by Lynn Hagen
Edward glanced up from his book and opened his mouth, as if ready to finally tell me why he was such a jerk, when the doctor appeared at the top of the steps.
“He’s asking for you.”
Edward glared at me and got up. There was harshness to his chiseled features that made me feel cold inside. He acted as if his scowl could physically hurt me, and probably wished it could.
Fuck it. I would go to the kitchen and find something to eat. There wasn’t anything else to do while I was stuck here. Max had a television, a nice one, but he must not use it because there wasn’t anything on it to watch. Just CNN and some sports channels.
The guy didn’t even have Netflix or Hulu. Who didn’t have those apps? What the hell did he do when he was home, read? I shivered at the thought of occupying my time with a book. I hadn’t wanted to read in school, and as an adult, I avoided any unnecessary books like the plague.
“Not you.” The doctor shook his head. “Mr. Russo wants to see the young man.”
Edward gave me the death stare. I should’ve combusted or my heart should’ve exploded. He sat back down, picked up his book, and crossed one leg over the other.
Jeez, who pissed in his cereal?
Now my heart raced as I climbed the stairs. I gripped the railing with my sweaty palm, telling my heart to stop beating so fast. Why would Max ask for me? Why had he said my name while he’d been unconscious?
I stepped into a decadent bedroom that made me envious of everything modern and sleek. And the room was bone white from the furnishings, to the bedding, to the walls and carpet. But the room was bathed in darkness, the vertical blinds shut.
The doctor smiled kindly at me. “You can talk with him, but make sure he doesn’t get up.”
“I’m fine,” Max snarled.
My heart jumped for joy at the sound of his voice. He was alive and awake, and all I wanted to do was run to the bed and hug him. Okay, so some emotions were involved. I wasn’t going to examine that too closely.
“And stubborn,” the doctor said. “You’ll only aggravate your injury and take longer to heal if you get up and move around.”
Mr. Sexy Doctor pointed to some medicine bottles on the dresser. “Make sure he takes his pain pills every four hours. His antibiotics should be taken every six.”
“I can take care of myself,” Max snapped. “I’m not so out of it that I can’t remember taking my meds on time.”
With a roll of his eyes, the doctor left. I stood by the dresser, my hands folded in front of me, shaking a bit, as I waited to see why my boss had wanted me up here.
Max was lying on his stomach, his head resting on a pillow, and he had an arm dangling off the side of the bed. He was also watching me with those enigmatic blue eyes.
I groaned at how his tanned skin was a contradiction to the white sheets. He looked like a god lying there, and ripples of need washed through me as I restrained myself from offering to give him a sponge bath.
“Sit.”
I looked around and spotted a love seat by the floor-to-ceiling windows and started toward it.
“On the bed,” he said.
I turned back around and walked over and sat on the edge, tucking my hands between my knees. “How’re you feeling?”
That was a dumb question, but I felt the need to fill the silence. I might have already slept with Max, but he still intimidated me. Come on now. He was a wolf shifter and a crime boss, not to forget the evilest thing, a lawyer. Power and dominance bled from his pores and choked the air around me.
“I need you to schedule a few things for me, and I have a couple appointments that need to be canceled.”
I stared wide-eyed at him. “You were just shot, and I’m guessing, you’re in some kind of pain, and you want to talk about work?”
“I have a business to run,” Max said irritably. “I can’t let getting shot slow me down.”
“God forbid,” I muttered. Then again, I was only half listening. Sue me. He was half-naked lying right next to me, and fantasies were erupting in my head. I was trying really hard not to openly gawk even though the room was dark and I could barely see.
The only thing helping me was a dim lamp and the moonlight. I was also tired, working on barely firing cylinders. It was after four in the morning, and I prayed Max didn’t get up in two hours and demand that we leave for the office, even though tomorrow was Sunday.
The doctor had said not to let Max get up. Did that mean I’d have to tackle him if he tried? Even injured, he’d surely put me on my ass if I even thought of getting in his way.
“I don’t have anything to write with.” I was also hoping the pain meds kicked in and he would fall asleep. Max didn’t need to worry about work right now.
He groaned. “I’ve got to get you an electronic tablet.”
“Well, until then, what do you want me to do, right your notes with my blood?”
That had been a bad joke, and I regretted it as soon as it left my lips. Max had been covered in blood when he’d arrived home, and well, that had been too soon.
I’d always had terrible timing.
Instead of getting pissed, damn, the guy actually cracked a smile. “You’re a lot tougher than I thought you were.”
I frowned. “You thought I was a pussy?”
“Soft,” he admitted. “Not capable of handling my way of life.”
“I’m not,” I said. “But I think I can stumble through being your personal assistant. Just as long as I don’t get into the car with you again.”
“You’ve been getting into the car with me for the past few days going back and forth to work.”
“Oh, right.” His near nakedness had me scatterbrained. My fingers itched to trace the outline of his back, those pretty dips and valleys that my tongue wanted to taste.
“Did you hear me?”
I blinked several times. God, he was so freaking handsome. “What?”
“I said there is a pad and pencil in my nightstand. That’ll have to do for now.”
His nightstand, right. I needed to clear my head of my lusty thoughts. Max had called me up here to work, not drool over his gorgeousness. Not to peal his pants off and shove my face into the crack of his ass, lapping him up until I exploded from pleasure.
It was hard to concentrate on a task when my brain was in the gutter and the guy I wanted the most was almost naked, lying across the bed in invitation. Even his goddamn back was sexy, minus the bandage covering his wound.
I opened his nightstand drawer and sucked in a breath. On top of the small legal pad was a nasty-looking gun. I’d never touched one in my life and didn’t want to touch that one.
“Um, could you move your weapon first?”
“You heard the doctor. I’m not supposed to get up.”
I looked down at him. He looked up at me. There was some sort of challenge in his eyes, daring me to move his gun aside. The first thing that popped into my head was putting my fingerprints on it.
No damn way. Nope. I wasn’t going to do that. What if it had been used in a crime? What if he’d shot someone with it and the police raided his penthouse and they dusted it for prints?
I was too naïve to go to prison. I’d be someone’s prison bitch in the first ten minutes.
“I need you to take notes,” Max said. “Are you going to take all night getting what you need?”
What I needed was my head examined. Chad would kick my ass if he knew the situation I was in. My parents would ground me for life.
Trust me, my mother would twist my ear and put me in time-out. To this day I still feared her wrath. Don’t get me wrong, she was a very loving pint-sized person who’d doted on me as a child. But she also didn’t take any shit. Even my father was afraid of her.
I spotted the pencil and used it to lift the gun and set it on top of the nightstand, terrified it would go off. With my luck and being such a klutz, I’d drop it and shoot myself.
Max chuckled, and the silky sound slid down my spine and wrapped around
my dick. “Cautious. I like that. Don’t worry. The gun is clean and registered. It’s for home protection.”
My brow arched. “Don’t you have claws and sharp teeth for that?”
He shrugged then grimaced. “They won’t help if the intruder has a gun and is far enough away from me.”
I somehow doubted anyone would be insane enough to break into his home. People might not know what he was, but Max looked intimidating enough to make anyone have second thoughts.
What really worried me was that I found him fascinating. His world scared me to death, but I must’ve been one of those guys who liked bad boys. Who knew? I sure as hell hadn’t.
His world was filled with criminals, bullets flying, and lots and lots of danger, everything I steered clear of. I enjoyed watching that kind of stuff on television because I was removed from it, but I didn’t want to live it.
“Why do you do it?” I closed the drawer, leaving the gun where it was, and sat back down.
“Do what?” Max hissed as he moved around, clearly trying to get more comfortable. I looked at the clock on his nightstand to figure out when I would have to give him his next rounds of meds.
“Be a criminal,” I said.
“You know nothing about my world,” he snarled.
“I wasn’t judging you.” I set the pad and pencil aside. “I’ve just never been around anything like this, and I guess I’m curious.”
His eyes narrowed. “That kind of curiosity will get you into a lot of trouble.”
Not an answer. Clearly he wasn’t one of those guys who bragged about his way of life. Max was closed-off, the silent type, the guy who got the job done and kept his mouth shut about it.
But I was dying to know why he led this kind of life. Being a high-powered attorney, he obviously made enough money to support his extravagant lifestyle. His fancy cars, his penthouse, even his clothing screamed wealth.
“I’m not asking for you to spill your secrets.” I looked toward the blinds and wished they were fully open. I was getting spoiled by the breathtaking view. “I just want to know why you do what you do.”
“Take notes.” His tone was no longer biting. It had softened to a low pitch. “And when we’re done, we’ll rest.”
I wanted to argue that he needed to rest now, but Max was too damn stubborn for his own good.
“Fine, I’ll take notes, but I need more lighting.” I got up and hit the switch on the wall by the door. When I turned to face the bed, I stopped my gasp from escaping.
When Max and I had had sex in his office, he’d been facing me or I’d been facing away from him. When he’d been downstairs getting worked on, his shirt had been torn only in the area the doctor had been working on.
But now, in the brighter light, I saw the scars riddled across his back. Jagged lines and puckered holes. I was smart enough to guess the holes were old bullet wounds. This hadn’t been the first time the guy had been shot.
“I’m getting tired,” Max said. “Let’s get on with this.”
I could tell he was embarrassed by what I saw. But why? He didn’t seem the type to get easily embarrassed. Maybe he was ashamed of the roadmap that spoke of his life.
His very violent life.
I sat back down, slid the sheet up his back to give him the privacy he obviously wanted, and cleared my throat. “As you know, I’m not really good at office stuff, so don’t talk too fast.”
Had his eyes just softened? I wasn’t sure but refused to read too much into it as he spoke and I wrote everything down.
He talked slowly, waited as I wrote things down, and then talked again when I nodded. For once, other than when we’d had sex, he wasn’t acting like a straight-up dick. His voice was even gentle, and his patience was greatly appreciated.
I had no idea why the guy kept me around knowing I hadn’t the first clue about this kind of job, but he had, and I wasn’t sure if I was grateful or wished he’d fired me.
But there was one thing that made me smile. I was up here and Edward wasn’t. Chew on that, Mr. Stick Up Your Ass.
Chapter Seven
Maximus…
The way Derek was trying to write as quickly as possible, so damn focused on what I was saying, the way blond strands of hair fell over one eye, those thick lashes, and those pretty lips… Fuck, I was in pain, and my body was hard as a diamond. Just thinking about the sex we’d shared in my office had me ready to pull him down farther into my bed.
I was finding it hard to remember everything I needed to tell him about my schedule. I might have even screwed up a few things. But I was fascinated as hell with Derek, the way he always looked at me with want in his green eyes. The way his body moved. His mere presence was a huge distraction.
My wolf snarled for me to get closer, to get another taste of the human’s ambrosia. But he was my full-time employee now, and I had to stick to my policy of not fucking my employees.
But Derek was making it hard to keep that rule.
I didn’t need a distraction in my life. My violent, fast-paced, dangerous life.
But it was on the tip of my tongue to answer his question, to tell him why I did what I did. Now I wanted to get up and put my gun away. I had an irrational fear that it would suddenly go off and kill Derek. That was stupid, but I couldn’t shake that fear.
The pain sliced through my back as I scooted toward my nightstand.
“Whoa!” Derek dropped the pencil and pad and shot forward. “What’re you doing? You’re not supposed to be moving like that.”
And damn it if his deep concern didn’t touch a part of me that I thought long ago frozen. “Just wanted to get this out of your way.”
I grabbed the gun and put it into the bottom drawer.
“You didn’t have to do that,” he said. “I was fine with it sitting there.”
But I hadn’t been. I knew it made him uncomfortable, and that bothered me. But the move only served to remind me that I needed to keep my ass still. The pain meds were doing their job, though. I hated to be loopy, not in full control, and now my eyes were drooping. I felt like I had cotton in my head and my body was weighted down.
“Can’t have you getting hurt,” I slurred as I fought to keep my eyes open. “Couldn’t live with myself if my gun killed you.”
Derek snorted. “I think the pain meds are kicking in. I can barely understand you. The rest of your notes will have to wait until later. You need sleep.”
He’d shielded my scars with a sheet. That hadn’t gone unnoticed or unappreciated. I knew my body was a mangled mess, and normally I didn’t care, but it had bothered me for Derek to see my map of scars, wounds that would remind the human what kind of life I led.
That might make him want to leave.
“Stay with me.” My eyelids started to slide closed.
“There’s nowhere for me to sit,” Derek said. “Plus, what do you want me to do while you sleep, watch you?”
The guy was funny. I liked his sense of humor. “No, crawl into bed with me.”
I’d never needed anyone to cuddle with. That wasn’t my style. For reasons I couldn’t fathom, I wanted him here with me, in my bed, curled up next to me. If he left the room, I couldn’t keep him safe.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” I managed to crack one eye open. “We’ve already had sex. I can’t do anything right now even if I wanted to. Just lie down with me.”
“Is that an order?”
God, why was he making things so complicated? I could barely think, let alone form words. “No. You’re free to leave if you want to.” My eyelid closed, then panic tried to take hold. “I mean leave my room, not my penthouse.”
“I knew what you meant.” There was humor in his voice. I was surprised he had any left after what he’d been through, after what I’d told him about me being a wolf shifter and after he discovered that I was a crime boss.
My head was getting fuzzier by the second. My body became lax and the pain manageable. Whatever Dr.
Savant had given me was top shelf, but I still didn’t like the fact that, if something jumped off, I wouldn’t have the wherewithal to defend myself.
Or Derek.
I was high as fuck, and I didn’t like it.
The bed dipped. “I’ll stay until you fall asleep.”
As soon as he was lying down, I pulled him toward me, pain free for the moment, trapping him in my arms.
And his weight felt good against me. I damn near tucked him under my body. I was no longer able to hold onto consciousness. As I drifted off, a warning in the back of my mind told me that keeping things professional between us would be the hardest thing I’d ever had to do.
* * * *
I’d woken with the world’s worst hard-on. I also became aware that I wasn’t alone. There was heat pressed against my body, tucked close to me, and sweating like crazy.
When I cracked my eyes open, all I saw was blond hair. Derek hadn’t crept out after I’d fallen asleep. He’d stayed with me, curled in my arms.
My wound flared up. The pain meds had worn off. I clenched my teeth while telling myself that I could push through it. I’d been wounded before. Plenty of times. The scars riddled all over my body were a testimony to that.
But the pain caught my breath, stealing the air from my lungs as my body went rigid.
Derek jerked away from me and opened his eyes. “You’re in pain. I’m so sorry. I should’ve been awake for your next doses. God, I even suck as a nursemaid.”
I didn’t want him to leave my arms. I was in pain, and fuck, all I could think about was having sex with him. My back was hurt, not my dick. I would probably be on my deathbed and still want a set of perfect lips wrapped around my cock.
Derek left the room, and I wanted to get up, to use the bathroom and take a much-needed shower. The will was there, but my body wasn’t having it. All I could do was lie there and wait for the human to return.
Which he did, ten minutes later.
“What the fuck took you so long?” My pain was turning me into an aggravated bastard.
“I’m sorry. “ Derek had a serving tray in his hands. “One of the bottles says you can’t have an empty stomach so I whipped you up something real quick.”