Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 97275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“What the fuck are you doing touching my sister?” I heard Max yell.
I was outside his room, and I snickered covering my face with my hands. This wasn’t even remotely funny. Not in the slightest. Except for the part where he didn’t remember that his sister was married and had a kid, that is. My part in it wasn’t funny in the least. Painting on a brave face, I walked into the room and stopped dead at the sight of him.
He was shirtless, blanket up to his armpits and folded under his arms. His hair was shaved to a fine stubble, revealing a nasty cut that ran the length of his skull, down the middle of his forehead, and came to a stop at the eyebrow above his left eye. His face was battered and bruised, arm covered in dressings most likely due to the burns they said he had. His arm was covered in a bright fluorescent green cast, and a jealous ball slid up my throat when I saw the name Jenny in cutesy artsy fartsy handwriting with a number underneath.
I gritted my teeth at the surge of anger, and told myself the first chance I got I was kicking that bitch’s ass. Finally, I allowed myself to meet his eyes, and was taken back at the amount of emotion there. I wasn’t sure he would remember me, but it seemed instinctively he knew I belonged to him, and it didn’t matter that he didn’t remember.
A leaning mountain of dog nearly took me out at the hip, but I caught my balance by grabbing hold of the end of the bed. Well, I thought it was the end of the bed, when in reality it was Max’s foot. He didn’t seem to mind though. His blanket slipped down some on his chest, revealing his nipples, and dog tags that hung down the middle of his chest. I looked down and collected myself. I bought myself some time by scratching Alpha between the ears. Over the past two weeks, we’d grown attached to each other. He seemed to know me better than I knew myself at times.
I came in early to work so I could stop by and see Max. Just in case, I wanted a contingency plan to fall back on if Max didn’t want me here.
“You’re not my nurse.” Max finally said.
“How do you know that?” I countered.
“Your ID badge has pink on it. The other nurses don’t.” He stated.
I was pretty damned impressed that he figured that out in the two minutes I’d been in the room. “You’re right, I’m not.”
He nodded. “Come here.”
I hesitated, and Alpha sensed it, so he put himself in between me and Max. Ember and Gabe sat in a chair across the room, and watched silently while we had a battle of wills.
“Platz.” Max demanded in a funny accent.
Alpha seemed to understand the word, but he wasn’t trained to follow anyone’s command but mine. “What the hell, Apollo. Why aren’t you listening to me?”
“Uh, Max? This isn’t Apollo. This is Alpha. You bought Alpha for Payton when you left for Iraq.” Gabe said from his seat.
“Oh, man. I’m so fucking confused.” Max said bring his hands up to rub his forehead. His groan of pain had me at his side in a flash. I took his hand down from his face, and inspected the cut on his head. Tiny stitches bisected the cut, holding it together. It would leave one hell of a scar unless he did something about it. The wound wasn’t bleeding, and I felt a knot of sickness well in my throat again. Leaning down, I gave his cut the lightest of kisses before leaning back and looking into his eyes. Which were heated.
“I know you.” He said roughly.
Fuck me. His gravelly voice sent shivers down my spine. My nipples beaded, and I licked my lips wishing that I could take him right here and now. “You do.”
“Should we give you two some space? Y’all aren’t going to have sex in front of us, right? You know, for my virgin sensitivities and all.” Ember said sarcastically from behind me.
I ignored her, and ran my hand down over his arm letting it settle on the thick cast.
“This is her, isn’t it Emmie?” Max asked.
My eyes shot up from the cast to his face, and I heard Ember laugh her sadistic laugh and say, “I knew you would remember her!”
“I don’t actually. I just know it’s her. She makes my dick hard.” Max declared.
“Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Max.” I said before reaching up and tweaking his nipple.
He laughed, and flinched away from my hand, acting for the entire world as if he didn’t just fall out of the sky on a helicopter.
“That’s just sick.” Ember squealed and covered her ears repeating, “lalalala” over and over again.
Gabe just rolled his eyes, and ran his hand up and down the length of her thigh. Max’s eyes narrowed, and Gabe’s hand stopped the movement. He seemed to understand that it was upsetting him, so he stopped to keep Max from getting out of bed and starting something he couldn’t finish.
The nurse came in soon after Ember’s outburst, and gave her an annoyed look before walking up to the bed on the opposite side of me. Her eyes flickered when she noticed my hand resting lightly on Max’s cast, and I made note of her nametag that read Jenny Fields, R.N. So, this was the bitch who signed his cast.
I sat my ass down on the side of Max’s bed, and his arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me more firmly into his side.
Her face went mottled, and she said, “Hospital Regulations say you can’t be in the bed with the patient.”
“Actually, hospital regulations don’t say shit about being in bed with a patient.” I countered.
Max’s body started shaking, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him. “Do you have a marker?”
“On the table beside you. Ember brought it.” He said.