“I think I might have to report you to Human Resources,” Dr. Allen said. “You have just insulted us both. We are not sleeping together. And you aren’t the only one who knows the bylaws here. Maybe Human Resources has to know, but you do not, and you are way out of line for trying to use your power to intimidate your subordinate.”
“I wasn’t...” Her face flushed red and she closed her mouth as she tried to compose herself. Georgia watched in awe. It was the first time she had ever seen her boss flustered. “Maybe this is something we need to discuss in private, Dr. Allen. Georgia needs to get back to work.”
“So do I. I have no need to discuss anything further with you. Remember, Nurse Chestnut. You may be her supervisor, but I am an attending doctor here, and you certainly don’t tell me what to do or how to behave. Got it?”
“Yes, Dr. Allen,” she said stiffly. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to be going now.”
Georgia was torn between wanting to hug Greg Allen or slap him. “It’s a little bit wrong of you to wave your doctor status in Nurse Chestnut’s face. You doctors think you know so much, but we nurses run the hospital.”
“I know it,” he said, grinning. “But that woman has an enormous stick up her ass, and I think somebody should knock her down a few pegs as often as possible.”
“Well, thank you for coming to my rescue, but I have a feeling that you made things a lot worse for me. She’s going to be on my case now more than ever.”
“There are two ways to prevent that, Georgia.”
“How?”
“One—you could ask to be transferred to another unit. Two—you could marry me and never have to work another day in your life. We’ve just had our first full conversation in nine months. I think our future looks promising.”
Georgia blushed furiously. He was right. She was always so busy being uncomfortable around him that she never said more than two words to him.
“You’re a beautiful woman, Georgia. I wouldn’t mind having to go to Human Resources for you.”
He walked away after that comment, leaving Georgia a little stunned.
He’s just being sweet, she told herself. He’s just a flirt. Don’t read anything into it.
But if he wasn’t just being sweet... She shook her head and went to back to work.
* * *
Christian had known the moment Georgia walked into the hospital that evening. He wanted to say that the air felt different, that he felt her presence in his blood, but he couldn’t. The thing that gave away her arrival was the other soldiers shouting out greetings as soon as they saw her.
She was early that day, adding an extra hour to her long shift. He sometimes wondered how she did it. As a marine he knew what hard work was like. He knew the pain of waking up impossibly early to get a job done. But Georgia somehow seemed superhuman.
The general’s words stuck in his mind.
Think about what you want in a wife.
The idea sounded absurd to him at first. And he knew that after he got out of the hospital and returned to his normal life, marriage would be the last thing on his mind. But since he had so much time on his hands he had a hard time not thinking about it.
What would he want in a wife?
He gave it some thought, right up until the moment Georgia walked into his room. Then all other thoughts ceased.
“Hello, Georgia.”
She gave him a ghost of a smile as she approached him, and he had a feeling that something might be off in her world.
“How are you, Christian? You look better and better every time I see you.”
She briefly touched her hand to the burned side of face. The skin felt tight but it didn’t hurt much anymore. He spent a lot of time studying his face now that he had a mirror. He understood why some people had a hard time looking at him. One side was the same as it had been, but the other side... It resembled melted plastic, no longer smooth or just white, but raised with thick bands of pink and brown that used to resemble flesh. His eye was slightly distorted. The corner of his mouth was pulled down. It looked like a makeup job from a bad horror movie, but it wasn’t. It was what he had to live with for the rest of his life.
“I bet you say that to all your patients.”
“I don’t.” She froze and locked eyes with him. “Do you think I’m a flirt?”
For a moment he thought she was teasing, but when her face fell he knew she wasn’t. “No.” She was the type of woman who could drive any man insane with lust just by looking at him. But she wasn’t a tease. She was sweet. There was something subtle about her that wrapped around a man and made him want to get closer, but he would never describe her as a flirt. If she was, he wouldn’t be so attracted to her. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” She broke eye contact with him and went about doing her routine examination.
“You’re a bad liar.” He grasped her hand, forcing her to stop and look at him. “Tell me what happened.”
“My boss wanted to know if I was sleeping with Dr. Allen,” she said in an explosion of words. “All he did was vouch that I got here on time, but the first thing she wanted to know was if we were sleeping together. She said she knew I was popular with the male patients, but I don’t do anything but try to be kind. I’m not sleeping with anybody. Why would she think that about me? Is there something I’m doing wrong?”
The conversation he’d had with Tobias came rushing back to him. He’d said Nurse Chestnut didn’t like Georgia because everybody else liked her. Christian knew the woman was probably just jealous.
He set his other hand over hers and ran his fingers across her smooth knuckles. “I don’t know why she thinks that about you. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
Her eyes filled with tears and she stared up at the ceiling, trying to blink them back. “I’ve been trying not to let it bother me but—but it does. It brought me back to the last time I spoke to my father. He thinks the same thing of me. He said that I lead men into temptation. He blames me for what happened.”
Suddenly Christian felt sick to his stomach and his grip on Georgia’s hand tightened. “What happened?”
“I’m sorry. It’s nothing.” She pulled her hand from his and swiped at her eyes. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
He sat up and grasped her hips. But unlike the last time he grabbed her she didn’t ask him to let her go. “What happened?”
She looked at him for a long time, saying nothing. Her face was full of misery, and for as long as he lived he would never forget how she looked tonight.
“I—I was raped. By my older brother’s best friend, and nobody believed me.”
“Georgia, no.” There were a few times in his life that he almost felt his heart stop, and this was one of them. Her admission took his breath away. He wanted to tell her to stop talking, to take it back, but there was no going back after a revelation like that. Someone had hurt this beautiful, sweet girl. Someone had hurt Georgia.
“My father said that I was a liar. That I’d whored my body to a man. That I was just blaming it on Robert because he was a good boy and that I was doing this to get back at him.” It was as if a dam had burst, each detail worse than the last. It was as though she couldn’t stop her outpouring of words. “Robert told my father that I—I tried to seduce him. He stood in my living room and told my whole family that I had tried to tempt him into sinning. That I was trying to use him to cover up my mistake with another man. I watched my family turn on me. Nobody would look me in the eye. Nobody would believe me. I didn’t tempt him. I didn’t lie. Abby looks just like him. My baby is proof of that. But they’ll never get to see her, because after they kicked me out, I’ll never step foot in their house again.”
The tears streamed down her face. He lifted his fingers to catch them, to wipe them away. Seeing her cry was physically painful for him. Know
ing there was nothing he could do to fix it was worse than being hit with a bomb. “Why wouldn’t they believe you?”
“My family is very religious. My father is a minister who believes that unmarried women shouldn’t be around men. He had my sister and I homeschooled. We weren’t allowed to wear pants or listen to the radio. He thought the outside world was full of sin and corruption for young women. Eve tempted Adam with an apple. He thought all women were the same way. Only on earth to tempt men to sin. Unless they were trained not to.”
“Your father sounds like an asshole.” He was. How could he not protect his daughter?
She let out a watery laugh. “Say that again.”
“A big asshole. A huge one. The king of them.”
“I used to think he was right. I let Robert kiss me. I was twenty-one years old and had never been kissed before. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, but at first it was nice. But then it wasn’t and he wouldn’t stop.” She shook her head, as if trying to shake the bad memory out of her mind. “It took me nearly a year with a counselor at a women’s center for me to believe that it wasn’t my fault.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“My family wouldn’t believe me. I didn’t think the police would, either.” She ran her fingers through his hair, studying him for a moment. “You look scary right now. Relax, honey.”
She was petting him again. Giving him comfort when she was the one in need of it.
“I could kill him for you. Tell me where to find him and I’ll do it for you.”
“He’s not worth it.”
“What about your father, then? I almost think what he did was worse. He’s not a man in my book.”
“Christian...” She rested her forehead against his. “Nobody has ever offered to commit first-degree murder for me. I’m flattered.”
“I’m not joking. He deserves to be punished. What about child support? The court can prove paternity and make him pay. At least that way you’ll be vindicated. The world will know he’s a liar.”
“No.” She shook her head firmly. “I don’t want anything from him. I don’t ever want to see him again. He’s not her father. I’d rather struggle to pay off her medical bills for the rest of my life and survive on peanut butter and jelly than take anything from him.”
“Medical bills?”
“Abby came early. There were complications. She’s fine now, but I’m hopelessly in debt.”
“How old are you, Georgia?”
“I’ll be twenty-four in a month.”
She was a baby. He stroked his thumbs across her cheeks. “You’re tougher than half the marines I know.”
“We women are a tough bunch. You think getting blown up is bad, you should try childbirth.”
“I’ll pass.”
He pulled her a little closer so that he could reach her neck. The cords were tight when he touched them. He massaged them, watching as her eyes drifted shut and her mouth open slightly in pleasure.
Protect her. The strength of that thought scared him. She was doing fine by herself, but who was there to take care of her?
“I can’t believe I just told you all of that. You’re the only person besides a counselor who knows.”
“I won’t tell anybody,” he promised as he stroked down the length of her back.
She opened her eyes and grinned at him. “I hadn’t pegged you as much of a gossip. Next time it’s your turn to tell me your deepest darkest secret.”
He paused for a moment and looked at her. His darkest secret was his biggest regret, and he was struck how similar her story was to Miko’s. Christian could never be sure what had happened to that girl on base that night, but he was afraid his friends had done the unthinkable and he’d been too cowardly to do anything to stop them. If he could go back, he would change that. He would do his best to make it right.
“I once killed a man just to watch him die.”
“Liar.” She brushed a kiss across the burned side of his face. “It’s your turn tomorrow. We’re friends now. You are obligated to spill your guts to me.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.” She pulled away from his touch. “I have to get back to work. Good night, soldier.”
CHAPTER 8
Georgia could barely sleep the next day. Strange energy flowed through her body and all she could think about was last night with Christian. Part of her couldn’t believe she’d told him about her past. But a bigger part of her wasn’t surprised that she had.
Christian made her act in ways she never thought herself capable. He made her body crave closeness, intimacy. He made her want to not be alone anymore. Her counselor had told her that this would happen one day. That she would be able to move on, that she would want to be with a man. But Georgia didn’t believe her. Maybe it was time for Georgia to let somebody into her life. But she knew that person couldn’t be Christian.
He was bound to go back to active duty. Yes, he was badly burned. Yes, his body sustained terrible injury, but he was healing. His appearance would remain changed forever, but his body would be well enough to serve again. She didn’t need to hear it from a doctor to know that. He was going to walk out of her life one day soon. Maybe he’d been placed in her path to show her that it was possible. That being close with a man was something she could do.
What she felt for him was nothing more than a little infatuation. But...the way he rubbed her neck and wiped her tears, she knew that for as long as she lived, she would never forget the tenderness of those moments. She found it hard to imagine that another person could make her feel so safe.
She tossed and turned that morning until her baby climbed on top of her and forced her to be still.
“I’m sorry, Abby. Mama’s disturbing you.”
“Mama.” She rested her head on Georgia’s chest and the two of them managed to get an hour of sleep.
The lack of sleep caught up with her that night, and by the time she walked into Christian’s room she was dead on her feet.
“Sit down and don’t argue with me,” he ordered.
She smiled. His soft, deep voice always sent tingles through her body. “Are you going to make me do pushups if I don’t?”
“No. Suicide drills. Sit down.”
She pulled the chair closer to the bed and nearly collapsed into it. Christian reached for her hand, tugging her forward so that she could rest her head on his mattress.
“I’m not sure I like you working the night shift when you have to go home and raise a baby during the day.” He rested his hand on her cheek, causing her to shut her eyes and revel in the warmth of his skin on hers.
“Mmm. If I worked the day shift we couldn’t be friends like this.”
“I won’t get to see you at all if you collapse from exhaustion,” he said gruffly, and the protectiveness in his voice made her smile.
He lightly brushed his fingers along the curve of her jaw. She shivered. Her nipples tightened and that warm feeling coursed through her. But she also felt sleepy and safe, as if nothing or nobody could get to her while she was with him.
She realized that she had fallen asleep when she felt his thumb brush over her lips. Without thinking she kissed it.
He stiffened. “Go back to sleep.”
“You know I can’t.” She sat up and then stood. The temptation to sleep in that spot was strong, but the temptation to crawl in bed with him and forget about the world was even stronger.
She looked away from him, as if that would stop the longing in her chest. “How much time was I out? You know if my boss caught me that would be the end of my job.”
“It was six minutes exactly.” He shook his head. “How much longer are you going to go on like this, Georgia? It’s not good for you to be exhausted all the time.”
“Stop fussing at me.” She reached
behind him to loosen his hospital gown and immediately realized her mistake. Her breasts brushed against him for a moment and the contact was almost painful. She glanced up at him to see if he had felt it, too, but he wasn’t staring at her face for once. His eyes settled on her lips. She tried not to grow self-conscious under his examination, but she’d always thought her lips were just a little too full. It was one of the many reasons her father had forbidden her to wear makeup.
“Sit up.” She tried to force herself back into being a nurse. Maybe these nighttime visits were a bad thing. Maybe her boss and her father were right. Maybe she was seeking trouble. “I’ve got an order to remove the bandages from your torso. The donor site from your grafts should be all healed up by now.”
He quietly did as she asked. But her fingers grazed his exposed skin as she pulled the gown from around his shoulders. She had been a nurse for two years. She had removed patients’ gowns countless times. She had never been affected by it. But none of her patients had a body like his. She couldn’t help herself. Her fingers lingered a little longer than they should have. She was teasing herself with these little touches. She wanted to run her hands all over his back. She wanted to press her face there and kiss him. But she didn’t. She couldn’t.
When he was finally free of the gown, he lay back on the bed. All of her training went out of her head. All thoughts of the task she was supposed to be performing disappeared. She knew his body was hard beneath the gown, but she’d never imagined that it would look like this.
Tarzan.
There was something a little wild about the way he looked. His tousled golden curls combined with his big scarred body. He was the exact opposite of what she thought she might be attracted to. Growing up she always imagined the man she would marry would be slim and neat looking. Unobtrusive and kind. She never imagined she would ever find a man so large, a man others were afraid of, so attractive.
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