Around the World in 80 Men Series Boxed Set 1-10

by Brandi Ratliff

  “I'm....uh..,” she looked at the sleeping man, hoping that he would wake up and get her out of the situation. No luck, he simply turned his head at the irritation of the voices in his room. “I'm a friend of Tanner's. I was with him when he got hurt.” There, she thought, she didn't owe anymore of an explanation to anyone, especially not Big Red.

  “Oh, really?” The woman's sarcastic tone made Morgan want to throw the flowers that she had bought for Tanner right at her perfectly straight tresses. “Well,” Red stood on the other side of the bed, and displayed a small evil smile, “I'm his friend too, and I have been for over a year, so I believe that makes me the one that should be here with him.” The pushy woman tucked the blanket under Tanner's chin, and smoothed his hair.

  Morgan had no interest in arguing with her, all she wanted to do was get back to the hotel and ready the room for Tanner's return in the morning.

  “I'm leaving anyway.” Morgan bent down, and kissed the man's tan forehead. Her gesture was cut short when her arm was grabbed tightly.

  “Don't! I said he was mine, so don't touch him again.” She tried to pull Morgan away by the arm, but the blonde jerked away and met her gaze head on.

  “Put your hand on me again, and you'll need a cast tonight.” She felt her blood heating at the sight of the pathetic woman.

  “What? Morgan?” Tanner's voice was quiet, as he opened his eyes and looked at both women at either side of his bed. When he looked at the red head, his face distorted in question and disbelief. “Veta? What....why are you here?” He tried to sit up, but the drugs were too strong for such a thing right then.

  Veta put her hands on his face, “I ran into Tony, he said that you were brought in today. My poor baby, is there anything you need?”

  Tanner tried to pull his head away from her hands, but her hold was too tight. “No, I don't. You need to leave.” His eyes were closing again, and Veta pretended not to hear him. Morgan did hear him, and it was clear that whatever was between them meant much more to the woman than it did to Tanner.

  I've had enough fun for one day. Morgan picked up her bag, and left the room, refusing to give the woman anymore of her time.

  The hospital was a little less than a mile from the hotel, and the walk wouldn't have normally been much for Morgan, but she was exhausted by the time she reached their room. Once inside, she ran a bubble bath, and searched the room for her tiny wrapped chocolate to treat herself after a hard day.

  “There you are!” She had already undressed as she walked through the room, tossing her clothes on top of her suitcase along the way. She took the little morsel into the bathroom with her, and started to unwrap it. Tanner likes these. Her fingers stopped, and she stared at it for several seconds before taking it back to the bedroom, and placing it on the nightstand. She smiled at the little square before heading back for her bath.

  Before she had both feet in the tub, she heard her familiar jazz tune coming from her phone. A quick mental debate of whether or not she take her bath and check it later, or answer it right then, ended when she thought that it could be the hospital.

  “I'm coming!” She called out to the phone, because she knew that it always helped to do that when it was close to its last ring.

  Morgan tapped the button quickly, and started back to her bath as she answered. “Hello?” The voice on the other end was completely unexpected.

  “Hello, love. It's Finlay.”

  Her heart skipped a beat and she forgot where she had been walking. In an awkward mid-step, she searched for her voice, Finlay! “Fin, I'm so happy to hear from you!”

  “Aye, lass, it's me.” His voice gave her a sense of familiarity and comfort. She hadn't realized until that moment how much she had missed him.

  “Well..how...how are you doing?” she managed to squeak out.

  “I'm doing well, beautiful, I just wanted to see how ye were holding up. Where did ye end up?” he asked. Morgan thought it was very sweet of him to ask. It shocked her that he actually cared.

  “I'm great! It's so beautiful here!” She found her legs again and carried herself to the rest of the way to the tub and stepped in. With no one to overhear her conversation, she put her phone on speaker and set Finlay on the edge of the tub. “Oh, and I'm in Australia!” Her familiar giggle echoed into the phone and the handsome Scot smiled at the other end.

  “Aye, Australia is verra nice, indeed,” he agreed and Morgan could hear his smile through the phone. “What have ye been getting yerself into?”

  “Oh, the usual, causing trouble. I'm beginning to think I'm jinxed! Tanner, the Aussie I'm with...” the words cut into Finlay like a hot knife. He obviously knew she would be with another man, but he didn't want to hear about it. “...broke his ankle today. I told you, I'm bad luck, Fin!”

  “I'm sure it wasn't your fault!” Finlay tried to reassure her.

  “Well, no, not exactly. I mean, it kind of was. We were riding horses and I didn't want mine to run. So, when he was up ahead and looked back at me, he fell.” As she spoke the words out loud, she actually laughed. The look on his face had been pretty priceless. Morgan had watched him fall for what seemed like hours, his arms flailing around him for some kind of relief that wouldn't be there. Okay, it's not funny! Another snigger.

  “You're a wee devil. Laughing at a hurt man, just plain evil ye are,” Finlay scolded her playfully.

  “I am not!” Finlay knew the tone of her voice, and knew that she probably had crossed her arms right then. He was right.

  “Ye know, it's a wee shame I couldn't show ye more of the land, lass,” Finlay casually changed the subject.

  Yeah, well if you hadn't made me leave. Morgan scowled at her phone, but quickly replaced it with a grin, “well, I'm sure I'll be back one day, Fin. Maybe you can show me around.” Her suggestion was sincere, she'd love to see Scotland, and him again. She also regretted not seeing more of either.

  Finlay missed her more than he thought possible, and more than he was willing to admit. He agreed that he would be honored to accompany her anytime she returned and Morgan had been thrilled with that answer. The sexy voice told her to keep in touch and they said their goodbyes and hung up.

  Keep in touch.

  The words not only bounced off of the ceramic tiling in the bathroom, but bounced through her mind. He wanted to keep in touch. “He really does care.” She sank down in the bathtub and stayed there until the water got too cold.

  After she got out and wrapped herself in a much-too-long robe, she called room service, sat herself in front of the TV and indulged in some fresh fish and shrimp, or prawn, as Tanner would have corrected her.

  Once she had her fill, she cursed at the alarm clock again as she was forced to set it early to pick up Tanner from the hospital and after a few tosses and turns, she was eventually lulled to sleep by the beautiful accents on the television.

  Chapter Five

  Morgan awoke the next morning feeling like she was under attack. The hotel phone was ringing, her phone was playing its loud jazzy number, the bedside alarm clock was buzzing and she was pretty sure someone had just knocked at the door.

  The startled girl threw the blanket off her head and shielded her eyes from the glaring sun as she padded her bare feet across the room to the front door. After peering through the little hole, she established that part of the siege must have been in her dream.

  One by one, she made her way around the room, shutting off all the intrusions to her sleep. She got to her phone last, silencing the blues, and saw she had a text message...no, two messages, actually. One was from Julianne, telling Morgan to give her a call later and knowingly told her 'I knew you'd like Tanner'. Morgan smiled at the true statement. Yes, Tanner was a lot of fun, that much was true.

  The other message was from Jack. Jack Dalon. The doucheface that had stood her up two weeks earlier. Morgan couldn't even be mad anymore. If he hadn't stood her up, she wouldn't be where she was just then.

  His me
ssage: Sry bout the other day. Let's try again 2nite.

  The jackass thought she was still in her shithole apartment, with her shitty job, and her shitty clothes. He thought she would have called him by then, but he was horny and she was surely down to fuck. Jack figured the least he could do was send the bitch a quick text message.

  Morgan thought back to the night he stood her up. How vulnerable she had been, how willing she had been to sleep with him to keep his attention, and how forgiving she would have been if Julianne hadn't saved her! Morgan got an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She was sick with herself at how the old Morgan would have done it. The old Morgan would have been thrilled with his last minute offer or the little bones he might have throw her now and then. She would have spent the next few months listening to him call her Mandy, Megan and Monica, putting up with his doggish ways and making excuses for him.

  Not anymore, assfuck. She held her phone close and closed her eyes, thank you, Julianne. I don't know what you saw in me that night, but I'll do my best to make you not regret it!

  She debated on it if had even been worth the time to reply, but she settled on a to-the-point message: If u can make it to Sydney by 8, I might let u buy me a drink.

  She smiled to the empty room around her. That felt good. Suck it, Jack!

  “Oh, shit!” Morgan looked at her watch, she only had twenty-five minutes to get to the hospital. “Okay, I can do this!”

  Even after her words of encouragement to herself, the morning quickly snowballed from there. It started when she ran toward the bathroom. She knocked her toe on the desk. Her pinky toe. She had thought of Tanner's pinky toe simile at the restaurant and got herself into a fit of laughter, from the irony, and tears, from the pain, all at once. After nursing her toe, she was down to twenty minutes.

  Then, her hair straightener was no where to be found. She paced around the room for a moment, debating on whether to call Finlay and ask if it was there, but she knew it wouldn't help in her current situation, even if it was at his house, so she decided to wait, and had to settle on a pony-tail.

  A knock at the door interrupted the few minutes she had spared to apply make-up, so she had to skimp on that too, only having time to apply a layer of gloss across her full lips. The knock at the door was room service, asking if they needed linens or more toiletries. Morgan declined the cleaning, but told the tiny woman that in one hour, she wanted a big, big breakfast to be delivered to the room. The little lady agreed, then wanted to have a long talk about the weather.

  Morgan tapped her long fingernails on the frame of the door as the woman told her that there was a chance of rain, yeah, rain, okay, gooooo!

  After four minutes of wasted time, Morgan looked at her watch again. Ten minutes. “Shit, shit, shit!”

  She grabbed her head, trying to steady a single thought. With a deep breath, it came to her, “clothes!” Morgan had no idea what he would want to wear, but she grabbed a white tee, a pair of black cotton shorts and his flip-flops, threw them in a bag, and ran out of the room.

  When she got off the elevator, she was greeted by another staff member. Yeah, rain, I get it. Sure enough, the man told her it looked like rain. What? Does it never fuckin' rain here? Is it going to rain goddamn Skittles or something?

  Morgan politely excused herself, and finally, made it outside. She threw the backpack over her shoulder, and limped to the corner of the street. “Damn toe,” she mumbled at it as it throbbed wildly in her shoe. She took a glance up at the sky while she waited for traffic to slow, sunny as a mo-fo out here. Morgan shrugged her shoulders and crossed the road. Once on the safe side, she began walking the way to the hospital. Then she walked faster. Then she ran.

  By the time she got inside the air-conditioned building, sweat had beaded on her chest and forehead and the cool air of the hospital gave her a chill.

  In a car outside, Veta had just stepped a foot out onto the sidewalk, but quickly pulled it back inside when she had seen Morgan coming. She also noticed the bag of clothes that the blonde was lugging on her back, and figured that Tanner would be released that morning. I'll wait, bitch. I'll see where you take him.

  Morgan nearly ran to Tanner's room, but the hype that she had been feeling for possibly being late was laid to rest. The man was sitting on the side of the bed, with his foot resting on the chair beside him.

  He smiled, and his face looked tired but pleased to see her. “I'm just about ready. We'll be out of here in just a minute,” he reassured her.

  Morgan let out a long sigh of relief, and sat in the chair on the other side of the bed. She didn't want to face his back and make him turn to see her, but she had to rest herself for just a minute after the morning that she was having. Just as she was about to speak, she jumped in her chair at the loud crack of thunder.

  “Geez!” She got up and looked out the window. Black clouds had covered the sky in the few minutes since she had been inside. “We need to get going, it's going to pour soon!” She gathered his paperwork from beside the bed, and put them in the bag. “Here, I can help you get dressed if you'd like.” Morgan put his clothes next to him on the bed.

  He reached out and put his hand over hers, “you can help me get dressed now, then help me get them off when we get to our room.” She laughed at his prowess, considering. The nurse in the room huffed at the exchange, and interrupted them.

  “He'll have to take these,” she handed Morgan a bottle of pills, “every four hours or as needed for pain.” Then she took another bottle out from her pocket, “these are for infection, every four hours, even if you have to wake him to give it to him.”

  There's a freaking storm coming, speed it up Nurse Ratched!

  “Now, see that he eats before taking those.” She pointed to the pills marked 'eat before taking.'

  “Alright, I got it. Thanks.” She bent down and put Tanner's legs gently into his shorts. Helping him pull them up, she made sure to keep his gown on until he was covered.

  “What's the matter, afraid you'll take me right here if ya see it?” He winked. Lord help her, he winked. Even though she loved seeing it, and it did have a bit of an effect on her, she just wanted to get out of the hospital before the heavens opened up.

  “Yep, that's exactly what I'm doing.” She removed the robe, and pulled his shirt over his fluffy blonde hair. “So, keep your man stick under wraps until we get back.” They both laughed, and the nurse gave one more irritated huff as she left the room to get a wheelchair.

  When she came back, Morgan had Tanner and his belongings all ready to go. The short nurse brought a clipboard with her when she returned. “Sign these.” She handed the papers to Morgan.

  “Which ones?” She flipped through the small stack as she asked.

  The nurse smiled, and it wasn't friendly, “all of them. They're his release forms, and since you're taking him, you have to sign them.” She leaned against the wall as she waited.

  “Fine.” She had just signed the third paper stating that Tanner's medication dosage had been explained when another loud crack of thunder made her jump. She got through the rest of the stack in record speed.

  As Morgan walked behind the nurse and Tanner, carrying clothes, medication, paperwork, and two vases filled with flowers, she noticed the man's head moving from side to side. “Tanner! Don't go to sleep!” Morgan ran to his side, and his eyes opened wide.

  “Sorry, they gave me pills not long ago and I can barely stay awake.” He held her hand, and they stayed that way until they were outside. Morgan was happy that the rain hadn't started yet. But her happiness was short lived.

  The nurse and Tanner stayed under the awning as Morgan stood in the pouring rain, waving to a taxi to get his attention. He ignored her; her temper was beginning to flare as her soaking wet bangs began to stick to her face. Eventually, one saw her and pulled up.

  When Morgan returned to get Tanner, the smile on the dry nurse's face made the young girl's hand itch with the need slap it right off. In
stead, she used all of her strength to get Tanner into the back seat, then ran to the opposite side and finally got herself out of the rain.

  “Enjoy your time with him, because he'll be mine today.” Veta pulled out behind the cab, and followed the duo straight to the hotel less than a mile away.

  The idea of getting out of the cab was bad enough, but seeing Tanner's head fall to the side as he fell completely asleep made it so much worse. She wondered how she would get the man, who would have to use crutches, up to the seventh floor. When they came to a stop, she paid the driver, then grabbed everything that she had into her arms. “Tanner, you need to wake up! Tanner!” His eyes fluttered, but she couldn't get him to wake up.

  Just as she was about to ask the driver for help, a hotel employee knocked on Tanner's side window. He then opened the door, “ya need some help?” Morgan nodded, pathetically, the man noticed, and he smiled as he turned to motion for more men to help him.

  It took three men to get Tanner's lifeless form to their room. She thanked them profusely, and told them quietly that Tanner would see to their compensation when he felt better. They all nodded with gratitude, and left the room.

  Just as she dropped the bag, and everything else that she had been carrying, there was a soft knock at the door. “Room service.” Morgan opened it quickly, and let the girl in. After setting up their breakfast, Morgan signed for the meal and added a hefty tip for the girl.

  The food looked and smelled amazing, but it would just be her eating that morning, because Tanner didn't look as if he would wake for several more hours. She wanted to change into some dry clothes first, and she started peeling her wet outfit off as she walked to the bathroom. She managed to remove her shirt, when there was another knock at the door.

  “Shit!” She grabbed a towel from the bathroom, and ran to the front door. “Did you forget some....?” Standing on the other side was not room service.