Jamie
I was furious. Furious and hot and bothered. Which just made me angrier.
Who does he think he is? I thought angrily as I followed one of the guys who lingered in the house back to the mudroom where Kato was recovering. Or not recovering, according to the man in front of me. He was short and boxy, with broad shoulders and a square jaw. Even his haircut was an eraser top buzz cut that had gone out of style a long time ago. The overall effect didn’t make him look attractive so much as it made him look like he was built from brick and stone.
I took the entire trip to collect myself because whether I wanted to admit it or not, my body was still reeling from Chip’s touch. I really need to learn his name, I thought as I swallowed the taste of him on my tongue. He was like smoke and hot cinnamon on my taste buds, making me wonder if the rest of him—
Stop, I ordered myself because I refused to be one of those stupid girls that got all turned on by aggression. He probably took steroids or had too much testosterone in his system. It would explain the reason he was such a rude asshole.
The man ahead of me took me into the room, even opening the door for me so that I could step in first. I saw that Kato was still lying on the bed. He looked about as I’d left him, comfortable in a drug induced haze. I frowned, thinking once again that he needed to just go to a hospital.
What if there’s internal stuff that I’m missing?
“What happened?” I managed to get out, pushing aside the breathlessness I felt and the burning and tingling sensations I now had thanks to the asshole out front.
The boxy man shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he told me, scratching at his eraser top hair. “He made some groaning noise and stuff, then he went quiet again. Didn’t know what to do.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he telling the truth? Or was he just trying to get me to stay? Chip seemed to be calling the shots around here, and I couldn’t help but think that if he wanted me to stay, everyone wanted me to stay.
But then I glanced back at Kato and let out a long sigh. He looked okay now, but what about twenty minutes from now? Maybe I’d be relaxing in a hot bath, possibly taking care of that hot and bothered problem the Chippendale dancer out front had caused, but what about Kato? Would he be okay, or would he be screaming in pain while these yahoos ran around like chickens with their heads cut off? They didn’t know how to take care of him. I did. I was a better shot than they were.
Or they could just take him to the damn hospital like I suggested, I thought, feeling grumpy.
Letting out a sigh, I turned to the other man. “Okay. Is there a place I can set up? Preferably close to Kato in case he yells again.”
The man’s expression didn’t change, but he nodded his head. “Yeah. Hang out here and we’ll get something set up.”
He turned to go, but I called out, “Hey, what’s your name?”
He glanced at me, his eyes considering. Then he shrugged. “Travis.” He turned to go again, but I stopped him once more. He looked a little annoyed as he turned to look at me again.
“The guy by the door?” I resisted the urge to say “the guy I just kneed in the balls” but just barely. “What’s his name?”
Travis hesitated. For a second, he looked really uncomfortable, then he scrunched up his face like a little kid tasting broccoli for the first time. “It’s Pax.”
Before I could stop him a third time, Travis rushed out of the room, letting the door swing closed behind him. I let out a sigh, feeling utterly exhausted…and frustrated. Pax. Well, at least I could stop calling him Chip, unless he pissed me off. Then maybe it would be a permanent nickname.
I was tired enough that I took a seat on the floor near the sink, resting my back against the wall. I hoped the guy would bring a chair or something, figuring that I’d end up spending most of my time here.
Once more, I couldn’t help but wonder why we were here instead of a hospital.
Surely he was stable enough now to move, right? I’d gotten him an IV and stitched him up. The bleeding was…well, under control, anyway. Soon, it would be clotted enough that when I changed the bandages, it wouldn’t be bad. I hoped. Which meant that he would definitely survive a trip to the hospital.
My lips tugged down into a frown. I felt like I’d been frowning all night. I probably looked like hell, too. I’d tried to clean up a little—wash off the blood and rinse off my face, which felt dirty and tired. But blood stained my clothes, and my hair probably looked like something the cat dragged in. I needed a shower and sleep, not necessarily in that order.
I need to go home, I thought, irritation spiking again as I remembered how Pax had shoved me against the wall and kissed me like I fucking belonged to him.
My hands turned into fists on top of my knees where they rested. The nerve of that asshole! I had half a mind to march out there and take a swing at him. Of course, I’d already roughed up the boys. He might not be ready for any more just yet.
A satisfied grin settled briefly on my lips. That’s right. Think you can push me around?
But the grin slipped quickly enough, as I realized that everything tonight was just too weird—the way Kato was just lying on the side of the road, badly bleeding, looking like someone had run him down, Pax’s quick arrival and his insistence that we not take Kato to the hospital, and finally, Pax’s refusal to let me leave.
Am I a prisoner? It wasn’t the first time the thought had occurred to me tonight, and it was starting to worry me. It was clear that Pax didn’t want me to go, but would he physically restrain me if I tried to anyway?
My cheeks flushed.
Technically, he had already tried to restrain me. He’d held my wrists in a vicelike grip, pinning them to the wall beside my head. Then he’d stuck his tongue in my mouth and kissed me like I belonged to him. Like I always had.
A shiver ran through my body, involuntary and unwanted.
Clenching my jaw tightly, I forced myself to focus. It wasn’t easy because I was tired and a little confused, and dammit, all I wanted was some sleep.
“Okay, break it down,” I muttered to myself, Kato still unconscious and the room otherwise unoccupied. “What’s wrong with the situation?”
Well, first there was Kato. Maybe he was just an unlucky victim of a motorcycle accident. And maybe the motorist that had hit him was just an asshole who hadn’t stopped. A hit and run. That was, unfortunately, pretty plausible.
But if that was true, why wasn’t he at the hospital? I’d already decided he was stable enough to move, yet no one seemed interested in him going. Instead, they wanted to keep me here to take care of him.
“Bastards,” I grumbled halfheartedly.
Maybe they were just the type of folks that didn’t trust doctors. There were people like that in the world, though I wrote most of them off as crazy. Who would rather bleed to death—or let their friend do so—instead of seeing a doctor? But I acknowledged that such people existed, and they could, possibly, be said people.
So, two problems explained. But there was one last part that I couldn’t just write off.
Why wouldn’t they let me leave?
My mind couldn’t help but conjure up an image of Goodfellas and every other mob movie I’d ever seen. Were these guys part of some illegal drug smuggling operation? Or were they running guns? Was that why they were so reluctant to take Kato to the hospital? I wanted to think that was all crazy, but right now, it didn’t seem that way.
I could have explained it away as them needing someone there to take care of Kato when they couldn’t, but if that was the case, then why not just take him to a doctor since I was basically that?
Okay, nurse, but still, I was a medical professional.
And more to the point, if it really was just about Kato, what was all that business with the impromptu make out session in the front room?
Maybe he was just so taken with your beauty that he had to ravish you right then and there?
I groaned softly. I really needed to stop reading those stupid romance novels. Shit like that didn’t happen. To anyone. No exceptions. Even if he thought I was hot—which was possible, though I didn’t really think I was his type—then why was he being such a dick to me? Was that his way of wooing women?
I snorted. Doesn’t get laid much, does he? I thought unkindly.
Ultimately, I decided two things.
First, Kato might or might not survive the night, but his chances would be higher if he’d go to a damn hospital.
Second, whether Pax wanted to keep me for his own naughty pleasures, for Kato’s sake or for some other nefarious reason, I was not going to stay.
And all of this amounted to one really unfortunate thing: I was going to have to talk to Pax again.
I cursed just as the door opened and Travis stepped through it. He glanced down at me, eyeballing me like I was crazy for sitting on the floor. And maybe I was. God knew how clean—or unclean—this place was.
Forcing myself to my feet, I said, “I think I need to talk to Pax.”
Travis’s eyebrows twitched slightly, but his expression didn’t change much. I decided that he wasn’t very expressive, unless he was making two-year-old faces. After a moment, he nodded once. “Yeah, alright. He said you can sleep on the couch. Or the floor.”
“How gentlemanly of him,” I commented, peeved a little that he hadn’t offered me a bed, at the very least.
Travis didn’t answer my comment. He glanced at Kato once, then motioned for me to follow him out the door. I followed suit, bracing myself to deal with the man in charge. I hoped he wasn’t a mobster, for my sake, if nothing else.
A shiver ran down my spine, and this time, it wasn’t a result of unwanted lust. This time, it was just fear.
Travis started up the stairs, expecting me to follow. I hesitated at the base of them, risking a glance over my shoulder at the door. It was unguarded; I could make a break for it. But what would this big, boxy man do to stop me if I didn’t make it to my car before he made it to me? I didn’t really want to think about it.
The thought that these people might be involved in something illegal—motorcycle riders did illegal stuff, right?—had made me a lot more aware of the fact that I might be in some very real trouble. Dangerous trouble.
Swallowing heavily, I picked up my feet and started up the stairs after Travis. He led me to the second floor landing, hooked a right, and made his way down a hallway. He stopped outside of one of the doors and knocked. After a moment, a voice shouted, “What?” in annoyance. I recognized it as Pax’s pissy voice.
“Lady wants to talk, boss,” Travis called through the door.
I thought I heard a curse through the wood but wasn’t sure. It was too thick to really hear through, or he was muttering under his breath, which didn’t really seem like a Pax trait.
After a moment, the door was jerked open. Pax was standing on the other side of it, and I grit my teeth against the sudden rush of desire washing through my body. I do not want him, I do not want him, I repeated to myself over and over again. Even I wasn’t completely buying it, but it helped me square my shoulders and straighten my back. I wasn’t as tall as Pax, but I was actually taller than the short and boxy Travis.
Pax jerked his chin, his eyes on Travis, and the other man took the hint. He left me standing there with Pax. My body tingled like my nerves were on fire, fear and anxiety mixing with that unwelcome desire.
When Travis’s heavy footsteps echoed and disappeared, Pax’s eyes finally fastened on me again. “What the fuck do you want?”
Sounds like he’s still a little pissy over the whole knee to the groin thing.
Fixing him with a glare, I folded my arms over my chest. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Yeah, Travis just said that, genius. What the fuck do you need to say?”
His harsh, unkind voice was grating on my last nerve, and I, once again, felt the strong urge to punch him in the face. It was only the lingering thought that he might be expecting it and could catch my wrist before I managed it that kept me from following through with that urge.
“Kato needs to go to the hospital,” I spat out bluntly. I was sounding like a broken record, I knew, but I had to do something. And he wasn’t exactly approachable.
He rolled his eyes at me and cursed. “Fuck, woman, we’ve been over this. He’s here, he’s fine.”
I balled my hands at my sides. “He is not fine! He needs a doctor to look him over—”
“Why the fuck do you think I’m keeping you around?” he bit at me, resting one hand on either side of the doorframe and leaning forward towards me. He was so close that I could feel the warmth of his body. It seemed to reach for me, to pull me, asking me to come closer…
Doing my best to keep my head on straight, I squared my shoulders and said, “Apparently you’re keeping me around to stick your tongue down my throat.”
He raised a single eyebrow, and then a small grin formed on his lips, one that made dark and wicked promises. “If you wanted me to stick it somewhere else, all you had to do was ask.”
An involuntary shiver ran down my spine as heat swamped me. Somewhere else… My mind conjured up some wickedly inappropriate things, including me with my legs spread and his dirty mouth between them.
Snapping myself out of it through sheer force of will, I shot back, “Honey, you haven’t got the skill for that.”
His jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed. One hand left the frame and shot out, grabbing me and jerking me forward. He moved so fast that I didn’t have time to react. He pulled me inside the room, and once again, I ended up slammed up against the wall, one hand holding me tightly by the arm. His other hand went to my hip, gripping me tightly there. This time, he didn’t make the same mistake though. He settled both of his legs between mine, kicking at my feet to get me to spread them wide enough for me. There was no way he was going to give me a second shot at his family jewels.
“Haven’t you been listening, baby?” he asked me, leaning close so that my breasts were pressing against his chest, the contact sending ripples through the rest of my body. “I have a wicked tongue.”
Then he pressed his mouth to mine, and yes, he did have a wicked tongue.
It pressed against my lips and I—I opened my damn mouth to let him inside. I could almost feeling him grinning as he once again tasted me. I might have lost myself to his skilled tongue or the way his hand tugged my hip closer to his, pressing what I could tell was an erection against my middle. But the lingering fear that he might be a dangerous man, someone doing some bad, illegal things, kept my head clear.
Or at least a little clear.
It took me longer than I liked to fight through the haze of lust that tried to drop over me, but I managed. I turned my head to the side, effectively breaking the kiss, not that he stopped. He just started kissing along my jawline and down my neck. He might have gone further—my collarbone, my breasts—but I managed to get out a breathy, “Stop.” Then, with a little more force behind it, I tried again. “Stop.”
He went rigid, his whole body suddenly tensed against me. Slowly, he pulled back until his eyes were fixed on mine once again. They were burning with passion, or maybe anger, and they tried to sear their way inside me.
But I wasn’t having it. I’d dealt with stronger, brassier men than him. I wouldn’t be intimidated.
“I don’t know what the hell your game is—” I began, trying to muster as much anger as I could. But a bizarre mix of lust and fear was making it difficult.
“Are you stupid? I kiss you and you don’t know what game I’m playing?” He snorted, shaking his head a little. “I thought you had to have brains to be a nurse.”
And just like that, he kick started my anger and sent it into overdrive. “You pompous, self-centered, egotistical asshole!”
He shrugged his shoulders but let my hands go. He took a step back at the same time, probably to get the hell out of the way before I threw a fist at him again. Cool air washed over my body as I sagged a little against the wall, his large frame no longer holding me against it.
He raised a single eyebrow at me, grinning smugly, like he knew that I was struggling and figured he was the cause of it.
It didn’t win him any points in my book.
I felt another stream of swearwords on the tip of my tongue, begging to come out, but Pax seemed less than interested in hearing them. He folded his arms across his broad chest, causing his large biceps to swell and tense. “I’m not taking Kato to the hospital. He would agree with me,” he told me bluntly, his eyes suddenly sharp and serious. “And if you’re not here to let me between those long legs of yours, then there’s nothing else to talk about.”
My cheeks flushed, though I refused to drop his gaze. Cocky bastard, I thought. Pushing away from the wall, I straightened out my shirt, tugging down on the hem and adjusting the slightly stretched neckline. I took two steps towards him but stopped with more than an arm’s length between us.
“I disagree,” I told him plainly. “I think there’s a lot to talk about.”
He shook his head. “If I wanted a girlfriend, I’d fucking have one. Does it look like I’m a goddamn talking kind of man? I’m in it for the pussy.”
“Stop being such an ass!” I snapped at him, feeling like stomping my feet in frustration like a little girl. When he didn’t answer immediately, I plunged ahead. “Why was Kato hurt tonight? Was it really an accident?”
His thick eyebrows pulled down low over his eyes, and his full lips tugged into a deep frown. He clenched his jaw tightly; I could see the tick in it along his side. After a moment, he said, “It’s none of your damn business, woman. I brought you here to take care of Kato’s injuries, not be his mother.”
“I am taking care of him!” I all but shouted back at him. “But those injuries are extensive! And I can’t believe that some asshole out there would just leave him to die on the side of the road after plowing into him!”
Pax’s face remained hard, unmoved. “World’s full of assholes, baby.”
I made a frustrated sound in my throat, then shook my head. “Just tell me one thing. Do you know who did this to him?”
Pax stalked forward then, and I had a bout of déjà vu. I hoped he wasn’t going to slam me against the wall again and try to make out. Well, I mostly hoped he wasn’t, anyway. There was a small, treacherous part of my body that thought the whole thing was hot. But I pushed it aside.
And he didn’t do that, anyway.
He stopped several inches from me but didn’t touch me. “I think that even if I did, it’s none of your goddamned business. Go take care of Kato. Do your fucking job. That’s all you need to know.”
“You know, I’m doing you a favor,” I pointed out, mostly because I was pissed—and also a little hurt. I couldn’t say why, but it upset me that he thought so little of me after all I’d done that he wouldn’t even tell me what was going on.
Which is the dumbest though you’ve had all night, I admonished silently. But the feeling was there, nonetheless. I hated being out of the loop, and I hated people treating me like I wasn’t worth enough to know the important things. That was what it was like being a female nurse working with a bunch of male doctors. They didn’t think I had a half a brain on my shoulders and even if I did, I was still only a damn nurse.
I couldn’t say why this felt the same, but it did. And it pissed me off more than it hurt me.
“You know what? I don’t want to know any more. Not a thing. You keep your damn secrets. The last thing I want is to talk to you anyway.”
And with that, I spun on my heel and marched out the door. I was proud of myself when I kept from even glancing back to see if he felt even a speck of remorse.
I made it downstairs and spent what was left of the very early morning tending to Kato. I wasn’t sure he would make it to dawn, much less through the day, but I did my best. And I tried my damnedest not to think of Pax, his body, or how easily he dismissed me.
When dawn was finally approaching, I settled into one of the stuffy armchairs nearest the mudroom and waited.