“Hey!”
“Don’t you hey me, sweetheart,” I said. “Now, get that cute butt of yours to the couch or better yet, to bed. Your out-of-bed privileges have been revoked. You’ve done enough walking for now.”
She snorted. “What are you, my doctor?”
I put the rinsed plates into the dishwasher and wiped my hands on a tea towel. I turned and my gaze softened when our eyes met as I faced her up close.
“No. I’m your man,” I said, my hands on her hips. “I said I’d take care of you and that’s what I’m doing. So what’ll it be?”
After a few seconds of internal deliberation Alissa had made her decision. I scooped her up into my arms and carried her upstairs to our room. I set her up with the TV, a full glass of water, her pain medication and cuddled her for what felt like too short of a while but I had an important thing to do.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay if I head off to the hospital to check on Jasper?”
“I’ll be fine,” she said and yawned. The pain meds had already begun to take effect. “I think I’ll have a nap while you’re away.”
I kissed her forehead. “Sounds like a good idea.”
“I wish I could go with you,” she said with her eyes drooping.
“I know you do. I promise you can see him tomorrow when we go back to get you checked out,” I said.
With a dreamlike sigh, I got an okay and I was off.
I walked into the Pediatric ICU to find that Jasper’s condition had remained the same as it had been earlier in the morning. My timing was impeccable. Doctor Messing walked in moments after my arrival.
“Mr. Lowell,” he said, “it’s good to see you. How’s our donor doing?”
“She’s quite sore but I convinced her to take some pain medicine this morning. She’s trying to sleep it off,” I said. “She said it’s not as bad as it was yesterday but she didn’t enjoy the walking I made her do this morning.”
“That’s normal,” he said. “Mind if I recommend something? If you have access to a pool or you’re near a body of water, she could always try a swim. She’d get the movement that she needs to avoid any clotting and cramping issues in her legs and it makes it easier to bear the pain because of the weightlessness. Just make sure the procedural site is waterproofed and change the bandage afterward in case water got to it.”
I nodded. “I’ll have to mention it to her,” I said. “So how’s Jasper this morning?”
“I’m waiting on this morning’s blood-work results to help me out with that analysis. We’ll be running an MRI to revisit the extent of his brain’s swelling. If it’s gone down, we’ll wait another twenty-four hours before bringing him out of his coma,” he said. “The good thing is that his electroencephalogram is showing optimistic readings. Jasper’s brain activity is perfect and he should recover and be as normal as he’s always been but we won’t know about any glitches until he’s awake.”
“Thank God,” I said but I never questioned his mention of glitches. I wondered what they could possibly entail but I figured it was pointless to worry until the situation called for it.
***
By lunchtime, I had left the hospital and headed home. Alissa was still sleeping when I made my way upstairs. I sat beside her and attempted to rouse her as promised. Her head tilted to the side. I kissed her neck where it met her shoulder, smiling at her small whimper. Kissing beneath her ear, I trailed my fingers over the soft skin of her arm.
“Mmm…Pax.” She was dreaming of me.
I nuzzled her cheekbone. She sighed in total contentment, her tensed body relaxing itself.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty,” I said in her ear and gave her a soft kiss to the temple.
Alissa opened her eyes and that’s when I saw the fire in her irises. She grabbed on to my face and pulled me in for a scorcher of a kiss. Nipping my bottom lip which caused me to gasp, she plundered my mouth with her tongue. I braced my arms on either side of her and groaned while she began to trail hot and wet kisses and nips down my jaw.
“Honey,” I said as I pulled away to look at her face, “that must have been one hell of a dream.”
“That it was,” she said, “although the real thing is so much better.” She winked and reached out for me again.
I shook my head at her and my eyes trailed lower only to realize that she was naked.
She smirked. “Like what you see?”
“Very much,” I said, “but would you settle for some PG-13 fun instead?”
She laughed. “You mean make out like two horny teenagers…why not?”
I leaned down and kissed her softly before she took over and things got heated quickly.
Chapter 24
After our lengthy make out session, I had gotten up and walked to the dresser. I reached in and grabbed a few items and then threw them at her. “Put this one,” I said, “we’re going out.”
She sat up in bed, the sheets draped over her naked figure and tucked under her arms. Holding up the two-piece bikini, she arched her brow and asked, “What are you up to?”
“Just put it on,” I said. “I know you want to get out so that’s what we’re going to do.”
“What?” she said. “But I should be relaxing.”
“And you should be walking around a bit more than you have been, gorgeous,” I said. “I saw Doctor Messing when I visited Jasper this morning, he gave me a great idea.”
“Okay,” she said, “but what’s it got to do with this?” She waved the tiny swimsuit as if it were a flag.
“You and I will spend the afternoon outdoors and relax,” I said, “plus, I think the water will help alleviate some of the pain with the walking.”
“I see,” she said. “Sounds like my mind’s been made up for me, hasn’t it?”
“You need this,” I said and kissed the crown of her head. “Now stop stalling, get dressed and come downstairs. I’ll go put something together for a picnic.”
***
We drove for a while before Alissa began to grasp where it was that I was bringing her. Her face brightened when she saw the large barn and country home and her lips cracked a smile that suddenly disappeared and she groaned.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Your parents’ place, you expect me to parade around in a skimpy bikini at your parents’?” she asked with a blush that spread from her cheeks to her shoulders.
I laughed. “They’re not here,” I said.
“You know we could have gone to the beach,” she said. “It would have been closer.”
“Yeah, we could have but I didn’t want to have to deal with people,” I said, “plus, you haven’t seen this yet.”
“Seen what? We’re not taking the four-wheeler are we?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “The thing’s still full of mud from when we got it stuck and I’d have to say that it would be too rough on you. We’ll take the Jeep there and save the side-by-side for some other time so sit tight.”
She laughed. “You and your toys, you’re truly a country boy at heart, aren’t you?” She crooked her finger to beckon me closer. “I have to say that it’s quite a sexy trait,” she said over my lips before she brushed that pucker of hers lightly over mine.
The large manmade pond came into view, complete with the small dock and overgrown grass that surrounded it. My father had built it for my mother when my brother and I had been kids. As to what the exact story behind it was, Mom had told my brother and me that it was a way Dad had chosen to apologize for working too much. Let’s just say that the man was a tough one to live up to when women came into my life in later years, especially from a romance stand-point.
“This was an apology?” Alissa asked as she looked around.
“Yeah, I don’t remember much about him being around and doing stuff with us in my earlier years,” I said. “After he built this thing for Mom, he changed a lot.” I turned the ignition off.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, “the only thing that’s missing is a large w
illow with a tire swing attached to it and it would look like something out of the movies. It must have been a great place to party for you and your friends in high school.”
I chuckled and remembered what had happened to the damn thing. “There was a tree,” I said and pointed to the large stump decorated with a pot of flowers sitting atop it. “Dad, Theo and I cut it down a while back after we found it split down the middle after a bad storm.”
“So no parties?” she asked.
“Oh, there were parties.” I laughed and exited the vehicle. “This is where we kicked off the summer holidays.” Theo and I had had some rather interesting get-togethers here back in high school. I smiled at the good memories and forced the dark ones back—the ones where I’d never be able to relive with Theo again. I rounded our ride and Alissa took my hand to be helped out. “How are you feeling?”
“My hips are achy but I’m fine,” she said with a broad smile.
***
I must have dozed off after our snack, caught up in the tranquility of our surroundings because I woke up to the sound of a splash. I bolted upright and that’s when I noticed that Alissa was no longer by my side. Seconds later, she broke the water’s surface.
“You’re right,” she said with a girly giggle, “this does help.”
I gave her a large grin. I was glad that she was enjoying herself. As a matter of fact, I was becoming aware that no matter what it was that we did together, she always had the brightest of smiles and sunny disposition. Something like this, I had never been able to do with Julie. She was a city-bread girl through and through. Come to think of it, the woman and I never had that much in common and it wasn’t until Alissa had come along that I realized that I had brushed aside a lot more than just my writing over the years.
“Hey, daydreamer,” she said, “why don’t you get off that lazy romp of yours and join me?”
“What’s in it for me?”
She shrugged her shoulders and gave me an innocent look before dipping down so the water went up to her chin and lifted the tiny piece of material that had once covered her top. She chucked it onto the dock, my jaw dropped. “You did say your parents aren’t here,” she said.
I jumped up to my feet and made a mad dash to cannonball a few feet beside her. When I surfaced, she was facing me with a self-assured smile and I watched as she pulled her bottoms up above the surface and held them up for me to see.
“Honey,” I said as she chucked those onto the dock as well.
“This is nice, isn’t it?” she asked with nonchalance. She approached me and wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her naked breasts to my chest. We were in the shallow end, by the pond’s edge where my feet touched the sandy bottom. My arms surrounded her at the waist. She laughed into my neck, nipped my jaw. “Someone’s a little overdressed for the occasion.”
I felt myself harden. I wasn’t used to this kind of overtness from her. I chuckled. “Are you drunk?”
“Must be the drugs,” she said and shrugged her shoulders.
She let her hands run from the back of my neck, down to my chest. When they had reached the waistband of my swimming trunks I grabbed onto her hands to stop her. “You’ll be the death of me,” I said. “We shouldn’t.”
“You said exercise,” she said and I looked at her in confusion but nodded my response.
“That’s not-”
She smiled, winked and went underwater before I could finish talking. Next thing I knew, my shorts were yanked down and I felt her hands on my length, her expulsed breath bubbling with gentle tickles up against my front as she surfaced from her underwater seduction. She reached one arm around my neck, pulled herself up and kissed below my ear. I groaned at the havoc. “Devil woman,” I said into her ear, “but we can’t.”
She wrapped a leg around my hip. “We can,” she said. My length was pulsing and nudged at her heated folds. She ground herself against me.
“You’re unbelievable,” I said after I pulled away from her heated kiss. “It can’t be helped that I give in to you so easily, but not this time, sweetheart.” The look of rejection was too much. I captured her mouth, lowered her leg from my hip and used my feet to widen her stance.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m not making love to you but I’ll be damned if I leave you hanging like this,” I said.
I felt like a rebellious teenager, sneaky, bringing a girl home to fool around with in my parents’ back yard. In reality, we were two consenting adults and I really didn’t care if we were caught while I loved on my woman.
I slid a finger into her and revelled in the feel of her slick internal muscles, clenching down on me.
“Oh, baby,” I said and I stilled my hand when hers made contact with my erection.
I began to grind my hips into her grip. Surrounded with only nature, away from civilization, we submerged each other into a world where only the two of us existed.
I watched Alissa as she held my gaze, her lips swollen from my kisses, her face flushed and her eyes blazing with the fires of passion.
When her neck arched back, I began feeling the tremors of her imminent orgasm surrounding my digits. My balls tightened and I knew that it wasn’t going to be long before we’d take each other over the edge.
With a guttural moan, I felt her arch into my hand and clench my fingers tightly. Her sounds set me off. Our cries mixed and mingled, causing the birds that watched over us in the tree-line to fly off as our erotic high descended onto us.
I buried my head into her neck as she caressed her cheek to mine, running her fingers through my hair and massaging my scalp. We just held each other without saying anything at all. Nothing seemed to need to be said.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I rubbed the side of her face with my fingertips.
“I’m better than okay,” she said and framed my face, depositing a tender kiss onto my lips. “You could never hurt me, handsome.”
“I don’t know about that, sweetheart, but I can tell you that I would never do it on purpose,” I said. “What do you say we dry off, get dressed and get out of here?”
“Do we have to?”
I chortled. “You sound like Jasper.”
“I love this place,” she said. “I always dreamed of an old house in the country, a few horses and maybe some cattle. I’m a small town country girl and I’ve never had the joy of living the full-blown country life.”
“Hmm.” I eyed her as we made our way to the ladder that was attached to the dock.
“What?” she asked as I helped her out of the water.
Gravity pulled on her body and the weight of it caused her to wince as her hips and legs were once again forced to bear her true weight. I held her close as her knees gave signs of giving out. I was thanking my lucky stars for putting my foot down earlier.
All I could do was smile down at her. “In pursuit of the simple life are we?” I asked.
“It sure beats a complicated one.”
***
I felt bad for the pain that Alissa ended up having tonight. It was so bad that our relaxing movie session had taken a downward spiral and landed us in the bedroom, the lights turned off, her tears streaming down her face as it was scrunched up in that horrible expression of pain. It broke my heart to see her that way. You only have yourself to blame.
“Pax,” she said, “it’s not your fault, you didn’t hurt me. It’s all that walking we did.”
I knew she was right but it was just easier for me to blame myself. I mean, I was the one to take us out, the one to suggest swimming which led to…well, at least I put a stop to that.
“Let me take you to the emergency room,” I said still worried.
“I’ll take the pain pills,” she said. “If they don’t work, then you can take me in but I don’t want to go.”
Half an hour had passed and she had fallen asleep in my arms as I attempted to sooth her by rubbing gentle patterns up and down her upper back. Her face, a perfect picture of relaxation
, no signs of discomfort showed, I was able to relax.
Chapter 25
I swore loud enough to wake Alissa when I realized the alarm clock hadn’t gone off. We jumped out of bed to find ourselves with half an hour to get ready and high-tail our asses to the hospital for her follow-up appointment with Doctor Messing.
I stood there in shock as I watched my woman run around at a frantic pace, pulling her pants on and make her way to the bathroom while shoving her arms into her shirt. She hadn’t winced yet which had me smiling. “Feeling better I see.”
“It still hurts but it’s not like last night or the day of the aspiration,” she said. “I think I might be on the mend.”
“I’m glad,” I said and winked at her excited smile.
***
Alissa had been restless while we waited for Doctor Messing. Fifteen minutes past our appointment time, the man walked in and closed the door to the examination room.
“Alissa,” he said as he shook her hand, “how are you feeling?”
“The soreness seems to be fading,” she said and looked at me. “I nearly broke Paxton’s fingers last night from the pain but today I’m barely feeling anything.”
“That’s good. Have you been walking around like I’ve told you to, though you shouldn’t have been in that much pain,” he said and eyed the both of us. “What have you been doing?”
She gave me a shy look and blushed as she kept her eyes averted from the doctor’s. “I may have overdone it yesterday when Pax got me out of the house,” she said, leaving the most heated moments out.
“I see,” he said. “The pain medication worked though?”
Alissa nodded. “I hate the stuff but I had no choice but to take it. I thought I was going to go insane from the intensity,” she said.
“Something Mr. Lowell said yesterday tells me that you’ve not been taking them regularly,” he said and she shook her head. “That’s fine. Now, can I get you to lie on your stomach? I’d like to see the procedural site and make sure that there isn’t an infection and please tell me that you’ve been taking the antibiotics as prescribed.”
Once Written, Twice Shy (The Broken Men Chronicles) Page 17