Wild Temptations

by Renee Carr

  I looked up and shook the daze from my eyes, grabbing the syringe. “Yes, of course.”

  Lifting up his gown, I stabbed the syringe into his hip and injected the fosphenytoin into his muscle. Luckily, they had come up with a good alternative to allowing seizures to continue but because the side effects could be dodgy, we used it sparingly. With everything that Christian had been through, we didn’t want any more stress on his body then we could help. Within seconds, his body began to relax and his breathing evened out.

  The doctor took his vitals as I turned him back over and pulled the blanket up. Leaning close to him, I said his name loudly. “Christian, can you hear me?”

  His nose twitched and his voice was weak but there. “You are literally two inches from my face so I would have to say yes.”

  The doctor snickered as he took notes and I narrowed my eyes at him as he opened his with a sweet, weak smile. “What happened?”

  The doctor put the file down and crossed his arms. I had seen that look several times before and I could tell he was stumped. “You had a seizure but I’m not exactly sure what would have brought it on.”

  Christian turned his head toward me, his lids low for a moment before opening wider as he fought through the fatigue of the seizure and the medicine. As I stared into his eyes, I could have sworn a flash of gold flickered across his irises. It wasn’t like a reflection; it was literally like a wave of color that was only there for a moment. Startled, I stepped back, running into the cart. I reached nervously back and caught it. When I looked back, they were their normal color. It was strange but I figured it had just been a trick of the fluorescent lighting overhead. Still, it had shaken me. It was reminiscent of the wisps of colored eyes from the woods behind my mother’s house. But those were animals, and Christian was a man… and quite a man he was.

  Ever since my father died, I had a tendency to let my imagination run wild. I had sworn multiple times that there was someone in the woods, someone that sat and watched, took in my every movement, someone that I couldn’t physically see but gave me a sense that they were trying to communicate with me. It was stupid, I knew that, but maybe it was just me being hopeful that my father would walk out of the forest, wearing that same smile I remembered so clearly even after all that time.

  “Libby, could you fill him in on the rest of everything for me?” the doctor asked. “I have a surgery in about an hour and we need to get prepped.”

  “Of course,” I replied.

  We watched as the doctor left, the brothers standing out in the hall, looking through the doorway nervously. “Oh. Gosh. I’m sorry. Come on in.”

  Eric and Brighton hurried in, looking over in relief at their brother. Eric stomped his foot. “Dude, what the hell?”

  Christian shrugged with a tired smirk. “You know I like to keep you guys on your toes.”

  They were not amused by his joking and looked to me for an explanation. I nodded and grabbed the clipboard. “We aren’t sure what caused the seizure, but of course we’re going to look into it. Everything has come back negative so far. He got his injections for rabies, but even if he had contracted rabies, it wouldn’t have manifested itself in that short of a time. We checked the samples from the bite for mange as it can create illnesses and effects in humans, but that was all negative as well.”

  Christian sighed. “I’m being rejected by my body. Do you think it could be something coincidental? Yes, I was bitten, but it just so happened to coincide with outward symptoms of something else?”

  I shrugged, looking at his panels. “We thought about that, about infection, hepatitis, viral strains, everything. But everything we test for comes back negative. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an answer. It just means it will take us a little longer to figure out what that answer is. We aren’t giving up for any reason.”

  Lisa, one of my fellow RNs, stuck her head in the door. “I need to see you real fast. Just some follow-up orders from the doctor.”

  Glancing at the guys, I hung Christian’s chart back on the end of the bed and hurried out. As I read the doctor’s notes, I glanced up at the three brothers all joking around. You could see the love they had for each other. It was nice to see. It was a bond I never knew, not ever having siblings. Then again, my parents saved another human soul from the agony that my mother and I went through when my father disappeared.

  Walking back into the room, they all quieted down and the other two stepped back. Christian looked up at me, his gaze warm and inviting. In fact, he almost looked like he was being protective, but why would he be protective of me? He didn’t know me. Maybe he was just that kind of person, the very imposing kind of man but in a good way.

  I found myself lost in that thought until he cleared his throat. I shook my head and pressed some buttons on his IV but they really weren’t for anything specific. I was just trying to cover up the weird state that had taken me over for a few moments. “So, the doctor is going to keep you for at least another night.”

  “Ugh,” he groaned. “Really? Another night?”

  Eric laughed. “Bro, you literally had a random seizure for no reason. You remember that? The thing where you started shaking and foaming like a zombie? You know, the thing that happened like fifteen minutes ago?”

  Christian rolled his eyes and I caught myself finding it kind of adorable. “Yes, I remember. I can’t say I’m thrilled but I get it. You guys need to figure out what is happening before you can let me loose on the world to spread my viral plague.”

  “Well, we aren’t thinking you have a viral plague,” I laughed.

  Brighton shrugged. “Yeah, what you got is just for you, buddy. Don’t put your issues on the rest of us. I know how you like to spread the love. In case you forgot, you used to chase me down with the flu and cough on me.”

  I smiled, looking down as the guys laughed. Eric took a step forward as I started to gather the remnants of the instant emergency. “Hey, I just want to say this in case we miss you before we go back home, or if my brother is a rude ass—thank you for doing what you’re doing for him. He’s kind of important to our dynamic. Brighton just can’t hold both spots and I’m far too busy to be the most responsible one.”

  I looked over at Christian and scrunched my nose. “He’s the most responsible? The one that wandered into a cave in the national forest and was bitten by some creature? Good Lord.”

  The guys all looked at each other and then burst out in laughter, pointing at Christian. Brighton clapped his hands, bowing to me. “She fits in perfectly with us. Maybe we’ll leave you here locked up and we’ll take her instead. Have an older sister for a while.”

  “Does that mean I’ll get some peace and quiet?” Christian laughed. “Sold. Have fun in my brothers’ world.” He winked at me and a shiver ran down my neck.

  Quickly trying to divert my eye contact, I turned to Brighton and Eric and took a deep breath. “So, you guys are perfectly welcome to go get him some food from town and bring it back here. I’m not willing to vouch for small-town hospital food. I would say compare it to elementary school cafeteria lunch.”

  Brighton tapped his chin, staring at Christian. “I don’t know, what do you think, Eric? Are we nice brothers? Or are we the brothers that bring our food in and watch him eat creamed spinach and Jell-O?”

  “You’re the kind of brothers that know full well that if you mess with me while I’m sick, you’re going to be really unhappy when I’m well again,” Christian replied.

  Brighton and Eric stared at each other for a moment and then nodded. “You make sense. We’ll go get you some food. Don’t harass the nurses too much while we’re gone.”

  They smiled at me as they left. I chuckled at Christian, who was shaking his head with an exhausted expression. “They are ridiculous.”

  “They love you,” I replied, picking up the last of the equipment and disposing of the trash. “It’s nice. I don’t see that often in the hospital. People think everyone here has someone to visit, to care, but honestly,
more often than not, they sit alone in their rooms. Makes me sad.”

  He furrowed his brow. “That’s terrible. But they have you so it helps brighten their time here.”

  I gave a small grin. “I hope so. It’s the biggest part of why I became a nurse. Speaking of, I better get back before the nurses strike on me. Can I get you anything else right now?”

  He shook his head but as I began to turn, he reached out and grabbed my wrist. Heat burst through me, surging up my arms, and for a split second, as our eyes met, there was an attraction I couldn’t even put into words. My feet carried me straight back to his side and his hand slipped into mine. I didn’t pull away. I couldn’t pull away. It was so oddly right, especially for two people who barely knew each other.

  The sound of a nurse passing in the hall broke the connection and his fingers slowly slipped away. “I just wanted to thank you personally. You have been saving my butt and taking care of me since I got here. I really do appreciate you. I never thought I would have a hero but you’re surging up there for sure.”

  My cheeks blushed and I nervously giggled. “It’s my pleasure.”

  Leaving the room, it felt almost wrong, like that pull was reaching out for me. But I couldn’t let myself get caught up in this guy. I had far too many responsibilities to be standing around daydreaming. Far too many people relying on me for me to lose my focus.

  That night at home, as I sat out on the porch, drinking hot tea and staring out into the woods, focus and daydreaming were battling in my mind, and dreams were winning tenfold. I couldn’t help but think about those golden eyes, that small glimpse of what I wasn’t even sure was real or not. The sound of a twig snapping shifted my eyes up. Just like every other time, I saw a flash of something in the distance. It was always just momentary, and it was always behind my house. It was never long enough to allow me to truly know what I was seeing. I used to be afraid of it, but not anymore.

  The commonalities between what I saw out there in the woods and what I had seen and felt with Christian in the hospital made me wonder if there wasn’t some sort of connection between the two of us. But what kind of connection could that be?

  7

  Christian

  “So, I’m definitely feeling better than I did yesterday, and I’m thinking I’ll feel even better tomorrow than I did today,” I told the doctor. “I’m really hoping that I’m on the upswing. Even if we don’t have any answers for this, it would be really nice to get back to my real life.”

  The doctor nodded, writing things down in my notes. “I’m hoping so too, Christian. We’re going to continue the testing, and I know you don’t like to be here, but we don’t feel comfortable sending you back until we know for sure that you’re not going to have another seizure, or that things won’t take a quick downhill turn. It’s best that you’re in the place that has been handling this whole situation, instead of being back home and having to go through the whole ordeal of explaining everything.”

  As the doctor talked to me, I glanced over at the doorway, seeing Libby come inside. She looked at me, but looked away quickly as if she were trying to avoid eye contact with me. The doctor greeted her and she smiled, nodding at him as he left. I was happy to see her. “Look, it’s Miss Sunshine. I’m glad you’re here today. I was starting to think I was going to be stuck with the angry older nurse that I was pretty sure was going to threaten my life if I didn’t sit up straighter when she checked my blood pressure.”

  Libby chuckled, and I was glad to see her smile. “Nurse Hatcher. She is definitely reaching the end of her tenure. I think that every nurse has a certain bank of compassion and kindness in them, and I believe that her bank ran out about 10 years ago.”

  Laughing, I nodded. “By the way, you are looking absolutely beautiful today. That color blue in your scrubs matches your eyes perfectly.”

  She looked down at her outfit as if she hadn’t even remembered what she had put on that morning. Lifting an eyebrow, she looked at me. “And you’re flirting. Cute.”

  From the way her eyes shifted nervously and the redness of her cheeks, I could tell that she thought I was more than cute, possibly even bordering on adorable. It was all the motivation I needed to continue. “I try my best to be cute, but I think that you’ve taken that right from me this morning.”

  “You’re obviously feeling a little bit better,” she said, looking at my file. “And full of yourself.”

  Chuckling, I nodded my head. “I am feeling better. I don’t know about being full of myself, but I do appreciate that you notice the change in my personality. Apparently, my fever has gone down and I’m not nearly as achy as I have been. In fact, my muscles almost feel better than they did before I came in here. It’s like coming out of a retreat—a retreat with really bad food and strange smells, and the occasional odd noise coming from down the hallway.”

  She rolled her eyes and walked over, lifting up the edge of the gauze that covered the bite. Her forehead wrinkled a bit. “Wow. The bite looks as if it’s healing at a rapid pace. I’ve never seen a wound heal that fast, actually. Has it itched or hurt in any way?”

  I shook my head. “No, in fact, I haven’t really felt it at all. I thought for a second that I was numb but when I touched my skin, I could feel that. There just hasn’t been any pain at all. Or numbness, or tingling, so it’s not like it hit a nerve or something.”

  She took out a tool and tilted my head back, opening up my eyes. “I just want to check your eyes one more time. It’s just routine.”

  I did as she asked, though I thought it was kind of strange considering I had just had it done about 15 minutes before. Then again, it was from the angry nurse so she could have forgotten to write it down as she struggled to keep from cussing me out. Either way, I didn’t mind; I was basking in the glory of being that close to Libby. She smelled absolutely fantastic, and I could feel a tingle in my chest when she was that close to me.

  Releasing my eyes, she stepped back, looking almost confused.

  “That look makes me nervous.”

  She glanced up at me and shook her head. “No, there’s nothing wrong. I just… it’s nothing. Can I get you anything before I start making my rounds?”

  Smiling, I tried to be suave. “Well, letting me pick you up for a nice evening out on the town, maybe showing you off to my brothers, having you make me look good to the people that live near me and have known me my whole life, whispering sweet nothings, those kinds of things would be nice.”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. “You know you’re not very good at flirting, right? You’re kind of cheesy, and very down-home.”

  I smiled big. “I know, I’ve never been very good at flirting. I do my best when I find that the situation is in dire need of it. Which, by the way, happens to be just this time and never before, so that’s probably why I am not very good at it. I’m not a ladies’ man like my brothers are. They can talk to anyone, and it just comes out naturally for them.”

  She put her hands on her hips and closed the file. “So, Christian. If you’re not good at flirting, and you’re not a ladies’ man, what exactly are you?”

  My eyes shifted around the room for a moment and I bit my bottom lip, thinking about it. “Honestly? I’m a normal guy. As normal as they come. I literally just wake up every day, I go into my shop, I work the store with my other three employees, and then I go home to my little house in the country, make myself some dinner, maybe watch some television, and then I go to bed. On the weekends, I do some fishing, maybe sit out on my front porch, or visit my family. There is nothing amazingly exciting about my life, but I like it that way. I like being small town. I like being simple. And it doesn’t bother me too much that I don’t know how to put on the charm. When it comes down to it, charm only works for the first couple of dates. Then you have to rely on your own personality. As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t like my personality from the get-go, it’s not going to last more than a few dates anyway, so why not just get it out of the way early
?”

  She smiled at me and nodded, her features softening. Her voice lowered an octave, melodic to my ears. There was a contemplative tone as she spoke. “I like that. It’s refreshing to have someone want to be so open and honest. That alone should attract a multitude of women.”

  I scoffed, again feeling like I wanted her to stay right there, right next to me. “Yeah, right. Women say they want that, and then when you give that to them, they want you to sweet-talk them and be charming. It’s very confusing. Women in general are very confusing.”

  I loved to see her laugh, loved watching that I made her laugh, and I really didn’t want her to leave without knowing she would be back later. So, I went for it, hoping for the best. “Have dinner with me later. Share my hospital food. I’m sure between the two of us we might take a few bites more than what I’ve been eating. Besides, it would save me from hearing it from Nurse Hatcher, who keeps threatening if I don’t eat my hospital food, she’s going to make me stay longer.”

  Libby smiled, glancing down at the floor. Her expression was genuine. “As much as I would like to save you from Nurse Hatcher and the ruthlessness that she will bring into your life, I can’t. I’m your nurse, and I have to be professional. I promise that you will be fine. I will put in a good word with the meal prep people and maybe get you some extra toast.”

  I nodded my head in understanding but I was kind of disappointed. I really hoped that she would want to be around me enough to overlook the fact that she was my nurse. I went the rest of the day without much medicine, hoping that if I took less, they would let me go quicker. I had a feeling all I was doing was making myself miserable, but at least I would be tired that night. Like clockwork, at 6 PM, the wonderful tray of dinner was served. That night didn’t actually look too bad, with some mashed potatoes, some sort of turkey, and a piece of chocolate cake. At least it looked like a piece of chocolate cake but I wasn’t planning on testing it out.