His profile revealed little except that the sandy blond, sun-bleached shaggy hair she remembered was now immaculately cut and styled in a burnished darker blond color with what she suspected from this distance were strands of grey at his temples. This man was an adult, and a powerful one at that if his take-command behavior since the moment he had announced to a shocked and speechless Jules and Ned that he was taking care of the situation was any indication.
Swallowing back a shaken sigh Shannon realized that though she tried to block her feelings she was helpless and sinking fast. Her mind wandered over the moments that made up this extraordinary day and felt a creeping nervousness like butterflies before an important event invading every fiber of her being. Her awareness of him was shockingly unexpected and oh so delicious at the same time.
A quick internal scan revealed much more than the bumps, cuts, scrapes, and sprains that led to this bizarre situation. What was looming even more importantly was the spontaneous response that she could not control that seemed to be reaching out to him as though her body and soul recognized his as a missing part. A longing, deep and intense, overtook her and made more tears swim in her eyes. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, and for long moments, she simply absorbed a tidal wave of memories both good and also tragically painful. The tears she was trying to keep private were going to break free, and there was nothing she could do about it.
* * *
Shannon let out a little sigh, snapping Nick back to instant, focused awareness of where he was and who else was in the room With unerring accuracy, his head instantly turned toward the delicate sigh still captured in the air, only instead of finding her eyes looking back at him, he was met by a hollow gaze. Shannon appeared to be as lost in her own thoughts as he was by the swirling confusion and turmoil he was feeling.
All those years of wondering what she may or may not feel about him had been answered when she had bolted from him in anger and gotten hurt. That she had tried to run from him was all he needed to know. Recognizing that his very presence sparked so vehement and reckless a response from her froze his heart as it sank like a stone to the pit of his stomach.
Everything in him wanted to instantly protect her. For a single heartbeat, he had been so overwhelmed with joy at finding himself in the gift of her presence that he had almost picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder, and run away to the first secluded caveman retreat he could find to simply throw himself at her feet in homage. She was his goddess, his best beloved, the missing part of his sleeping soul, and as undeserving as he was, the universe had somehow given him a second chance to make things right, to fix the madness he had created eight years ago.
And then she had recoiled in horror, wrenching herself from his grasp as though his touch had made her dirty. The strangled No! she had screamed in his shocked face reverberated through his brain on a continuous loop of background noise that he was pretty sure was going to haunt him forever.
And now here she was, in an expensive private clinic, nursing a serious contusion to her ankle, a nasty wound on her shoulder, and an ugly bump on her forehead—all because of him. Good job, Nick.
Like he hadn’t done enough to her already, he winced as her blank gaze continued to remind him of what a complete ass he had been and still was. To make him feel like an even bigger prick, there were clearly tears falling like raindrops down her cheeks. Shit. Those tears had the effect of Novocain on his reactions. He just froze.
Nick felt like the room was bursting at the seems with their swirling energies—hers, his, bouncing off the other, circling, stopping, careening off the walls in a heady communication of lost souls impeded by the frailties of human nature. He felt both longing and fear, reluctant to take whatever the next step would be
Their future lay in frozen suspension all around them while the past stirred the pot. In those halted moments, his devastating power and natural authority stalled in the face of her potent allure. He was helpless. Enchanted. All the money, power, and influence that pervaded his life meant absolutely nothing in this moment. He was, simply put, at his most vulnerable. Exposed and emotionally naked. Always having been rather fearless, he was instead completely terrified. He who had negotiated toe-to-toe with world leaders and powerful tycoons, wielded influence and power beyond what most people could even imagine, was reduced to a panicked mere mortal of a man with no more power or control over this situation than a human could control the waves of the ocean. She was turning him inside out and upside down without so much as looking in his direction.
The silence was deafening, or maybe the noise he was hearing was actually the hammering of his thoughts in his head. Not knowing what to do next, Nick just stared with a tight-lipped expression, unable to break the silence as Shannon shifted slightly and rearranged her position. He could tell that even that slight movement brought pain to every part of her body, causing her to come up short with a barely suppressed groan of discomfort
“Nick, what are you doing here?” Shannon finally asked in a tight, husky little voice that spoke volumes about the fragile state she was in.
Moving closer but cautiously staying an unthreatening step or two away from overpowering her with his presence, Nick answered in short order, “I’m here for Dom’s birthday. He’s my nephew.”
The curious expression in her eyes had him following that detail up in quick response with, “Jules is my little sister.” And then with a slight shrug of self-deprecating humor, he added, “And she just happens to have seduced and married my best friend, so between Ned, Dom, and Jules, my goose is cooked!”
Said tinged with lighthearted humor, Nick instinctively tried to lighten the situation, aware in his very bones that her outward show of calm hid a vulnerability that caused him wisely to soften his approach.
* * *
The half-smile he attempted with his words showed a brief flash of the sexy dimples that had made her knees go weak as a silly twenty-year-old, reminding Shannon again that she was in over her foolish head.
“What about you, Shannon? Why are you here? I gather from something Ned said that you planned Dom’s birthday event?”
To say a million lights went off in her fuzzy, headache-shrouded brain was an understatement. The blazing, brilliant spotlight that was suddenly shining in her mind brought with it some answers to be sure, but also deposited a hundred more questions on her mind’s doorstep.
Good god, he was Jules’s brother and Dom’s uncle. Stunned into silence by this disclosure, Shannon went to reposition herself, as if sitting up straighter was going to make her brain work better. Bad move was her next thought as once again agony shot up her leg, causing fireworks of tension and pain to slice through her head. Her anguished moan—part pain, part frustration, part surrender—echoed off the walls of the exam room.
“No, don’t move,” Nick said with a frustrated growl, causing Shannon to flinch at the gravity of his delivery. He moved suddenly and was across the room at her bedside before she could blink
How the hell did he do that? she wondered. He had a way of dominating the space around him in such a way that made her feel small and vulnerable.
In the next instant, he gently but determinedly nudged her shoulders back against the pillows while rearranging the exam sheet more comfortably around her. Wherever they connected, wherever skin met skin, or if his touch brushed against her clothing, Shannon experienced warmth. Knowing she was aware of him on a deeply physical level caused her senses to scramble even more.
The gentle concern she saw in his actions lodged a huge lump in her throat. Of course, having him mere inches from her meant she was aware of him on a sensory-overload level, too. His cologne, sharp scented with a beguiling spiced undertone mingling with his own unique maleness, brought her breath up short.
Seeming to take her response as another indication of pain or discomfort, Nick leaned forward to catch her eyes with a look of concern before quietly imploring her again to be still.
“Shannon, lie still please.
Wiggling around is only going to make you more uncomfortable.” His hands had moved from her shoulders to the tops of her legs in a motion surely meant to convey calm and stillness, but which brought the opposite effect on her raw emotions.
His use of the word wiggle got an immediate reaction from her as she tried to wrap some dignity around this situation. Realizing that this was the second time he’d mentioned her wiggling, Shannon quickly found her voice.
“I told you before that I do not wiggle!” she snapped out a bit more harshly than intended, but no matter that, she wryly thought. He may be rattling her cage a bit by appearing out of thin air smack dab in the center of her existence in a major way, but she was not going to let him minimize her as if she were an errant child. Wiggle indeed, she inwardly fumed.
His response was a raised eyebrow with just the hint of amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth, most probably, she admitted, because she had indeed been wiggling as he put it. She wanted to roll her eyes at her own foolishness but drew back instead because there was nothing amusing about this.
Shannon was struggling to keep her unease under control. She sincerely hoped that none of the inner turmoil churning inside was showing on her face as she turned what she hoped was a blank stare and a bland expression in his direction. Inside, however, she was filling with an overwhelming feeling bordering on panic. In fact, right then she thought that if anxiety were a water balloon, it would’ve launched itself out of her by now and slammed against the wall behind them, dripping liquid towards the floor. Her next thought was why a water balloon? Why not a balloon filled with paint? At least that way the dripping down the wall would be some intense color like purple—anything to take her mind off her increasing nervousness.
Nicholas Barrett, the man who had made her feel limitless and alive and pathetic and of no consequence, was suddenly and without any warning whatsoever involved in her life without invitation. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, Shannon mused while still snapping defensive glances his way.
She had crumbled in his arms when he carried her to his SUV for the drive to the clinic. Between the pain and the shock of seeing him, she had momentarily lost her emotional equilibrium. Thinking back to how she had silently allowed him to cradle her injured leg in his huge hands and the way she had melted against him when he scooped her up, as though she weighed nothing, made her both want to cringe and do it all again.
Never again! screamed a memory in her head, bringing her instantly back to reality. Uh uh, nope. Not gonna lose it here, girl, she chastised herself. Nicholas Temple Barrett was a different person than the Nick Temple she had loved so desperately. Snap out of it, she firmly chided.
* * *
Nick watched the play of thoughts and emotions dance across her face as though he had some exclusive access to her most secret thoughts. She had always been so easy for him to read and still was, he realized with grim satisfaction. It was as if he was completely tuned in to her on an organic level that time, distance, and a great deal of hurt had not killed. The pretty little pout she threw at him when he told her she was wiggling had almost sent him to his knees. Good lord but she was absolutely adorable sitting there all puffed up and trying to act like she wasn’t as hysterically off-kilter inside as he was.
Fascinated, he made note of the wild seesawing emotions that danced across her expression and guessed rightly, he was sure, that she was struggling with her response to seeing him again and the undercurrent of the terrible way he had treated her the last time they’d spoken. Those two extremes were certainly tying him up in knots, too, but for far different reasons.
He knew that his churlish actions had been done in her best interest, as if the crueler he was, the better to ensure a complete break so she could go on with her life unencumbered by lingering hopes. Only he would know that in doing so, he was dooming himself to a future devoid of emotion, for Nick’s path of duty and destiny had been laid out long before their time together. A period he stole from the past as a lock against the future.
That she was trying to fight off a physical awareness of him was also mightily apparent to Nick. The restless motions of her beautifully expressive hands as they clutched and then smoothed the sheet covering her spoke volumes about the struggle she was having. Whereas he could read her emotions, he was plagued by unease, because though her response to his presence was palpable he couldn’t actually decipher whether she wanted to smack him or hug him. He hoped it was the latter but didn’t discount that, in her mind, he probably deserved the smack.
Sitting this close he had also picked up on the steady but visible pulse in her neck, which was telling its own story. She kept tugging at her bottom lip with quick little bites, a reflexive motion signaling a mixture of distress and excitement, he pulled from his memory.
He wanted nothing more than to lean forward and pass his tongue over the telltale pulse at that spot along her jaw and neck near her ear, which he knew tasted like sin and felt like warm silk against his tongue.
When her hand quickly lifted to that spot as if she had picked up on his desire, he jolted back and fixed her with a look that was probably best left locked away but one that he found he could not control no matter how he tried.
She was trembling, as though the way he had been staring was causing her to hit overdrive. He wondered if she could feel his lips on her neck the way he could. He watched as the hand she’d raised to seemingly ward off his sensual attack instead began to lightly caress the sensitive skin she found there.
They continued this silent eye battle for several long moments before the door to Shannon’s room suddenly opened and in walked the doctor who had been assigned to her care.
“Hello, Ms. Reynolds. My name is Dr. Adam Tyler. Let’s have a look here and see what’s going on,” said the white-coated doctor with the tag that had not only his name on it but a bunch of letters afterwards indicating he was a specialist in many fields.
Looking over at Nick, Dr. Tyler said, “If you don’t mind waiting outside until the examination is over, that would be great.”
Nick instantly replied, “No way. I’m staying right here.”
Dr. Tyler raised an eyebrow, looking to his patient for direction. Shannon’s reflex was to reach out and grab Nick’s hand, much to his surprise, while looking towards Dr. Tyler and saying, “No, no, it’s okay. I want him to stay.”
Nick noticed that Dr. Tyler glanced down at their clasped hands and then just shrugged returning all of his attention to his patient.
Nick didn’t like this young turk very much at all, probably because he had a laid-back California attitude that gave him a science-geek-meets-surfer-dude way about him that was like fingernails on a chalkboard for the powerful, no-nonsense tycoon.
The light pen Dr. Tyler was waving around like a scepter rankled him, too. Of course, what was really pissing Nick off was the simple fact that this obviously talented medical guy was getting more response from Shannon in a few short moments than he had gotten from her this past hour, and he found himself wondering where all the curmudgeon senior doctors were today. The last thing his off-balance disposition needed was some hip, handsome, witty doctor being the hero of the moment.
Of course, it didn’t take but a minute or two for Nick to return to his senses. He had to give the man credit. The Doctor did an efficient and thorough examination in very short order. Shannon was getting the care that she needed, and that was all that really mattered to Nick.
He told them that the gash would need some bandages; the knee and the hands would be fine; the ankle, well that was going to require an X-ray and probably a temporary brace.
When Nick mentioned the bump on her head, Dr. Tyler informed them that the bump was fairly superficial—it looked worse than it actually was and would probably be completely gone by morning, although there would be a nice bruise at her hairline. He was concerned, though, by Shannon’s obvious discomfort and the presence of the headache.
“Are you prone to headaches, Shannon?” th
e doctor asked.
Before Shannon could react, Nick chimed in with a decisive, “Yes, she is,” drawing a side-glance from Shannon.
Nick remembered all too well the migraines that she occasionally suffered from and how the only way to deal with them was by limiting physical activity, staying quiet and calm, and sometimes resting in the darkness. Bright lights in particular seemed to make the pain worse.
Nick could tell Shannon was surprised that he remembered that about her when she stuttered, “I do…yes, I do have migraines from time to time, just not recently. I did notice a persistent headache earlier this morning. Finding myself on my butt on the ground didn’t make it any better. It is pounding pretty hard right now though, Doctor.” She closed her eyes and raised a hand to shield her face from the bright lights in the examination room.
“Okay, well, let’s do this,” said Dr. Tyler. “I’ll have the nurse come in and take care of that gash, put some antibiotic ointment on your hands and knee, and we’ll put a little icepack on your foot to get things started. Then let me arrange for an X-ray of your ankle. Since I can see you are in clear discomfort we’ll give you something to take the edge off that headache. The bump is superficial and you don’t have a concussion, so there won’t be any danger. It will, however, make you little loopy.” At that he waved his fingers in the air making a loopy motion in an obvious attempt to break the tension and get a smile from her. It worked. She smiled. Nick churned.
With that, Dr. Surfer Dude patted Shannon on the shoulder, assured her that she was going to be fine, and then left in search of the nurse, giving directions the whole way as he walked out the door.
Needing something to do and not being able to just stand idly by while someone else took care of his woman… Wait a minute. Did he just think that? Yes, yes, he did. Nick sprang into action and went to the array of light switches by the door of the exam room. Testing all of them, he ended up clicking off two that still left the whole space illuminated but got rid of the high intense glare right over Shannon’s head.
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