Embattled Hearts 1 (26 page)
He reached out and tugged her to lie across his lap.
“But I’ll also tell you I love you every day, which I do. I do not fucking deserve you. I know that. I’ve not done anything in this life to be given a gift like you. But I will cherish you, and honor you, as much as I possibly can. You make me feel like a man, and I cannot tell you how much I need that.”
Her pretty hazel eyes welled with tears then dripped down her cheeks. He felt his own throat tighten as he brushed her tears away with his rough thumbs. She cupped his jaw in her hand and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.
“Okay.”
He pulled back in surprise. “Just ‘okay’?”
She nodded. “You didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. I know you have baggage, I know you’re going to be a pain in my ass, but I love you more than I ever dreamed possible. You’re abrasive and harsh, but you cuddle a kitten like you were meant to do it. You cuddle me like you were meant to do it. And you’ll cuddle our kids the same way. You make my body sing and my heart race. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, too.”
There was no way he couldn’t
not
kiss her then. As he cupped her head in his hand, he marveled that he’d been given this piece of heaven.
*****
Shannon chased Pickle and the Little Gray out of the bedroom. Her family would be there in just a few minutes and they weren’t even dressed yet. The turkey was roasting, but she needed to check it.
John rolled in from the bathroom, fresh from a shower. His hair was slicked down and water glistened on his chest. If they were caught with their pants down, so to speak, it was going to be his fault.
She looked at the diamond bracelet on her wrist and couldn’t help but smile. When he’d asked her to sit down beside him at the kitchen table, she’d been curious. But when he’d held the length of diamonds between his fingers and made a motion for her hand, she’d cried.
“This isn’t a tracking device,” he promised gruffly, which made her blubber all the more.
One kiss led to many more, and then she straddled his lean hips in the chair right there at the kitchen table. It was exciting and sexy, knowing that they could be interrupted at any minute. They eventually moved to bed, where she’d loved the crap out of him dressed only in his jewelry.
Her hard-ass was learning to love. And she was enjoying teaching him.
###
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A portion of the proceeds of this book will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. If you would like to make a personal donation, you can find information at
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Thank you so much for reading.
I am a wife and mother of two. I currently stay home to take care of the farm and family, which I love. I was a deputy sheriff in Ohio for nine years, and I found myself tapping that experience as I wrote
Second Time Around,
my first book. No, I didn't tackle and cuff my husband, although there was that time in K-mart… Anyway, it was quite a change going from writing technical reports with diagrams, witness statements, inventories, etc. that would stand up in court to writing contemporary romance. I've always written, though, and it was always a dream to do something with that huge, leaning stack of spiral-bound notebooks.
Second Time Around was my first release and Embattled Hearts is my eleventh. I thank you so much for taking an interest in my work…
Stay tuned. There's a lot more coming!
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Matt hoped for, yet dreaded, the possibility that Gina would brush against him as she strode down the hallway to the next exam room. The hope nagged at him. The dread, on the other hand, gnawed out his stomach and almost swamped him. What if she did brush against him? What if she glanced up at him with that gut-turning smile she had and said something to him, and expected some kind of response?
His worries stalled as she bypassed him completely and went into the small lab room directly across from where he leaned. He blew the stale air from his lungs and tried to settle his thudding heart. The peaches and cream scent she wore wafted to him, teased him with her freshness and sent a fresh jolt of awareness down his body.
Once a month for the past four years Matt had brought his neighbor George in for check-ups following a liver transplant. While George waited to be seen, Matt devoted his time to watching Gina and storing up images of her in his mind to tide him over till the next month. The shape of her ass in pink scrubs as it swayed down the hallway, the way her curly hair blew under the vent at the far end, the way her smiles came so easily when she greeted people and the way her ice-blue eyes crinkled at the corners.
Every time they left the doctor’s office, Matt was frustrated and furious at himself for not talking to Gina about something other than George’s next appointment or the pills he was on. But nothing ever came to mind. She’d tried to start conversations before, and he had totally locked up. She had to think he was the village idiot. Or the Shelbyville, Indiana, idiot.
Clenching his fists in frustration, he vowed to himself he was going to say
something
to her coherent, even if he had to stay here all day to do it. He needed to talk to her just to prove to himself that he could. Besides, it wasn’t like she’d respond. Her pristine little life didn’t have room for a roughneck like him in it. She’d give him a generic smile and dodge around him like she always did, and maybe he could get over this thing he had for her. Determined, planning words in his head, he stepped into the lab room doorway.
Just as Gina started to exit.
Head down, she was scanning a chart in her hand, totally oblivious. She plowed into him folder first. Papers flew and her arms wind-milled as she tried to keep her balance. Matt reached out to grab her but missed her arm. Horrified, he could only watch as she crashed to the hard tile. One of her tiny hands went down first to try to break her fall, and Matt heard the snap as soon as it hit. Her cry of pain made his stomach clench.
Oh, fuck! I’ve broken her
.
He was on his knees in an instant, but the damage was done. Gina’s eyes were awash in tears as she struggled to sit up. He put a trembling hand behind her back to support her. “Gina, I am so sorry,” he began. His chest was tight with fear at what he had done and the urge to throw up was almost more than he could swallow down.
Her fly-away brown hair shone in the light as she shook her head and looked up at him with a tight smile. “No, Matt, it wasn’t your fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
She moaned as she cradled her right wrist. It was quite obviously broken. Matt had had enough broken bones in his life to know the sound. Then the instant nausea, the disbelief.
Man, why hadn’t he just stood against the wall?
Gina cradled her arm protectively as footsteps approached. Dr. Hamilton stepped in, saw her on the floor and dropped to her other side.
“What happened?” he demanded. Gently, he took her wrist in his hands to examine it.
“I knocked her down,” Matt admitted.
Gina laughed, or tried to. “No, you didn’t, Matt. You were just standing there.
I
ran into
you
.” She gasped as the doctor turned her arm over.
“Definitely broken. We’ll get a splint to bind you up so you can go to the hospital. Any other injuries?” The older man peered into her eyes over the tops of his bifocals.
Gina turned her head and tested the rest of her body parts, but everything seemed to work correctly. “I think just my wrist. I put my hand down to catch myself.”
Madison, one of the other RNs, came in the door and almost tripped on the group on the floor. “Oh, my God. What happened?” She knelt down and rested a hand on Gina’s knee. “What did you do, Gina?”
“I fell and broke my arm. Klutz that I am.”
Matt rumbled deep in his chest, fists clenched. Why was she taking the responsibility? It was his fault, not hers. He must have looked truly alarming, because Gina reached out and rested her good hand on his arm. “I did it, Matt. Not you.”
For the first time, Gina got a good look at Matt’s face under the bill of his cap, and it worried her. He was pale, a tic in his jaw was pounding overtime and every one of his impressive muscles were clenched. The expression in his eyes made her think of a wild horse. Spooked. Shaken. “Matt, look at me.” She waited until he did. “You did not do this. I did. Just like the five other times I’ve broken a bone. It was all me.”
Something must have gotten through to him, because he eased back a bit on his haunches. Some of the fierceness left his bold face. He looked down where her hand rested on his tattooed arm, and Gina couldn’t tell if he was surprised to see her touch him or what, but the expression on his face broke her heart. If the adrenalin wasn’t beginning to wear off, and her arm wasn’t beginning to throb, she would have probably taken more time to explore it.
“We need to get you to the hospital, Gina,” Dr. Hamilton manipulated her arm into a soft splint as he spoke, and Gina gasped at the pain. Her eyes welled with tears as he gently strapped it on. He checked the circulation in her fingertips and guided her to hold her hand up, across her chest.
“Ok, it seems good. Let me get one of the nurses to run you over to the hospital.”
“I can walk over. It’s not that far.” It was only actually a quarter of a mile, but Gina dreaded every step even as she made the offer.
“I’ll take her.”
Matt’s voice brought all eyes to him. His skin took on a ruddy cast at the attention, but his eyes stayed determined.
“George still has to be seen. I’ll take her over and come back for George.”
Dr. Hamilton hesitated, his kind eyes shifting between Gina and the big man. “I don’t know…”
“I’ll take her,” he repeated, and Gina could hear the determination in his voice.
Dr. Hamilton reached out to clap him on the back but changed his mind at the last second. “Ok. Thank you, Matt.”
Before she knew what happened, Gina was gently lifted her to her feet and guided down the hallway. Madison retrieved her purse from the break room, promised to check on her later, and out the door they went. Matt made her wait at a bench out front and jogged to get his truck, a big black dually. He bumped the curb and pulled it right up to the bench.
Gina laughed at his total disregard for propriety, but she appreciated not having to walk any further than necessary because every step caused a ripple of pain to slide up her arm. He was so very gentle as he handed her up into the truck. Gina knew if she faltered, he would catch her in a heartbeat.
“You don’t have to do this, Matt,” she told him faintly. The pain was really beginning to get to her.
“I’m already doing it.”
In less than a minute, he had pulled up in front of the emergency room doors. Gina tried to juggle her purse and grab the door handle with her left hand, but all she managed to do was drop the bag upside down on the ground. Contents scattered everywhere. Her lip gloss and mascara rolled away under the truck, and her credit cards fanned across the concrete.
“Damn it!” Frustrated tears filled her eyes.
Matt appeared in front of her as she prepared to drop to the ground to retrieve her things.
“Just hold on a minute,” he grumbled. Leaning down, he snatched up all the items and shoved them in her purse, then zipped it closed when he was done. Gina was dismayed to see her cell phone in his big hands, in several pieces. “This didn’t survive. I’m sorry.”
The new, shiny, red phone had been an extravagance, and it made her sad to see it broken. Great, just great.
Slinging the purse strap over her shoulder, she left the pieces lying on the seat. She had other things to worry about right now.
Matt held onto her good arm as she slid down out of the cab, and Gina appreciated the help. It was bad enough having to go to the emergency room like this. Sprawling on the concrete was not something she wanted to do in front of so many people she knew. Delores Jones manned the front desk, as she had every day for twenty years, and Gina sagged into her arms gratefully as she came through the doors. Concern darkened the older woman’s eyes.
“Oh, girl, what did you do to yourself?”
“Tumbleweed strikes again,” Gina mumbled, cradling her arm. “I fell.”
“We’ll get you fixed right up, honey.”
As Delores hustled her into the emergency, Gina turned to thank Matt for bringing her, but he was already gone.