Strong and Sexy.2 (22 page)

Dani stared at him. “You said it again.”

Yeah. Yeah, he had.

The nurse raised a brow at him. “Husband?” She turned to Dani. “Why didn’t you say you had a husband when I was charting you?”

“Uh, because I didn’t—”

“Newlyweds,” Shayne interrupted. “It’s new. To both of us.”

“New,” Dani repeated softly.

“Ah, that’s so sweet.” The nurse smiled. “How long have you been together?”

“Two days,” Dani murmured, eyes closing.

“Two days? Well, no wonder you forgot.”

“It’s one of those whirlwind things.” Shayne’s cell phone was vibrating. Pulling the phone out, he saw Michelle’s name and clicked it over to voice mail. He’d talked to her earlier, gently explaining—again—that they weren’t going to date. He realized that this being Michelle meant he was going to have to have that conversation several more times, but he’d deal with it later.

Soon as he dealt with his “wife.”

“Whirlwind,” Dani repeated, eyes still closed.

Okay, she was beginning to freak him out. “Is she okay?” he asked the nurse.

“How about you get your bride into her gown and I’ll be right back with the doc. We’ll see what we’re dealing with then.”

When she’d left, Dani let out a long breath. “Husband,” she murmured.

“Don’t even try to distract me.” Because she looked pale, and green to boot, he simply pulled her into his arms, where she proceeded to bleed all over his shirt.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t. Don’t even think about apologizing.”

She let out a shuddery sigh and closed her eyes.

“Dani?”

“Shh.”

“Dani, don’t go to sleep.”

“It’s that or throw up. Just want to nap for a minute, ’kay?”

“Not okay.” She was leaning against him in a trusting motion that had his heart in his throat. “Dani.”

She didn’t answer.

This time his heart completely stopped. He’d been through a lot of injuries in his lifetime. At ten, he’d fallen from an attic window to the ground thirty feet below when one of his brothers shoved him out before he’d had a good grip on the rope swing. Then there’d been the variety of nasty injuries from basketball, snowboarding, wakeboarding... But this, this standing here next to someone he cared about when she was hurt was far worse. “Dani.”

“Shh. She’s sleeping.”

Sagging in relief, he took the gown from her hands and reached for her sweater. “Stay with me.” There were a thousand tiny buttons down her front. He managed three before deciding he was never going to live through the others, so he tugged it up over her head.

“Hey.”

That her protest came about five seconds after the fact, and was so weakly uttered, terrified him. She was wearing a pale yellow bra with a daisy between her breasts. His fingers brushed those breasts but he was so worried about her that he didn’t even enjoy it.

Turned out her panties were also pale yellow, a pair of itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny string bikini bottoms with a daisy on each hip.

He tried like hell not to notice.

“Don’t even think about taking off my underwear,” Dani murmured. “I keep losing my underwear around you.” Her eyes were still closed, her lashes black inky smudges against her cheekbones. “I’m not getting naked.”

“Hate to tell you, babe, but you’re already half there.”

“Don’t argue with your new bride.”

He’d just pulled her arms through the gown when a guy in scrubs stepped through the curtain, holding a chart. “Dani Peterson? MRI time.”

Because only one person could fit into the MRI machine, Shayne was sent back to the waiting room, where he was free to pace the length of the room.

Brody sat sprawled in a chair talking to Noah on his cell phone. “Yeah, he’s here.” His eyes cut to Shayne. “He’s wearing a hole in the carpet.”

A little girl sitting next to Brody tapped him on the arm.

He covered the mouthpiece and looked at her. “Yes?”

With a sweet smile, she pointed to the sign on the far wall that read: No Cell Phones in Waiting Room

Brody stared at her. “Yeah, hold on,” he said to Noah. “I’m being told.”

The girl put her hands on her hips.

Brody smiled sweetly at her and lifted a finger to signal he was almost done. “I’m telling you, Noah, he’s as crazy as she is. Maybe we need an intervention—”

“She’s not crazy,” Shayne told him. “She’s not.”

“Noah, hold on. The guy lusting after the woman who sees dead people wants to talk.”

Shayne tossed up his hands. “No one thought Noah was crazy for falling in love with the woman who hijacked him.”

“We both thought Noah was crazy,” Brody reminded him. “You flew all the way to Mexico to retrieve him, remember?”

“Ahem,” the little girl said, looking very serious about this no-cell-phone thing.

With a sigh, Brody heaved himself out of the chair. Being six foot four, he towered over the tiny girl.

She didn’t seem to care. She pointed to the door.

Brody glanced in disbelief at Shayne, who if he hadn’t been worried to the point of nausea about Dani, might have laughed out loud at the way the big, badass Brody actually did the kid’s bidding and moved to the door. On the way, he snagged Shayne’s arm and pulled him along with him.

“Hey. I’m not leaving until—”

“Yeah, yeah.” Brody didn’t let go of him until they were just outside the ER doors, standing in the chilly night. Still holding the phone to his ear, he ran his sharp gaze over Shayne’s face. “I’ll ask him,” he said. “Noah wants to know if you’ve fallen and can’t get up.”

“Jesus.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m going back in.”

“Wait. Noah says if you’ve fallen, it’s okay—What?” Brody repeated into the phone. “No. I am not going to say that—”

Shayne grabbed the cell phone. “Noah? I’m going back in. Come get this asshole so I have a car here.”

“Do you need anything else?” Noah asked.

“A lobotomy, maybe?”

Noah laughed softly in his ear. “Yeah, it does feel a little bit like brain surgery without the anesthesia, doesn’t it?”

“What does?”

“Falling in love.”

“No one said anything about...” Christ, he couldn’t even say the L-word. “That.”

Another soft laugh. “Right. Listen, you know Brody. He’s going to tell you to take yourself and your dick home, that no chick is worth this much trouble. But I’m going to tell you to go with it. Because it just might be the best thing to ever happen to you.”

“What’s he saying?” Brody wanted to know, trying to hear.

“Just come get him,” Shayne said, putting a hand over Brody’s face and pushing him away. “Before I knock his big fat head against a wall.”

“On my way.”

“You,” Brody said as Shayne shut the phone, “have completely lost it.”

“Excuse me.” A nurse poked her head out the ER doors. “Which of you is Dani’s husband?”

Brody’s eyes widened in horror.

Shayne ignored him. “Is she—”

“Back from the MRI. The doctor’s heading in there right now. Did your wife suffer high blood pressure and stress levels before this accident?”

“Uh...”

“Because he’s concerned about her stress levels.”

Shayne forgot about kicking Brody’s ass and rushed back inside.

“Husband,” he heard Brody mutter as he moved. “Jesus. It’s a fucking epidemic.”

Two not-so-pleasant things about splitting one’s head open? First, no matter what anyone said, getting stitches hurt like hell. And second, people tended to talk slow and loud around head-injury patients.

But the ice chips were nice.

And so was the fact that she’d somehow gained a husband. Dani glanced over at Shayne, who’d held her hand through the stitches, doing his best to distract her with sordid details of his wild youth. Not giving her time to freak out, he kept talking in that even, sexy voice of his, a running monologue of stories so funny she actually laughed while being stitched up. She looked into his face, into his amazing eyes, and felt her throat tighten.

She’d only known him for a matter of days, and already he was more there for her than anyone in her life. “Shayne.”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

He smiled and brought their joined hands up to his mouth so he could kiss her palm, then went back to his storytelling. He told her how he’d met Noah and Brody, how they’d partied their way through high school and a good part of college before finally applying themselves in preparation for Sky High Air, and when he ran out of stories—all wicked, all utterly fascinating insights into the man—and there was still a needle being put in and out of her wound, he leaned in, put his mouth to her ear, and whispered other even more fascinating things.

Like, “Love your underwear.”

This made her face go so red the doctor stopped to ask her if she was okay.

“Y-yes.” She closed her eyes. “I’m fine.”

When the doctor had gone back to his business, Shayne leaned in again. “That pale yellow bra? It highlights your nipples. Makes my mouth water.”

“Stop it.”

“Me?” the doctor asked.

“No. No, sorry,” she muttered.

“I wanted to take them off,” Shayne whispered.

This caused another rush of heat to her body, and she began to sweat.

The doctor noticed and frowned. “Nurse.”

“Yes, doctor.”

“Check her temp,” he instructed. “Her color is way off.”

Oh, God. “No. No, I’m fine,” Dani hurried to say. “Really. Fine.”

The nurse looked at the doctor and shrugged.

Dani carefully didn’t look at Shayne again, though she heard his soft laugh, and recognized the way it made her belly quiver.

“I’ll be happy to check your temp,” Shayne whispered.

Did he enjoy torturing her? Of course he did. By the time the doctor was finished, her head ached fiercely, but so did the rest of her body.

Unbelievable. “Can I go home now?” she asked.

The doctor pursed his lips. “About your blood pressure and stress levels—”

“I’ll work on that.”

“Is it your job?”

She cut a look at Shayne. “Some.”

“Maybe a short leave of absence to relax?” The doctor scribbled on a pad. “I can write something up for your employer—”

“No, don’t. I really can’t take a leave right now. I’ll... try hard to relax.”

“I’ll make sure she does.”

Both the doctor and Dani looked at Shayne. He smiled sweetly, even innocently, but Dani could guess how he intended to see her relax, and most likely it would involve him removing her pale yellow bra.

And matching panties.

That wasn’t the question.

What was the question was whether or not she could weather another round of “just sex” without getting herself more hurt than she was at the moment.

Dani stared out the passenger window, nicely dopey from the meds they’d given her at the hospital. “Hey,” she said to Shayne.

“Hey yourself.”

“We’re here.”

“That we are.” He came around to help her out of the car, then slipped an arm around her when she weaved.

She wasn’t hurting. The drugs had taken care of that. But she was floating nicely. Her brain couldn’t seem to touch down on anything for long. Which was a shame, because she had a feeling there were things to touch down on.

“Come on. I’ll tuck you in.”

“And then leave?”

“No. We’re having a sleepover.”

“Oh, fun. With popcorn?”

Was that his jaw, all bunchy and tight? “Whatever you want,” he promised.

“Really? ’Cuz I want hot fudge.” She grinned.

He did not. He scooped her up in his arms, like she was a rag doll.

“I can walk.”

“I know.”

She set her head on his very broad, very nice shoulder, then pressed her face to his neck, loving the way he smelled, which was like heaven. “This really is way better than walking.”

“We need a list,” he said, carrying her up the stairs.

“Okay. The hot fudge. Then whipped cream, because I’ve heard—”

He made a sound that might have been a laugh or a groan. “I meant of people who don’t like you, Dani.”

“People don’t like me?”

He got to her front door and propped her against it so he could slide his hands down her body, and she smiled dreamily. “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes to the touching.”

“I’m looking for your keys.”

“Oh.”

He found them in her pocket and got them both inside, where he deposited her on her couch. “Stay right there.”

Since she was dizzy and groggy, that worked for her. Plus, a secret part of her liked the bossiness. She could see him in her kitchen—with the place the size of a postage stamp, she couldn’t help but see him in her kitchen—making her... aw. He was making her tea.