren began placing IV lines right away.

Fran was administering pain meds, before I could tell her to do so.

Donna quickly cut her clothes away and started checking her vitals while I inspected the wound on the back of her head.

Each of us worked together like a well-oiled machine, focused and present. Within seconds, the machines began beeping, and suddenly this young lady was no longer just a woman discarded on the street like a piece of trash.

She was our patient and that’s all that mattered to us.

I didn’t know her name, where she came from, or if she would make it.

All I knew was I took a vow to do no harm and I took that to heart. If there was a chance this woman, and her child, were going to make it through to see tomorrow, then I would do everything in my power to make sure they got it.

“This head wound is deep. Assess the rest of her wounds, get her stitched up and get her stabilized, I want a full work up. Bloodwork, images, ultrasound, everything.”

“Yes, Doctor, right away,” Jenn said, all semblance of our earlier flirtatiousness now disappeared.

I nodded and turned away, leaving her in the capable hands of my trusted nurses as I went off to find the paramedics that brought her in. They were waiting by the front desk in the waiting room just outside the doors.

“Tell me what you know,” I said.

“Got a call about a dead body on the side of the road,” the young man shrugged. “When we arrived, there was an elderly couple there with her. Said they were out on a Sunday drive in the country when they saw her. They thought she was dead, but she had a faint pulse when we arrived.”

“Any identification?”

“Nothing, no purse or anything we could see right away. The police are searching the area now. The elderly couple insisted on following us in. They’re sitting over there by the window.”

They pointed at a couple by the window, the woman twisting a white scarf in her hands while the man tenderly rubbed her back.

“Thank you, gentleman,” I said. “You can go now.”

I walked over to the couple by the window and introduced myself.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Jason Boone,” I said. “You followed the young lady in the ambulance?”

“Yes,” the woman stand, standing up slowly, her eyes filled with worry. “We were out driving on Sauvie Island, going to pick some blackberries. At first, I thought someone had left a pile of clothes in the brush, but I made Wayne stop once I saw that bright red hair.”

“You did the right thing, ma’am,” I said.

“I really thought she was dead,” the woman said. “That’s what I told the operator. But the paramedics said she had a pulse. How could someone just leave her on the side of the road like that?”

The woman burst out crying and her husband pulled her in close.

“Come on, Sally, it’s okay,” he said. “You saved her life.”

“You did,” I nodded.

“Is she going to be okay?” she asked. “What about the baby?”

“I’m not sure yet, but she definitely would have died if you didn’t get her help. Why don’t you two go on home? Leave your number at the front desk and I’ll call you later and let you know how she’s doing.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” she said, before reaching out and placing something in my hands.

“What’s this?” I asked, lifting up a tiny keychain with a scratched up plastic slipper on it.

“We found this lying next to her,” the woman said. “I don’t know if it’s hers, but if it is, she might want it back.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure she gets it,” I said, slipping it into my pocket. “Thank you, again.”

I walked back past the front desk and into the back, just as Jenn was rushing towards me.

“The baby’s in distress, Doctor. We need to take it right away,” she said.

“Dammit! Okay, prep her for surgery and tell everyone else to get ready, stat,” I said, my heart speeding up.

“Already done,” she said. “The full team is getting into place.”

“Good work,” I said. “Let’s hope we can save them.”

“It doesn’t look good, Dr. Boone.”

“This is one time I hope you’re wrong, Jenn,” I said, running down the hallway beside her.