Stoking the Embers (New Adult Romantic Suspense): The Complete Series (25 page)

“Good thing the ER doesn’t have visiting hours. Security here is very tight.” His eyes drift to Beth, who blushes and looks at the floor.

I stare at her. I’ve never seen Beth blush before, or look so nervous. She’s always gorgeous; even with wet hair tied on top of her head in a messy bun, she’s gorgeous. But right now, she has a glow about her I haven’t seen before.

Focus. I’ll play matchmaker later. Right now I want to see my match.

“Gage, I have to go see Ken.”

His eyes jump back to me and he grins. “Sure thing. Let’s see if I can sneak you by the nurse’s station. The RN there is putting up with us, but she’s not too happy that we kind of took over her ER.”

“How’s Ken doing, by the way?” Beth says, eyes fixed straight ahead, as if she’s afraid to look at Gage. Beth afraid? Interesting. I look at the two of them. Beth is tiny beside him, a full foot shorter. But their dark hair is almost a perfect match, their eyes nearly the same color.

“The doctor says he just needs some stitches, but he should be fine. Nothing was broken except his pride and that thick head of his. He has a good cut on his Achilles tendon and the doctor wants to make sure it isn’t severed. He should be out in a bit, but this place is packed as you can tell. His injuries aren’t that bad, but they have to take care of the more seriously injured first. At least they gave him a private room.”

Little pinpricks of relief came alive after Gage’s confirmation that Ken would be okay. “I’m so glad. Beth told me about the accident. She witnessed everything. How’s everyone else that was hit? The policeman who pushed Ken out of the way?”

Worry washed Gage’s smile away. “Bill. He was the first on the scene. He and Ken were roommates when Ken first came out to Vegas; they gave each other hell but were tight, you know? It’s bad.”

“Bad? For Bill?”

“Yeah, he’s in surgery. Damn SUV ran over him like a dog in the road. He took both front and back wheels. Lost a lot of blood, has internal injuries they were having difficulty controlling and his leg.” Gage blew out a breath. “Well, he might lose a leg below the knee. It’s pretty fucked up.”

I can’t imagine it. My face mirrors Gage’s and Beth’s. We might not know Bill, but it’s always horrible when someone trying to do good gets hurt in the line of duty so badly. “Does Ken know?”

“Not yet; he knows he’s alive, but that’s all we told him.”

Gage heads to a set of double doors and looks through the glass. “Come on. I think the coast is clear.” He pushes the door open with his butt, the coffees still in hand.

“Here, let me help.” Beth takes a cup from him and the bag of chips. Gage is smiling down at her. I hold my breath, praying she doesn’t drop the hot drink on him. It’s something that would happen in the world of us.

Gage avoids getting scalded and leads us to Ken’s treatment room. My nerves begin dancing a jig in my stomach and I stuff my hands in my pockets so they won’t shake. Gage goes in first and I hear Ken say, “About damn time. Thought I’d have to chase down my caffeine myself.” I hear laughter and then Beth steps inside. Ken says, “Look, it’s the nurse of the hour. Great job out there, Beth.”

Blowing out a breath, I step in and the laughter stops. Stops dead. Every human in the room grows quiet and stares at me. Beth takes my hand and gives it an encouraging squeeze. In my rush to see Ken, I forgot that nearly all of Las Vegas had seen me naked, had seen me having sex in every way imaginable. My face grows hot and I feel the familiar panic rise in my chest. I swallow it down, refusing to give in to it. This isn’t about me. This is about Ken.

“Hi.” It isn’t a powerful word, but it’s the one that comes out of my mouth, again.

He looks gorgeous sitting on the hospital gurney in his white and blue striped hospital gown. His hair is in twenty different directions and there are streaks of dirt on his face. His feet are bare, white beneath the tan lines of his socks. I remember tracing those lines with my tongue before licking up his calves and thighs and taking his hard…

“Hi.” His one word breaks me from the erotic memories and I focus on the bandage wrapped around his leg.

“I…” I love you, is what I want to say, but I swallow it down. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

He pats the bed beside him. His eyes are so warm, the little smile on his lips so soft. I’m drawn to him as surely as a magnet is drawn to metal. Everyone else in the room scatters and we’re alone.

“So, is this just a mercy call? Concerned nurse checking up on a patient?” His voice has grown a bit chilled and a blank mask is on his face. He’s unsure of me and I don’t blame him. I’m the one who made him leave.

I have a choice. I can let the scared little girl inside me win or I can transcend into the woman I know I can be. I realize there’s really no choice to make.

I pick up his hand and trace my finger along the lines of his palm. His fingers close around mine and we sit there, gazing at each other for a moment.

I sniff back the tears that want to overtake me. “Over the past couple days, I realized something. I don’t want to live in the dark anymore.”

His Adam’s apple sinks down and back up again, an audible click accompanying his swallow. He remains quiet otherwise. Waiting.

“So I figured, if you weren’t going to live in the dark. And I’m not going to live in the dark. Do you think, maybe, we could be in the light… together?”

He unclasps my hand and lifts his hand to my face and then into my hair, palming the back of my head. He pulls me to him, until our lips are only an inch apart. His pupils threaten to overtake the dark chocolate of his beautiful eyes, leaving only a sliver of the brown I love surrounding them.

“Bring on the spotlight, baby.”

I hear a ‘yes’ and cheers coming from the hallway, then a bunch of ‘ssshhh’s’. I smile as Ken pulls me closer to his mouth, his middle finger pointing to the peanut gallery in the hallway. His lips smile against mine. Then we melt together, opening to each other, giving and accepting. I lift my hand to his powerful chest and feel the beating of his heart against my palm.

He kisses me until a nurse comes in and clears her throat. I try to pull away but his fingers tighten in my hair. “Stay with me,” he says and kisses me again. I stay until the nurse clears her throat again.

“Excuse me,” the nurse says behind me, her voice filled with amusement. “I know this is a room, but it’s not
that
kind of room.”

We laugh and he lets me pull away this time. I turn and see Janice, one of the RNs I trained under during clinicals. Her eyes widen as she recognizes me too. She leans forward and hugs me, whispering loudly my ear, “You just went and broke all the hearts of the nurses in this hospital. I thought there were going to be fist fights over which one of us got to stitch this sexy man up.”

I laugh. “How did you win? Don’t tell me you swung the hardest.”

Janice gives me a ‘you have to be kidding’ look. “Girl, you know I don’t swing that way. Give me a nice smooth girl leg anytime over these big old hairy ones.” She smacks a hand on Ken’s thigh and he winces. Janice laughs. “Wuss.” I laugh and Ken narrows his eyes.

Janice pulls a tray closer to the bed and holds up a syringe and points it at Ken. “Now that I know you are cozy with my friend Steph, you better treat her right. Do I have your solemn promise?”

Ken looks at the needle, then at Janice and then at me. His face softens. Beside us, Janice puts the syringe back on the tray and says, “You don’t have to say a word, that look just said it all.”

It really did. He looked at me with such tenderness I felt it in my bones.

“Hop up, Steph, and you can help me. Consider this to be off-clinical training. Ken, roll to your side please, so I can get to your injury better.”

I stand and reach for a pair of latex gloves. She slaps my hand. “Not that kind of training. Today, I’m going to teach you the art of distracting a patient while you sew him up. Now hop back up on that bed and start distracting.”

She begins to take off the bandage and Ken scoots over and gives me room to lie next to him. Soon, I’m in his arms. He doesn’t even flinch as the needle goes in.

“Hey babe, fancy meeting you here.”

Disgust. Fright. Anger. A trifecta of emotions make my skin crawl as I look up and see Jerome standing in front of me. The walls of the hospital hallway close in and I feel off balance. I reach out to steady myself against a sterile white wall.

“How the f—”

“Aw, come on,” he cuts in. “Is that any way to greet an old friend?”

“Jerome, I told you before, leave me alone.” I try to step around him, but he cuts me off. I was heading to the vending machine to get a couple of cold drinks. The coins jingle in my pocket as I step from one side to the other, trying to get past him.

“You ran into me, remember? Walking and texting makes you a bad girl.” He clicks his tongue at me and takes a step closer. “Of course, I like it when you’re a bad girl.”

I stick my hand out and push him out of my space. My palm feels dirty from touching his chest and I wipe it on my pants. “What are you doing here? Why are you doing this?”

All innocence, he looks down at me, “Doing what? This is public property, right? I have as much right to be here as you do.”

“You’re following me.”

“Now why would I want to do that? You must be paranoid. Of course, I would be too if I knew every human being in Vegas had seen me sucking dick.”

I try to push past him again, but he grabs me by the arm. I yank away. “Don’t touch me.”

He holds up his hands, surrender style. “You look stressed,” he says and I nearly snarl at him. “How’s your little fireman, by the way. Heard he got himself into a bit of an accident. Are you being a good nurse and fucking him back to health?”

Since I can’t get past him, I turn around and walk in the other direction. He quickly catches up to me, like he’s on a casual stroll. “You know, since you’re now a video smut queen, you could make some bucks out of it. You’re a natural.”

I stop. “Fuck you, Jerome. Leave me alone.”

“Leave you alone? I am leaving you alone. You’ve not seen me since your very public rejection and now I can’t even walk down the halls of a hospital to see a friend?”

“What fr…” I swallow and search for the words I need to say. There is no arguing with him, he always has a come-back. While I stumble for something, anything, to get me away from him, he goes on.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t need to sell anything if you had just accepted my proposal. Lap of luxury, Stephanie. I could have given that to you. Instead, look at you now. A whore. A public humiliation.” He cocks his head to the side, his lips curling into a grin. “How’s school? I bet UNLV’s not very happy with you. Have you been called to the principal’s office yet?”

I put my hands over my ears. “Stop it. Just stop it.”

“Stop what, Stephanie?”

“Everything. Stop everything.”

He holds his arms out, as if welcoming me to step into them. “I’d be happy to stop it. I can, you know. I can make this all go away, if only you promise to be my wife. As my wife, I’d protect you and you’d never have another worry. You know I’d do that for you. You know that, right?”

I shake my head.
Think! Play to his ego
. “I’m not right for you. I’m not good enough for you,” I begin, and his arms fall to his sides. “There are so many women who would fall over themselves to be with you.”

“That’s very true. In fact, I’ve met someone. Someone with the same… ah… interests as me. She understands me, more than you ever will.”

It’s a lifeline and I grab for it. “See? I knew you would. I’m really happy for you.”
Feed the ego. Feed the ego.
“I hope she is everything you deserve.”

The smile falls from his face, replaced by a look so cold it freezes my lungs. “Don’t play me, Stephanie. I’m not that stupid.”

“I’m… I didn’t… I only…”

“Stutter. Stutter. Stutter. Have you forgotten how to talk? Has all that dick damaged your vocal chords?”

Tears burn the back of my eyes. I can’t win. I’ve never been able to win. I feel every cell in my body sag with sudden defeat.

“Mmm… that’s better,” Jerome says, but I don’t look up to see his face. My head feels too heavy on my neck to pivot upwards. “See how easy that is? You don’t have to do anything, just let me take care of you.” He lifts a hand to my cheek and I nearly gag in revulsion.

“Don’t pull away from me, Stephanie.” His hand is clamped on my shoulder. He’s hurting me and I try to pull away, but his thumb is pressing the nerve at my clavicle.

“Come with me. Be with me.” His words are hypnotizing, the cadence slow and seductive. “I’ll protect you. You’ll be safe with me. I’ll make this all go away.”

A tear slides down my cheek and I hate myself for it. What would Beth do right now? Kick him in the balls? I’m not brave enough for that. Instead, I ask him a question.