TAMING GRIZZ (A DEVIL'S DRAGONS MOTORCYCLE CLUB ROMANCE)

by Nikki Wild

  “And a groin sprain,” he finished for me, opening his thighs wide on the table and pointing between his legs at his very naked genitalia. My heart skipped a beat and I swallowed hard and nodded, looking away as fast as I could.

  “Right. A severe groin sprain.”

  “Does it say it’s severe?” he asked. “It feels severe. It’s all swollen and bruised. You should take a closer look,” he said, spreading his legs wider and laying back on the bed, completely exposing his entire package.

  I couldn’t believe him. Did I want to take a closer look? I never wanted to look away…

  “I’m being serious here Maisey. If we’re going to have a doctor patient relationship I need you to look at this groin sprain.”

  “No, that’s fine, you can um…you know what?” I asked. “I think we’re done here for the day. I’ve got a list of all your issues, I’ll take a look and tomorrow we’ll start fresh after I develop a more extensive treatment plan for you.”

  His laughter was mocking, but I ignored it, saying a little silent prayer that he’d closed his legs and sat up before I looked at him again.

  “You sure? You didn’t really examine me.”

  “That’s okay. I can get everything I need from your hospital records for now.”

  “If you say so…” he said. “You’re the expert.”

  “Yes, I do,” I nodded, forcing myself to look back at him, making sure to only look him in the eye this time.

  “I have complete confidence we can restore your knee to its full potential. Tonight, I want you to stay off of it and keep it elevated as much as possible. Tomorrow, we’ll start some gentle stretching and electrical stimulation.”

  “Sounds kinky,” he joked, winking at me suggestively.

  “No, actually electrical stimulation is a type of electric current therapy that has proven to be eff—,” I began.

  “I know what electric stim is, Maisey,” he replied. “It was a joke.”

  “Oh, right,” I replied. “A joke.”

  I tore my gaze away from his again. This was all too much to take in all at once.

  Jesse Colorado was a man best experienced in small doses. For me, even the most minuscule exposure was threatening to take me down. I had my job cut out for me, that’s for sure.

  “Jesse,” I continued, turning away and heading for the door, “thank you for choosing Steadman Hawkins for your rehabilitation needs.”

  “We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, right?” he asked.

  His question caught me off guard. Indeed we were. I spent so much time with my patients, that sometimes we got to know each other very well. It was one of the aspects that I enjoyed about my job.

  This time, it just might be the death of me.

  “Yes,” I replied, stopping to face him.

  “Then you’d better stop being so goddamned formal with me, Maisey Jayne. I’m just messing with you. Lighten up. We come from the same place. That makes us friends, at the very least.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jesse,” I replied, opening the door and walking out, my heart beating so loudly, I was sure he could hear it.

  7

  JESSE

  I fucking hated being injured. In fact, outside of my dick not working, I couldn’t think of anything worse than my knee being fucked up. It took me five minutes just to get out of bed and take a piss, and even then it was damned near impossible to balance the crutches and keep from pissing all over my toilet at the same time.

  It didn’t help that I’d been hard almost all day. I’d gone home from the clinic with a raging case of I-need-to-fuck, and even after tossing one off before bed, I’d woken up in the middle of the night still pitching a tent. Who the fuck do you call if your natural erection lasts more than four hours?

  And it was all because of the elusive Maisey Jayne.

  I couldn’t believe it was really her after all this time.

  I couldn’t believe she wouldn’t answer my questions earlier. She was so jittery and nervous and fucking clinical around me, it was as if our past together had never happened.

  There was no fucking way she didn’t remember. Of that, I was certain. She remembered those long nights helping me in the library, and she damn sure remembered the night she came back to my bedroom.

  “I think you’ll pass. You seem like you’ve got the material down pretty well at this point,” she said, her black curls bouncing around her face as she closed her notebook. She had a little upturned button nose, and those big green eyes, and I’d found it difficult to stop looking at her.

  “Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are, Maisey?” I’d asked.

  “What? Oh, come on. Me? No. Barbara Simmons, though? That’s beautiful.”

  “I don’t know about that. Barbara has the brains and the body of a barbie doll. You’re unique, Maisey. Smart… Shy… Innocent… That’s what makes you beautiful.”

  She looked at me with those big green eyes and I couldn’t help but kiss her. Her lips were warm, soft, so soft. She melted into me, and we lay on the bed kissing for what seemed like hours in the still of the night.

  And when the heat between us escalated, our clothes melted away and then we were moving together, sliding against each other, our lips caressing and our hands groping each other in the dark, her thighs falling apart as I slipped inside of her, rising and falling above her as she moaned and whimpered, her cries like music to my ears.

  That night had remained one of my favorite memories for years. Once I’d asked her to the prom, it took a few days to get her to believe I was serious, but once she did, she’d seemed so excited about going.

  That’s why it had been so confusing when she just up and disappeared. For years I’d wondered about that night, tried to figure out what had happened, if I had said something stupid that had pushed her away, I could never put my finger on it. After a while, I stopped wondering and just accepted it. My life went on, and Maisey became one of those distant memories that sneak up on you every now and then.

  Until now…

  Because now that she had reappeared, she was front and center in my brain and I couldn’t think of anyone or anything else.

  In fact, I’d spent the better part of two hours tossing and turning in my bed and re-living that one night I’d spent with Maisey, over and over.

  I didn’t know what her story was, but I was very curious.

  And besides, I’d only had her once before. There was still room in my rulebook for one more night with her.

  I groaned into my pillow as my cock raged just thinking about it. She’d grown into a beautiful, confident woman and I could only imagine how amazing it would feel to be with her again. If only she wasn’t so uptight now. But maybe that was just an act, in fact, I was sure of it. The Maisey I knew before was full of laughter, good-natured and easy-going. She was probably still there, hiding under the surface.

  My cock twitched as I thought about how much fun it would be to penetrate that surface, to pull the old Maisey from her hiding space.

  Yes… I’ll do whatever it takes…

  8

  MAISEY

  “Mama, are you okay?” Maddy asked.

  “What? Oh, yes, I’m sorry, honey,” I said. I’d drifted off, stopping in mid-sentence as I read a bed time story to Maddy. We were snuggled up in her bed, surrounded by her entire collection of stuffed animals.

  “Are you tired?” she asked, staring up at me.

  “Yes, I suppose I am, baby.”

  “You can go ahead and go to bed. I’m tired too.”

  “You are? Okay, honey. Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” I kissed her and tucked her in before turning off her light.

  “Sweet dreams, Mama,” she said.

  “Sweet dreams, honey.” I smiled at her, beaming at my beautiful daughter as she turned over and closed her eyes, snuggling her favorite bunny close to her chest.

  She was such a blessing. I don’t know where I’d be without her by my side,
without her to come home to, without her to give me a purpose.

  I walked to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of red wine and then turned off all the lights, locked the doors and went to my bedroom, closing the door behind me. I loved my time with Maddy so much, but I also valued my time alone immensely. Tonight, I felt that gratitude more than ever. I’d been waiting all day to get home and be alone with my thoughts.

  I was past the point of freaking out and panicking and trying to change things. Now, I was just tired and exhausted and way too tired to fight against a reality I couldn’t change.

  Whether I liked it or not, I was going to have to spend the next weeks, if not months, with Jesse. I was going to have to put my hands on him, massage him, stretch him, and work with him to restore full range of motion to that knee. The bruises would heal. The goddamned groin sprain would heal, but it sure had tripped me up when I saw that listed in his medical records.

  My goal was to remain professional, and having to massage his groin area wasn’t going to help me accomplish that. Sure, I was a professional, but I was also fucking human.

  And Jesse? Jesse was fucking gorgeous. Jesse was beyond sexy, he was literally dripping in sexuality. Masculinity practically oozed from his pores. And he was as cocky as ever. Sure of himself, beyond confident, almost to the point of being an asshole with how full of himself he was. But then, as soon as he realized he’d gone too far, he’d flash that damned crooked smile at me, and all was supposed to be forgiven?

  He was going to test me, that was obvious. More than I’d ever been tested before with a patient.

  But who was I kidding? I’d never had a patient like him before. Not because of his fame. Not because of his good looks. Not even because of his self-centered cocky bullshit. That came with the territory with these famous athletes.

  He was different because of our history together…

  If I could get through this time with him, then everything would be okay. I just had to keep reminding myself of that fact. I just had to remain calm, keep my mouth shut, and do my job.

  That’s all.

  And then he would be gone.

  Back to his life.

  And mine would go back to normal, and I wouldn’t have to live every day with this huge ache in the pit of my stomach.

  There was just one problem with my plan. My body was reacting to him like it was a teenager all over again. Standing in that room with him, my palms started sweating and my knees started quivering, my nipples hardened and I swear if I hadn’t been wearing panties, he would have easily seen how he effected me, because I was so wet I had to change out of them as soon as he left the clinic.

  If I could somehow get a grip on that, I’d be golden.

  In the meantime, I finished my wine, locked my bedroom door, turned off the lights and climbed into bed. My fingers slipped between my legs, and I let my head fall back as I allowed the memories that had haunted me for ten years flood back.

  His kiss was gentle. More than I’d imagined it would be. I’d sat next to him for months, staring at those lips, watching his fingers as he wrote in his notebook, mesmerized by the way his muscles twitched under his skin, the way he squinted his eyes when he was concentrating really hard. I’d imagined what it might feel like to kiss him a thousand times, and when he finally did kiss me, I was completely shocked.

  I never imagined he would ever kiss a girl like me. He could have anyone he wanted in school. He could have all the Barbara’s of Highland High, if he desired. I would never have turned down a kiss from him, though. So I didn’t. I welcomed it, I opened my mouth, my arms and my thighs, letting him gently guide me backwards on the bed, his mouth working against mine for what seemed like hours, his hands roaming over my breasts and feeling like nothing I’d ever known. His palms were hot, the scarlet heat burning through the cardigan and my bra like I was naked.

  And then I was. He’d kept kissing me as he pushed my clothes away, and then I thought, well, why not? When would I ever have an opportunity like this again? I’d almost made it all the way through high school a virgin, why not give my virginity away to a boy like Jesse? He was a little too sure of himself, but he was still kind and gentle, and oh my god, did it feel good. The pain was quick and over so fast, a week later I couldn’t even recall what the pain had felt like. I could only remember the pleasure.

  And there had been so much pleasure. He moved inside of me expertly, his body fitting against mine like they’d been made for each other, like our very existence depended on this togetherness.

  He was a part of me. I was a part of him. Nothing in my life would ever be the same now, now that Jesse had held me, had kissed me, had made love to me.

  Suddenly, everything was right in my world.

  Until it wasn’t.

  It had all happened so fast. It was like sand running through my fingers. First I had it, then I didn’t. Poof! As if it was just a dream.

  But it hadn’t been a dream. It was more real than anything I’d ever known.

  And now that it was back, I had no fucking clue how to deal with it.

  9

  JESSE

  “Jesse, you have to try to move it a little more,” Maisey said. She was wearing blue scrubs today, her hair pulled back again, and secured with a silver pin. I kept looking at the pin as she stretched my leg, and I was finding myself obsessively distracted by it. I wanted to reach out and slide it out of her hair slowly, just to witness her curls cascading down around her shoulders. Her face was drawn and serious, her lips pursed tightly when she wasn’t speaking. She’d hardly looked at me since I’d walked in this morning.

  She was already in the treatment room when I’d hobbled in, her back rigid, her mouth set firmly with professional seriousness. She’d taken a few minutes to go over my treatment plan and schedule in detail and then went right into the treatments.

  She’d done some cold laser therapy first, running a wand over my knee that was supposed to shoot lasers below the skin, allowing the healing light to penetrate deeply into the ligaments. I didn’t feel a thing when she’d done that. I just silently watched and listened as she launched into a long drawn out speech about the benefits of cold lasers for the six minutes she was bent over my leg.

  But now, she’d turned into some sort of Nurse Ratched. She was pulling on my leg, forcing it to move in ways that it wasn’t ready to move.

  “It fucking hurts,” I grumbled.

  “Have you been taking your pain meds?”

  “No. Fuck that stuff. I don’t like drugs. I gotta stay sharp,” I replied.

  “You just had surgery. Are you insane? If you don’t take the meds, we’ll never get anywhere.”

  “And if I do, where will we get?” I asked, flashing her a smile that had worked magic on dozens of women before. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t blink. Hell, I might as well have been a big, steaming pile of dog shit, as much as she seemed to be opposed to my presence.

  “We’re both here to do a job, Jesse. I’m here to help you get better. But I can’t do it on my own. You have to take your meds. You have to do your exercises. You aren’t invincible, despite what your adoring fans probably tell you. Now - lift!” she demanded, pulling my leg up and bending my knee. I was laying on my back, staring up at her as she kept moving and stretching my leg.

  “Where’d you go?” I asked, changing the subject. Of course I would do my part. That much was a given. I had millions of dollars on the line here, and I wouldn’t jeopardize my career by not taking this recovery seriously. I’d take the fucking pain killers, sure, but probably only half the prescribed dose because I wasn’t a total pussy. Besides, I didn’t want to lie to Maisey, or piss her off by not taking the damn things.

  Which was insane, because really, what did I care how she felt? But for some reason, I did. Shit, I should be the one that’s mad at her for standing me up all those years ago, but she was acting like I was the one that’d done something wrong. That was pissing me off…

  And making me eve
n more curious…

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “When you took off from Ault. Where’d you go?” I asked. I’d asked around back then a little, tried talking to her few friends, once I’d even seen Clyde at the corner store buying beer and I’d asked him where she’d gone, but nobody ever had any answers. She’d just disappeared. As if she’d never been there at all.

  “I moved to Denver,” she replied, then clamped her mouth shut. “Let’s do your other leg.”

  She walked around me and her hips swayed with each step. She’d turned into such a beauty. She was feminine yet strong. Her attitude towards me was hard, yet there was a lingering softness just underneath the surface. Or, maybe I was just projecting the past onto the present, I don’t know. Something about her made me want to get to know her better, made me want to get to the bottom of the What-Happened-to-Maisey-Jayne mystery.

  Maybe it was the fact that she was the only woman who’d ever left me hanging.

  Or, maybe it was because she represented something I’d lost a long time ago.

  Those years in Ault were magical. An innocent time before my life changed so drastically. I’d been so close to my family. My parents were kind and supportive, letting me and my little sister, Nina, experience the kind of love that every child needs to become a happy adult. Nina and I were the best of friends, even though she was so much younger than me.

  I’d graduated and gone off to college full of naive dreams that my life would always be perfect, that nothing bad could ever touch me.

  But then, everything changed. Nina died suddenly one night during my sophomore year in college and our world turned upside down.