Welsh slept for eight hours straight, and Rose kept vigil.
She didn’t have to, of course, but she’d decided he was her patient, and she wasn’t going to pass him off to one of the other doctors. A steady stream of fluids pumped into his system intravenously, and she was satisfied with his heartrate, oxygen saturation, and blood pressure. While it hadn’t been life threatening at the time, it could have very well turned into such a situation. She still didn’t understand what the guys had been trying to prove, but his teammates had been in and out to visit the entire time, and Big Boss never left. Like her, they watched over Welsh in silence.
She wanted to wake him up just so he could knock him out again. She thought his anger had gotten better, that he wasn’t so set to fight and strain himself, but it seemed that maybe she was wrong. Maybe a relationship with her wouldn’t fix it, and he’d need more help once they returned stateside. As a doctor, she knew all about PTSD and the real dangers it could present for military personnel when they returned home. But Welsh hadn’t seemed to be getting worse. She looked up at Big Boss, searching for answers.
“What happened?”
“Wait for him,” was all the answer she got back.
“Yeah, that seems to explain things a lot.”
Big Boss smiled and shook his head, but he didn’t say anything more. In rest, Welsh was beautiful. If his rugged handsomeness took her breath away when his eyes were open, without the draw of his personality lighting her up like a Christmas tree, she was still just as drawn to him. She craved to trace her fingertips across his full lips, as well as the faint scars across his chest and arms telling stories of barely survived battles. He’d relaxed from trained killing machine to simply a man, with broken pieces and barely working parts.
“Rose.”
Her gaze swung to Welsh, and the impact of that same connection, the pull drawn taut between them, swung back into focus. It was always the same. She wanted to feel his touch on her, take him to bed and have him sate the desire between her legs. Never in her life had she ever been this attracted to anyone, and it made her throat go dry. He was dangerous, this man, who, with just her name, made her knees weak.
“It’s good you’re awake. I’ll go get the rest of your team.”
Rose backed away from his bed, unable to break eye contact, and Big Boss shifted. Then Welsh’s hand thrust out and caught her wrist. His touch burned her and sent lava rushing through her veins.
Big Boss stood. “I’ll go get the guys.”
“Heim will probably threaten to bust us down,” Welsh said, but Rose didn’t know what he meant. His eyes never left hers, but it was Big Boss who responded.
“I’m blaming it all on you. But find someone else the next time you want some personal time with your woman.”
Big Boss left, and the door closing echoed loudly behind her. She was closed in, close and yet too far from Welsh. “What is he talking about?” she asked to cover the thick silence.
Welsh smiled, his thick brogue curling her toes when he spoke. “You think I don’t know how to deal with hydration properly when I’m on smoke out?”
“Smoke out?”
“The punishment Big Boss and I got,” he answered. “I know how to hydrate, Rose.”
His tongue curled around her name, and heat spread from her groin outward to her extremities. Through the fog, his words registered. He’d lied.
“You purposely let yourself get sick?”
“I hear you’re on a three-day-off rotation, and it’s been shifted since you accepted a patient.”
How the hell did he know that? “You faked sleeping!”
He smiled harder, pulling her closer to the bed. “That was the easiest part. Convincing Big Boss to help me go to exhaustion like that took more work, but he’d beat some sense into my head, so I needed to pay him back anyway. The display was enough for him.”
“You could have died,” she warned.
“I know the gorgeous doctor, you know? One I’ve been itching to get back into bed.” Welsh wagged his eyebrows at her, and Rose couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“I’m in love with a comedian,” she said, shaking her head.
The door opened behind her, and the room shrank as five Navy SEALs piled in.
“I ought to break your neck,” Heim argued.
“I love you, too. Oh, did I mention she just told me she loved me? It totally worked, man,” Welsh told him.
“You fainted, in the middle of your puke, you know,” Snake said. His eyes twinkled with mirth.
“I’ve got pictures, and Vixen is already posting it on the intranet,” Cry Baby told him.
Welsh sat up in bed. “You tell her, if anyone sees that picture, I’ve got some lovely audio from the restroom at DFAC.”
“You son of a bitch,” Cry Baby hissed.
“It isn’t nice to play with operation toys,” Glitz said, but he couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Why not? You’re the one who got it for me,” Welsh returned.
Cry Baby ran out of the room, already dialing on his SAT phone, probably to get Vixen to pull down the photos.
“You really got them going at it in the cafeteria bathroom?” Heim asked.
“Of course not, but he doesn’t have to know that.”
The guys roared with laughter. Then Heim sobered. “Don’t do this shit again. You want time off, ask for it like a normal human being.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Welsh answered.
“How long is your leave, Dr. Delgado?” Heim asked.
“Uh, three days, starting at midnight tonight. Why?”
Heim nodded. “You have Cinderella leave until three days from now, sailor.”
“Hooyah.”
The SEALs left the room, leaving Rose confused and trapped with Welsh.
“Get in this bed, Rose, and tell me again that you love me.”