“Really.” I caught the two items as he tossed them at me. “You couldn’t get anything less flashy?”
“Really,” he deadpanned. “Doctor said or will say for you to take it easy. No more jumping around, at least not for now. Rest and relaxation and all that.” He reached up and tapped his chest. “How’s it feel when the shoe’s on the other foot, hmm?”
Ignoring him, I gingerly lowered myself to the floor and pulled on the track pants, sliding them up under the robe. Muscles groaned and bones ached, but I didn’t embarrass myself by collapsing in a puddle on the floor.
Not that I wasn’t tempted. My back screamed for a hot shower, and I hurt in places I didn’t think I could hurt.
Hunter turned around as I fumbled with the ties on the hospital gown. “So is this where I give you shit for running off on your own and almost getting killed?”
The brilliantly garish T-shirt reached almost to my knees. He might be lucky, but not when it came to guessing clothing sizes. “No. Not yet.”
Hunter spun back as the door opened, admitting both a nurse and a doctor. “When we get to the hotel, then.” It wasn’t presented as a question.
The doctor happened to be the same one from our last visit. He let out a huff at seeing me dressed. The IV tube, still attached to my hand, hung down under my new shirt, partially covered with the hospital gown. “Going somewhere?”
“Yes.” I held up my hand. “Either she takes it out or I do. I don’t want to make a bloody mess.”
He shook his head but motioned the woman forward. An older woman, she clucked her tongue while searching for a bandage and cotton ball, continuing the annoying hen-like conversation as she pulled the tube out and pushed the cotton against my skin, hard.
“Keep pressure on that,” she said, wrapping up the needle and disconnecting it from the tube.
The doctor studied the clipboard, ignoring the two of us. He flipped pages as I wriggled my toes and wondered if tasering a doctor would be considered bad form, even in Vegas.
“So you want to sign out against medical advice.”
“My turn.” I jerked a thumb at Hunter, who at least had the decency to look slightly embarrassed.
“Well, there’s nothing here screaming for me to try and have you declared mentally incompetent.” He glanced at Hunter. “Do you want me to try?”
Sparks jumped from my fingers as I glared at Hunter.
He rubbed his chin. “No, I think she’s okay. She’s had her head knocked about a few times, so it’s nothing new to her.”
“Okay.” The doctor grinned at me before closing the clipboard. “Just be careful. Any bad headaches, any confusion, you come back here as soon as you can. Just don’t fly, please.” His attention went to Hunter. “Can I ask if you’re doing well?”
“Very much so.” He thumped his chest and then gasped, holding in a cough. I snickered as the doctor hid a smile under one hand.
“Okay.” The doctor pointed at Hunter. “You, stay on the pain pills and keep an eye on that wound. You know the mantra.” He turned to me. “You, just take it easy for a few days. Give those ribs time to heal properly.” The doctor scribbled his signature on the paper and handed me the pen and clipboard, turning to Hunter. “Can I trust you to get her some rest?”
“Oh, yes.” Hunter beamed. “I plan to take her right to the hotel and put her to bed.”
I felt a blush starting at my bare toes and running right up to my hairline. The nurse and doctor both shared a wide grin before leaving.
“Now we wait for a wheelchair.” Hunter crossed his arms in front of him. “Meanwhile, let’s chat about your plan.” His face spun back to Guardian mode, but the sparkle in his eyes stayed. “If that’s what you want to call it.”
“It was a cunning plan,” I replied, “but not until we get out of here.”
The door swung open and a wheelchair rolled in with Peter right behind it. He beamed with a grin so wide I was sure it had to be the result of cosmetic surgery. He sported a whole new outfit, the white dress shirt and black pants giving him a sharp, professional look.
“I intercepted the Wicked Witch and talked her into letting me drive you out. We got the same suite as before,” he said as I lowered myself into the chair. “Jeffrey met us in the lobby right after we checked you in.”
I chuckled. “And you’ve gotten into the closet again. Don’t get too comfortable with all those freebies.”
He laughed as he spun me around and pushed me into the hall, swinging my feet high in the air with a wheelie.
David raised an eyebrow at my attire but said nothing as he stood to one side. Steve bounced off the wall he’d been holding up and dropped down beside me on one knee. He grabbed my hand, swallowing it up in both of his.
“Jo.” The big guy was on the verge of tears. I squeezed his hand, knowing that if he started crying, I’d be right behind him, and we’d all be a huge mass of weepy supers. Not good for the Protectors’ image.
“I’m good, I’m good.” I pushed back the lump in my throat. “Good job at taking down Rachael, both of you.”
Steve shrugged as he got to his feet and stood beside me. “Peter was the one who thought about the ants. I just played bait.”
“Got the job done.” I motioned for us to move forward. “And no one got hurt.”
“Except Lamarr,” Peter said from behind me. The wheelchair jolted to a stop before moving on at a slower pace. “Sorry.”
I imagined Hunter thumping the poor boy behind me.
“What happened down there, anyway?” Steve interrupted. “How come Lamarr brought the mine down on both of you? He must have known he’d die as well.”
Hunter moved to walk alongside me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “The preliminary autopsy shows his hands were crushed, fingers broken. Did you do that?”
I nodded, feeling the weight on my shoulders increase. All I wanted to do was shower and sleep, and if I passed out in the wheelchair, that wasn’t going to happen. I focused on the question at hand. “I stomped on his hands and smashed him in the head with a rock.”
David let out an approving grunt.
“That could have done it. If he tried to do his thing without full control over his hands and concussed, it might have gone random on him,” Hunter said. “Not surprising at all.”
“Works for me.” I winced when I saw the front door looming ahead of us, the automatic sliding panels about to shoot apart. “Any way of getting past the press? Especially when I’m wearing this outfit?”
“Not a chance,” Hunter warned. “David went ahead and did the press release, and Outrager’s done his own spin on things, but you still got to run the gauntlet. You’re a hero again, Jo. Just smile and wave, and we’ll be in the limo in no time, then into the hotel where you can get some proper rest.”
“We’re all heroes,” I mumbled as the doors slid open. “At least for today.”
True to his word we were in the parking lot of the Top Row before I had a chance to worry about the paparazzi. Jeffrey stood at the front door to the hotel with a slew of bouncers keeping us safe and sound. He beamed as he shook my hand, ignoring the fact that I was fondling the thick shag carpet with my naked toes. There’s only so much temptation I can take, and it took my mind off the throbbing between my shoulder blades.
“So glad to have you back,” he exclaimed. “You’re welcome for as long as you need to rest.”
I barely had a chance to thank him before Hunter swept me into the elevator with Steve, Peter and David running defense as they huddled around me.
As soon as the elevator door closed I slumped against Hunter, fighting to keep my eyes open. He wrapped one arm around my waist.
“Almost there,” he murmured. The rest of the team studied various parts of the floor and ceiling on the short trip up. I curled my toes again in the plush red carpet. My toes seemed to be the only parts of me that didn’t ache.
The doors slid open on our floor. The three men stepped to the right. I turned to f
ollow them then noticed Hunter hadn’t let me go and was, in fact, pointed in the opposite direction.
“See you later,” Peter and Steve chimed in unison as they sprinted down the hall towards the suite. David chuckled and shook his head.
“I’ll keep an eye on them and Jessie, who is still perturbed that he’s not here.” He looked at Hunter. “See you later.” Without waiting for me to answer he turned and walked down the hall at a brisk pace, headed for the open door.
“And we’re over here.” Hunter spun me around towards the other door. He walked slowly, half-dragging and half-carrying me.
“Okay. What?” I pulled away with the last of my strength and leaned against the wall. “What’s going on?”
“I. Am. Your. Guardian.” He tapped the metal bracelet on his wrist. “And I’m going to take care of you.”
“Oh.” I had nothing. “Okay.”
He laughed as he swept me off my feet and carried me to the door. “What would you like first?”
“Food. A hot shower.” I moaned, the exhaustion overwhelming all other sensations. “A long hot shower. I got dirt in places that should never get dirt.”
“I can do that.” Somehow he extracted a cardkey from his pocket and slipped it into the slot without dropping me. I squeaked as we maneuvered through the door and into an even more extravagant suite than the one at the other end of the floor.
“Oh Lord.” I took in the large flat-screen television set and multiple video game systems. “Steve would kill for this.”
“Maybe. But he’s not going to see it.” Hunter walked towards the bathroom, still carrying me.
The bathroom was larger than my last bachelor apartment, the gold-plated faucets on double sinks pushing the limits of good taste. I eyed the shower stall which could hold a football team and then some.
Hunter placed me on my feet. “Go ahead and strip down while I call room service.” He picked up the white phone set in the wall and barked into it.
I leaned on the marble counter, mesmerized by the amount of gold in sight.
Hunter hung up the phone and turned to me. “Or would you rather take a bath?” He gestured towards the Olympic-pool-sized tub.
“Not if you don’t want me to fall asleep and drown.” I struggled to pull my shirt up, not caring anymore about modesty. “I just want to rub this grit out of my hair and off my skin and then sleep for hours.”
Hunter began tinkering with the multiple levers in the shower. Steam clouds rose up, filling the room with a heated fog. It caressed my bare skin, the humidity soaking into dry, worn patches on my arms.
“Give this a second to settle down to a stable temperature. I don’t want you to get burnt.” One edge of his mouth twitched upward into a smile. “Do you want help getting undressed?”
I paused for a second, caught between lust, exhaustion and necessity.
“Come here.” I crooked my index finger, possibly the only part of my body that didn’t hurt, at him. “And we shall never speak of this again.”
He advanced on me. “Except in my dreams.”
I closed my eyes as his fingers wound around the bottom of the garish T-shirt. “Just shut up and tug.”
“Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but it’s good enough.”
The fabric brushed against my skin as he gently pulled it up and off, the steam racing in to cover me with a slippery sheen of sweat.
“Oh God,” I mumbled as the room temperature rose.
“You called?”
“Smartass.” I leaned back on the counter. “Promise you’ll catch me if I fall?”
“Always.”
I kept my eyes closed as his hands landed on my hips and tugged the sweats down. A light puff of air over my bellybutton shot my senses into overload, the mixture of pain and anticipated pleasure warring for control.
The doorbell rang in a loud symphony of bells.
“Worst. Timing. Ever,” Hunter muttered. “That’ll be the snack. Stay here.” He strode out of the room.
“Like I have a choice?” I yelled after him.
As soon as the bathroom door closed I turned around and around in front of the full-length mirror.
My body was a road map of purple and black blotches. A series of red scratches ran down my spine, not deep enough to break the skin but I knew from the pain they were there.
I looked like I felt.
It was not a reassuring thought. I grabbed a soft, pastel-blue towel and wrapped it around me. It wasn’t about modesty, it was more about not seeing what I had done to myself.
The door opened, letting in a fresh, cool breeze. It chased the steam out of the room for a second as Hunter slipped in, carrying a tray of cheese and crackers.
“I figure we don’t want to start with anything too heavy. Don’t want you puking in the shower.”
“So romantic.” I dove onto the small slices of cheddar and Gouda with a dying woman’s appetite. Hunter scooped up the clothing and exited the room again.
“Just burn those, please. I don’t think I could wear them again,” I mumbled through a mouthful of food.
“What? I thought we’d agreed to redo the team’s image.” Hunter appeared through the fog. He grinned as he snatched a small sliver of cheddar from the silver tray. “Don’t eat too fast. I was serious about you being sick.”
My stomach gave a happy rumble.
I put down a hunk of cheese and wiped my mouth. “Okay, that’s enough pigging out for now.”
“Good. Water’s a good temperature for you now.” Hunter stepped away from the controls, eyeing me.
I tossed the towel at him and stumbled into the hot spray.
The sensations ran from outright pain to a deep soothing heat as I turned around and around, letting the water pummel all parts of my body. The bandage on my hand flew off to one side and down the drain, the small incision already closed up. My back hurt, my shoulders ached, my arms felt like concrete blocks were attached to each fingertip.
A hand went around my waist, pulling me back a step. Something nudged the base of my spine, something definitely not a shower knob.
“Eep.”
“Eep?” Hunter murmured in my ear. His lips moved up to nip at my left earlobe. “That’s all you have to say?”
“Eep, and what are you doing?” I closed my eyes as his right hand touched my hip then slipped southward, dragging over my upper thigh with agonizing slowness.
“Taking care of you.”
I sighed, letting my head fall on his shoulder. “The mind is willing, but the body is weak.”
Hunter chuckled. “There’s more to love than just sex, Jo.” The roving hand reached for the minute shower gel bottle sitting on the nearby shelf. “Just relax.”
I watched as Hunter’s hands shifted in front of me, dumping a copious amount of gel into one hand and tossing the bottle into the far recesses of the shower stall. The Guardian bracelet sat on his arm, waterproof and a constant reminder of our past, of what we had been and what we were becoming.
He rubbed his hands together to produce an obscene amount of foam, the white bubbles threatening to break free and devour us like the Blob.
“Taking care of you means a lot of things.” Both hands moved upwards to rub lightly on my breasts, covering them with the slippery foam. “And right now you need to take it easy.”
I relaxed into his grip.
His hands continued to explore, massaging aching muscles with enough strength to break down the toughest knot.
“Want your hair done too?”
“Hmm. Yeah.” I lifted my face up and gathered a mouthful of water from the hot stream. After swishing it around for a second I spat it out. “I must look a mess.”
“If you’re asking if you’ve got bruises, you do. A lot.” A finger gently prodded just below my left shoulder blade, sending a jolt through me. “I saw them strip you down in the hospital. Not a pretty sight.”
“How sexy,” I mumbled as he reached for a small bottle of shampoo. “I don’t
know how you’re resisting the urge to ravish me right now.”
“Actually, I am.” His hands went around my waist and pulled me against him. “Battered and bruised, you’re still darn sexy.”
I squirmed a bit, feeling the desire building under his touch. My mind raced through various scenarios, most of them starting in the shower.
A sharp pain stabbed through my ribs, breaking my line of thought.
“Sorry,” Hunter sighed as his hands released me, returning to the job of uncapping the shampoo. “I shouldn’t tease.”
“No, you shouldn’t,” I answered. The budding flame died down as I shifted my weight from one leg to the other, feeling the muscles scream from abuse. “But I appreciate the thought.”
“Later, then.” He tangled his fingers in my hair, working the shampoo through the long blonde strands. “We’ll go out on a date.”
“A date?” I arched back, relishing his touch.
“Sure. We’ll find a nice restaurant, get a nice table by ourselves. Maybe Italian, or Japanese. You like sushi?”
“I love sushi.”
“There. We’ll have sushi. Lean back a bit, please.” The hot water rushed over my hair. “We can just be two people on a date.”
“But we’re not just two people,” I whispered.
“Sure we are.” One hand reached around, his palm open. “Hunter Dillon, pleased to meet you. Come here often?”
I stifled a laugh as I shook his hand. “Jo Tanis. No, not really. I tend to meet strangers with my clothes on.”
“Oh, one of those kinky women.” He gave an exaggerated sigh. “So, what do you do for a living?”
“Before this?”
“Before this.”
“You know. You’ve read my file.”
“Work with me, Jo. You’re harshing my mellow.” He hummed in my ear, nipping again at my earlobe. “Play it out with me.”
Heroes Without, Monsters Within Page 22