“What’s up?” I ask, trying not to blush since it wasn’t me who was having sex with a strange man in someone else’s bathroom and it’s none of my business what she does. We’re both single, recently divorced women free to do what we want.
“I was just going to see if you need anything,” Casey says. “After Hunt gets a quick shower, I’m going to give him a ride to the Dirty Aces’ pool hall.”
“Sounded like you already gave him a ride,” I comment, unable to help myself. “And he shouldn’t get the side of his head wet.”
“I know. That’s what I told him when I was…helping him get undressed,” she says, biting down hard on her bottom lip. “Oh, hell, I don’t care if you think less of me! He’s feeling much better after a little…sexual healing.”
“Sexual healing. Right,” I reply with a roll of my eyes.
“Hunt was feeling down about the shooting happening on his watch and getting his ear messed up…” she trails off.
“And you just helped lift him up.”
“Exactly,” she says with a big grin, not sounding the least bit embarrassed.
“You should give it a try.” Casey nods her head toward the unconscious man in bed.
“He’s burning up with a fever. Thankfully, Thomas was able to sneak some meds out. Now we just have to wait and hope he can fight it off.”
“He looks tough enough to fight off anything,” Casey says as she goes over to his side of the bed to get a better look at him.
“Infection can take down anyone.”
“True,” she agrees. When she reaches down to feel his forehead, I feel an unusual rush of jealousy, which is incredibly stupid since I barely know the man. “He’s warm but not too hot, maybe a hundred degrees?”
“Well, it needs to come down,” I snap at her, and she quickly pulls her hand away from him.
“Calm down, Joanna. I’m not the one who shot the man twice,” Casey huffs.
“I know,” I say with a sigh. “It’s just…this is all sorts of crazy, these guys coming out of nowhere and now we’re trying to save his life. Do you know that they call him Fiasco?”
“Fiasco?” she repeats with her brow furrowed. “Like he’s a fuck up?”
“Even if he is, that’s incredibly cruel.”
“Yeah, it is,” she agrees with a frown. “He could kick all of their asses if he wanted, but he doesn’t. They’re his friends, so he must be okay with the name.”
“Maybe,” I agree as I climb into bed and run my fingers down his arm to check his pulse. The small touch causes goosebumps to raise all the way down, which is odd.
“Pulse strong?”
“Stronger than it was since I gave him some blood.”
“I still can’t believe you did that,” Casey says.
“I’ve had all the tests before I got hired a few weeks ago. My blood is clean.”
“Yes, but it’s just…you really do go the extra mile for patients.”
“If it can save their life, yeah.”
Fiasco, Phillip, moans and then rolls on his side toward me. His eyes flutter open a second before he’s out again.
“Talking to him seems to help,” I say as I brush his hair back out of his eyes again.
“Touching him would probably help even more,” Casey encourages.
“I can’t touch a man I don’t know like that. He’s a patient.”
“It doesn’t have to be dirty!” she exclaims. “Skin-to-skin contact is good for everyone. It’s a proven fact.”
“If you say so,” I tell her with a smile and a shake of my head as I think about the skin-to-skin contact she just had with Hunt in my bathroom.
“I will not apologize for having amazing sex with a hot biker,” she says with her shoulders back to push her ample chest out.
“I didn’t say anything!” I remind her. “You can have amazing sex with whoever you want.”
“So can you,” she says with a waggle of her brows as she starts to the door.
“Want me to bring you something to eat when I come back?”
“Sure, thanks,” I tell her since I don’t want to leave Phillip’s side even to make something to eat.
Chapter Three
Joanna
It’s been almost twenty-four hours since I gave Phillip the pain meds and started the antibiotics, but he still hasn’t woken up. I’m well beyond concerned at this point. I’ve barely been able to get any sleep myself. I’m starting to feel sort of like I’m in a dream-like daze. Not to mention I’ve missed work the last two nights. As the newest nurse, I hate to use up any time off; but I can’t leave Phillip, and I sure as hell can’t take him to work with me.
The man beside me lying so still on his back is too strong, too handsome and healthy to die here in my bed. I feel his cheek, and it’s cooler than it has been. But I don’t stop there. I trail my fingertips over his chest, down the thick arm closest to me, with biceps bigger and harder than any I’ve ever seen, before gliding up his stomach that’s etched with muscles. Like before, the hairs on his arms stand up like he felt that even in his deep sleep, so I keep doing it. The soothing touch is starting to put me to sleep, so I lay my head down on the pillow and close my eyes.
“Don’t…stop,” his ragged voice says softly, making me pop up into a sitting position to look at his face. His brown eyes are cracked open, looking at me.
“You’re awake!” I say in relief. When he licks his lips, I ask, “Do you want some water?”
“You. I want…you…” he grits out before his eyes close again.
“Phillip?” I say as I cup the side of his face, and he leans into my palm, rubbing against it like a
