4.
A JAX
I ran my hand over my face, and my eyes shot open. I was instantly awake because something was different. Something big.
“Holy shit!” I whispered as I looked at my hand . . . a hand that was no longer cuffed to the bed. I did a quick assessment of the rest of my body and realized that not only could I move my arm, but my morning wood wasn’t uncomfortable either. I lifted the sheet and looked down, saw that it was free, too, and almost let out a shout of joy.
“You’re like a kid on Christmas morning.”
I looked over at the chair and found my friend sporting two black eyes, but I didn’t address that as I was too busy trying to figure out whether I should get up and make my escape or go find that maddening woman and spank her ass like I’d been threatening to do for days now.
But first, I’d have to ask her how she managed to play with my dick again without me knowing it.
I glanced at the makeshift IV pole and saw that there wasn’t a bag of fluid hanging. I still had the IV port taped down on my arm so it wouldn’t go anywhere when I shifted in my sleep, but there wasn’t a tube attached, meaning I was completely free for the first time in ages. Years. Maybe even centuries.
At least, that’s what it had felt like being stuck in bed, although I’d mainly just slept.
“How in the hell did she manage to do all of that and not wake me up?” I asked out loud.
“She’s efficient as hell. She fixed me up, threw a blanket at me so I could sleep on the couch, and then went back to bed. Just before dawn, I heard her walk down the hall toward your room and then come out a minute or two later. She took a long shower, drank at least a gallon of coffee, and then came in here and fixed you up.
“She drugged me.”
“Probably so she didn’t have to listen to you whine.”
“I don’t fucking whine!” I knew that was a lie because it felt like that’s all I’d been doing for a while now - not because I was in much pain since she’d made sure to stay on top of it with the IV, but because I wasn’t used to not being in charge of a situation, and that irked me to no end.
“Listen, I’ve never had anything shoved up my dick before, but I imagine if there was something there, I wouldn’t want to be awake when they removed it.”
“That’s a valid point,” I conceded.
“I’m surprised you’re not dancing around the room to celebrate your freedom.”
“I’m a little afraid to get out of bed,” I admitted.
“Why? Do you need help?” Lurk asked as he leaned forward in the chair, ready to hop up and attend to me if I needed it.
“No. Well, maybe. I’m afraid that if I get out of bed, she’s gonna come in here with guns blazing and tie me up again.”
“She’s such a sweet little thing. I can’t see her being able to do that if you put up a fight.”
“She knocked you out, Lurk.”
“I know. I was there,” Lurk said with a wince before he gently touched his nose. “Took me by surprise, that’s for sure. Can’t say that many people have done that.”
“Shocked the shit out of me.”
“Well, are you going to get up or not?”
“I don’t know.”
“She wouldn’t have released you if she didn’t want you to get out of bed.”
“You think?”
“Wow. She’s tamed the beast.”
“What? No, she hasn’t.”
“You’re afraid of her.”
“I’m weaker than usual, so I’m being careful.”
Lurk didn’t have a chance to respond before the door opened. Sandi peeked in and smiled at me before she said, “Good morning!”
“I’m free.”
“And yet you’re still in bed like you should be. I’m proud of you!” Sandi said as she walked into the room. She was carrying a pile of clothes that she set on the dresser before she said, “If you’re up for it, you can take a shower before we start our day.”
“We can? I can? I mean, really?” I stammered.
“Before you get to all of that, I’m going to go. Okie was here earlier to tell you goodbye, but you were still sleeping. He asked me to tell you to call him when you’re up and around.”
“Okay,” I said, still watching Sandi warily.
“Keep icing that until the swelling goes down,” she ordered Lurk as he walked past her.
He smiled at her, something I’d rarely seen him do, and then asked, “When are we getting married?”
“Get out before I kill you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he blurted. He grinned at me before he said, “I’ll win her over someday.” Then he was gone.
“Your friend is nice,” Sandi said as she walked closer to the bed.
“I’m not sure anyone else has ever described him that way.”
“I don’t know why not,” Sandi muttered as she sat down on the edge of the bed. “Okay, this is how things are going to go. You’re going to get out of bed very carefully and let me help you into the bathroom. I’ll get you showered, check your wounds, and then help you get dressed.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll get you into the living room so you can have a change of scenery. Breakfast should be delivered in an hour, and we should have you settled by then.”
“Okay.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Is this what Stockholm Syndrome feels like?”
Sandi smiled and cleared her throat before she coughed a few times and finally gave up and burst out laughing.
“You weren’t a hostage, you were an unwilling patient. I’m a nurse who does what needs to be done to make sure that the person she’s caring for gets the best care possible, no matter what it takes. You’re not experiencing Stockholm Syndrome, you’re just feeling healthier than you have in a week,” Sandi explained. “You’ll still need some pain medication, I’m sure, but you can take that orally as needed.”
“Did someone come and perform an exorcism while I was sleeping?” I asked.
“Do you feel that much better?”
“I was talking about you!”
Sandi chuckled before she patted me on the leg and said, “If you’re not ready to get up, we can wait a . . .”
“I want a shower.”
“Well, let’s have one then.”
I started to flip the blanket back, but then remembered that I was naked beneath the sheets. Sandi must have seen my hesitance because she smiled before she said, “I’ve seen it all, Ajax. Every little bit of it. You’re not going to shock me by walking across the room naked.”
I tried to ignore the “little bit” comment and wondered where the hell my spine had gone. Apparently, the woman had turned it into mush during my convalescence. Either that or she had it roasting in a pan in the oven, preparing to eat it with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
I moved the blanket back and slowly slid my legs toward the side of the bed, wincing as my movement pulled at the stitches that had already been replaced once. When I had my feet on the ground, I took a deep breath and tried to steel myself for the short walk to the bathroom. It was only three miles or so. Surely I could make it, right?
“Come on, sweetheart,” Sandi said softly as she sat down beside me. She lifted my arm and put it over her shoulders before she started a count. I didn’t seem to follow, probably because I was in a fog since she’d been fucking starving me. I wasn’t ready when she abruptly stood, taking me with her. Once I was on my feet, she carefully put her arm around my waist and said, “Let’s take it slow.”
“Did you just pick me up?” I asked in shock.
“I helped you up. There’s a difference.”
“No, there’s not.”
“I’d pick you up and carry you if you were unconscious and there was a fire. I just lifted you.”
“I’m a full-grown man.”
“I’m well aware.”
“And you just picked me up like I was dainty or something.”
“Here it comes.”
“Here comes what?” I asked as we slowly shuffled our way to the bathroom. Somehow, the trek didn’t seem that long with her beside me, and before I knew it, she was propping me up against the wall so she could adjust the water in the shower. When she didn’t answer, I asked again, “What do you mean, ‘here it comes?’”
In an excellent imitation of a man’s voice, she said, “Strong as an ox. She’s thick. Big-boned.” In her normal voice, she said, “I’ve heard it all, believe me.”
“But you are thick,” I muttered as I watched her walk over to the cabinet and pull out a washcloth. I studied her back, giving myself plenty of time to appreciate her ass and then let my eyes roam down to those thighs I wanted to touch before I added, “In all the right ways.”
“Honey, I’m a captive audience. There’s no sense blowing smoke. It’s cold outside, and I’d hate to have to open a window to clear it out.”
I realized that she didn’t believe me and wondered what in the hell kind of men she’d dealt with all her life that hadn’t convinced her that she was smoking hot in all the right ways. Probably because I was so weak that I had no sense of self-preservation right now, I decided to be the man that changed her mind.
“You’re tall.”
“No!Really?”
“You’ve got to be close to six feet,” I said as I pushed away from the wall and stood up to my full height. When she got close enough to touch me, I smiled before I said, “Well, look at that. I won’t have to get a crick in my neck every time I want to kiss you.”
Sandi scoffed as she raised an eyebrow and looked down at my cock, which was more awake and alert than I ever thought he’d be again, before she slowly let her eyes trail up my body until they reached mine again. “I guess I didn’t break it after all.”
“He’s working just fine, and I’ll show you once I get cleaned up, brush the first layer of funk off my teeth, and get some food in my belly.”
“I don’t need a demonstration, thank you,” Sandi said with an insincere smile. “I know how they work.”
“You don’t know how mine works.”
She raised that damn eyebrow again, and I wanted to spank her, but I knew just how strong she was and guessed I should work on building up my strength before I made any attempts.
“I know that it will work just long enough for you to get off and then you’ll disappear. I can see that about you.”
“Like hell!” I almost shouted. She was right, though, whether I wanted to admit it or not. I wasn’t exactly the kind of guy that stuck around. However, I made sure that the women I took to bed enjoyed themselves more than I did and in a way that they’d hopefully look back on fondly for years to come.
“Come on, Romeo. Let’s get you cleaned up and settled in the living room before you pass out.”
I couldn’t argue with her because I was already feeling weaker than I had been when I woke up. I knew showering was going to sap the rest of my energy.
Even though I knew there was nothing I could do if she agreed, I asked, “Are you going to strip and shower with me?”
“Not a chance in hell,” she replied immediately.
“I guess we’ll have to put that on the agenda for later.”
“Sure. Let’s go with that,” Sandi said placatingly as she nudged me closer to the shower door. “I’m going to be right out here, so if you start feeling woozy, just yell, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Promise you’ll let me know before you start to fall down?”
“I promise,” I replied, feeling more vulnerable than I ever had around a woman before. It wasn’t in my nature to show weakness around anyone, but damn near impossible for me to show it to a woman. I wasn’t sure why, but I had a few ideas . . . most of which was that, in this world, a weak man wasn’t a man at all. However, I had a feeling that Sandi didn’t judge people the same way others did. I inexplicably felt a need to make it my mission to find out.
I also wanted to demonstrate to her just how much I appreciated the fact that she wasn’t breakable - she was solid in all the right places. I thought exploring that while I bent her into positions she had no idea she could get into would be the most fun I’d ever had.
I knew enough to understand that she’d probably kill me if she knew what I was thinking right now, but I didn’t care.
This woman, a stranger who had never even heard of me before, had taken care of me as if I were important to her, and that was something I couldn’t understand or ever repay.
But I looked forward to trying.
I shook my head as I stepped into the shower.
“Move it, princess. There’s not an unlimited supply of hot water here, and the last thing we need is for you to get the chills and start crying like a baby.”
What the hell was I thinking? Obviously, Stockholm Syndrome was clouding my vision, or the fever I had a few days ago had fried my brain because why in the hell did I want to make a woman who was that irritating feel good?
Blood loss. That had to be it. I needed to eat a few steaks and build up my red blood cells so I could start thinking clearly again, because there was no doubt I wasn’t playing with a full deck right now.
The woman had no interest in me at all, yet all I could think about was how interesting she was.
What in the hell was wrong with me?
◆◆◆
SANDI
He’s a patient. A weak patient who was shot three times just a week ago. Shot. With bullets. Which meant that he was involved in something that women like me didn’t need to get involved in. Either that or he ran his mouth so much that a woman like me couldn’t help herself and tried to kill him.
After spending this long with him, that scenario seemed a lot more likely.
Either way, Ajax, whatever-his-name-is, was not a man. He was a patient.
There were rules in place about this sort of thing, some of them set in stone and others unwritten that I had abided by my entire career.
Of course, I had thrown those rules out the window when I accompanied my friend to treat gunshot wounds outside of a hospital setting without reporting them, distributed narcotics with an unknown origin, and then cuffed a man to the fucking bed like he was a hostage.
I guess I needed to brush up on my nursing standards and practices because my libido had thrown what little was left of my professionalism and common sense out the fucking window.
I watched Ajax step into the shower and acted as if I was assessing his wounds as I stared at him. Of course, there wasn’t a wound on his ass, but my eyes didn’t seem to care.
It should be illegal for a man to be that damn hot, especially when he hadn’t showered in days and had breath that could peel the paint off the wall.
However, I could tell by what his friends and family had said that this man was a nomad - not just from his club, but from everyone who cared about him. Apparently, he didn’t have a home, he just had caves in various places around the country and came out occasionally to work in some sort of hush-hush nefarious business.
But if he wasn’t the kind of man to stick around, then that meant he was the perfect man for me, right?
I didn’t need long-term complications.
What I needed was a man who knew what he was doing in the bedroom, wasn’t afraid to approach my pussy like a fat man at an all-you-can-eat buffet, had a decent enough package downstairs to give me that stretch I craved, and endless mind-blowing orgasms.
That was what I needed. It wasn’t a want at this point. It was a fucking need .
And if he just left before I woke up in the morning, that made the scenario even more attractive.
Almost as attractive as that cock he was so thoroughly washing right now.
As he stared at me through the glass.
Well, shit. So much for keeping my interest to myself, huh?