Shocking the Medic (Pulse series)

by Otto, Elizabeth

  By herself.

  Naughty Greer, getting all worked up. Maybe lying here on the couch while she watched. Maybe sliding her hand inside those tight little black shorts…

  “I didn’t know you were a Fifty Shades fan.”

  Luke burst off the couch with a hushed curse. Fifty shades of creepy soft porn, or what? Fuck. She snatched a shirt off the back of the couch before going back into the other room. He tempered his breathing—and fuck, his dick needed to behave—while grabbing the remote and flicking the television off.

  She’d left the bathroom door open while she dressed. There was a rush of fabric as if she were sliding her legs into her jeans and yanking them up, then the clink of a belt that did nothing for his heated imagination.

  She came out with her hair in a messy bun and a V-neck blue tee replacing the little pink tank. It showed the same amount of cleavage, and he wanted to die. He didn’t dare look any lower.

  “Did you hear anything about my new shift assignment?”

  Tension crept into his shoulders. He’d gotten a copy of her new schedule after his interview for the director position this morning, and contemplated how to talk to her about it on the drive over here. He was her training officer, but he was also her friend, and both sides of him were unhappy with her new schedule. He’d imagined her reaction over and over in his mind and couldn’t think of a single thing that might soften what was coming her way.

  “I did. I figured we talk about it over bacon cheeseburgers and fries.” He expected her to protest over the food choice, but she breezed by him, leaving a whiff of coconut perfume in her wake, and checked her lipstick in the hallway mirror.

  “Okay.” Her eyes strayed to him in the glass. “You look tense.”

  He didn’t want to be obvious about it, but yeah, unpleasant disappointment and anger were churning around in his gut, and it was hard to hide. Putting a hand on her back, he guided her to the door.

  “I’ll tell you about it over a beer.”

  They were going to need a drink or two.

  They drove to Score, the local sports bar. He’d purposely waited until one in the afternoon, hoping the normally huge lunch crowd would be gone so they could talk in relative quiet. He snuck way too many peeks at how the seat belt crossed over her breasts in that damn shirt.

  That was it. He was getting her a muumuu for her birthday.

  “Hey,” she said softly. “I’m sorry about yesterday. The car accident. I should have used my head more.”

  He reached over and clasped his hand over hers. She looked at him, and a tingle raced over his body. She needed his acceptance. As tough as she could be, she’d always had a soft center that craved stability and approval.

  “Everything turned out fine. And you learned from your mistake. That’s what’s important.”

  “Make a decision and stick to it.”

  “Right. Even if it’s hard. Even if it sucks. And trust me, most of the decisions you make in EMS will suck in one way or another. You’ll feel like you haven’t done enough, like you should have done more. Better get used to that, or it will tear you up.”

  “Noted.”

  She looked disappointed. Probably beating herself up. Always hard on herself, that one. With a cry, she gripped the dash and gasped.

  “Watch out!”

  A black truck sped past them on the right, nearly swerving into Luke’s vehicle before it veered in front of them. He slammed on the brakes, and the truck kept going, bursting into traffic as it crossed the center lane and headed for the sidewalk.

  Letting out a breath, he glanced around to see traffic had mostly stopped all around him. The truck didn’t slow as it jumped the curb, took out the barricade, and crashed into a crumbling brick building on the corner.

  “Oh my God!” Greer cried. She waved Luke in the direction of the truck. He was already moving, weaving through the cars in front of him to make the turn lane. She scrambled behind her for a bright yellow safety vest he kept stashed in his truck. Luke made the turn and headed toward the crash.

  His heart jumped to his throat.

  This block had three connected brick buildings in various stages of demolition to make way for a new strip mall. The truck had nosed into an ancient shoe factory where the top levels were in the process of being taken down. Chunks of brick and large blocks of stone were falling from above, slamming into the cab of the truck.

  “I don’t see any movement,” she whispered. Flipping on his flashers, he dug out his cell phone and dialed 911. People had already gathered on the street to gawk.

  Luke gave dispatch the location and met Greer on the sidewalk. A large section of brick toppled off the exposed wall, teetering for a moment. The truck had plowed a hole through the wall and the impact must have loosened the already crumbling bricks on the exposed top level.

  “Stand back!” he shouted to a handful of people who were getting too close.

  Turning to Greer, he grabbed her shoulder. “The building is too unstable. We’re not going any closer.”

  She whipped him a look. “We need to see if he’s alive.”

  Uncertainty crossed her face as if she realized the danger in what she was proposing. They didn’t have any protective equipment.Getting any closer was suicide. Someone on the sidewalk shouted, drawing their attention to the truck’s driver-side door. It swung open, but their position made it impossible for Luke to see if anyone tried to get out.

  With a curse, he headed down the sidewalk, picking his way around a barricade to try and get a better visual. The top of someone’s head was barely visible by the door.

  “Luke!” She’d spotted the victim at the same time. She moved to rush ahead, but he grabbed her.

  “No!”

  “We need to get him out.”

  Bricks fell one after another, landing on the truck like gunfire. Then…silence. For a bare second, he considered doing what his friend asked and seeing if they could somehow grab the victim and pull him free. She’d already moved closer—too close for his liking.

  “I can see him. He’s bleeding! If I cut his seat belt, we can get him out.” She dug a pair of trauma sheers from the pocket of her vest.

  “Get back, Greer.”

  “Luke—”

  He snagged her vest and held tight. Right now, her newbie instinct to help was in overdrive. It made her a good caregiver, but it was dangerous. Experience and time would temper some of that urgent need and allow common sense to do its job, but until then, she was at risk of putting herself in harm’s way. She needed to be guided—like all new medics did—sometimes with a firm hand.

  “I’m telling you not to get any damn closer. If you can’t listen to me, you’re going to go wait in the truck.”

  She tried to protest, but he didn’t hear her words. There was a scream from somewhere in the crowd and a mad rush of people fleeing down the sidewalk. He caught the blast of smoky dust from the corner of his eye before a section of wall the length of the building snapped free.

  He grabbed Greer around the chest and drove her back into the street as the wall collapsed onto the truck.

  Her nails dug into his forearm, her throat moving as if sound was trapped within. He held her in stunned silence, watching as a debris cloud began to clear, revealing the devastation.

  The hood and cab of the truck were completely flattened.

  It looked like a movie scene, but with the very real smell of dust and vehicle fluids. He clenched his eyes and tightened his hold. The victim…

  She struggled against the restraint and turned to him, her eyes wide and disbelieving. The building wasn’t the only thing threatening to crumble.

  Her face was sickly white, shock causing tense lines around her eyes. Luke pulled her to him and cradled her face against his chest as if he could protect her from the horror. She stood stiff and hard in his arms.

  It was too late.

  Chapter Four

  Greer ran her finger around the rim of her beer glass. It was her second. Someho
w, she’d managed to down almost the whole thing, and she hated beer. Score was getting busier by the minute as people flocked in for after-work drinks.

  Luke observed her between small swigs from his beer bottle, but she didn’t meet his eyes. The skin on her arms was covered with a fine layer of dust that refused to wipe off. The same clung to her face and hair. They’d been close enough to the collapse to get covered from the dust clouds, but too far away to help that man. If she hadn’t listened…

  If she’d just hurried to the truck and grabbed the man out…

  Damn it. She took a small drink. There wouldn’t have been time to get him out, nor would she have had the strength to yank him out and drag him to safety. Without a partner, there wasn’t much she could have done. He’d been right to hold her back. Still, it burned her that they’d been that close to helping, and instead, done nothing.

  Nothing but protect themselves. God, why did she feel so fucking flustered? Her emotions were all over the place, and for once in her life, alcohol wasn’t tempering her nerves. The entire thing kept replaying in her mind, and she couldn’t shut it down.

  “Greer.” He’d set down his glass; his brow was deeply furrowed.

  “What?”

  “I called your name four times.”

  His lips looked so tantalizing when he spoke, parting just enough to give a flash of his perfect teeth. He’d always had such a rugged face, strong and angled, like a too-pretty lumberjack.

  “Oh.”

  “Talk to me, Lucky. It’s my job to take care of you, to make sure you’re okay. I need to know what’s going on in your head.”

  “Luke Almeda,” she quipped. “Always my knight in shining armor, huh?” She didn’t mean it to come out as condescending as it did.

  “I’m serious. I’m your mentor and your friend. I don’t want to see you hurting if I can help it.”

  She looked at her beer and shrugged. She couldn’t be sure what might come out of her mouth, so she’d been quiet. The anger burning in her gut wasn’t his fault, but her mind kept straying to the fact that he’d stopped her from helping the victim, even though it was for her safety. She knew this. Her heart knew it, but she was just so…angry.

  “Look,” he continued. “Chief wants us to come in tomorrow before shift to talk about it. We have paperwork to fill out.”

  He could fill out all the paperwork he wanted. She wasn’t going. Their chief had already approached them on scene once the fire department had shown up, to get the scoop on what had happened. Luke had done all the talking. She couldn’t seem to look away from the truck buried beneath thousands of pounds of bricks.

  Her pulse ticked up in a reminder that she was strung tight. The jittery, nervous sensation going through every inch of her was tiring, but she couldn’t seem to make it stop. Adrenaline was still zinging through her, she supposed. Honestly, that was about as near death as she’d ever been herself. If she had gone over to the truck, she would have been buried, too.

  She started to take another drink but paused to peruse the masculine lines of Luke’s neck. His skin was smooth and tanned, the ends of his hair curling slightly around his ears. He turned to her as if she’d called his name. The question in his eyes turned into an unmistakable heat—one she remembered from a long time ago. A memory of Luke slowly unbuttoning her shirt flashed in her mind’s eye. He’d been so gentle that night, the tips of his fingers brushing her skin as he’d released each button.

  That evening before she’d left for college came back with perfect clarity—the way he’d laid her down and slowly, slowly slipped off her jeans.

  She gave herself a mental shake. This was uncharacteristic and dangerous. She’d made peace with her unfulfilled longing for her best friend years ago. So why was her body on fire right now?

  He reached across the table and took her hands. “I’m worried about you.”

  The warmth of his touch went straight through her. If she closed her eyes, she’d lose herself in the sensations he was drawing over her skin.

  “I’m just a little shaken up.”

  In more ways than one. His hands slid up and down her wrists. His touch was so innocent…or was it? He glanced at her mouth, once, twice, each pass causing tension through her entire body. She started to bounce her left leg, needing some way to release the fidgety, jittery sensation inside that worsened by the second. She had to get out of here, take a walk or something. Climb a mountain, run the Iron Man. Something.

  He tilted his head and drew her hands closer to him. “We need to take your mind off it.”

  All the breath squeezed out of her, all the aching in her body pooling between her legs. Pulling one hand free of his grip, Greer huffed an awkward laugh.

  “Epic sex would work.” Her face heated. Oh God. She couldn’t even blame that on the beer.

  His head jerked in a double take. “I was thinking a game of pool.”

  A grin pulled one side of his mouth, and there it was, that damn luscious heat in his eyes again. Who knew what might fly out of her mouth if she continued to sit here, losing herself in that damn look on his face. Scooting out of the booth, she waved him off as he frowned and started to follow. She had to get out of here and have a few moments alone before whatever this was inside her ate her alive.

  “Greer—”

  “Ladies’ room.” She pointed in that direction, not looking at him again as she hurried that way. The narrow hallway to the restrooms was empty as she darted into the low-lit space and paused in the hallway. What the hell was wrong with her?

  EMS was hard. She’d always known that. Yes, she was a newbie, and it would probably take years to feel even somewhat comfortable in this gig. But the death she’d witnessed today shouldn’t have her so torn up inside. Luke would say her reaction meant she was a good human. To be able to feel pain over a stranger and all that.

  The mess of emotions inside her had turned somehow away from the accident…to Luke. Every day it was getting harder to hide what she felt for him. What she’d always felt for him. She hadn’t come to his fire station with the illusion that something would finally happen between them. Having her best friend back in her life was all she needed. Now that she was with him every damn day, smelling his sexy cologne in every room of the station, running into his killer smile at every turn, she did want more.

  It hit her hard. But she wanted him in all the sexy ways she’d always dreamt of. He was her off-limits best friend, as well as her professional mentor, and all she could think about was his weight on top of her, his hands tracing the lines of her naked body.

  “Greer.”

  “Christ!” Her heart flipped. Running a hand through her hair, she pressed her back against the hallway wall. He should have given her more time alone, more time to calm the storm inside and get her mind out of the gutter. Each step he took to reach her side only made the desire worse. He was still wearing a scowl as he approached and pressed one big hand against the wall beside her head, trapping her with a nicely muscled arm.

  What was he doing?

  He leaned in so their chests almost touched, so close that the warmth of his body washed over hers. The pulse on the side of his neck bounded rapidly, each of his breaths measured as if he were trying to calm himself. Pressing her palms against the wall was the only thing she could think of to keep from touching him.

  He dipped his head, his voice low and stern. “I meant it when I said we need to take your mind off this. I don’t like how this is affecting you. I know it’s hard, and I don’t want to see this tear you up.”

  His T-shirt stretched across his chest, accentuating the curve of his pecs and the lean muscle over his ribs and abdomen. “I can take you to talk it out with Chief, or we can head over to Hampton General and find one of the docs. Or…”

  She pressed hard against the wall, struggling to keep her hands to herself. She wanted to trace the neckline of his T-shirt and feel the silk of his skin beneath her fingertip, wanted to run her hands over that spectacular body and
dig her nails into his supple flesh.

  And she was dying to know what he’d left out on that last sentence.

  Her mouth was so dry she could barely speak. “Or?”

  He clenched his jaw as if he was warring with himself. Squaring his body to hers, he braced his other hand against the wall, completely boxing her in. Her middle tensed in anticipation. How many times had she dreamed about him pushing her into a wall and taking control of her body?

  “Luke. Or?”

  “Fuck it.”

  He gripped her chin in one hand and pulled her to him as his lips crashed down on hers. She moaned as his warm, wet lips pressed deeply into hers. Her hands slid around his neck, anchoring herself to his body as he deepened the kiss. His tongue swept along hers, drawing little shocks along her skin and making her feel weightless.

  She snaked her left leg along his, hooked his calf, and pulled. His hips leaned into her in response, his abdomen nearly pressing into hers when he stopped. He pulled back to look down at her, his chest heaving in time with hers.

  Her lips felt bereft and empty. The reality of him here, right now, with the exact closeness and lust she wanted, was surreal. They’d been in this position once before, wrapped up in need and kisses and hot touches that left them both wanting. He’d walked away then, and she couldn’t let him repeat it. She’d combust like an atom bomb if he did.

  Grabbing his hand, she pulled his palm down over her neck and chest, pressing him against her breast. Heat flooded her in every direction as her nipple peaked beneath his touch. Luke’s eyes darkened, his fingers gently closing over her softness. A well of boldness bubbled up in her, followed by a tender, deep ache from the fear that he’d push away from the wall and walk—even as the desire in his eyes belied her worries. If he wanted this, even a little, she was going to give it to him. Placing her hand over his, she arched her back, pressing herself more firmly into his touch.

  “Please, I want your hands on me.”