Turbulent Waters (Billionaire Aviators Book 3)

by Melody Anne

  She answered just before the call was sent to voice mail. There was a pause on the other end of the line, and then Chloe had to quickly push the button on her ear set when her best friend’s voice boomed over the line.

  “It’s a good thing you answered, because I was getting ready to hang up, which means I would have called back over and over and over again,” Dakota said.

  Dakota and Chloe had met in elementary school and had been best friends from the very first moment they’d found out they shared a love of chocolate. Chloe had been shy and afraid, thanks in large part to her unaffectionate father. Dakota had been full of life. Against all odds, the two of them had sparked an immediate bond that hadn’t broken in all the years they’d known each other.

  Chloe credited her sanity to Dakota. Without having her friend around, Chloe wasn’t sure what she would do most days. Dakota had gotten her through the best and worst of times, and the two had even stuck together through college.

  “I’m running,” Chloe told her, but her steps faltered, and then she began moving slowly along the path she’d been on. She suddenly wasn’t in a hurry to return to the house. She needed to speak to her friend more than she needed to get Nick’s therapy started.

  “Pssh, you are gorgeous and don’t need to run every stinking day,” Dakota told her.

  “Says the woman every other woman hates,” Chloe reminded her.

  “Whatever. You have to say that since you’re my bestie and therefore responsible for stroking my ego.”

  “Your ego doesn’t need to be stroked, Dakota,” Chloe pointed out.

  “Ah, darling, we’ve had this conversation before. Every woman needs her ego stroked,” Dakota countered. “Among other things,” she added with a giggle. Chloe sighed and the silence was piercing for several moments.

  “What’s wrong? I know that sigh,” Dakota said, her voice instantly understanding. It brought tears to Chloe’s eyes.

  “I’m on a job, and I fear it’s going to be a hard one,” Chloe admitted.

  “The patient is gonna have a hard-on?” Dakota said with too much innocence.

  Her friend’s wit did the job, and Chloe smiled though Dakota couldn’t see the gesture. “If you were here, he most certainly would,” she said.

  “Someday you are going to see yourself for who you truly are,” Dakota said with irritation.

  “I look in a mirror every morning,” Chloe said.

  “But you don’t see what’s gazing back.”

  “Now it’s my turn to tell you that you have to say that,” Chloe said.

  “I cannot tell a lie. You know that’s my most debilitating fault,” Dakota reminded her.

  “But you can if you believe it hard enough.”

  “I might have to make a trip to see you so I can slap some sense into that calculating brain of yours,” Dakota threatened.

  “I might have to tick you off so you do just that if it means I get to see you,” Chloe said.

  There was silence again for a moment. “Do you need me, Chloe?” The question was serious.

  “Always, but no, I’m just feeling sorry for myself,” Chloe assured her.

  “If you do, you know I’ll drop everything and be right there,” Dakota told her.

  “I know that, too.”

  By the time Chloe hung up, she felt a smidge better, but as she walked up to the house, her nerves came back tenfold. She thought about running some more, but she was already late.

  She had a nice gleam of sweat coating her as she walked into the house and made it to her luxurious bedroom. If there was any benefit to the job she was currently doing, it was that she had an exquisite bedroom with an even better bathroom. She would love to take a nice hour-long bath, but maybe she could do that later in the evening.

  As much as she’d like to cause the conceited man some much needed pain, she had taken an oath to help the injured. She would attack him in legal ways that wouldn’t cost her the job she loved so much.

  Taking a quick shower, she changed into her unflattering scrubs and headed to the kitchen with no time to spare. She wasn’t much of a morning eater, but she found some apple-cinnamon muffins and munched on one, washing it down with a glass of ice-cold milk. She already felt better.

  Now she was wondering where Nick was, though. She’d told him they would begin at seven. He could at least give her the courtesy of being there on time―even if she wasn’t.

  Deciding she’d wait for him in the gym, she moved through the house, looking for the private gym that Sherman Armstrong had assured her Nick had. She found the doors to his private gym wide open. She stood there in the doorway, finding her breath stalling as she glanced in at the shirtless man as he pulled down a lateral bar, his shoulders and arms bulging with the effort, a nice sheen of sweat coating his naturally tan skin.

  The only word that came to mind was magnificent. He was truly a beautiful man. If she didn’t know he’d been in a helicopter crash―one that had caused the deaths of three other people―she would have no clue he had sustained any injuries.

  Grunting, he pulled the bar a few more times, all without knowing she was watching him. She enjoyed the private moment a little too much. If she gave into these odd feelings of desire she’d been feeling for Nick, she would be compromising not only herself but also her family―especially her brother. This man could be the reason she would never again sit across the table from Pat, never see his smile, never feel reassured by the one man who had never let her down.

  Finally, the weight bar snapped down, which also startled her into movement. “I see you’ve gotten started without me,” she told him as she entered the room, trying not to stare at the rigid muscles of his back.

  “I’m an early riser,” he said, shifting in his seat to see her.

  She moved over to him and knelt down. She was completely professional as she examined the knee brace he wore. It allowed him to move the leg, while taking pressure off the shattered patella. The skin was a healthy color, and the surgeon had done an excellent job to keep the scarring to a minimum.

  “We’re going to work on light exercises today so I can see what you can do. I want to stretch the leg out really good first, though,” she told him.

  “You can do whatever you want to me, doc,” he said with a smile.

  “I’m not your doctor,” she informed him.

  “You have a doctorate. That makes you a doctor,” he pointed out.

  She smiled at him. “Some people who earn the credentials insist on the title. I’m not one of them,” she said.

  Their eyes connected and she felt warmth creeping through her veins. She wiped the smile away and reminded herself he was just another guy who she had vowed to help. She had also promised to take him down. Her ethics were fighting within her.

  “Where do you want me?” he asked, turning in his seat while she was still kneeling by him. This put her between his legs, her face entirely too close to the part of his body she didn’t want to be thinking about.

  “I’m going to have you lie on the mats over there where I can stretch your muscles. I’m sure you haven’t been doing it,” she said, her voice a bit too breathless.

  His smiled widened. He knew the effect he had on women―had on her―and he enjoyed it. She would just have to prove to him she wasn’t a typical female, grateful for a crumb of his attention.

  Chloe helped him up, and he limped over to the mats. Though she was sure he could get down on his own, he was all hands as he shifted to the floor and laid on his back. Wearing only basketball shorts, shoes, and the knee brace, entirely too much of his skin was on display.

  She noticed a scar across his stomach that she wondered about. If he were just any client, she might ask him. But she had to remember this was Nick Armstrong, and the less she knew about him on a personal level, the better for her sanity.

  “Some of this is going to really hurt, but you have to trust me that I’m doing my job correctly. If it becomes pain instead of simple soreness, you have to tell
me. I don’t know exactly where you’re at right now.”

  “Got it, doc.”

  “Lift your injured leg up.”

  She didn’t assist him as he did this. She wanted to see what strength he had in the muscle. It had been a while since he’d been able to do much with it. His teeth gritted as he lifted the leg into the air, and the movement was obviously uncomfortable for him. The muscle truly was weak.

  “Okay, I’m going to grab your foot. The brace will keep your leg straight, and I’m going to push it toward your head. When I tell you, I want you to push back to me, and then I will have you release the muscle. Let’s see how far of a stretch we can get,” she said.

  Nick nodded as she gripped his foot, then he gave her a wink. “I should know a little bit more about you before we get so intimate.”

  “I warned you last night to knock off the flirting, Nick,” she said before resting his foot on her shoulder and stepping a bit more into him. The movement caused the muscle to stretch, and he frowned.

  “Damn, what are you doing?” he asked with a grunt.

  “I’m testing your flexibility,” she told him.

  “Or punishing me,” he countered.

  She chuckled. “I’ll be sure to tell you when I’m punishing you,” she said.

  “Mmm, kinky. I like it.”

  She pushed her weight a bit more toward him, stretching the hamstring. That wiped the smile off his smug face.

  “Okay, now push against me,” she said as she kept one hand on his foot, the other on the outside of his thigh. Her breasts were being crushed by the weight of his solid calf muscle, but she tried to ignore how intimate stretching could be. She tried not to think about how much their bodies were touching.

  But she was breaking out in just as much sweat as he was. And not from exertion. The growing attraction she felt toward this man was seriously messing with her head. She had to get it together, and quickly, before she really did do something that would cost her the job she loved. And the respect she held for herself.

  They pushed and pulled for a while longer, Chloe pushing aside the unfamiliar stirrings he was causing in the pit of her stomach. The more she did, the more Nick’s forehead broke out in sweat. He continued to make small jokes, but the longer the stretching went on, the quieter he became.

  “Okay, now we’re going to test your hips,” she said.

  His eyes flashed to hers. “I assure you, my hips weren’t injured in the accident at all,” he told her.

  The remark made her glance down between his legs, and she jerked her gaze away to meet his eyes again. He winked at her. Chloe let out her breath, telling herself she had to keep it together.

  “We’re going to take the leg across your body slowly,” she said. Then she pushed his leg across the other one, bringing her closer to him. He winced, but as she worked with him, she got him to release the muscles. When she next looked at his eyes, he was smiling at her again.

  “I might need you to stretch out my arms in the same manner,” he said, his voice husky.

  “You can keep on wishing that,” she told him.

  They finished the stretching and Chloe was impressed, though she didn’t want to admit that to the man. He was cocky enough without her telling him she was impressed with what excellent shape he was in.

  “I think you can expect a full recovery if you do what I say and we work on more stretching along with the exercises. I don’t want you working the leg at all until we stretch. There are some you can do on your own, but for the first couple weeks, let me work with you and chart the progress.”

  “Anything you say, doc,” he replied.

  Chloe dropped his leg gently back to the ground and took a step back. She turned away from him as she sighed. This truly was going to be a long six weeks. Maybe she could shorten the time frame. He was a capable man. The sooner she got him healthy, the sooner she’d be able to push him from her life.

  Nick climbed back to a standing position. It took him far longer than she figured it normally would. But he got up without asking for help. When she turned to look at him, she did notice that his pride had hurt him.

  “Come over and sit down, Nick,” she said, indicating a chair. She handed him the crutches, and he used them to move over to the chair. He sat down slowly.

  She once again kneeled in front of him. She’d better get used to it. She was going to be in close quarters with him for quite some time. If she didn’t suck it up, it was going to be unbearable.

  “I’m going to cup the back of your foot. I want you to lift your leg ten times.”

  She showed him the movement she wanted and they began. The morning was slow and laborious, but she had to give it to the guy―he didn’t complain once. He did everything she asked of him, making sweat pour off him in droves as he gritted his teeth, but by the end of their second hour there was no doubt he’d impressed her.

  She’d had patients who’d quit after the first five minutes. It wasn’t easy stuff she was putting them through. When she was finished with the morning session, she handed him a towel and smiled. She couldn’t help but feel respect for the man who was working so hard to improve himself when most would have quit by now. Her turbulent emotions were all over the place, and they weren’t welcome in the least.

  “You’ve done excellent, Nick,” she said, having to give him some praise.

  “I’m weak,” he told her as he blew out his breath. “I don’t like it.”

  “You aren’t used to not being able to do whatever you want, are you?”

  “No, not at all,” he grumbled.

  “Well, suck it up. You’re one of the lucky ones who actually gets to walk away from this. Don’t waste time feeling sorry for yourself.”

  His head whipped up at her words. She expected to see anger in his eyes, but she saw humor instead. That threw her off balance.

  “Don’t hold back, doc,” he said with a laugh.

  “It’s not my job to hold back. It’s my job to tell the truth and to get you where you’re supposed to be.”

  “Maybe it’s my job to get you to loosen up a little bit,” he countered.

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Not everything’s a joke, Nick,” she warned.

  “Who says I’m joking?”

  He gave her an intense look that had her squirming as she stood there facing him.

  “Nick . . .” she said in a warning tone.

  “Look, doc, I want you to push me hard, but at the same time, have a little fun. I don’t like being down physically or emotionally,” he said.

  She smiled. “I guarantee you, I have no problem pushing you hard. I can do without the fun.”

  “I have a feeling I’m going to be hard around you a lot.”

  “Quit acting like a child,” she snapped.

  “It’s not my fault,” he said, holding up his hands.

  “Don’t you dare say it’s mine,” she said.

  “What do you expect when you look the way you do?” His eyes took her in from head to toe, which made her shift on her feet again.

  “I’m perfectly presentable in my scrubs,” she told him.

  “Doc, you could be wearing a potato sack and still look good.”

  “Look, I have respect for my patients and what they’ve gone through and what I’m about to put them through. That’s why I’m here―to help, not to put up with your crap.”

  “You know what, doc, I have a good feeling about this. I tend to listen to my gut, and what it’s telling me right now is that you know your stuff. I’m willing to follow your rules as long as you’re willing to acknowledge that you don’t know me and what I’m capable of. You have to be flexible.”

  “I always adjust to my clients’ needs. Don’t think you’re any different than anyone else I’ve ever had to deal with,” she pointed out.

  “All righty then. I guess this is you putting me in my place,” he said with another chuckle.

  “I find I have to do that a lot with hotheads like you,” she said.r />
  Nick’s smile grew until it looked like his cheeks might hurt he was smiling so big. Chloe leaned back, concerned. He appeared as if he’d gone mad, either that, or he was enjoying himself too much.

  “Baby, I guarantee you, I’m hotter than any of your past clients,” he said, his voice dripping with sex. She despised herself a little when her eyes latched onto his lips and she licked her own in lust.

  “Nick . . .” The warning was clear in her tone as she headed for the gym doors.

  “I can’t wait to see your uniform for the pool,” he called out after her. She stopped for a moment, but then resumed walking. She wasn’t going to dignify that with a response.

  Chloe knew with zero doubt that being in the water together was going to try the very little patience she had left. If only she didn’t find him so damn attractive. She was sure that was temporary insanity and the feelings would soon pass.

  She certainly hoped that was the case. She turned to face him.

  “Can you behave for even five seconds?” she asked. He smiled.

  “I promise to be the ideal patient. You’ll never want to leave here,” he told her.

  “I guarantee you, I’ll want to leave,” she countered.

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “Look, Nick, I’m not trying to be rude, but I don’t date my patients. I’m here to do a job, to learn about you, and to fix you,” she said. “And now I’m the one in need of a break. Have some lunch and we’ll do water exercises in the afternoon. I want you to ice the knee in the meantime,” she told him as she continued leaving.

  Day one wasn’t even over yet and she was ready to run for the hills.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Nick beat Chloe down to the pool and easily slid into the warm water. He wasn’t going to tell her that this had been his main source of therapy over the past month. He was Coast Guard, and he knew how to handle himself in any body of water. To be out of it for too long was like taking a piece of his soul.

  Once in the pool, there was no pressure on his knee, and he could float for hours. He swam more slowly now than he had, but that would eventually get better as well. He was definitely favoring his right knee, but he had no doubt that, before long, he would be in the best shape of his life. He wouldn’t quit pushing himself until he got there.