by Leslie North
Sonya grimaced. Maybe she should have lost a few hands. Maybe if she hadn’t been so good, one of the nurses or doctors would be here playing cards with her.
And she wouldn’t be alone.
Scratchy sheets, barely-acceptable cotton blanket…bare walls, television that didn’t show anything in English…she was trapped!
She glanced at her watch. Time it, Sonya thought. She looked at the second hand, then the time. Okay, one, two, three…go!
She sat still. Ignore the scratchy hospital sheets, she thought to herself. Ignore the bird outside of her window. Ignore....
Time! Glancing down at her watch, she was impressed! Five seconds this time! She was able to sit still for five, whole seconds! Awesome.
Okay, do it again! Going for six seconds, she stared at the blank wall. Almost holding her breath, she refused to move. Refused to twitch. She could do this! Slowly! Patiently! She could learn patience, she told herself firmly. She could do this easily! No problem! Other people were able to sit still for hours. They could clear their mind, not think, not move, not talk. Hours! She would get there. It was her new mission in life. She would learn to sit still for….
Glancing at her watch, she sighed, her head flopping back onto the hospital pillow. Three seconds! Darn it!
She glanced up at the clock on the wall as if that would give her a different answer. Still the same.
What time did her doctor come by for his rounds? Maybe she could entice the adorable Doctor Tazman to play a game of cards with her. He’d taken the time to have lunch with her yesterday! That had been fun. The guy was cute and funny in an adorable kind of way.
She smoothed out the folds in her sheets, careful not to bend too far. The wound in her side still ached. Maybe she could leave the hospital today. Yesterday, Doctor Tazman said he’d let her go if her fever hadn’t come back. Stupid infections! A gunshot wound shouldn’t really hurt that much! And germs! Seriously, why were they such pesky little things?
Because of the boredom, she’d actually wish for another infection because, at least when she had been delirious with the fever, it hadn’t felt like she was about to climb the walls of this mind-numbing, white room. It wasn’t really white, she thought. More of a minty, pale blue. A barely-there blue.
“You can’t keep still, can you?” the deep voice asked, startling Sonya and she whipped her head towards the doorway again.
“Um…” she saw the enormous man standing just inside her hospital room, but she wasn’t exactly sure who he was. Or what he was doing here. Or how any human being could be so incredibly…huge!
Goodness, he got bigger as he approached her hospital bed and Sonya was instantly aware of the fact that she was naked underneath the hospital gown. Completely naked and painfully conscious of that horribly embarrassing fact! Every cell in her body came alive with this man’s approach and she sucked in her breath, willing him with her eyes to halt his approach!
But did he obey her silent command? Nope! Arrogant beast!
Was he laughing at her? Surely that wasn’t humor lurking in his dark eyes. She’d really be furious if he was laughing at her!
“Who are you?” she asked, then berated herself for pushing back against the pillows as he continued his seemingly silent approach.
“You can call me Jual,” he said, his deep voice reverberating through her body and sending slivers of white-hot awareness all the way down to her toes.
She heard the words and wanted to laugh, but everything about this man told her that laughing would be bad. She swallowed, terrified of him. He was tall, scary tall, and his shoulders looked too broad to be real. Probably padded shoulders but…then again…probably not. He looked hard. Mean. Raw. Powerful.
Scary!
Sexy!
Woah! Where had that last thought come from? Okay, so she was learning to control her thoughts but that one was definitely out from left field! This man was scary. Period. Not sexy.
But very sexy.
That raw power behind his eyes made her toes curl. Literally.
“Is that really your name? Or are you just telling me that I can call you Jual because you want to hide your real name? Or is it because you’re an evil spy ready to jump on the weak and gullible?”
Darn it! She shouldn’t have said that last part! Hmm….from the look in his eyes, she probably shouldn’t have said any of it.
His eyes narrowed and she cringed, her fingers pulling the hospital sheet higher over herself. Yeah, she was hiding the fact that her body was reacting and she worried that the ridiculous, completely unflattering hospital gown might reveal way more than she thought appropriate. “Sorry. Jual it is. I’ll call you anything you want. Jual sounds like a great name. How are you, Jual?”
The corners of the scary, sexy man’s mouth lifted ever so slightly.
Oh he did not! Her blue eyes narrowed on the man, furious with him for laughing at her. Even though he was laughing on the inside. Still counted, she thought with rising indignation. “You’re not laughing at me, are you? Because if you’re laughing at me, then I think you need to leave. I’m not being amusing and I resent that you think so.”
Jual watched the fascinating woman’s lovely features, his mind absorbing the way her eyes had moved over his body. Instantly his body reacted to her blue eyes. She looked horrible with her hair lying limply around her shoulders, pale skin and dark circles under those crystal blue eyes.
But he looked beyond the pale skin and the dark circles under her eyes to the beauty hidden by her fatigue and recovery. The woman had been caught in the line of fire, taking a bullet meant for his brother, the Sheik of Safir.
“Tell me what you saw,” he growled, irritated by his body’s lack of discipline. As Minister of Defense, and as half-brother to the Sheik of Safir, Jual prided himself on control, on his normally absolute discipline. Until meeting this woman, there had never been any challenge to his mind’s ability to maintain discipline.
The woman shifted on the bed and she looked back at him defiantly. She was nervous, but trying to hide it from him.
“I don’t think I will.”
She reached for the call button and pressed it frantically. A moment later, one of the nurses rushed into the room but came to a sliding halt when she saw Jual standing there over the tiny woman’s bed.
“I’m sorry, sir!” she gasped out. “I thought…” the nurse glanced between the two of them, realized that her patient was fine, if a bit nervous, and wasn’t sure what to do.
Jual took the call button out of the woman’s hand, ignoring her feeble attempts to stop him. “We’re fine, nurse,” he said, pretending like the tiny woman in the bed wasn’t swatting his hand away. She didn’t know who he was so he excused her lack of respect. When the nurse realized what Sonya Heigher was doing, she opened her mouth to explain but Jual shook his head. “I haven’t introduced myself. I’ll take care of this. Thank you for your efficiency.” With that, the nurse knew that she was excused and almost bowed out of the room.
Dismissing the nurse from his mind, Jual turned back to Sonya. “You were going to tell me what you saw the day you were shot.”
Sonya’s lips compressed and he almost laughed at the defiance in her pretty eyes. “Actually, I wasn’t,” she told him. Her cute chin jutted higher and he wanted to tweak that adorable nose.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t do any of those things. Nor could he kiss her. Or toss her over his knee to spank what he suspected would be an impressive derriere.
Normally, intimidation alone got him the results he desired. With this woman, it wasn’t working. Despite himself, he was impressed. She was terrified of him but still defying him. Nice! Stupid, but fascinating.
“Sonya, you’re going to tell me everything about that day. Including what you were eating, when you brushed your teeth and why you were in that particular spot on that specific day.” He leaned forward, bracing his hands on either side of her head, looking directly into her blue eyes so that his message was understoo
d.
He almost chuckled when she tried to sink deeper into the pillows. It wasn’t working and he was more turned on by her rapid breathing than he wanted to admit.
“And if I don’t?” she whispered, her lips trembling even while her eyes flashed sexy defiance.
He chuckled. He couldn’t help it. She just looked too cute. And hot! A lethal combination.
“I will enjoy trying to get the information out of you in other ways,” he finally responded.
“What the hell is going on in here?” a male voice said from the doorway to the hospital room.
Jual turned around slowly to confront the small doctor who stood trembling, ready to defend his patient if needed.
He glanced between the doctor and his patient. Interesting, he thought. The doctor was more than half in love with the vivacious woman who could barely lay still. When the short doctor looked up, realized whom he was talking to, the stammering started.
“I’m sorry, sir. I mean, Your Highness. I mean…” he shook his head. “I’m sorry!” He was having trouble breathing at the moment but he backed up a step. “I just thought…it wasn’t my intention to interrupt. I was just…doing my rounds and…well…”
Jual glanced at his watch. “It’s lunchtime. Your rounds are scheduled for ten and two. Not noon.”
The doctor blushed and lifted his hands. “I…um…”
Jual lifted an eyebrow. “You were coming to play blackjack with your patient. You know that if she’s able to focus on the cards, then she’s improving, correct?”
The doctor’s mouth opened and closed, his blush disappearing, leaving the man pale and embarrassed. “Yes. She’s an excellent card player,” the small doctor said, looking down at the floor. “But I’ll leave you to…” he glanced over at Sonya again, then shook his head. “I’ll just come back when you’re finished with Ms. Heigher.” A moment later, Jual was once again alone with the woman and turned back to her.
“You didn’t have to be so rude!” she snapped, sitting up and pulling the sheet higher. It had been inching up over her breasts since she’d looked at him the first time. The sheet was now up to her chin and he almost laughed. Again.
What was it about this woman that made him want to smile?
“Now about that day,” he returned to the original topic. “Tell me what happened. I want to know everything you did that day.”
She shook her head. “No. Tell me why I should tell you anything.”
Jual laid his hand down on her thigh, feeling her muscles tense in reaction. Good, he thought. At least he wasn’t the only one who was feeling the tension in the room.
“Because I am Prince Jual of Safir, Minister of Defense. Someone tried to kill my brother and I’m going to find out who and why.”
He was a prince? Woah! A real prince! Cool story, she thought, then mentally shook her head. No, this was not a “cool story” that she would enjoy telling her grandchildren. This was a nightmare and she could feel the danger as if it were a live force within the hospital room.
Sonya tried to slip her leg away from his touch but he wasn’t releasing her. The sheet and thin blanket were no protection from his hand, from the awareness of his strength and power. Everything on her leg burned, tingled! It was strange and she really didn’t like it! Not one bit!
Hearing his name and title, she knew that she messed up. Big time! A part of her knew she should apologize, but that part was being smothered by her awareness of the man, the overwhelming power behind him. She quivered with strange sensations which, unfortunately, overruled her common sense. So instead of saying something appropriate like “I apologize, your highness,” anger spray forth and rational, reasonable responses were obliterated.
Scowling, she jerked her leg, to no affect. “Well, why didn’t you say that when you first walked in?” she snapped at him.
A dark eyebrow went up with her belligerent question. “Would it have made a difference?”
She shrugged and the hospital gown slipped off of her shoulder. He’d known that she wasn’t wearing a bra, but seeing evidence of the lack, not to mention her soft pale shoulder, made him almost groan with the need to possess this woman. She was lovely in ways he couldn’t really understand. Yes, her soft blue eyes called to him. And he itched to tug the band out of her hair so that he could see how long her chocolate-colored locks were, but there really wasn’t anything exceptional about her. High cheekbones, almond-shaped eyes, full, red lips that begged to be kissed….
She wasn’t classically lovely, but there was an air about her, an essence that called to him. There was something about her that made him want to beat his chest and go all caveman on her.
He was astonished by his body’s reaction. No woman had ever broken through his absolute control! Why was this one so different?
He wanted her. At the end of his analysis, that was his takeaway. He wanted her and he would have her. He would figure out if she was part of the assassination attempt and, if she was innocent, he would make love to this brunette beauty and get his longing for her out of his system. If she were guilty, he would throw her in prison and forget about her.
Decision made, he focused on the present. “You are scheduled to be discharged today. You will be a guest of the palace for the remainder of your recuperation and I will ensure that your recovery is complete.”
He stepped away from the bed, ignoring her gasp of irritation. “I’ll make the arrangements,” he told her, already lifting his phone, dialing a mysterious number.
He’ll make the arrangements?! A guest of the palace? Why did that sound…ominous to her ears?
“Oh no! That really isn’t going to work for me,” she said. But the big man was already walking away, most likely intending to terrify some other person, and that just irritated her beyond reason. Slipping her legs to the side of the bed, she was going to chase after him. She wasn’t going to be “taken care of” by this man, or any man, she thought with fury.
Unfortunately, she’d been shot by a bullet to her side then hit by an infection almost immediately after the surgery, so she’d been lying in this bed for over two weeks. Her wound was healing, but that didn’t mean that her muscles had recovered well. Gunshot wounds and hospital stays meant muscle atrophy. Big time. One moment, Sonya was determined to chase after the huge man and tell him off and the next she was…sliding down to the floor.
Strong hands caught her, saving her from a sure concussion since her head was heading towards the tile floor. Muscular arms cradled her against a hard chest and dark eyes glared down at her. She would have glared back, but all the blood was rushing out of her head and…well, blackness hit her. Hard.
Jual caught the soft woman in his arms, startled by how perfect she felt. Her soft skin was….everywhere! Damn! In his efforts to keep her from crashing to the floor and causing herself more injury, his hands had just grabbed for her. At the moment, both of his hands were holding bare skin and his erection was throbbing with the need to explore further, to rip the hospital gown away so that he could examine her nakedness more closely.
But also hitting him hard was the need to protect her. To shield her from harm. Cradling her in his arms, he called out for the nurse and doctor.
When they both burst into the room only moments after his bellow, he knew that they’d been hovering outside the doorway.
“She passed out,” he told the doctor, still holding her in his arms.
“Put her in the bed,” the doctor said, immediately whipping out some instrument.
Jual laid her down reluctantly and stepped back. “Is she going to be okay?”
The nurse pulled down an ammonia capsule that had been taped to the wall, breaking it under the woman’s nose until she cringed and shifted her head away from the noxious odor. The doctor hovered a bit too long, but then nodded his head as he listened to her heartbeat. “Yes. She just got out of bed too quickly.” His hand moved down to her wrist, taking her pulse. Jual was reassured that, although the man had inappropriate fee
lings for his patient, he was still supervising her recovery well.
The doctor’s hand lingered a bit too long on her wrist, squeezing ever so slightly. “Don’t do that, Sonya,” the doctor said, his voice lowering as he spoke to the woman with concern.
Everything inside of Jual wanted to beat the doctor simply because he was touching the lovely woman. That didn’t make any sense, he thought. He had no right to this woman. Besides, Sonya Heigher was a suspect until she could prove her innocence. He would treat her with care until he knew what she’d witnessed, determined if she was friend or foe, but he still needed to proceed with caution.
Unfortunately, he still reacted on a primal level to the doctor’s lingering touch against the pale skin of his woman. “The” woman, he reminded himself, Sonya Heigher wasn’t “his” anything. She was simply a suspect or a witness. Which was still to be determined.
“When will she be released?” Jual demanded, standing by the windows, arms crossed over his chest as he watched the nurse tuck the sheet and blanket back around her patient’s legs.
The doctor and nurse both looked at each other, some sort of silent message passing between the two. The doctor finally bowed his head. “She can leave at any time now. Her fever is gone, her white blood count is down and her wound is healing well. I’ll need to see her in a few days, just to check her wound, but…” he shrugged.
“Good,” Jual replied, stepping forward. “She’ll be coming with me. I’ll ensure her full recovery. My physician will supervise her healthcare needs going forward.”
The doctor looked panicked for a moment and Jual confronted him with a single, silent glare. “Do you have any concerns with that plan?” he demanded, his voice hardening as he realized that the doctor was trying to think of a way to keep the lovely Sonya away from the big, bad wolf.
Brave, but ill-advised.
Sonya looked at the two men who seemed to be having a battle, panic hitting her hard. She was being discharged? Into the care of the enormous, mean-looking man? Um…no!