by Twyla Turner
“What?”
“Football.”
Royal’s eyes widened.
“You don’t like football?”
“Nope. Being good at something doesn’t mean you have to actually like it. I haven’t watched or played since my dad died. It was what he wanted,” he paused. “Even though I became a fireman because of them, I really do love it.
“But I think if I hadn’t been pushed into sports, I would’ve been into the arts. Like music or sculpting or something like that,” Mack admitted.
Another first. Royal was the first person since Mariah who listened to him. To actually want to know him as a person. It caused him to confess all types of deeply kept feelings he hadn’t even known he had.
“Who’s to say you still can’t?”
“Don’t you think it’s a little too late for that?”
“To start doing something you love? Never.”
“Eh…”
“No one says you have to quit your day job. But find what you love and make it a hobby.”
“Actually, this missing leg says I have to quit my day job.”
“Says who?”
“The world.”
“If everyone who’s done anything important in history listened to the world, we wouldn’t have a shit ton of things we have now. Beethoven went deaf and still created a bunch of symphonies. Malala was told to basically shut up with a bullet in her head and she went on to become one of the loudest voices in women’s rights and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
“If you want my advice, don’t be the gorgeous, straight cis white guy who thinks his life is over because he’s minus one small advantage. Heal up, work hard, and I’m pretty sure a new bionic leg will have you saving lives again before you know it.” Royal shrugged as if she hadn’t just blown a hole through his pity party.
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It’s not easy. But what choice do you have?” Royal looked him directly in the eye. “You can either leave this hospital depressed, grow a shaggy beard, and become a recluse. Or you can leave this hospital happy that you survived, learn how to walk with a prosthetic leg, and show the world that there’s not a damn thing that’s gonna stop you.”
“And now we just need a Morgan Freeman voiceover and this would be a perfect inspirational moment in a movie.” Mack said to break the serious mood.
Royal’s body jerked a little and a small snort escaped as she tried not to laugh.
“You know it’s funny,” Mack coaxed.
“You’re a dork. But yes, it was funny.”
“You’re right, though.” Mack sobered a little.
“I know it’s gonna suck for a while. But you’ve got someone in your corner if you need it. I’ll be the Apollo Creed to your Rocky Balboa.” Royal held up her hand, “Before Rocky IV.”
“Deal.”
“So…you mentioned your parents are originally from Romania. Where did the last name Carter come from?”
“Our last name was originally, Catargiu. It was a little difficult for people here to pronounce, so my parents decided to change it to Carter.”
“Ah…good old assimilation,” Royal nodded.
“Alright you two. We’ve got to prep Mack for another surgery to clean his wound.” Nurse Carmen said as she walked in. “You’ll have to finish this conversation tomorrow. If you’ll be here, of course.”
“Absolutely. I’ll be here.” Royal said.
Mack couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face.
What are you doing, asshole? You can’t start falling for her.
Royal stood up and placed a hand on his bare shoulder.
“See you tomorrow,” she said.
“Tomorrow.”
Mack’s eyes followed her as she walked out.
Too late.
~~~
Royal walked down the hall to the elevators. When the doors slid open a very pretty, tall blonde woman stepped off. She flipped her long hair just as she passed, whipping the golden strands in Royal’s face.
Royal looked at the woman like she had lost her mind, but kept her mouth closed.
Not today, Satan.
She was not about to go viral because of a fight video.
“Good luck to whoever she belongs to,” Royal grumbled to herself as she got on the elevator.
Chapter Eleven
Royal visited Mack every day for a week. Their bond grew with each visit. She’d stay for hours. They’d talk about their lives. They played games that she brought to keep him occupied. And she helped keep his mind off the pain.
A week from the day after quitting her job, Royal came to the hospital in good spirits and with a surprise for Mack. The night after quitting her job, she’d emailed several magazines, model agencies, and fashion industry elites that she had met over the years who were waiting for her to go freelance. Within a week’s time, she’d booked several jobs for the next two weeks, and a few in the months to come.
In two weeks, she was projected to make double what she’d made at Diesel in the same timeframe.
“What the hell took me so long?” She asked herself as she rode the elevator up to Mack’s floor.
She already knew the answer to that. Devon. Her hope that they’d become something more and him stringing her along, had her blocking her potential for far longer than she realized.
The thing that really stuck in her craw is that he knew it. Devon knew her potential. He knew her talent. He’d successfully kept her caged. Unable to spread her wings. And she’d let him. That was the worst part.
The elevator dinged at her stop. Royal stepped off and walked down the hallway.
“Hey, Royal!” A few of the nurses greeted her as she reached them.
“Sponge bath?” Royal asked as she looked around at everyone hovering.
“Yep,” Carmen said. “Same time every day. Same fight.”
Royal chuckled. She knew they did it at the same time, which was why she came when she did. But this time she was armed with provisions.
A different nurse came out of his room today. Her eyes were as big as golf balls when she walked to the group of her colleagues. She mouthed the words ‘Oh my God,’ before she pretended to pass out. All the nurses giggled like school girls.
“See! What did I tell you?” One who’d already bathed him hissed under her breath.
Royal hadn’t really thought about it, but Mack’s arms were currently out of order. There was no way for him to bathe any part of himself. So, the nurses also had to sponge his private area as well. And if their reaction was any indication, it was an impressive sight.
“You’re free to go in,” Carmen said.
Royal walked to his door and knocked.
“Come in.”
Royal stepped inside and they grinned at each other for a few seconds. She had noticed over the last week after their talk, that there was a distinct difference in him.
His pity party was over.
Mack looked like he had enough energy to bound from the bed if he could. His eyes were bright, his skin looked flushed in a good way, his back was straight instead of slouched like it had been.
He was ready to fight.
“I’ve got something for you.” Royal held up a bag.
Mack quirked a brow, “You do?”
Royal reached into the bag and lifted out the goody she’d purchased. A bottle of lotion.
“Oh, thank God! And just in time too.” Mack sagged back into his pillow.
“Yep. I know they give you your sponge bath the same time every day. And there’s no better time to apply lotion than after bathing.” Royal waggled her eyebrows.
Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. But I have to apply it.
Royal had no idea why it hadn’t occurred to her before. Maybe she thought that the nurses would do it. But their job was only to bathe him. They weren’t running a spa. Any extra pampering was going to come from the patient’s family and friends. Although, Royal was pretty sure if he asked, the nurses wou
ld be more than willing to lotion down the gorgeous man.
The look on Mack’s face said he realized she’d have to apply it at the same time she did. They both looked at the bottle and then looked at each other. Their eyes held in the silence.
“So…um…where would you like it?”
“Uh…well since my arms are covered, I guess, how about my shoulders, chest, stomach, back, and leg?”
“Um…okay.”
Dear Lord in heaven. I have to lay these hands on all that?!
Royal approached the bed awkwardly. She squeezed some lotion onto her palm and set the bottle on the bedside table. She rubbed her hands together to equally distribute the lotion. Finally, she looked up at Mack.
“How about back first?” She asked.
“Sure,” Mack said as he leaned forward gingerly.
Royal smoothed the cream over the top of his back. Goosebumps rose across his skin and he shivered. She felt that shiver in her soul.
Her hands slid down his spine, spreading the lotion to his lower back. He had a little road rash on his bottom, so she avoided going near it. His back still had some bruising from the accident. Royal hoped that she wouldn’t hurt him. But all she heard were soft mewling moans of pleasure.
Royal couldn’t rub the lotion in without leaning into him. Her breasts pressed against his arm. Her breath caressed his back. As she straightened to move to his front, Mack turned his head. Their cheeks nearly caressed each other. They were so close that the scruff of his unshaved face tangled with her hair.
Their lips were only centimeters apart. Royal looked down at his full lips and then looked up to his eyes. She could see the brown and yellow flecks in his green irises. His nose grazed hers. His breath passed over her lips, and Royal swore she could feel his mouth on her. Phantom lips.
“I-I should finish before your pores close up,” she whispered.
“Mm…” he hummed.
Royal finally turned away. It felt like ripping two powerful magnets apart. She filled her palm with more lotion and turned back to him. Mack was now lying back against his pillow.
Jesus! How am I going to lotion all that without making a damn fool of myself?
Royal rubbed her hands together and stepped forward. She avoided eye contact with Mack as her palms touched his chest. His skin was incredibly soft. Like the male stripper she’d caressed once. He hadn’t lied. He moisturized regularly.
She spread the lotion across his pectorals, her fingertips gliding over his nipples, and then down his hard abs. Each abdominal muscle was tensed as she went over their hills and valleys. Royal wondered if it was to show off or maybe he was just as tense as she was.
Royal tried to avoid looking past the bottom of his stomach to what was underneath the blanket a few inches further. But she couldn’t help it.
The bulge was there. And if her eyes weren’t deceiving her, it was getting larger by the second.
He was definitely tense.
Royal squeezed her eyes shut and mentally shook her head. Her hands moved back up his stomach to his chest to rub in the lotion. She bit her bottom lip as she had to make quite a few passes over his nipples before all the lotion had absorbed. Each nipple had pebbled at her touch. And every pass she made over them, his breath came out harsh and blew over her face.
She had to admit to herself that she could’ve rubbed the lotion over him in a more efficient and professional way. But a body like his begged one’s hands to move slowly and savor the moment. The way she slid his nipple between her fingers and squeezed slightly as she passed over them was unnecessary torture for them both, but she couldn’t help her wayward hands.
By the time Royal had made her way back down to his abs again, the heavy blanket was fully tented over his lower half. There was no denying that he was aroused by her and/or her ministrations.
After she finished rubbing the lotion into his abs, Royal grasped the blanket and lifted it over his good leg. She added more lotion, and then took a deep breath.
“Bend your knee,” she instructed. “I think that’ll be the easiest way to get the front and back.”
Mack did as she instructed. Royal started on his calf and worked down to his foot. He had a nice foot for a man. She massaged it a bit as she rubbed in the lotion. A groan rumbled in Mack’s chest. Royal smiled lightly.
She saved his thigh for last. She started near the knee and worked her way up, working in the lotion on his front and back. When she neared the top of his thigh, Royal slowly slid her hand down the crease of his leg, near the hardness that tented the blanket.
Royal chanced a glance up at Mack. Her hand froze. A tremor shook her from the top of her spine to her toes. Never had a man looked at her with the intensity, the raw naked passion of the man looking at her now. She felt stripped down naked to her very soul.
The hand that had stopped and rested in the space between his leg and cock, began to inch closer to his erection. Royal needed to, had to touch him. To feel him. His eyes fairly begged her to.
Her fingertips grazed the base of his shaft just as the door opened without warning and someone walked in. Royal jerked her hand out from under the blanket, Mack dropped his leg, and Royal pretended to finish rubbing the lotion in his leg.
“I’m back, my love!” The same blonde woman who’d whipped her hair in Royal’s face said in a sing-song voice as she walked into the room.
My love?!
Royal stopped rubbing Mack’s leg at those two words just as the woman focused on her.
“If you’re finished, you can go now,” the woman waved Royal away.
Royal frowned and looked over at Mack. Mack’s face was white as a sheet. He looked at Royal with an emotion pretty close to fear.
“Uh…she’s not a nurse, Ainsley,” he said to the woman.
Ainsley?!?
“Well, who is she and why is she rubbing your leg?”
“Ainsley, this is Royal. The woman who saved my life the night of the accident.” Mack cleared his throat. “Royal, this is Ainsley. My…my…”
“His fiancée. Nice to meet you.” She said with a fake smile as she held out her hand across Mack’s body.
On autopilot, Royal took it and Ainsley shook it limply before quickly pulling her hand away.
Fiancée. Fiancée. Fiancée. Fiancée!
The word kept repeating itself in her head. Royal was catapulted back to over a week ago. To the most humiliating moment in her life. Devon’s fiancée walking in on them naked.
Not again. NOT AGAIN!
Internally, Royal was falling apart. On the surface, she was in a trance. But she had to get out of there soon before what lay beneath bubbled up.
“Thank you for saving my future husband,” his fiancée made sure she added emphasis on that last part. “So, why again were you rubbing his leg?”
“She brought lotion. I’d mentioned to her that after my sponge bath, I felt dry. So, she was kind enough to bring me some lotion. And since I can’t apply it myself,” he raised his injured arms, “she did it for me.”
“Well, that’s very nice of you. But I can take it from here if he needs that in the future.”
Royal read between the lines. That was a warning.
“Hmm…that would actually require your presence.” Royal gritted out.
“Excuse me?”
“In order to properly moisturize skin, you have to apply lotion directly after bathing. Aka, you’d have to actually physically be here. And since I’ve been here every day for a full week and I’m just now seeing you and he’s been suffering from dry skin up until just now, I’d have to assume you’re not here often.
“Making sure your fiancé is being taken care of beyond what the hospital staff is required to do, is up to you. Making sure the patient is comfortable is up to family and friends. Meaning the only time you shouldn’t be here is when you’re working or need a shower and change of clothes.”
His fiancée flapped her mouth open and closed, unable to respond.
R
oyal turned to Mack. She knew hurt was written all over her face. She blinked back tears.
“Good luck on your recovery.”
And with that, she turned and strode out of the room. The nurses hovered nearby and looked at her with a million questions on their lips, but said nothing as she passed. Royal couldn’t speak, so she raised her hands to them as she headed to the elevators with no intentions of coming back.
~~~
Mack dropped his head back onto his pillow. The pillow Royal had bought for him. He felt like an ass.
He had no idea why he hadn’t told Royal about Ainsley. There were so many opportunities to tell her, but every time it was on the tip of his tongue, he stopped himself. He wanted so badly to know if she wanted him as much as he wanted her. And if he’d have told her, those looks she gave him, that magnetic pull that was between them may have disappeared.
Royal King saw him for who he was or who he wanted to be. And he liked who he was with her. He was himself. He didn’t want to lose that or her. So, he’d bit his tongue every time he wanted to tell her about his fiancée.
And because of it, I’ve probably lost her for good.
“What the hell was that about, Mack?” Ainsley asked practically tapping her foot.
“She saved my life, Ainsley. She’s been here keeping me company and trying to make life less shitty while I’m here.” Mack said honestly.
“Just ask me and I’ll be here.”
“I shouldn’t have to ask, Ainsley!” Mack finally let some of his frustration at her callousness out. “You’re my fucking fiancée, for God’s sake! Why haven’t you been here?”
“Because I’m trying to plan our wedding alone,” she said lamely.
“No one asked you to. I told you we could postpone while I figure out how to function without a leg.”
She turned her head away at that last part.
“It’s more than you planning a wedding, we both know should be pushed back. You’re doing everything in your power to stay away because you don’t want to face the fact that your future husband isn’t whole and perfect anymore.”
“Mack, please. Everything is going to be fine.”