Adam’s first response to coming back was shame. He couldn’t believe he’d treated Hannah so roughly. Obviously, it wasn’t enough that he’d upset her mentally, he’d had to compound it by hurting her physically also. Wiping the moisture from his face with his shoulder, he pushed back onto his knees and began to check her over, his features grim as he saw the reddening skin across her throat.
“I’m sorry,” he told her, grabbing onto the table as Phil righted his wheelchair. With a heave, Adam managed to drop back into this chair and put the brake on before holding a hand out to Hannah to help her up.
However, Phil beat him to it. He plucked his sister up off the tiled floor, hands running over the back of her head, checking for injury.
“Shit, Han, you know better. You grew up around dad and me, coming back is never easy, you know that. You’ve also been warned not to approach us if unaware due to either being asleep or going through the after effects. Especially not until we’ve acclimatised. So, why in the hell would you think Adam would be any different. Are you hurt?” he asked, a finger beneath her chin, tilting her head back so he could get a good look at her throat.
“I’m fine. I think my ego took more of a beating,” Hannah admitted with a shrug. “I’m sorry, Adam, I should have thought.”
“I’m sorry, Phil, but do you think you could take me back to the rehab centre now, please?” Adam asked. He couldn’t look at Hannah. Anger at himself was running like lava beneath the surface, bubbling and seething. He also felt chilled, and shaky due to the overload of adrenaline.
“Adam, I’m fine, honestly, I shouldn’t have touched you. I know better.”
“You shouldn’t have had to know better, Hannah. This is all on me.”
“Oh, please, get over yourself. You’ve been traumatised, and the only thing you damaged was my ego, so get over yours. You are human, therefore, not infallible. Plus, my arse is big enough to take the impact,” she hissed, plonking herself back at the table.
“Mum, it’s safe to come back. Adam’s finished,” Hannah shouted and Adam just stared at her, mouth open.
Phil grinned at the look of shock on Adam’s face as he sat back down in his own seat. “Welcome home. It’s the place where your family doesn’t bat an eye at your crazy,” he winked at Adam. “Hey, baby, how was your day?” Phil asked April, taking hold of her hand as she came back into the kitchen.
“It was good. The hotel is coming along,” she told him as she leaned over and kissed his lips before taking the seat beside him. “Hi, Adam, now, Alan, come sit down,” she told their son.
“I, sorry,” Alan told Adam, clambering onto the chair beside his aunt Hannah and sticking his thumb into his mouth.
“Right, can we eat now?” Kay asked walking back to the stove, stroking her hand over Adam’s shoulder on her way passed.
“Yup, I’m starved,” Hannah told her mother. “Workouts always give me an appetite,” she grinned, winking at Adam as her mother began to dish up the big pan of stew. She then gave her attention to her nephew, pretending to take his nose. Alan’s thumb popped out of his mouth as he giggled and Hannah smiled before blowing a raspberry on his cheek.
Adam looked around the table, not sure how to process what had just happened.
He’d had a complete freak out, a meltdown he’d not been prepared for, nearly choking Hannah in the process. However, this family just took it in their stride. He’d been prepared to leave, to crawl back to rehab and asked to be locked up for his own and others safety. Yet, here he sat, watching Hannah not only not blame him, but just accept it and move on as if it was no big deal.
“If it’s any consolation, it took April and some other things happening to me until I got on an even keel. When you’re ready to talk, we’ll discuss what’s available to help you deal. Okay?” Phil asked Adam.
Adam again looked around the table, his eyes once again on Hannah who was laughing as she played with Alan.
“I’ll think about it,” Adam told Phil, who nodded and thanked his mother as she passed him an overflowing bowl of stew.
“Dig in,” Kay told them as she took her own seat beside Alan, her place as head of the table.
Chapter 10
Hannah sat in her yellow Bug, waiting as Phil stowed Adam’s chair in the boot as he sat silently beside her. The boot dropped with a click and Phil tapped on it, his hand raised to them through the windscreen.
“Okay, you ready?” she asked Adam as she put her car in gear and set off.
“Do you not have an oh shit bar in here?” Adam asked, fingers digging into the dashboard.
“If you don’t like the way I drive you could always push yourself the ten-miles or so back to the hospital,” she sniffed. Then edging sideways turned up the volume on the radio.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” she told him not looking at him.
“I meant about earlier, not about your appalling driving.”
“You’re asking for an arse kicking,” Hannah ground out, crunching the gears as she changed up.
“I doubt it, I’ve already managed to knock you on your arse, I think I’ve already won that one.”
“Only because you got me unawares. Next time I’d be ready so I wouldn’t make it so easy for you.”
“What the hell was that thing Alan was playing with anyway?” Adam asked, deciding to let it go. Not wanting to remember how she’d felt beneath him, how the heat and scent of her skin had intoxicated him. Then nearly groaned as his cock came screaming back to life, swelling behind his fly, pushing against the material. He shuffled in his seat looking to get comfortable, trying to rearrange himself without making it obvious.
“Stop messing with your dick. Sheesh, could you at least wait until you’re back in your room. What is it with men and their junk?” Hannah growled.
Yeah, he wasn’t touching that one.
Then again, although it hurt like a son of a bitch, at least he knew he was back in working order. Now if only he could take it for a test-drive.
He turned in his seat and looked towards Hannah, her face in profile as she drove, then let it go.
Still not going there, he was already messed up where she was concerned. Add that to the way he was fucked in the head and learning how to walk on a prosthetic, he wasn’t up to it.
“So, what was it?”
“What?” she asked, confused, her eyes dropping to his groin.
“No, I already know that’s a hard-on. What was that thing Alan was playing with?”
“Not a clue what it’s actual name is, he calls it his zoomy. It’s kind of a rugby ball but it has a tail and makes a whistling sound as it’s thrown.
“Yeah, I heard the whistle,” Adam ground out.
“Is that what did it, the sound?”
“I think so. The sound it made was very like the sound a bullet makes when it’s been fired from a gun. Especially if it’s quiet.”
“Okay, that makes sense.”
“What, that’s it, no questions?”
“I’ve been around army men all my life. Dad was in the army, we went from base to base as military brats, then Phil joined up…” Hannah shrugged.
“So you saw your dad like that with your mum?”
“Hell, no. Dad didn’t need to have come back from tour to be like that, he was a real piece of work,” she snorted.
“Phil never mentions him.”
“Not exactly someone to be proud of. For a while, we thought Phil was going to head down the same path.”
“Phil would never hit April.”
“Oh, not the hitting, he’d never do that to a woman. Not after all the times he saw mum take a beating keeping dad from us. The drinking and fighting… that was all dad.”
“Shit, I never knew.”
“Again, not something we talk about. He’s gone, and I can’t say I’m sorry.”
“How did he die, in service?”
“No. He staggered into the road one night pissed up and was hit head-on by
a speeding car.”
“Damn, I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. The guy had a short fuse and a nasty temper… Hell, life was a lot better after he was gone, and I won’t apologise for my feelings. If we didn’t call him, Sir, we got a beating, same as mum… not exactly father of the year material.”
“Why didn’t she leave, get you all away from him?”
“Fear, plain and simple. He told her if she ever left, he’d track her down and kill us all.”
“I’m sorry,” Adam told her, his hand moving and resting over hers on the gear stick. Hannah shrugged before slipping her hand from beneath his, flicking the indicator as she turned a corner.
Adam curled over, a grimace on his face as his hand went to his prosthetic.
“You okay?”
“Just stiff I think. I’ve been exercising and practicing walking on it. To be honest, I think I’m just generally stiff.”
“Okay, change of plan,” Hannah told him, checking her rear-view mirror, then indicating and doing a U-turn.
“Where are you going?”
“My place… or should I say, the studio below it anyway.”
“Your place?”
“My studio, it’s where I do massage.”
“Massage…”
“Keep up, Adam. You may be a pain in the arse, but I’m not leaving you in pain when I can do something about it.”
She may live to regret this, but she couldn’t sit by and do nothing when she had the capabilities of being able to bring him some relief.
Chapter 11
Hannah dug her hands into his tense shoulders.
Bliss.
“I have something else that could use your attention. If I rolled over…” Adam cut off his words, mumbling as her fingers dug in a little harder. “Ouch, a little rough there.”
“Stop being a pig,” Hannah retorted as she worked on him.
“Aww, come on Hannah, don’t be cruel. I’ve not gotten laid in months.”
“Well, you aren’t getting laid today either. Now be quiet while I sort out these knots, you’re hard as steel.”
“Tell me about it,” Adam huffed, shuffling around and looking for a comfortable position. “Ouch, I’m sure you’re not meant to abuse your patients,” he laughed as Hannah smacked him around the back of the head before going back to digging into his tense muscles.
“You’re not a patient. You’re my bothers smart mouthed mate; and a pain in the arse,” she retorted.
“Now you’re just being mean as you won’t let me… ouch. What was that for?”
“To save your life. If my brother ever hears you talking about doing me, he’s going to remove that appendage you’re now so fond of,” she hissed leaning over him and once again digging her hands into his shoulders.
“You’re the one who said I was a pain in your arse. All I was doing was offering to do it, literally.”
“Shut up. Use your hand like a normal bloke.” She blew out a breath, then leaned forward rubbing her forehead on her forearm to move her hair out of her face. Her bangs were getting long as she was overdue a cut, her bob the longest she’d ever had it.
“So, are you dating?” Adam asked, his question coming out muffled from where his face was wedged into the hole in the table.
He needed to know… it had been playing on his mind, especially after all the dreams.
“Be serious,” she laughed.
“I am.”
“Me too, none of your business. You’d tell Phil, then he’d hunt down whoever it was and scare the life out of him and I’d never see him again.”
“He wouldn’t do that.”
“Please, he tied the last one to a chair in the dining room and held a knife to his nuts while he interrogated him. You lot are lunatics. You’re not in the army now, you can’t go around interrogating people for shits and giggles.”
“And did he?” Adam asked, trying to lift his head up so he could look at her.
“Stay still,” Hannah huffed, pushing his head back down.
“Well?”
“Well what?” she asked, digging into a particularly hard bit of muscle, using an elbow and rotating it to get it to release and making him grunt.
“Did he shit or giggle?” Adam asked after groaning in relief when the stiffness in his neck eased.
“Mum was furious, the guy pissed on her rug,” Hannah fumed.
“He wasn’t for you then,” Adam told her with a shrug.
“Seriously, have you seen my brother. Mean son-of-a-bitch, built like a brick shit house.”
“Yeah, I have, but I’ve seen bigger.”
“Who? Oh, Jeff, yeah. Haneran is bigger, but Phil is meaner.”
“Not really,” Adam told her and she snorted. Adam sighed, conceding defeat. “Okay, he can be, but only where his baby sister is concerned.”
“He needs to stay out of my love life. I swear, I’ll be a born again virgin if he doesn’t cut that shit out.”
Adam groaned, thinking about Hannah and virgin in the same sentence. Shadows moved in his mind, laughter, but it cut off as she leaned over again and he felt her breasts rub against his back.
Tease.
He knew he shouldn’t mess with her, but he couldn’t help it, the dreams were making him crazy. He’d first laid eyes on her after he’d joined the army, way too many years back to think of. She’d been a pretty teenager, jet black hair, gangly legs and huge big green eyes. The next time he’d seen her had been two-years later and she’d most definitely filled out. By the time she was 18-years old she’d had the curves of a 50’s pin-up, and nothing had changed about her looks in the last 7-years. Well, apart from now she was even more stunning because she’d gotten over her shyness. She’d come into her own, and wore her confidence like a designer gown.
Man, it looked good on her.
He felt his right leg go into cramp and hissed in a breath.
“Adam, you okay?”
“Cramp,” he snarled, beginning to move around on the table. She stepped back, hands by her sides as she watched him in concern.
“Do you want to stretch your legs?”
“Don’t you mean leg,” he snarled.
“Oh pipe down, one leg is better than dead. Get over it,” she sniped back.
“Always so sympathetic,” he grunted, pushing himself upright and managing to sit, the jeans he wore riding low on his hips.
“Crutch or chair?” Hannah asked.
“Neither, I can’t walk it off,” he ground out.
“Why?”
“Because it’s the fucking leg I no longer have.”
“Phantom pain. Okay, what can I do?”
Her eyes slit, then a brow rose as she glared at him. “Jesus, Adam, get your mind out of your pants. What can I do to help you that doesn’t include sex?” he grinned at her tone. “Or blow jobs either, sheesh, give it up.”
“I will if you will,” he told her, waggling his brows. She burst out laughing.
“You’d shit yourself if I ever took you up on your offer.”
“Probably,” he grinned. “But the only way to find out is if you offered,” he told her hopefully.
“Not happening.” There was no way she was going down that rabbit hole again.
Seen the movie.
Got the t-shirt.
One go on that merry-go-round was enough.
She was just getting back on an even keel, learning to be friends with him again. Massaging him was hard enough, she had to keep him in his box.
Friends.
That was the only way she’d save herself from receiving a drudge down broken-hearted lane again as he walked away and never looked back.
“Now what can I do to help?” she asked.
“Not a damn thing,” he ground out again. All signs of joking vanishing as he grimaced in pain. She saw his eyes close, squeezing tightly shut, pinched mouth whitened, showing her just how much pain he was in.
“Hang on, I’ve got an idea.”
&
nbsp; With that, Hannah rushed out of her treatment room, opened the connecting door, and could be heard running upstairs.
Adam began sweating, eyes squeezed tightly closed as his nostrils flared with his ragged breathing. He was in so much pain it was becoming unbearable. He’d had it before as he’d been working hard to get out of the chair, but, this was the worse it had been.
Bollocks.
He’d rather have been shot again than deal with this.
Jaw rigid, he heard Hannah come stumbling back into the room, panting.
“Right, this should do,” Hannah said, standing up again, hands on hips as she blew her hair of out of eyes.
“A mirror! What the fuck is a mirror going to do?” Adam groused.
“Look in the mirror.”
“Yeah, I try not to do that these days, not so pretty anymore.”
“Oh shut up. Open your god, damn, eyes and look,” Hannah ground back, mouth pinched as she glared at him.
“Hannah…”
“Adam, just trust me, okay. What harm can it do?”
Blowing out a breath, nostrils flaring, Adam stared at her, but the only emotion he saw in her eyes was empathy. That was one of the other things he liked about her, she didn’t pity him nor was she repulsed by his injuries. If anything, she treated him no differently now than when he’d been whole… and not just in body.
“Okay, what do I do?”
“Look at yourself in the mirror.”
His eyebrow rose at this, then he groaned, teeth grinding again as the pain intensified, sweat beading on his brow and upper lip.
“Adam, come on, trust me.”
Eyes opening, he looked directly into her concerned green gaze.
“Come on,” she took his left hand and gave it a squeeze before moving to the side and jumping on the massage table beside him. “Okay, now, look at your reflection in the mirror and tell me what you see.”
His pain filled pale blue gaze met hers in the floor standing mirror she’d placed near the window at the side of the massage table.
Help Our Heroes: A Military Charity Anthology Page 78