Assignment: Learning to Love [Hawt Men In and Out of Uniform 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic)

by Honor James

  “Hey, I might be hurting like crazy, but I’m not dead.” Holy hell, he looked better out of his dress uniform than in it. Wow. “I owe you a new uniform, I think.” His was covered in her blood. Damn. That seriously was not good. “I’m sorry,” she muttered and leaned against him when he scooped her up. It then hit her. She grinned and said, “I didn’t passively let that asshole take me. I recalled what Daddy’s been teaching me my whole life. I’m surprised.” She had always thought that the self-defense her father demanded was a crock. Now she was happy for it.

  “No you didn’t,” he said as he carried her to the bed. Settling her on the edge, he helped her to lie back. “I’ll move you once I get your feet done, but they are dripping, I think, and we don’t need that on the bedding.”

  “Very true.” She leaned back against the pillows however and sighed. “That will be something that Daddy will be happy about at least.” She shrugged and watched him. “I think that when you are done, you should talk to me for a while. If you won’t let me sleep that is.” She tilted her head to the side and said, “Oh, wait there is a doctor here. Sandy’s dad is a doctor. Not a plastic surgeon, surprisingly enough. Maybe you can sneak him in here after you’ve cleaned and stitched me up? To check my head so that I can hopefully take like ten Tylenol and sleep for a week?”

  “Not happening,” he said as he pulled a chair close to the bed. Sitting down, he dug into his duffel again and came out with another bag. This one, when he opened it, looked like a mini medical kit with all the bells and whistles. “You definitely have a concussion, low-grade I’d guess from your pupil reaction time. But you’re not getting any Tylenol, or anything else tonight. We’ll get you a cold compress to help ease the headache, but that’s the best you’re getting, sorry. Now, any allergies to lidocaine?” he asked as he lifted up the little ampule and wiggled it her way.

  “No, none.” She watched him and sighed. “You are a big meanie,” she teased with a grin and leaned back. “It’s okay though. I will still let you ask me out for a second date.” Why the hell she was bringing up dating, she didn’t know, but hey, she was in his bed, in his room, so why not? When the thunder boomed and the lights flickered and then blinked out, she jumped. “Son of a...” she trailed off when the lights snapped back on, much lower wattages though. “Crap. Generator?” She asked him if the power was out and the genny kicked on. “How bad is the storm? I didn’t know that it was supposed to hit this week. I thought it was going to be next week.”

  “When have you ever known a weatherman to be right?” he asked. He bent over to dig in the bag again and came up with a flashlight. He tossed it to her. “In case the lights go off,” he said to her. He began to shoot the lidocaine into her feet around the wounds she had. Then he moved to do the same to the palms of her hands. “You could always dictate, you know,” he said. At her look he shrugged. “Until you can write again, you could dictate what you need to write to someone that can type. It’s not ideal, but it would get you through your deadline, I’m sure.”

  “Good point. If I did that though, Rigby would think I was talking to him and he would start to both me wanting to be given attention and whatnot.” She sighed and shook her head. “It’s okay. I will just call my agent and ask for an extension. Let them know of the troubles that I’ve came across and just go from there. That way I don’t have Rigby wanting to climb on me all the time.”

  “I’m going to assume that this Rigby is an animal,” he said. Retaking his seat, he lifted her feet onto his lap and frowned down at them. Into his bag of tricks he went again and came out with cotton wipes and iodine. “All right, honey. This next part is going to hurt like nothing else, you ready?”

  “Yes, Rigby is a cat,” she said and then looked at him. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “I’m as ready as I think that I’m going to get. Just no teasing me when I start to cry like a little girl.” She closed her eyes then. She couldn’t and wouldn’t watch this. “Do what you need, please.”

  “Hey, I wouldn’t tease you. I’ve seen men hurt less than this bawling like little children,” he said softly. “Do whatever you need to do and get through this. I’ll warn you before I start so you can brace.” She felt him moving around a little and then he gave her the first warning. The iodine hit the cut and there was nothing but the fires of Hell trying to rip her limbs from her body.

  “Thank you.” She clenched her teeth together tightly and whimpered. She didn’t bite her lip because it already felt as if it were split open and swollen. “Crap, that hurts like hell,” she muttered. “I want to kick the butt that did this as well. Then I’m telling my daddy.” She knew that was very childish, but when your father was a general that could make you disappear if he really wanted to, she sure enough was going to.

  “Good plan,” he said softly. “Okay, I’m doing the other one now. In three, two, one.” He poured the liquid over her other foot, holding onto her ankle when she flinched. “I know, hurts like nothing else can, but we need to do it. We have to ensure that it’s cleaned out, hold on now.” She felt him blowing over the soles of her feet, trying to calm the burn she knew.

  She was crying, she couldn’t help herself. The tears rolled down her cheeks in silent pain. “Please hurry.” She was shaking. She knew that she was close to the end of her line and hated it. “Please,” she added a second time. At least her hands were starting to feel numb even if he hadn’t given her a shot there for some reason they started to feel numb, too, which was good.

  “Shh, it’s all done down here. We’ll give the lidocaine a minute to kick in while I do your hands.” He moved, setting her feet down gently on the seat he’d vacated before he sat on the bed next to her hip. “Look at me, Gigi. You can do this. It hurts now, but it’s a hell of a lot better than someone having to scrape away at this later.” He was stroking her cheek with gentle fingers as he spoke to her.

  “Okay.” She looked at him and bit her lip, wincing as she did so. “Son of a bitch.” She was still crying but couldn’t stop it. “It’s going to be worse tomorrow, isn’t it?” she asked and then jumped when the thunder exploded, and something else on the island as well just a second before all of the lights went out. “Oh hell,” she whispered and fumbled for the flashlight.

  “I got it,” he said a moment before the bright white light cut through the gloom. He handed it to her so she could hold onto it, like he knew she needed something. “Yes, it will be a hell of a lot worse tomorrow. Stiffness will have set in, so will the bruising, and the swelling will be at its worst. On the plus side, if you make it through tonight without any complications from the concussion, you can have some drugs out of my goodie bag. Now, I need to do your hands and then start stitching up and bandaging your feet. Give me one please.”

  She held the flashlight and passed him her other hand. “How are we going to do this without light? Can you see well enough with just the flashlight?” she asked him, her eyes on his dark head, the short military cut accentuated with the darkness. What the hell was wrong with her that she was lusting over this man when she hurt like hell? Seriously. She had a screw loose or something.

  “I’ve got a penlight in my bag I’ll use when I’m stitching. I can hold it between my teeth and direct it where I need the most light. Just don’t go flashing the one you have in my eyes. Especially when I’m doing all that delicate work.” He flashed her a grin as he got the gauze in place and held the bottle of iodine up. He counted down and then poured, barely catching her hand before she jerked away, and somehow keeping from spilling the iodine all over the place. “Easy,” he said, blowing over her palm gently.

  “Okay.” She was jumpy and knew it, but hell, it hurt like crazy, so who wouldn’t be jumpy? “God blessed, that hurts.” She was panting. Damn but it sucked to be hurt like this. “Oh shit, we will need to get the asshole tested for diseases because I’m sure that his blood got into my cuts.” She hadn’t thought about disease until that moment. She needed to get her head on straight and knew it.

>   “I’ll mention that to your dad, but I doubt it’s a huge concern. I hope,” he said softly. “We did get you cleaned up pretty quickly, and the iodine kills a lot of shit. But yes, so that you can rest easy, we’ll get him tested for everything under the sun.” He took her other hand and once more she felt the fire rip through her veins.

  After he’d gotten her calmed down from the latest torture, he moved down to her feet. Pulling on gloves, he got set up and poked her feet a couple of times, which she didn’t feel for the most part. “Okay, if you feel anything beyond pressure or some tugging, you say the word and I’ll give you more lidocaine.” At her nod, he put the penlight between his teeth and set to work.

  Gigi didn’t watch him. Instead she leaned back against the headboard and watched the play of the light on the ceiling. “The storm is picking up.” The wind screamed through the air, the rain pelted the windows, and the thunder cracked with the lightning snapping brightly in the darkness. “I bet Sandy is pissed to high heaven that her carefully planned weeklong wedding has been ruined.” She was just talking to talk and didn’t expect him to answer, especially with him holding the penlight in his mouth. “So you are a Marine. Are you medically trained or have you just had a lot of on-the-job training?”

  “Couldn’t happen to a nicer person,” he said around the light. It was a little muffled, but for the most part she understood it. “We all get training for the what-ifs in the field. I took a little extra, could actually transition to an EMT or something like that whenever I decide to get out, but that’s a ways down the road yet. While I can patch people up, anything beyond that is outside the scope of my training.”

  “Well I’m glad that you can do what you can so that you can take care of me. When you are all done, do you think that maybe we can sleep?” Her head hurt like hell but she knew she wasn’t as bad as it could be. She was more cut up and bloody than anything else and knew it. “I promise I won’t molest you while we sleep.”

  “You can try all you want. I doubt you would get very far though,” he said. He winked at her as he snipped the stitching thread on her one foot. Moving it out of his way, he moved the other into place and got to work. “But yes, after I have you patched up, sleep is on the schedule. For you. I’ll be calling your father to give him the 4-1-1 on what’s gone down. I won’t say anything to him about your condition beyond some bumps and bruises. You will need to tell him the rest tomorrow. I doubt we’ll have a visit from him tonight if the reception was as messed up as I think it likely was.”

  “Thank you for that,” she said with a nod. “Because we both know that if you told him the truth of how I’m faring, he would be here and beating your door down, all the while on the phone with a rescue team that’s dumb enough to fly out here. And yes, there is one I can think of,” she grumbled. “I’m not so ready to face them all if you wouldn’t mind, too, please.”

  “No, you don’t need to face them,” he said softly. “Not tonight anyway.” He shifted and did another snip. Setting everything aside, he pulled out some antibacterial cream, more gauze, and a roll of tape. He cut some gauze pads to fit along her foot, unwound some of the roll of gauze, cut pieces of tape, and then spread the cream. He was quick and efficient. Her feet soon were practically mummified. “Hands are next,” he warned her, setting all he had in his lap up near one of her hips.

  Gigi felt a little sick to her stomach but held her hands out to him. “Can we take a minute or two first? I’m feeling a little queasy right now.” She hadn’t eaten, then she had a couple of drinks before everything in her rooms happened. “How about you come up here and you let me lean against you, putting my feet up on a pillow or something?”

  Michael shot her a look and nodded. “We should get some fluids into you,” he said. Helping her as she scooted into a more comfortable position, he rearranged everything out of the way and got her feet up on a couple of pillows. That done, he collected a bottle of water from the mini bar, and after opening it, handed it over. “Two seconds,” he said. Grabbing a pair of sweats from his duffel, Michael shimmied into them, the towel getting knocked loose soon enough she got a peek at the rear end of him.

  Gigi gasped when she saw his hard and perfect ass. “Holy mother,” she whispered in desperation. “You seriously are one sexy male, you know that right?” she asked quietly while she watched him as he moved around. “Genetics added with Uncle Sam have you as a perfect form of a male.” She certainly could appreciate the looks of the man, so she ensured she told him just that.

  He gave her a dirty look and rolled his eyes. After he got himself a beer, he checked the door, wedging the extra chair under the knob and then the sliding glass door where he wedged something from his bag down in the track. A quick look outside before he drew the curtains, and then finally he joined her on the bed. Michael slid his arm around her shoulders and drew her in closer to him. “If you want to get your first hour’s nap in now, I’d do it.”

  She shifted so that she could rest her cheek on his chest and sighed. Yawning, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to simply let go. She drifted off to sleep with her arm around his middle and one of her legs over his.

  Chapter Six

  Michael had woken her a number of times through the night, asking her questions and giving her more liquids. After the first time, she’d found he’d already stitched and bandaged her hands, so that had been a bonus. Now it was morning, or so she was assuming. It was still dark out, and without the clock on the side table declaring the time, it was a little hard to discern the hour.

  The bathroom door opened and he stepped out, shutting off the penlight he had in hand. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up. At least not this time around. I was trying to let you sleep,” he said quietly. He slid back in next to her, adjusting the blankets, and wrapping her in his heat once more.

  She nestled in close to him and sighed. “Do you know you are the first man I’ve slept with?” she teased him with a grin. “I missed your heat.” She confessed. “How’s the weather?” Her head was pounding, her whole body hurt like crazy, and she was ready to cry from it, but she held back. “Have you contacted my dad yet? Oh god, and you have to hide me from Mother. If she sees me, she will suddenly think that it’s her that’s hurt and she will tote me around to all of her friends so that she can be coddled.” She sighed. “I don’t want to be coddled, I really don’t. I just want to be me.”

  “I called your father. He knows you were in a scuffle and banged up, but was fine with me keeping watch over you last night. He wasn’t planning on telling your mother anything, except that you were otherwise occupied by an old friend and wouldn’t be available for whatever crap she might feel like torturing you with. His words, not mine,” he said. “The weather is worse than last night, rain-wise, but at least the winds have died down a little. No one will be going and doing anything for a while yet.” Michael shifted a little, and when he straightened out, he tapped her hand with something hard. “Take this pill, it should ease up your pain levels a lot. Here’s some water to down it. When you next wake, I’ll have to feed you, but that won’t be for a couple hours at least. So if you’re hungry now, I can offer you some mixed nuts, pretzels, or a fruit cup I swiped from somewhere at some point yesterday.”

  “I’m good.” Gigi should eat, but she wasn’t too worried about it at the moment. “We are going to have to lie to Mother, tell her that I went back to the mainland and home so that she doesn’t try to force me into photos. Sandy’s bright idea was to wait until after the ceremony and all that for her wedding photos,” she muttered. “So maybe have Daddy tell her that I took off with some guy I met here or something.” She shrugged. Honestly she didn’t care but she knew her mother and knew that the woman would somehow turn what happened to Gigi into something that happened to her instead. She loved her mother, but she wasn’t happy unless she was the center of attention.

  “For the moment, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “If she goes looking for you, checks the room, she will find
absolutely nothing. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’d cleaned it out, Gigi. It appears like you were never anywhere near that room. The front desk won’t have you as checked out, but that’s minor since the room was part of the whole wedding thing anyway. For the rest, your father will cover for you until we can get out of here. And since I won’t be showing my face at anything, she’ll likely make the leap in conclusions.”

  Gigi snorted and then giggled. Immediately she hated herself for that indulgence. “Right. Oh god that’s funny. Yes, Mother will think that you and I hooked up. She’s going to totally hate me because she wanted you. I saw the look on her face when Ralph dumped her happy butt and she saw you. Just keep in mind that if you run into me again one day and Mother is around, she will hit on you. Believe me, she sees something she wants and she won’t stop until she’s had you in her bed.” She took the pill that he offered her and then gave him the drink back. “Now, more warm snuggles from you, please?” She then heard the thunder and saw the lightning once again. “Crap, that’s so not good, is it?”

  “Not really,” he said. She felt him moving around before he settled back in against her, his arms wrapping her up close. “Your mother doesn’t interest me one iota. I was being nice last night in ducking away and avoiding her. But if she tries it again, she will not like the reception she ends up getting or the arrest record.”

  “Good luck,” Gigi said with a yawn and ran her hands up and down Michael’s chest. “A girl could become used to sleeping with someone like you. You are pretty special, you know that?” She liked this man. It was more than just because he saved her ass. It was more than just him taking care of her, but she couldn’t figure out just what it was about him that made her feel so at ease, so comfortable, and as if she wanted to feel him with her like this more than just this week from hell.