Saved by the Doctor

by Ivy Wonders

  “I don’t think so.” I couldn’t stop looking at the pretty little thing and found the pain subsiding with her mere presence. “I think you’re good for me, Nurse Jamison. The pain is rapidly disappearing.”

  The light way she laughed made my heart tingle. “Yeah, that or the morphine the paramedics gave you a shot of before moving you. Actually, I’m surprised it took this long to kick in.” Her eyes moved over my body, then she put her hand on her hip. “On second thought, the timing makes perfect sense. You have overdeveloped muscle mass.”

  “I’ve never heard it put that way before.” And I didn’t quite like it. “I like to think of myself as ripped, rather than overdeveloped.”

  The way her lips quirked to one side made me smile. “And now I must ask you if you’re on steroids, Teigen. And it’s important that you answer honestly. You’re about to be put under, and the doctor needs to know this. So do not lie to me, mister.” She shook her finger at me like some old schoolmarm.

  “I do not take ’roids.” I would’ve been offended, but I’d been asked that a lot, so the offensiveness of the word had worn off. “I take vitamins and some other supplements, but nothing that’s not one hundred percent natural.”

  “Good to know.” She gave me another once-over. “And this question isn’t medically related, but I just have to know. How many hours a day do you workout?”

  “Three in the morning, one in the afternoon, and two at night.” I was proud of my ritual.

  Her expression one of confusion, she asked, “And when do you find time to work?”

  There was no need for anything of that sort of thing. “My name didn’t clue you in on me at all, or what?”

  Shaking her head, she remained clueless. “Nope.”

  “Hainsworth doesn’t mean anything to you?” When she looked unimpressed, I just said it, “I’m from old money. Ancient money, actually. Hainsworth Industries has been around since the early eighteen hundreds. No one in my family has worked in nearly a century.”

  She didn’t give me the look I’d come to expect from someone finding out they were in the presence of the filthy rich. “Oh, what a shame.”

  Huh?

  Jamison

  As I sat there at the side of his bed, I took advantage of his unconscious state to take him all in. Even with a hospital gown on and covered with a light bedspread, Teigen’s outline proved to be magnificent.

  If only he weren’t some spoiled rich kid.

  In my line of work, I’d been around people with money and people without it. My preferences went with those in the latter category. Patients with money thought they could throw their weight around a lot more than patients without much of it.

  I shouldn’t have even been gazing at the sleeping man, but yet there I was, doing it. His chestnut hair, long on the top, short on the sides, hung a bit in his eyes. His eyes were golden brown and shone with spirit, even while in pain.

  Pushing the hair away from his face, I made him stir a little. “Ow, ugh.”

  “Does your throat hurt?” I’d found that the thing most people complained about upon waking after surgery.

  His eyes opened just a bit as he nodded, but didn’t say anything else. He just looked into my eyes for the longest time. I couldn’t believe how long our eye contact went on before his closed. My heart went crazy as I sat back, wondering if that had been something or nothing at all.

  After a few minutes, his eyes opened again. “Can I have some water?”

  “Can you sit up?” I wasn’t going to give him anything to drink until I knew he wasn’t going to choke on it or get nauseous from it.

  Moving slowly, he propped himself up on one elbow. “How’s this?”

  “Good.” I picked up the cup of water and put the straw to his lips. “Slowly, now. We don’t want you to get sick on this.”

  As he sipped the water, he looked into my eyes again. Pushing the straw out of his mouth, he whispered, “Your eyes are the color of the leaves on the oak tree outside my window.”

  I had no idea the words would flow from my tongue, but they came out all on their own, “And yours are one of the many colors of the morning sky as the golden sun lights it up each morning.”

  “Impressive.” He lay his head back on the pillow. “I like talking to you.” He wiggled his fingers. “Did you hold my hand while I slept?”

  “Of course not.” I couldn’t help the smile that curved my lips.

  “I suppose that was all just a dream then.” One hand moved through his thick hair. “Maybe you’ll hold it later. I assume I’ll be here a while.”

  “At least overnight.” I picked up the cup. “More water?”

  “No.” He smiled. “But how about a date when I get out of here?”

  “You must be delirious from the anesthesia.” Getting up, I went to the end of the bed, moving the blanket off his feet then running my fingertip along the bottom of his right foot. “Can you feel that?”

  “I can.” His toes wiggled. “And look what I can do.”

  “Good.” He knew what I wanted to see and that had me thinking he’d undergone surgery for a broken bone before. “Have you been through this before?”

  “My arm, a few years ago.” He lifted himself up, easily sitting up and surprising me. “Come on. I’m not feeling much pain, but I’m not loopy either. How about me and you go get something to eat when they let me go?”

  “No.” I felt the smile that pulled at my lips and put my hand over my mouth to hide it.

  “You want to go, and you know it.” He laid back but kept his eyes on me. “Just say yes already. You know you want to get to know me better.”

  “And why would I want that?” I did want that but didn’t even know why.

  “Because you and I have it.” He winked at me.

  “It?” I had to ask as I didn’t know what it was, but I felt it too.

  “That spark.” He tried to snap his fingers and found he couldn’t. Laughing, he admitted, “Well, seems I am a little out of it. But I know you and I have it –that spark.”

  He had heartbreaker written all over his handsome face. “Spark or not, you’re my patient, and I have a rule about dating my patients.”

  “Break it.” He tried to snap again and failed. “Damn it, that’s aggravating.”

  Picking up the phone to see if his room was ready, I tried to ignore the man as he kept trying to snap and looked so damn cute doing it. “Is Mr. Hainsworth’s room ready?”

  “Getting rid of me already?” he asked.

  After being told the room was ready, I nodded. “Seems I am. Your room is ready. I’ll be taking you—bed and all—down to it.”

  Unlocking the wheels, I rolled him out of the room then down the hallway to the elevator. “This is kind of humiliating, being rolled away on a bed.”

  “I like to think of it as getting the star treatment.” I pushed the bed into the hospital room he’d been assigned. “You can use the phone to call your family if you’d like.”

  “My parents are in Spain; my sister is in Miami; and my brother is in Mexico.” He looked at the window where the curtains were closed. “Any chance you’d open the curtains so I can look out the window?”

  His demeanor had changed. He’d gone melancholy with the thoughts of his family. I wanted to see that wry grin again. Going to the window, I pulled the curtains open for him. “Oh good, you’ve got a view of the park. You can watch your friends playing soccer for the rest of the day.”

  “On second thought, close them.” He shuddered. “Just seeing that park makes my leg hurt.”

  The knowledge the man had no one in his life he wanted to call to come be with him made me feel awful. “My shift is over in an hour.”

  The way he looked at me made my heart flutter. “You got anyone you need to get home to?”

  I shook my head. “Nope.”

  “Then do you mind going over to New Release and grabbing me a cheeseburger and some of those onion rings, and maybe a big ol’ milkshake?” His e
yes sparkled, making me melt a bit.

  “I think I can do that for you.” I ran my hand over his brow. “I think I’ll grab me something too.”

  “Good. It’ll be our first date.” He reached up, taking my hand. “I like holding your hand, Jamison.”

  And I liked holding his too.

  Teigen

  Dr. Kerr stood at the end of my bed, the crutches he’d brought in leaned against the wall beside him. “I’m keeping you overnight since you don’t have anyone at home to help you out. You’ll be fine in the morning to handle things on your own.”

  “I suppose I can handle spending one night here.” I looked at the door as it opened and Nurse Jamison came in with our dinner. “Hey, babe.”

  Her green eyes rolled. “Really?”

  The doctor looked back and forth at us. “I didn’t know you guys knew each other.”

  Jamison quickly said, “We don’t.”

  “I think we do know each other pretty well.” I patted the bed next to me, hoping she’d sit down. “We’ve already slept together.”

  “What?” the doctor asked with great surprise.

  “You slept,” Jamison said as she gave me narrowed eyes. “Not me. Now, stop talking like that. You’re giving your doctor the wrong idea.”

  She pulled the burgers and rings out of the brown paper bag, putting them on the tray as the doctor took a big sniff. “Yum. I think I know what I’m going to get for dinner too.” He moved up close to Jamison. “Don’t get yourself into trouble, Nurse.”

  “I won’t.” She smiled at him, and I felt a twinge of jealousy.

  “You might.” I reached out for the milkshake she’d brought me. “Shake me, please.”

  “I’ll see you in the morning, Teigen,” the doctor said then left us alone, thankfully.

  “Seems I’m being released in the morning, Nurse.” I watched her cut the burger into four sections.

  Pushing the paper with the burger and rings on it to one side, she moved the tray in front of me. “This should make it easier for you to eat.”

  Her food still wrapped didn’t suit me. “Won’t you please join me? I hate to eat alone.”

  She looked at the door as if she should be going. “I don’t know.”

  “Come on.” I patted the bed. “There’s plenty of room for two.”

  With a little growl, she gave in, but not entirely. “Fine. But I’m not sitting on the bed with you.” She got the bag with her food in it and sat in the chair next to the bed. “Why don’t you have the television on? It’s too quiet in here. I don’t want us to listen to the sound of chewing and gulping.”

  I looked at the remote that sat closer to her than to me. “There’s the remote. Watch whatever you want.” I wanted her to stay—like to never leave. “If it’ll make you stay here with me longer, then I want you to make yourself comfortable, Jamison.”

  She picked a sappy love story to watch, and I found that intriguing. After we finished eating, she cleaned everything up then turned the lights down, leaving the soft, silvery glow of the television the only light in the room. “I should let you get some rest.”

  Leaning over me, she fluffed my pillow before I took her hands. “Don’t go.” My eyes pleaded with her to stay. “I don’t want you to go. I really don’t.”

  Her throat moved as she gulped. “Teigen, I’m not that girl. I don’t screw around with my patients or anyone really. I’m not easy.”

  “And I’m glad to hear that. I’m not easy either, to be honest.” There was something about her that made me not want to let go of her. “If I let you go, then will you come see me in the morning before I have to leave? And will you give me your cell number so I can call you if I get bored up here alone?”

  Her eyes danced as she smiled at me. “I have the feeling if I give you my cell number, I might not get a wink of sleep tonight.”

  “I think you might be right.” I just wanted her to stay. “So, you might as well bunk here with me and forget about going home at all. Then you can give me a ride home tomorrow. No one but the staff is there. We’ll have the place to ourselves.”

  “And we would be doing what, exactly?” she asked with stone-cold eyes.

  “We’d get to know each other.” She really didn’t seem to trust me. “Jamison, I’m well-known. You can ask just about anyone around our age about me, and they’ll know a little about me. Why you don’t is a mystery.”

  “I’m not from here. I grew up in Ohio. I moved here about six months ago,” she informed me.

  “Now I understand.” I pulled her closer. “I knew there had to be some reason I hadn’t found you before now. You weren’t here yet. But now you are, and now I want to get to know everything there is to know about you, Jamison. Like, what’s your last name?”

  “You should really let me go, Teigen.” She pulled her hands out of mine. “You’re moving a bit too fast for me.”

  “I’d slow down if I didn’t have this nagging fear someone is going to swoop in and steal you away before I can make you see that you and I should take some time to get to know one another.” The idea of her with anyone else did things to me nothing ever had.

  The door to my room opened, and I stopped breathing as my stalker came in. “Teigen! I just heard.” Bella ran to the side of my bed then bent over, grabbing me and hugging me as Jamison watched with a smirk on her lips.

  “Who told you?” I would so break the leg of whoever had told her where I was and what had happened to me.

  “Zane.” She let me go then turned to look at Jamison. “You can go now.”

  “K.” Jamison turned to leave. “See ya.”

  “No!” I didn’t want to sound like a lunatic, being afraid of a girl, but I was deathly afraid of Bella. “Don’t go.”

  Bella’s dark green eyes turned into slits. “Let her go, Teigen. I’m here. The nurse can leave.”

  Jamison got all the way to the door before turning around. Leveling her eyes on me, she asked, “Do you want her to leave?”

  “Please,” I said in a whisper.

  Bella shrieked, “What? No! You can’t make me leave, Teigen. This isn’t your home. It’s a public place. You can’t stop me from being here.”

  “The restraining order is for anywhere, Bella.” I shouldn’t have had to remind her, but the nutcase always needed reminding anyway.

  “Do you have it with you?” Bella asked.

  “Of course not.” I looked at Jamison, who seemed confused. “But I do have one.”

  “Out.” Jamison opened the door. “Now.” She looked at Bella with eyes that said she wasn’t taking any shit.

  “You can’t tell me …” That was all Bella got out.

  Jamison was behind her in a snap, taking one of her arms then twisting it behind her back. “I can.” She looked over her shoulder at me. “I’ll be back. I’m taking her to security. She won’t be back here to bother you.”

  No one had ever taken me seriously about Bella. Her family was as wealthy as mine, giving her more leeway than most would have been given. But her obsession with me was a problem. The kind of problem that showed up in the night, next to you in bed, naked and begging for things you didn’t want to give them.

  Knowing she wouldn’t be able to get back into the hospital made me feel better. When Jamison came back into my room, I felt even better as she asked, “She’s kind of crazy, huh?”

  “It’s a long story, and quite frankly, I come off a little weird in it. Or so my friends have told me.” No one understood why I hadn’t—at the very least— screwed the girl, who was a total knockout.

  “She’s stunning.” Jamison sat on the edge of my bed. “And she said she’s rich and has done some modeling. She told me not to mess up her face; that’s how I know that.” Her eyes bored into mine. “But I saw something in your eyes that told me you’re afraid of that girl. Why would that be?”

  When I’d told my friends about her antics, they’d laughed at me. But I thought I should be honest with this woman if I ever want
ed her to give me a chance. “She’s snuck into my bed on a number of occasions. And a few of those times I didn’t wake up until she’d cuffed me to the bed. As hot as that might sound, I don’t feel that way about her.”

  “No wonder you had to get a restraining order.” She ran her fingers over my cheek. “You must’ve taken a lot of ribbing about her. How long has she been doing this?”

  “Years.” I didn’t like to think about how long it had gone on. “Too many years.”

  “Did she ever get what she wanted, even once?” The way she looked right into my eyes told me that would mean something to her. And it also told me she’d know it if I lied.

  “The first time.” I looked down as shame filled me. “And she thought that, alone, gave her the right to break into my house and my room whenever she wanted.”

  “Which it did not.” Her hand moved to my chin, lifting my face to look at her. “I’ve got your back, Teigen.”

  “Yeah?” I wondered for how long. “Like, for a while?”

  Nodding, she moved her hand off my face, sitting back a bit. “Yeah, for a while. You’re nothing like I thought. Any guy I know would’ve tapped that ass over and over again, crazy or not. You have scruples. I like that in a man.”

  “Good, ’cause I’ve got loads of them.” Reaching out, I ran my hands along her arms. “But as many as I have, I can’t stop myself from wondering what your lips will feel like on mine.”

  Her chest rose as she took a breath and held it. Finally, she released it. “Me too.”

  Moving slowly, we inched toward each other until our mouths met. Things zipped through me, going to her, bonding us in an instant. Broken leg or not, my need for her took me over.

  Pulling her on top of me, I laid back in the bed as her mouth took me to another world. The hospital gown I wore and her scrubs joined each other in a puddle on the floor as we gave ourselves to each other that very night.

  Later, we lay in bed, her in my arms, and I kissed the top of her head. “I hope you don’t mind when I never let you go, Jamison.”

  “As weird as that should sound after only knowing you for a day, I like the sound of that.” Cradling my face between her hands, she kissed me again, reigniting the fire she’d started inside of me.