by Lori Foster
Instead of being relieved that she’d let him off the hook, fury darkened his face. “Don’t push me, Libby.”
Why was he mad? And at the moment, did she even care? She was so damn cold, deep down inside herself, that she couldn’t stop shaking. “I know how to treat illness. Remember, I’m a nursing student, soon to graduate. Go with a clear conscience. I’ll be fine.”
Axel closed his eyes, looked to be counting to ten, then opened them again. Composed, he said, “I’m not leaving you, so forget that.”
“You already told me what a self-centered ass you are, remember? It’s all right to leave.”
“I said no.”
She couldn’t stay upright a second more. Collapsing back on the bed, freezing, she said, “Bastard.”
“Hush.” He moved with sudden purpose. “I know what I’ll do. I’ll call Cary. He’ll come over and take care of you.”
The very idea of imposing on someone else left her speechless. Why couldn’t he just leave her in peace?
Knowing she had to move whether she wanted to or not, she hugged the blankets and started to slide her legs off the side of the bed.
Her feet never touched the floor. In one swoop, Axel pulled her into his arms and held her like a child. That stung. As if her weight were negligible, he strode to the other side of the bed and snagged his jeans.
“Why are you doing this?” He was so wonderfully warm and comfortable that she wanted to crawl inside him. Exhaustion pulled at her, and she laid her head on his hard shoulder.
“You just be quiet.” He sat on the side of the bed, holding her, rocking her a little, and used his thumb to press one number on his cell phone.
A second later, some unfortunate soul actually answered.
Axel wasted no time. “Damn Cary, I’m sorry to bug you—what? No, I’m okay. It’s Libby. She’s … If you’ll shut up, I’ll tell you who she is. She’s … a woman I’m seeing.”
Libby hid her face in his neck. God, this only got worse and worse.
“Damn it, I know you don’t know her. But I’m with her now and her uncle is the damn chief of staff … Yeah, Elwood.” Axel paused, rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not crazy, but for the record I didn’t know her uncle was chief of staff. Cary, do not laugh, damn you.”
Libby realized by the way Axel said Elwood’s name that he didn’t exactly like him. At least she wasn’t alone in that.
“She’s sick, maybe pneumonia given her temperature and how fast it came on her. No, she doesn’t want to go to the hospital but she’s burning up and … Yeah, could you? Thanks.” He gave her address to his friend, said, “I owe ya,” and hung up.
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he said, “Cary’ll be right over. He’s a fine doctor, a family practitioner, and he’ll know what to do.”
“You’re a doctor, too,” Libby reminded him.
“Wrong kind.” He stood again, carrying her as if she weighed no more than a pillow. He entered her tiny bathroom, got a towel off the rack, and using only one hand, doused it in tepid water. “I’m going to wipe you down to try to get your fever under control before Cary gets here.”
“No.” Libby gripped him with all her puny strength. Logically, she knew it was the fever making her cold, but the idea of anything wet touching her body made her shake that much more.
“Sorry,” he said, and went back to the bed where he laid her down, unwrapped her against her protestations, and used the corner of the towel to bathe her face, throat, chest, and arms.
“Oh God.” Again, the stupid tears stung her eyes, and she hated herself for it, which made her hate him.
Axel looked as agonized as she felt. “I’m sorry, honey.” He kissed her forehead, and continued pressing that cool cloth to her burning body. After a few minutes, it did help, but not enough.
Teeth chattering, Libby said, “I didn’t think doctors made house calls anymore.”
“Like I said, Cary’s a friend.”
Axel covered her again, then got dressed and went to put on coffee. Feeling a little more comfortable, Libby half dozed.
A few minutes later, Axel bent near her ear. “I’ll be right back.”
She stirred enough to ask, “Where are you going?”
“I brought your paperwork with me from my office. Cary might like to see it. Don’t move.”
No, she wouldn’t move. She heard the front door open, and when Axel returned he had someone with him. Libby pulled the covers up over her head. Good grief, she was naked, and couldn’t do a thing about it.
“That lump on the bed is her,” she heard Axel say. “Libby, Dr. Rupert. Cary, meet Libby Preston.”
The bed dipped, and a second later the blanket was pulled from her face. She stared up at a man with rumpled brown hair and tired green eyes and a gentle, kind smile.
“Hello,” he said. “I’m Dr. Rupert.” Then he stuck a thermometer in her ear, waited all of two seconds and said, “102.”
Behind him, Axel fretted. “Pneumonia?”
“Can I tell that from her ear, Axel? No, I can’t. Why don’t you go sit down somewhere and stop pacing behind me?”
Libby felt just put out enough to say, “Old people tend to fret.”
Dr. Rupert’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t say anything.
Axel wasn’t quite so restrained. In low warning, he said, “I’ll get even with you for that crack, little girl—but not until you’re in full fighting form again.”
Libby glared at Axel and clutched the sheet when Dr. Rupert tried to lower it. Utilizing great bedside manner, he said, “Miss Preston, Axel tells me you’re to be a nurse, so I’m sure you already know this, but I need to listen to your lungs.”
She glared at Axel again. “Turn around.”
His eyes widened. “For the love of … I’ve already seen you naked, Libby.”
She wanted to kill him. “Not. Like. This.”
He threw up his hands. “Fine.” Giving her his back, he groused, “Damn fickle woman.”
Dr. Rupert ignored them both. He lowered the sheet just enough to slip his stethoscope inside. He listened, frowned, moved it, listened again, and frowned some more.
When he finished, he pulled the sheet back up to her chin. “Where’s her medical history?”
Axel turned back around and handed it to him. The good doctor asked some questions, nodded in that doctorly fashion typical of his vocation, and finally said, “Well, I’m certain you have pneumonia, but we need X-rays, of course. Axel, you can bring her to my office first thing tomorrow for that. Say eight o’clock, before my regular schedule begins. Given how fast this came on her, I’d say it’s likely bacterial, so I’m going to go ahead and give her a shot of antibiotic tonight. Are you allergic to anything, Miss Preston?”
“Call me Libby, and no.” She didn’t want a shot. She wanted to sleep.
“All right, Libby. And you can call me Cary. If you’re going to be seeing Axel, I suppose we should all be friends.”
“I’m not seeing him.”
“No?”
Axel sounded like a bear when he growled, “She’ll be seeing me.”
Cary hid a smile. “You’ll need plenty of bed rest, at least until your temperature returns to normal. Lots of fluids. At least six to eight glasses a day.” He turned to Axel. “You’ll see to it?”
“Yeah.”
Libby’s mouth fell open, which caused her to start coughing. Dr. Rupert helped to elevate her until she could catch her breath. Wheezing, she said, “I don’t need his help.”
Axel folded his arms over his chest. “Yes, you do.”
“No—”
“Be gracious, Libby,” Cary told her, and then went on before she could argue further. “Acetaminophen or ibuprofen to help control pain and fever. And use a cool mist humidifier or vaporizer to increase air moisture. It’ll make it easier for you to breathe. Cool mist, Libby, not steam, understand?”
She bit her lower lip. “I don’t have a cool mist humidifier and I don’t have any medicine
—”
“I’ll run out,” Axel told her. “The department store is open all night.”
It wasn’t to be borne. “You said you’re a selfish bastard! Why don’t you just leave?”
Cary drew back. “You told her?”
“Ha ha,” Axel said. And as Libby groaned, drained from her outburst and hacking again, he said, “You got anything you can give her now for the fever? I hate for her to have to wait for me to shop.”
Despite his concern for her, Cary seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. “Sure.” He dug in his magical bag and produced two white pills. Axel hustled to get a glass of water, then lifted her with an arm behind her back and supported her while she drank.
He eased her back down. “Give her the shot, and I’ll walk out with you.”
Cary was already preparing the injection. He gave her an apologetic look. “In the hip, Libby. Can you turn to your side for me?”
She looked at Axel, who rolled his eyes. “Right, I know. Turn my back so your delicate sensibilities won’t be lacerated.”
Cary waited while she adjusted the sheet the best she could, trying to show the least amount of skin. “This will sting,” he told her, but truthfully she barely felt it above the rest of her miseries.
She thanked him for his help, and he patted her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
As the men prepared to leave, she curled in on herself and wallowed in self-pity. Why did she have to get sick now? She’d only just met Axel, and odds were after seeing what a fun date she could be, he’d never return. And she had graduation in a few weeks. The timing couldn’t have been worse.
She didn’t realize Axel was close until he brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “I’ll be back within an hour. I took your keys off the kitchen counter, so I’ll let myself in. Just try to sleep, okay?”
He’d taken her keys? How presumptuous. Eyes narrowed, she whispered, “Axel?”
His smile was very warm and tender. “Hmm?”
Libby gave up. “Thank you.”
He searched her face, nodded, and finally took himself off. Sometime later, Libby became aware of him beside her in the bed. He tilted a glass to her lips and she drank it all, but declined when he offered to help her to the bathroom. She only wanted to sleep.
He lay down with her, once again naked, and spooned against her back. His lips touched her ear. “The vaporizer is on. I’m going to wake you in a few hours to take more medicine. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Libby nodded, but one thought filled her mind: for a self-proclaimed selfish pig, he was more giving and caring than anyone she’d ever met.
She was the most pig-headed, obstinate woman he’d ever met. “You are not going to work, Libby. Jesus, you still have a fever. You can’t take two steps without looking ready to collapse. I figured you to be a smart girl, so why are you talking so dumb?”
She sat huddled on the passenger side of his car on their return ride from Cary’s office, where her pneumonia had been confirmed—not that there’d been any doubts.
Her hair was lank, her face ashen, her lips shivering. Wearing baggy sweats and a blanket, she looked like a drowning victim barely hanging onto life.
“My uncle will be furious if I don’t show up.”
For most of the previous night, Axel had wondered how he would keep his involvement with Libby—and he was involved—private from her pain-in-the-ass, all-too-important relative. But at that moment, he decided he didn’t give a damn. “Let him be mad. I’ll call him. I’ll tell him you’re ill. If he doesn’t like it, tough shit.”
With an expression of death, she peered at him. “Don’t be an idiot. You can’t call Uncle Elwood. He’ll want to know what you have to do with anything.”
Axel pulled into the parking lot. He needed to get her back in bed. “So I’ll tell him.”
“Tell him what?”
“That his niece is the sexiest piece of ass I’ve had in ages.”
Libby almost slid to the floor of the car with a hard, cough-inducing gasp. “You can’t—”
“Just kidding.” He put the car in park and circled around to her side to open her door. “But it’s true.” As he scooped her up, she put her face in his neck. “You are a seriously sexy piece of work.” He smiled.
She moaned. “Yeah, sweaty, hacking broads with chronic coughs really turn you on.”
“You turn me on.” And it didn’t seem to matter that at the moment, sex was the farthest thing from his mind. He carried her up to her dinky apartment, enjoying the opportunity to show off his strength and play the gallant. He kicked the door shut. “Are you hungry?”
“No.”
“How about soup anyway?”
“How about a nap?”
“After the soup.”
And so it went. Everything he suggested, she argued about. She was the worst patient he’d ever had. And still, for some unfathomable reason, he enjoyed being with her.
After he force-fed her half a bowl of chicken noodle broth and she looked more asleep than awake, he broke the news. “I’m going to call Elwood now.”
Her eyes snapped open. “Don’t do this to me, Axel.”
“To you? I’m the one who’ll probably be kicked out of the hospital.”
“You just don’t know.”
Such a desolate voice. He sat beside her and took her hands. “So tell me.” Weariness etched her face, and he wanted to hold her again. But first things first. “Come on, Libby. Spill it. What awful things could Elwood possibly do to you? Will he have you blackballed from the hospital? Make you relocate to Alaska to find work? What?”
She turned her face away and her voice went flat. “He can tell me, again, that I’m just like my mother.”
Keeping his tone gentle, Axel prompted, “How’s that?”
“I look like her, and I suppose in a lot of ways I have her outlook on life.”
“I take it she was a hard-working, independent, stubborn woman, too?” Axel teased.
She actually laughed, relaxing a little. “I don’t remember much about her being stubborn, but yeah, she was independent. Elwood was her much older brother and they used to be close. But when he didn’t accept or support her choices, she ignored him. See, Elwood is all seriousness and ambition, and my mother just enjoyed life. She didn’t need fancy cars or jewelry or a big house. She used to tell me all she needed to be happy was me.”
“A smart woman.”
Libby looked at him, and a half smile curled her pale lips. “Elwood hated it that Mom got pregnant by a car mechanic who took off the moment he knew I was on the way. Sometimes I think he hated me. But Mom told me it was just that he had to work long hours and didn’t have time to visit very often.”
Her eyes, her smile, were very soft when speaking of her mother. It was easy to see she’d been well loved, and had given a lot of love in return.
“Doctors are always on call,” Axel told her, for the first time wondering what a woman would think of his own hectic schedule. “How do you feel about that?”
She gave it serious thought. “When someone’s health, maybe even a life, hangs in the balance, of course doctors have to help when they can. But Elwood doesn’t really care about people. He only cares about his reputation and the respect he gets.”
Axel didn’t want to insult her uncle again, so he let that go. “Not all doctors are like that.”
She covered a yawn before saying, “I know that. I wouldn’t want to be a nurse if I didn’t respect the medical profession.”
Leaving her apartment for the X-rays had really worn her out. Axel knew he should let her sleep, but first… “How did your mother die?”
Sadness clouded her eyes and she withdrew from him. “I wanted to swim, but Elwood wouldn’t let us use his pool. So Mom took me to the river. She was out too far, flirting with some guys … and a boat went out of control.” She shook her head and began to cough. “She drowned.”
Axel pulled her upright and held her against his
shoulder, rubbing her back, wishing he hadn’t brought it up. “I’m sorry.” He kissed her ear, her cheek. “Shhh. Here, take a small drink.”
When she’d regained her breath, she gave him a level, too serious look. “So you see, you can’t let my uncle know that I was with you.”
Insult mixed with exasperation. “Libby, no offense intended, but I’m not a mechanic. Elwood blusters a lot, but he respects me. Twenty years ago, when he was still my age, he was in the same position as me. It doesn’t matter what my personal reputation might be.”
“You mean your reputation as a ‘me first’ male slut?” She shook her head. “Forget it, Axel. I’m not buying that anymore, not with the way you enjoy playing nursemaid.” And she tacked on, almost absently, “Not since my mother’s death has anyone pampered me. Selfish, egotistic people don’t do that.”
Axel paid no attention to her, unsure whether she was complaining or complimenting. “Even sick, you’re good company. But what I mean is that my professional reputation is rock solid.”
“I never doubted it.”
“Good. Then you should realize that Elwood would probably be pleased to know—”
Her raspy laugh interrupted his diatribe, and didn’t sound the least bit nice. “What? That you’re having a brief, purely sexual fling with his niece? Yeah, that’d thrill him.”
It definitely wasn’t just sexual, not on his part, and Axel wasn’t sure he wanted it to be so damn brief either. After only one night—which usually was enough to satisfy him—he couldn’t even begin to think of walking away from her. He’d meant what he said: she was good company. She didn’t complain, she didn’t simper or put on airs. She was herself at all times, friendly, funny, independent, serious, sexy, and giving. He liked her. A lot.
He maybe even more than liked her.
But he could hardly start declaring himself yet. “What we do sexually is none of Elwood’s business. You’re a grown woman, or so you keep insisting.”
“Start up on my age again,” she warned, “and sick or not, I’ll get up and kick your butt.”
Axel grinned, knowing she’d try, and knowing he’d enjoy her efforts if she wasn’t sick. “No need to tax yourself. Believe me, I know you’re a woman.” He propped his hands on his hips, attempting to look stern. “But woman or not, you’re still too ill to go to work.”