Roberts, Sarah - Action Hero Junkie [Movieland] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (8 page)

Aiden subsided back onto the seat. He flashed a relieved grin and then motioned to the driver. “Okay, let’s go!”

As the jeep roared away, Mia waved good-bye to Aiden. She turned and went inside the base hospital. The smell of antiseptic hit her, and she sniffed in appreciation.
Just like home.

Action movies didn’t spend much time showing the inside of hospitals, so she was curious. She stood looking around for a minute. It was a madhouse. Everyone she saw was scurrying around, so she didn’t try to stop anyone to ask for directions.

Mia eventually found the duty nurse on her own. “I’m Mia Haven. I’m here to help out.”

The duty nurse didn’t question her. She just handed Mia a white lab coat and stethoscope. “I’ll call for the on-duty physician.”

Mia didn’t have long to wait. The on-duty physician emerged from one of the brightly lit corridors like a whirlwind. He was tall, balding, and wore murky-green scrubs. He shot a swift, assessing glance over her. Shaking her hand, he almost crushed her fingers. “I’m Dr. Mason. And you are?”

Mia told him her name. “I’m here to help out while I’m on base.”

“Good! Come with me. We’ll get you started. It’s a busy morning.” The doctor was walking so fast that his white coat whipped back. Mia had to trot after him to keep up. “So where did you do your residency? Have you been around gunshot wounds?”

Still trotting, Mia corrected him. “I’m a nurse.” She told him that she’d trained for two years at a major inner city hospital, where gunshot wounds and drug-deals-gone-bad victims had been a daily occurrence.

He nodded. “Good. We need experience.” A nurse rushed up to him with a chart and a pen. He didn’t stop walking. He glanced at the chart, signed it, and gave it back to the nurse. The nurse sped away. “I’ll show you the ER.”

When they entered the ER, he introduced Mia to the nursing staff. “This is Dr. Haven. She will be working with us temporarily. Show her a good time, folks.” He nodded and raced off.

Mia waved her hand in the air. “Uh, I’m a nurse. Not a doctor.”

No one paid any attention. It was like they couldn’t hear her words.

A nurse beckoned Mia to go with her. They set out at a fast clip. Mia wondered if anyone moved at anything but speed of light. “This way, Doctor!”

They entered the emergency room, but Mia hardly noticed. She was too busy sputtering over being called ‘doctor’ again.

“Oh, this is just great!” Mia knew she was freaking out again. She could tell because her palms were sweating. Dismay made her mind whirl. She’d been promoted. She didn’t have the training. She hoped that she didn’t kill anyone.
Coming to the field hospital was a bad idea, a very, very bad idea.

The nurse nodded at what Mia had said, but she obviously hadn’t caught her sarcasm. The nurse glanced around proudly at the shiny, well-lit emergency room. It was bustling with activity. “Yes, we’ve got a pretty good facility for a field hospital. We can deal with almost anything. But as you can see, we’re swamped right now. We’ve just had a wave of wounded come in.”

Mia knew what that meant. “Triage.”

Mia guessed that the nurse thought she meant for her to take her there, because the woman nodded. “Yes, Doctor.” She cut to the right, and Mia followed her. Mia didn’t bother trying to correct her about the doctor title. She just hoped that there were real doctors around. Her heart was thudding madly in her chest from dread. Stress could cause cardiac arrest.

They entered a chaotic area full of wounded military personnel. More were being brought in. There was a lot of blood and shouting and rushing around. Mia’s nerves settled down. She was in familiar territory. Triage was something she knew and was good at. You just did what had to be done to stabilize the patient. Then the patients were sent on to emergency for more individual care.

Mia plunged into the work. It was exhilarating. Her brain snapped, crackled, and popped. Her hands and her mouth were right in sync. Staff scurried and snapped to with her crisp orders. Mia’s heart pounded with the adrenaline rush. It was hours before she looked up. That was when she heard her name. Well, not
her
name, but close enough.

“Dr. Haven! Dr. Haven!”

Mia focused on the nurse’s face. The woman was looking at her, wide-eyed. Mia brushed the back of her hand across her perspiring forehead. “What?”

“You’re done, ma’am!” There was a peculiar note in the nurse’s voice. She sounded awed, but that couldn’t be right. Mia was obviously missing something important.

Mia looked around the triage area. The flood of wounded was now a trickle. “Oh! All right, then. We’ve done some good work.” She snapped off the latest pair of bloodied latex gloves and dropped them into the trash.

“Yes, Doctor. I was asked to tell you that you have a jeep waiting to take you home.”

“Thanks. I’ll be glad to go get a shower.” Mia glanced down at herself. Her once-pristine white coat was covered with blood. Under her clothes, she was sweaty. She probably smelled like a pig. Mia grimaced. She hoped she could get that shower before Aiden saw her. The condition she was in, even her new fairy godmother would have her work cut out for her.

The jeep whisked her back to Aiden’s quarters. Mia went in, almost dragging her feet. She wondered tiredly when the nice shiny boots had gotten so heavy. She saw a uniformed man sprawled on the sofa, and it wasn’t Aiden. He gracefully leaped to his feet. His unreadable dark gaze roved over her. He frowned.

Mia frowned back. He looked familiar.
Oh yeah, the smart-mouth at the helicopter.
“What are
you
doing here?” She was hot and tired and grumpy. She sounded unfriendly, and she didn’t care.

“You’ve got blood on your forehead.” He pointed at her head.

Mia thought that was really, really rude. He hadn’t told her his name. He hadn’t said why he was there. He had
frowned
at her.

She scraped with a fingernail at her forehead and felt dried scales flake off. She remembered that she had brushed the sweat off of her forehead before taking off the bloodied glove. “Yeah, well, I just got out of my laboratory. Frankenstein’s parts squirted.”

He kind of clamped his jaw. He didn’t look like he appreciated the joke.
Okay then, no sense of humor.
Mia’s temper fled south. He was rude, and she was too tired to summon up her company manners.
I sure don’t intend to stand here, jawing at him.

“Look, I don’t see Aiden. So you”—she pointed at him, then at the door—“get out.”

He snapped a salute in kind of a snarky way. “Ma’am! I’ll just wait outside for the lieutenant.”

Mia nodded. “Fine! Do that!” She tromped into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. Her gaze fell on her own clothes, clean and neatly folded on the bed. Somehow, it made her sad. She had been a part of the movie all day. When she took off the dirty military getup, it would be like it was all over. Tears pricked her eyes. She liked being Dr. Mia Haven, awesome triage doctor.
I don’t want to give up the silky
Victoria
’s Secret lingerie, either.

Muttering to herself, Mia stripped off the military gear and just dropped everything on top of the discarded boots. Then she went into the bathroom to take a shower. Getting under the steamy spray and washing her hair, her mood perked up. After all, she was still in the movie. She was still with Aiden. So what if she had to put on her familiar, oh-so-not-sexy cotton bra and briefs? As long as he wanted to rip them off, she was good.

Mia stepped out of the humid bathroom, humming. A waft of damp air eddied along behind her. There was no one in the bedroom. Mia dropped the towel she had wrapped herself up in and got dressed in her civilian clothes. She didn’t put her sweater back on, though. It was too warm for anything more than her T-shirt paired with her jeans. She fluffed her damp hair with her fingers.

She heard sounds like someone was moving around in the living room. The bedroom door was shut, but she could hear the rumble of male voices on the other side. Mia recognized Aiden’s deep voice when it got a little louder, especially when he said her name.

“I’m not giving up Mia!”

Well, that was enough to snare her attention! Mia tiptoed to the door and laid her ear flat against it.

“Aiden, I know how you feel—”

“No, you don’t! I love her. She saved my life. She
is
my life!”

Mia grinned to herself.
Ah, that is just so sweet!

Her smile slowly faded.
But wait just a minute.
Give me up? No way, no how.

Aiden had asked her to marry him. She couldn’t do that, of course. But until it was over, no one was going to screw with her fantastic fantasy!

Mia jerked the door open and stomped out of the bedroom. She could practically feel herself breathing out flames. She shot a glance around the living room. Aiden and the other solider stood staring at her, their mouths gaping open like they were in mid-flap.

Mia narrowed her eyes in a lethal stare.
Yup, that snarky, rude, smart-mouth
. The same one she had tossed out on his can. She pointed at the unknown man. “You! I knew you were trouble the first time I saw you!”

She marched over in her bare feet and planted herself in front of him. She had to look way up before her gaze tangled with his hooded brown eyes, but she tilted her head and gave him a glare that should have singed his eyebrows. “Where do you get off telling Aiden to give me up? Huh? Huh?” Mia poked him in the chest several times. It made her finger sore, but she didn’t care. “How would you like me to cut you a new one and forget to sew it up?”

“Mia! Hold on.” Large, familiar-feeling hands came down on her shoulders and pulled her back. She felt Aiden’s hard body standing behind her, and she turned into him. His clean, masculine scent filled her nose as she pressed in. His arms closed around her.

Mia’s face was practically mashed against him. Her voice came out muffled. “Who is this asshole? Break his arms, Aiden.” The warmth of his breath huffed over her hair. Against her cheek, she felt the rumble of laughter in his chest.

“Bloodthirsty little thing, isn’t she?” The smart-mouth sounded admiring.

Mia lifted her head and glared over her shoulder at him. “Shut up.”

Aiden let her go. He slung one arm over her shoulders. With his other hand, he waved at the other man. “Mia, meet my best friend, Caesar Thomas. He’s been watching my back since we were kids.”

“Well, Augustus, you can take your advice and slither on back to
Rome
! Aiden is
my
guy.” Mia crossed her arms over her chest. She saw his eyes drop to her breasts, which were pushed up rather nicely under her T-shirt. “Eyes up, soldier boy!”

He jerked his gaze back to her face. He glowered darkly at her. “My name is Caesar.”

“Right. That’s what I said. Augustus Caesar.” Mia saw that he and Aiden were both looking at her with the same I-don’t-get-it expression. She shook her head in disbelief. Military elite and they’d never heard of Augustus Caesar, one of
the
generals of the ages? Even she knew that much! She waved her hands in the air. “You know, crossing the Rubicon? Et tu, Brute?”

Their puzzled expressions didn’t change.

Mia gave up. She was getting distracted from the point, anyway. “Never mind!
You!
Tell me why you want Aiden to break up with me. You don’t even know me!”

“Yeah, Caesar. Tell her why.” Aiden sounded challenging.

Caesar glared at him. “You know it isn’t a good idea.”

Mia looked at Aiden, but he didn’t glance down at her. He held his friend’s eyes with a dare-you stare. His chiseled jaw was rock-hard. But he spoke to her. “You’re a civilian, Mia, and I’m Special Ops. That’s enough reason. Right, Caesar?”

Caesar thrust out his own granite jaw. “You could go off on a mission and never come back. She’d be left alone. You
know
that.”

Mia could see the stag horns rattling already. She held up her hands, tapping a time-out. She glared at Aiden’s friend. “Whoa, hold it! I’ve been alone. I don’t like it. Now I have Aiden. Whatever time we have together, I want it. Got it?”

Caesar eyed her for a minute. Then he smiled. “Yes, ma’am. I got it.” Mia decided he was actually pretty good-looking when he wasn’t scowling. He shifted his eyes away from her and nodded at Aiden. “I’ll see you round, Aiden.”

“Right.”

As soon as Caesar left, Aiden picked her up in his arms. He whirled her around and laughed. Mia was breathless when he set her down. She stared up at his grinning face. “What has gotten into you?”

“I’m so proud of you, Mia! You don’t back down for anyone! Caesar likes you, by the way.”

She just looked at him. She didn’t say so, but she was pretty skeptical. “Yeah? How can you tell?”

“Well, he didn’t kill you.”

Aiden said it so matter-of-factly. Mia wasn’t completely certain he was joking. “Ha-ha. Very funny. What are we going to do for the rest of the day?”

Aiden smiled real slowly. His large, warm hands slid up her arms, raising shivery goose bumps. “About what you said—”

Mia caught her breath. The heat in his electric blues almost scorched her. “Which was?”