Love Under Two Responders [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  “Baby?”

  “Dizzy.” She went back down on her knees. “Having a bit of trouble breathing.” Her arm looked to be even more swollen, with red welts popping up all over the place.

  “Oh, God!” Edward’s voice seemed surreal, as if it was coming to her from a distance. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears.

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  She barely noticed that Edward had raced off, or that Warren had moved closer, and helped her lie down on the grass.

  “I’ve got bad news for you, sweetheart. It appears you’re allergic to bee stings. I think you’re going into anaphylactic shock.”

  “Oh.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.”

  Warren’s voice sounded calm, and Carol relaxed. It couldn’t be so bad if he was calm.

  Edward knelt beside her. “A little pin pick, honey.”

  “A what? Ouch. Damn it. Another bee?”

  “No, beautiful, just a dose of epinephrine.”

  “Emily Anne, take my cell phone and use speed dial number three. That’s the clinic. Tell them we’re coming in, and tell them why.”

  “Okay, but I’m riding in the front.”

  Carol could hear her friend calling at the same time Warren lifted her in his arms. “This is bad, isn’t it?” she asked him.

  “Yes, it’s bad. But you’re going to be all right. Trust us?”

  Thinking seemed to be difficult, but she didn’t really need to think about the answer to that question. Her breathing seemed easier but she felt really tired all of a sudden, and rested her head against Warren’s shoulder. “Course I do. I trust you both.”

  “Then rest, baby. Let us take care of you.”

  She was vaguely aware that they’d reached the EMT vehicle. She let the thought form that she’d never seen the inside of one before.

  And then she closed her eyes and gave herself over to their care.

  Chapter 19

  Warren had never been so terrified in all his life. It didn’t matter that he’d treated some cases of anaphylactic shock that were far worse than the one he’d just witnessed. It didn’t matter that he knew the first dose of epinephrine had already begun to take effect, and that Carol was going to be all right.

  This was his woman, and the fact that she’d been hurt and needed emergency care scared the crap out of him.

  She’d passed out in his arms and his heart had lodged into his throat and stayed there.

  Ed squealed the brakes, bringing the van to a very fast and sudden stop. They hadn’t been three minutes from Carol’s house to the clinic, and he’d barely laid her on the gurney and taken her vitals. As soon as the truck stopped, Warren released the lock on the stretcher.

  The doors of the van were yanked open, and David and Robert Jessop were both there, reaching for the gurney, pulling it toward them and out of the vehicle. The clinic doors stood open, and just that fast they were running with her toward an exam room. He recited pulse and blood pressure and then his mind simply went blank.

  “She’s going to be fine,” Robert said.

  “Another member of our EpiPen carrying club, I see,” Dr. Adam Jessop said from the doorway.

  Warren blinked. He’d forgotten that his uncle Adam was allergic to bee stings, too. So were a few more members of the family, which was one reason why the EMT vehicle always had EpiPens with the premeasured dose of the drug on hand.

  They transferred Carol from the vehicle’s stretcher to the gurney in the exam room. Warren didn’t even care that Jillian shot it out the door, and that it was doing a slow roll in the reception area. His focus was completely on his woman.

  He stood on one side of the gurney, and his brother was on the other. Robert and David worked quickly, hooking Carol up to a heart monitor as well as the automatic blood pressure cuff. A pulse monitor was attached to her finger, and Warren didn’t think he’d ever seen doctors work so fast.

  He understood their actions were routine. Beside his uncle Adam, in the doorway, Emily Anne looked frightened. She had her teeth on her bottom lip and his cell phone in her hand.

  Warren closed his eyes for one moment, dragging his calm into this moment with both hands. Then he opened his eyes and smiled at the woman. “She’s going to be fine, Emily Anne.”

  “She is indeed,” David Jessop said. “This is standard procedure, and we like to move fast. Just in case.”

  “Wow.” Carol’s voice, soft and sleepy sounding, drew his attention to her.

  Her pretty blue eyes blinked open and she met his gaze. “I don’t even remember the ride here.”

  “Quite often, as soon as the medication starts to kick in, exhaustion takes over. I’ve seen it happen more than once,” Robert Jessop said. He looked up at Warren. “I think the one dose was enough, likely because you administered it so fast. But we’ll monitor her for awhile, just to be sure.”

  “I don’t think a minute passed between when they realized she was having a problem and Edward gave her that shot,” Emily Anne said.

  “Yep, the faster, the better.” Adam Jessop came into the room. “How are you feeling, Carol?”

  Carol looked a bit dazed, and Warren thought she was having a bit of a time taking in all the faces looking down at her.

  “Tired,” she said. “And that sting still smarts a little.”

  “I’ll give you a topical medication,” Robert said. “Just let me check if the stinger is still in, first.”

  “I think it’s gone,” Warren said, “but please check, anyway.”

  Robert only had to hold out his hand and Jillian—his wife and assistant—handed him a pair of goggles.

  “Just let me have a look, there, Carol.”

  She could barely lift her arm, and Warren couldn’t help but notice how gentle Robert was as he examined the site of the sting. Already, the welts she’d had were less than they had been, and he thought the wound itself had reduced in size.

  “It looks clear to me. How are you feeling, sweetie?”

  “Better, but drowsy. I can breathe easier. I was having trouble when it first hit. I’ve never been allergic to anything in my life, before.”

  “Allergies are funny things,” Robert said. “Some people are born with them, and then outgrow them. Others develop them as adults.”

  “Lucky me. I mean that. Lucky for me that you two were there.” She reached out to them, and he and Ed each took one of her hands, each raised them to their lips and kissed them at the same time.

  “So now what?”

  Warren counted it a very good sign that she was becoming more awake, and would ask that. He had his eyes on the equipment, just as the doctors did. He could see that her heart rate was near normal. Her temperature was normal, and so was her blood pressure.

  “Now you get to carry an EpiPen—a medical device that’s got a dose of epinephrine in it,” Robert said. “If you get stung again, you administer that immediately. But you still need to get medical help. Warren and Ed will get you set up with that.”

  “Okay. So that was pretty serious, what happened to me?” Her brow furrowed, and she looked right at Robert.

  “It could have been a lot more serious than it was. It’s not something to fool around with. This is one of those cases where it’s best to err on the side of caution.”

  “How serious could it have been?”

  Robert looked at Warren, and he got the silent message.

  Warren used his other hand to stroke her head. When she looked up at him, he said, “In rare cases, an anaphylactic reaction can be fatal.”

  “Okay.” Carol sighed. “And feeling tired like I am right now is normal?”

  “It is,” Robert said. “We’ll monitor you for a while, and then release you to the paramedics, here. We’ll want you to take it easy for the next day or so.”

  Carol yawned, and blinked and Warren figured she was having trouble keeping her eyes open.

  “Why not just let yourself drift, Carol?” David asked. “
You don’t have to stay awake. We’re all here, and we’re all going to make sure you’re okay. You can sleep the sleep of the righteous.”

  “Nope. Gonna sleep the sleep of the sleepy.”

  Carol’s wit had the doctors—all three of them—chuckling. The look in their eyes was what Warren would see if they had one of their female cousins as a patient—familial love. But Carol had already dozed off and didn’t even notice.

  * * * *

  The bedside light came on, it’s glow soft and unobtrusive. She didn’t know what time it was, but she knew it was late, because it was dark outside the window.

  She’d awakened several minutes before and was just lying there, enjoying the comfort of the bed and the heat of the men who had her snuggled between them.

  “Are you all right, baby? Do you need anything?”

  Carol was certain she hadn’t moved a muscle but somehow, Warren had known she had awakened.

  “Can we get you something?” Edward moved subtly, so that he was half sitting up, his head resting on his hand as he looked down at her.

  “What time is it?” She yawned around the question.

  “Just after three in the morning. Are you hungry?” Warren rested his hand on her stomach. “You didn’t have any dinner.”

  “Maybe a little.”

  “What would you like?” Edward’s other hand joined his brother’s, his fingers just above Warren’s.

  “Hot tea and toast. Whenever I was sick, my mother would always make me hot tea and toast.” Carol heard the words and burst into tears.

  They held her while she cried, great wrenching sobs that shook her to her core. She cried long and hard and felt completely unable to stop, even as she tried to understand why she was crying.

  Finally, after what felt like forever, she shuddered and sighed and hiccupped. Warren and Edward had taken turns mopping her tears. They’d crooned to her as they caressed her. Mostly, they’d just let her cry.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Feel better?”

  “No. Now I have a bit of a headache.”

  Warren kissed her forehead and left the bed, returning moments later with a washcloth. He gently wiped her face. When she struggled to sit up, he helped her, placing pillows behind her back.

  “I’m going to go make you some hot tea and toast,” Edward said. He, too, kissed her forehead before he left the bed.

  “You call that a kiss?” Carol felt a little grumpy, even though they’d held her from the moment they’d tucked her into the bed between them—with chaste kisses good-night.

  “It’s all the kissing you get for a little while,” Edward said. “We’re not letting our inner beasts have at you until you’ve recovered from your reaction.”

  “But letting me play with your inner beasts might help me recover!”

  Both men chuckled. Edward left the room and Warren sat beside her, put his arm around her and urged her to lay her head on his shoulder.

  “Your body has been through a hell of a shock, sweetheart.” Warren stroked her gently and kissed the top of her head. “We want you like crazy, but more, we want you well.”

  “You’re pretty bossy.” All the time these men had been coming to her for manicures, she’d mistaken their shyness for lack of a backbone. She’d listened to those who’d claimed they knew the men, and believed the men she’d fallen for were mild mannered, awkward, beta-type men.

  Their families and friends didn’t see the men they really were, any more than my family saw me. Of course, Carol understood that to a certain degree, the people of Lusty had seen as much of Warren and Edward Jessop as they’d wanted to show them.

  Did I do that, too? Did I just show my family a bit of myself and keep the real me back?

  “I’m only bossy when it’s important, love. I’m never going to tell you what to do, except when it comes to looking out for your well-being.”

  “I can live with that.” Actually, discovering that these two men weren’t as “beta” as she’d been led to believe suited her just fine.

  “Good. Now how are you feeling?”

  “Tired and washed out.”

  “How’s the headache?”

  “Easing a bit, thank you.”

  She felt a shudder rip through Warren. “I’ve never been so down-to-the-bone scared as I was this afternoon. It was just pure shit luck that had us stop in at your house, that had us be there when we needed to be there. My God. If we hadn’t been…”

  Carol wrapped her arm around Warren and rubbed her face on his chest. “Shh. Everything happens for a reason, darling. The important thing is that you were there. I didn’t thank you. I should have thanked you for saving my life.”

  “There’s no need. I’d die without you. So would Ed. You really are the center of us.”

  Carol closed her eyes and just relished being held and cosseted. She really could just relax and be, because this man and his brother would always care for her.

  Edward came back into the room carrying a tray. On a saucer was a cup of hot tea, and it pleased her, when she sipped it, to know he’d made it the way she liked it, light and slightly sweet.

  He’d also made her two pieces of toast, buttered, and cut diagonally. He’d set a small jar of honey and one of strawberry jam on the tray as well, along with two mugs of coffee—the last clearly for him and Warren.

  “Thank you. I’ll try not to get toast crumbs in the bed.”

  “Well, we won’t toss you out of it if you do,” Edward said. He winked, and she laughed.

  She only ate one piece of toast, with a very light skim of honey on it. She really didn’t want anything more than that, and the tea.

  Edward moved the tray to the dresser. He opened one of the drawers and pulled out two stethoscopes and a blood pressure cuff.

  “In the bedroom? Really?”

  “Hey,” Warren said, “you never know when we might get the urge to play doctor.”

  Carol chuckled and then lay back and let them do their thing, which really was just another way for them to take care of her.

  Edward took her blood pressure while Warren listened to her chest. They must have both been satisfied with the results, because they smiled, and seemed to relax a little.

  “Okay, I’d say now it’s just a matter of your resting and letting your body recover from that shock it had.”

  “How long, do you think? I have clients tomorrow.”

  “Not now, you don’t,” Warren said. “We called Chloe just after we brought you home, but she’d already heard that you’d had a problem. She said to take as much time as you need.”

  “It’ll be my first sick day on this job.” She felt like pouting, but that wouldn’t do any good. They were right. She really wasn’t in any shape to serve anyone at the moment.

  “You’re like us. A professional all the way,” Edward said.

  There was such matter-of-factness in his tone that her ego was immediately stroked. He didn’t hesitate to compare her way of making a living with his. They’d never looked down on her because she worked in a spa. Carol sighed.

  “I do hate taking days off, but I guess I have to, tomorrow. You’re right. I bet I sleep most of the next twenty-four hours.”

  “Still feeling wiped out?” Warren asked.

  “That’s how I feel exactly. Wiped out, exhausted and weak.”

  “Sleep will bring you back. We’ll make certain you get some OJ and some protein through the day tomorrow, along with some good solid sleep.”

  “We’ll take good care of you, beautiful.”

  “You don’t need to be wasting your breaks rushing back here to look after me.”

  “We won’t. Bradley and Amanda are covering for us tomorrow—or I should say, later today.”

  “You’re taking the day off, too?”

  “We are.” Edward reached out and stroked one finger down her face. “We need to take care of you. That’s how we’re going to recover from the shock we suffered.”

  She looked from him
to Warren, who leaned close, kissed her lips lightly.

  “We were so scared yesterday, baby,” Edward said. “Completely filled with terror.”

  Edward’s words echoed Warren’s earlier declaration. At the time, she hadn’t thought they were afraid at all. “But y’all moved so fast, you knew exactly what to do. And because you did, I’m thinking things didn’t go nearly as bad for me as they could have.”

  “Training,” Edward said. “My knees were shaking the entire time I ran for the Epi.”

  “I don’t know how I found the strength to carry you,” Warren said. “My legs were just as bad. So take pity on us, and let us coddle you for the day.”

  “Okay.”

  They nestled her in between them very nicely. She’d awakened on Warren’s chest. So she turned over and laid her head on Edward’s—she was nothing if not an equal opportunity snuggler.

  “Will you tell us why you cried, baby?” Edward’s voice sounded deeper, more intimate echoing through his chest and into her ear.

  Carol sighed. “I think it was just everything. I realized that despite all that had happened last New Year’s, during that crisis and being afraid of what was happening to me earlier, I wanted my mother.”

  “There are times when only your mother will do,” Warren said. “It’s like that for us, too.”

  “Yeah. So I guess I better pull up my big-girl panties and see what I can do about mending this rift between us.”

  “We’ll go with you if you want us to,” Edward said.

  “Damn right we will. You rest tomorrow, and then we’ll make plans. However you want to handle it, we’re with you,” Warren said.

  “Never doubt it, Carol Ashwood. You’re the most important person in the world to us. There’s no place we want to be, under any circumstances, more than wherever it is that you are.”

  Wasn’t that what love was all about? Carol sighed as the heat of her two men surrounded her. She could hear the beat of Edward’s heart under her ear, and hear the slow cadence of Warren’s breathing behind her.

  She wanted only to be wherever they were at, too. It sounded like heaven to her.