“It breaks my heart to see you hurt, darlin’. Breaks my heart.”
She lowers my shirt and I grit my teeth, sucking up the pain as I brace myself to lie back. Mum tucks me back in, and sits on the edge of the bed, stroking my hand.
“Like I said. Fine. Chicks dig scars anyway …” I trail off, as if in some kind of daze. I roll my head to look over at Eevie sitting on the covers beside me. The light shining through the window behind her has her looking all angelic again. My angel. My wife-to-be. Her smile is like paradise. Does that make sense? Yeah. It totally does. And smiling like that, I can’t take my eyes off her. So I don’t.
“So you want the good news, Mum?” I ask, like a man high on opiate drugs. Because that’s exactly what I am. High. On drugs. On life. And crazy in love.
When Mum doesn’t answer right away, I sluggishly turn my head towards her. Eyebrows bunched together, her eyes dart between Eevie and I. “What do you mean, ‘good news’?” she probes.
Air is forced out of my lungs as I shift onto my good side. “My body’s hurtin’, my head’s in some kinda fog, but in my heart I’m the luckiest man walkin’.” I chuckle to myself. Walking. Ha!
I pull Eevie’s hand to my mouth and press my lips to her knuckles. “Well, I’m the luckiest one alive. Walkin’ or not.”
“You’re not making any sense, Aidan,” Mum scoffs, straightening the corner of the sheet.
Eevie draws in a long breath, and the deep flush of colour to her cheeks doesn’t go unnoticed by me. If I could grab her and wrestle her beneath me, I would in a second.
Struggling to keep my heavy eyelids open, I mumble, “Eevie’s my forever. She’s gonna be my wife … Gettin’ married … Babies. Good news…”
I give in to my eyelids. I’m done fighting. There’s a thud noise and the bed shifts on both sides.
I might just rest my eyes for a bit.
****
I wake to the sounds of women chattering and the clinking of teacups.
I rub the sleep from my eyes to find the two most important women in my life grinning their arses off at me.
“What’d I do?” I ask defensively.
“I’m fine, by the way, Aidan. Eevie picked me up from the floor,” Mum says, stern at first but almost laughing by the time she gets to her last word.
“What?” The floor? Wait … was that the thud noise? Didn’t I just imagine that?
Mum gives me a big smooch on the lips and pinches my cheeks. “Congratulations, darling.”
“Ah, thanks. Did Eevie tell you?”
Eevie throws back her head and laughs. I didn’t think what I said was funny.
I shrug.
“You mumbled something about marriage and babies and then passed out,” Eevie informs me.
Babies? I was talking about babies? Not that there’s anything wrong with that; of course I want a family. But, I said that to my mother?
Man, these drugs are fucking me up.
****
Three weeks later
When Eevie’s at work, thank God I have my buddy, Sergeant, keeping me company. He’s a permanent fixture, curled up on the end of our bed, but he probably thinks I’m crazy.
“I promise to be there for you, inspire you, and love you no matter what obstacles come before us. Does that sound better than before, mate?” I ask Sergeant.
He frowns at me from the end of the bed, then proceeds to roll over so he can lick himself. Well, fuck.
“You’re no help,” I mutter to myself. “At least wag your damn tail, give me some sign of support. This is for Eevie. Gotta get it right.”
At the mention of her name, he wags his tail and wiggles his arse up the bed to lick my face.
I scratch him under his chin, and he stretches his head back and makes a whiney noise. “Yeah, I can’t wait for her to get home too, bud.”
All these hours lying around has given me more than enough time to think. If I didn’t have the brains to realise it after the shit storm in Griffith, then I fucking do now. There’s nothing like a good concussion to knock some sense into you. Life’s too short to sit back. I know what I want.
I want a family of my own, and I want to be everything my father was not. My dream starts and ends with Eevie, and I’ve got our plan all worked out. I’m taking the rest of the year off from riding to build on our future. Motocross isn’t going anywhere, but Eevie and I are.
When I’m back into the training next year, I know I’ll be ready. I don’t wanna go back too soon and do more damage. Supercross is only a short season, so I won’t be missing much. I’ll just smash ‘em out of the arena when I come back next year. They won’t know what hit them.
****
Two weeks later
The loud brapp noise of the bike echoes in the lounge room as the four of us watch the GoPro footage in awe.
There’s a loud thud noise, the crunch of plastic and metal, and the bike disappears from view. The camera appears to roll into something green, before coming to a stop in darkness. As if on cue, the four of us gasp and swear like troopers.
“You crazy son-of-a-bitch,” a muffled voice says. Must have been one of the checkpoint guys.
“Fuckin’ hell,” Rob mutters. I catch him shaking his head out of the corner of my eye.
The darkness continues. No movement. And it’s eerie as hell, because I know that I’m just lying there like a pulverised sack of shit. I could’ve really fucked myself up. Well and truly. I thank my fucking lucky stars I didn’t.
“Ambos are on the way … Hang in there bud,” is the last thing I hear before I flick the TV off with the remote. I might just watch the rest later.
“You motocross boys are fuckin’ nuts, man,” Ryan says, and takes a long swig of his beer.
“We’re not all fuckin’ cowboys like Stone,” Jones chips in.
I laugh out loud. Pretty sore and sorry cowboy right here. “Go hard or go home, right Jones?” I say and raise my beer bottle. Jones knows more than anyone why we do what we do. We live and breathe it: the churn of dirt; the sweat and the thrill of pushing the limits.
“Fuckin’ cheers to that,” Jones says, and clinks the neck of his beer bottle against mine.
“You still on painkillers?” Rob asks, and throws a pizza crust back into the box on the coffee table.
“Fuck no. I took those Endone tablets the first few days after the accident, but not after that. I was high as a fuckin’ kite, dribblin’ about shit I couldn’t remember.” Like telling my mother about babies. “I didn’t wanna rely on ‘em. I don’t know if you remember, but Beau Stuart, who was close to taking out the title a few years back, got hooked on ‘em after a bad crash. He never returned to the track, but mark my words, I’m comin’ back.” If it kills me.
I shuffle in my seat, trying to mask the pain that still shoots through my body when I sit still for too long. Hopefully the fuckers don’t notice.
“So, Eevie’s lookin’ after ya?” Ryan asks, raising an eyebrow. “She’s not sick of your sorry arse yet?”
Eevie’s been fucking incredible. Caring. Patient. And I know some days I’ve been a royal pain in the arse. I never got that whole nurturing thing until now, and I never thought it could be so goddamn sexy. I always knew deep down that Eevie was special, but seeing the way she takes care of me, I know she’ll make a great mother someday.
“Oh, she’s lookin’ after me alright. Nothin’ like havin’ a gorgeous woman to take care of you, but she’s gone all bossy on me, and makes me drink all these funky juices and shit. Something about promoting healing. She’s helpin’ with physio with my calf, and I’m starting to get some strength back. It’s all good.”
“Can’t say I’d be complaining about havin’ a girl accommodate my every need,” Jones pipes in.
“If you weren’t such a whore, Jones, and picked a bird with a half-brain in her head, you might get lucky,” I say and hand him my empty beer bottle. He takes it and adds it to the empties on the table.
Jones chuckles.
He takes a fresh bottle of beer from the Esky beside him, and cracks it open. “Hey, I can’t help where my dick leads me?” he says and shrugs, before taking a long swig from the bottle.
“Must be some cock you’re packin’ if it has that much power over ya,” I say, and laugh. But I can’t laugh for long because it hurts. When will this pain fuck off?
“Never get any complaints on what I’m packin’.” Jones grabs his jeans between his legs and grunts as he squeezes.
“Yeah, righto. I don’t need that visual. Just shut the fuck up and tell your ‘dick’ to get me another beer.”
He shakes his head and laughs, and hands me one.
For the first day in weeks, I’m feeling more like … me.
But I fucking miss my bike.
****
Eevie dumps her handbag and some shopping bags on the bench. I hope there are more M&M’s in there, now that she’s got me addicted.
“Hey, babe. Have you taken your antibiotics today?” she asks.
I’m about to get my arse kicked. Because I haven’t.
I’ve been talking bikes and blokey shit, and even had the patience to listen to some of Jones’s and Ryan’s sexcapades. Geez, those boys get around. It’s been a million times more interesting than what my daytimes have been filled with since Eevie went back to work. So I’m gonna play a little. If she gets all pissy at me, I’ll bury my head between her legs until she’s over it. That always works.
I sit up a little straighter on the lounge and shrug. “I needed help.”
Her mouth curls at the side, and the attitude comes out. She has one hand on her hip, and one eyebrow ready to launch from her forehead. “Help?” she says. Yeah, that tone means I’m in trouble.
“Once I got on the lounge, I couldn’t get back up.”
She looks over to the coffee table, which has at least ten empty beer bottles and a pizza box with discarded crusts. Busted.
And then she does something I wasn’t expecting.
She smiles. And she hasn’t smiled that bright in weeks.
“You watched the footage with the boys, huh?”
“Yeah. Jones was in town, and Rob and Ryan weren’t doin’ much.” The bastards had been nagging me since the accident to look at it, but I wasn’t ready. I wanted to at least be walking better before I was ready for company. Jones being in town for some meeting with his Dad’s business was the perfect excuse to watch it, and even though Jones has been a prick in the past, he’s been good about this whole situation. He’s even been more like a, well, mate.
Eevie fills up a glass of water, and sits close beside me. She hands me two capsules and the glass. “Well, I’m glad. Now, take these.”
“Thanks, babe.”
****
“There’s more to life than the four walls of our room, Aidan. Time to get out. I’m going crazy.” Eevie leans down and helps me with my shoes.
I huff out a long breath. Yeah, she’s right. It’s been a month since the accident.
“But shopping? Seriously?” I roll my eyes, and cross my arms under my chest.
“We need … things,” she says, and bites at her bottom lip.
“I’ve got a hate on for shopping. Unless we’re goin’ to the bike shop, and in that case, I’m all in.”
“We’re not going to the bike shop. Just the mall.”
“Fine, then. But just so you know, I’m not gonna last long on the crutches,” I say, even though I think I’ll be right. I’d been doing some hand weights to try and maintain my upper body strength.
She waves her hand, dismissing my concerns. “You’ll be fine.”
We arrive at the mall, and Eevie snags a park close to the main doors.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she says smiling like a kid on Christmas morning. Before I can ask what she’s doing, she’s out of the car and walking quickly to the main door. I sit like a stunned mullet, wondering what the hell she’s playing at.
A short while later she returns with a wheelchair. Now I know why she wasn’t too worried about me getting tired with the crutches. I shake my head, but she gives me this heart-warming smile that makes me forget how embarrassing this is. I should just suck it up. For everything she’s done to help me heal, the least I can do is this. Shopping. The things I do.
With my leg out of action, I don’t know if I could have managed without her, and she’s never complained once. I know Mum would have been there for me in a heartbeat, but I’m too old for her to be doting over me, and the thought of her helping me shower and dress frankly makes me cringe. If anyone’s going to see me naked, I only want Eevie.
Wheeling me inside the mall, I feel the need to state the obvious. “You know I hate shopping, right?”
“You’re a man. I thought that was assumed.”
“Yeah, I don’t know many blokes that enjoy it.”
“I just need a few things for uni and for dinner, but don’t worry. I’ve got an idea to change your mind about shopping.”
“Well, that sounds promising.”
She grins, as if holding in her secret is gonna be a challenge.
After a quick stop at the newsagent, and the supermarket, we arrive at a girly-looking store.
Lingerie.
This is her grand plan. Well, I’ve gotta say, not a bad way to end a shopping trip.
Our sex life has taken a hit since the accident, Eevie worrying about “hurting” me. When will she realise that I’d be all too prepared to suffer a little pain for that time of pure ecstasy when the hurting momentarily disappears? It took the first week to convince her that sex wasn’t going to affect my recovery. I even went with the argument that it would only help me recover. Sometimes that girl can be stubborn … but I guess it was for the right reason.
The walls are lined with racks of delicate lace underwear and bras and little nighty-looking things that would cover what exactly? Nothing. But I guess that’s the point. Kind of like that little purple Valentine’s Day number of Eevie’s.
Damn, now I’ve got a woody.
“Why don’t you pick something out?” Eevie says, her cheeks a few shades redder than normal.
“Wheel me over there,” I say, pointing to the far corner of the store. It looks like a section designed to cater for hen’s nights and costume parties, but it’s definitely too racy for that. This is behind-closed-doors stuff. I browse through the various satin-and-lace corset-looking things until I come across a white outfit. A very short, very tight nurse’s uniform. We should have come shopping weeks ago. Even if I had to come via a wheelchair.
It’s perfect. Fucking perfect.
“I don’t care what you think, I’m buying this,” I say, holding it up to show her.
Eevie swings her head around and laughs out loud.
“That’s fitting.”
“I think so too. So what’ve you come up with? Bet it’s not as exciting as what I picked out.”
She holds up a see-through white lace G-string. There’s more material in the shoelace of my left sneaker. She shoves the matching padded bra closer to my face. Not that she needs the extra encouragement … but under that outfit, her tits will spill out. I think I’m drooling, or on the verge of a heart attack.
“I think these will match nicely,” she says proudly, raising an eyebrow. My fucking word they will. I hand her my credit card as my cock throbs painfully against my jeans.
“Hurry. We need to get home.”
She looks down to my lap and laughs again. “I knew I could get you to like shopping.”
“Consider me converted. Now hurry.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
* AIDAN *
She waltzes into the room like some kind of kinky goddess.
“Is it time for my sponge-bath already?” I ask, surprised that I put a sentence together.
“Not just yet, Mr Stone. It’s time to check your vitals. Let’s see how you’re doing,” she says, like a true professional.
Fuck me. My cock’s just taken on a whole new leve
l of hard. Jeezus! Is she trying to kill me? She’s barely buttoned that white dress and the hem drifts just below her pussy. Wait a second; is she even wearing panties? If she’s not, I won’t be able to sit still. I’ll pull her onto my lap and drive into her like there’s no tomorrow.
I cough, and it sounds ridiculous. “Doin’ better, nurse. In fact, I’m feelin’ much better now,” I say, puffing my chest out.
Eevie messes around with a pen and notepad, and then leans over, placing her warm hand to my forehead. And there it is. Prime fucking view of those tits, with that bra, the smooth skin and swell of each of those puppies is on display. My hands itch beside me, wanting so bad to touch her. I take a handful of sheets instead. I’m playing by the rules here. No touching. It’s a fucking killer. Why did I agree to this? Oh, yeah. Because it’s hot as fuck.
She puts the notepad down on the bedside table and sits beside me, but not close enough to touch. She takes my closest hand and presses the pads of two of her fingers on my upturned wrist, while glancing at her watch. Aw, she’s checking my pulse. And it’s racing. And it’s all her fault.
She takes a small torch from her hip pocket, and moves in closer. Her sweet perfume wraps around my head and I breathe it in. I can’t get enough of it. I’m addicted to this smell. The only thing that smells better is this smell laced with sex. My body knows this smell, and loves it like no other.
Eevie pries open each eye wider and briefly flashes the light from side to side into my line of vision. “You seem to be doing okay, Mr Stone,” she says, and picks up the notepad to write something. I take her pen, and like a petulant child, toss it on the floor behind her.
I’m rewarded with a very sexy frown. And then a scowl. It’s sexy, just the same.
“Sorry, nurse. Would ya mind gettin’ that for me?”
The corner of her sweet mouth twitches. “Of course,” she says sweetly. Eevie stands and turns her back to me, locks her knees and bends all the way over
I gasp. She is wearing panties. That sweet little G-string is barely visible between those sexy arse cheeks. Fuck, I wanna slap that arse. My girl sure knows how to tease.
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