Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“Are you no longer working at the hospital?” Declan frowned his confusion as to how this present arrangement could have come about.
“Oh, I’m still employed here,” Fawn replied cheerfully as she hoisted his rucksack onto one of her slender shoulders, seemingly without any effort.
“But I’ve been seconded for two weeks to take care of you, after which I will be returning to my nursing job here.
Fergus Wynter asked Mr. Hargreaves if one of the nurses looking after you during your stay here could take care of you during your first two weeks of recuperation.
With the option for it to be longer than that if necessary.
I’m guessing that has to be because you don’t have anyone of your own at home to look after you?
Believe me, there were a lot of volunteers lining up here for the job, male as well as female,” she added dryly.
Declan had no clue what Fawn meant by that last remark, unless it was because of the extra money Fergus was offering for someone professionally qualified to stay with him.
But he did know that the other man hadn’t been at all happy with Thea’s idea of her moving into Declan’s apartment to look after him until he was recovered enough to return to work.
He would probably be put on desk duty for a while longer once he returned to Wynter Security, but even that would be better than sitting at home doing nothing.
He deliberately hadn’t allowed himself to do that for many years.
Sitting around doing nothing tended to leave the mind time for thoughts to wander to subjects Declan would rather avoid thinking about.
He hadn’t exactly been thrilled himself at Thea’s suggestion of looking after him. But this…having Fawn Meadows moving into his apartment with him for at least the next two weeks, wasn’t something he welcomed either.
Not least because of his fierce physical reaction to a woman who, despite those shadows he occasionally saw in her eyes, was far too young and new for a hardened man like him.
He had no business feeling that desire and arousal for someone like Fawn.
Someone he believed was too vulnerable, despite that outer shell of hardness she liked to portray.
Declan knew he could easily break someone like her.
“I’m guessing you drew the short straw,” he drawled.
She grinned, those amber eyes once again glowing. “As I said, I’m also being paid way more for the next two weeks than I would be if I was working my usual shifts at the hospital.”
Because Fergus was paying for her to be there for Declan.
It was getting more than a little irritating how much Fergus was continuing to intrude in Declan’s personal life because he had protected Thea. Initially for just this past week in this private hospital, but now it seemed it was for the next two weeks too, this time in his own home.
“Ready to go?”
Declan came back to an awareness of his surroundings to see that Fawn had moved across the room and was standing beside a wheelchair, her expression one of expectation. “Hell, no,” he rasped once her meaning became clear to him.
Fawn grinned. “It’s hospital policy, decreed by the board of directors, that all patients must leave the building in a wheelchair.”
“Well, the hospital board of directors can take their policy and shove it up their?—”
“Tut, tut, tut, Mr. Quinn,” Fawn reproved mockingly. “You either sit in the wheelchair and let me wheel you out of here like a good boy, or you aren’t leaving.”
His nostrils flared. “I haven’t been a boy for more years than you’ve been alive, little girl ,” he growled. “And who the hell is going to stop me if I decide to just walk out of here?”
“In your weakened state?” Her shrug was completely lacking in urgency or concern. “I’m guessing just about anyone could do it, including me.”
Declan debated meeting the challenge in her expression, but the thought of him possibly losing that challenge to a woman half his size by collapsing would be too much for his already-battered ego to take right now.
“Fine.” He threw himself down into the wheelchair, and then instantly regretted doing so when it jolted the wounds on his back, shooting pain through the rest of his body.
After pausing briefly at the reception desk so that he could sign his discharge papers, Declan immediately had even more cause to regret having given in to Fawn’s badgering.
The moment she wheeled the chair out of the automatic front doors of the hospital, Declan saw one of the black SUVs from Wynter Security waiting outside for them.
A member of his own team was sitting behind the wheel.
Danny Walker exited the vehicle the moment he saw the two of them and came round to the passenger side. “Front or back seat, boss?” he queried as he took the rucksack from Fawn before opening the trunk and placing it inside.
“Front.”
“Back.”
Declan and Fawn spoke at the same time and in complete contradiction to each other.
“Front,” Declan repeated as he stood up so that he no longer felt at quite so much of a disadvantage sitting in the wheelchair.
“Back,” Fawn repeated firmly. “That way, if you start to feel dizzy, you can stretch out on the whole of the back seat during the drive to your apartment.” She moved to open the back door before stepping to the side and standing like an unmoving sentinel beside it, one eyebrow raised expectantly.
Declan had a feeling he was going to get very tired, very quickly, of that reprovingly arched eyebrow.
As if aware of his brooding thoughts, Fawn placed a helping hand on his arm as he stepped up into the back of the SUV. Declan turned to glare at her the moment he had settled himself on the seat.
“Need any help doing up your seat belt?” she offered, completely unperturbed by his scowl.
“No.” Even though it hurt like hell, Declan gritted his teeth and lifted his arm to grab hold of the seat belt and pull it across himself before fastening it. Even that small effort resulted in beads of sweat appearing on his brow.
Something Fawn, thankfully, made no comment on as she closed the door. She got into the front passenger seat and fastened her own seat belt.
Declan raised his head to see Danny grinning at him in the rearview mirror. That grin quickly faded as Declan continued to glare at him through narrowed lids. The other man’s gaze shifted away as he turned on the engine of the SUV and accelerated down the private driveway toward the public road.
“I forgot to ask.” Fawn’s comment broke the silence that had ensued after Danny had driven the SUV out in the busy London traffic. “Would you rather I continue to wear my nurse’s uniform for the next two weeks, or is it okay if I wear casual clothing?” She turned to look at him.
“You gonna go for the sexy nurse’s uniform, boss?” Danny once again eyed him in the driving mirror.
Declan gave him another glare before turning to look at Fawn. “Do you have any casual clothing with you?”
“My bag with my clothes and toiletries is already in the trunk with yours.”
“The two of you met before just now, then?” Declan was surprised at how much he disliked that idea.
Fawn grinned at Danny, a grin he returned. “We said hi a couple of times when he was visiting you at the hospital. Then again a short time ago, when I came outside to see if the car had arrived to take you home. I dropped my bag off then too.”
“How nice.” Declan inwardly cringed at the underlying rancor he could hear in his sarcastic response. “I’m guessing Fergus must have told you the address of my apartment?” he questioned the younger man as Danny drove unerringly in that direction.
“He told me the building,” Danny confirmed lightly. “But I have no idea which apartment is yours.”
Declan nodded before turning to look out the side window. Well…he pretended to look at the scenery. He was far too aware of Fawn Meadows and her intoxicating scent to concentrate on anything else.
Damn it.
Fawn frowned slightly at what the conversation between the two men just now had implied.
From her previous conversations with Danny, she knew he was one of the members of Declan’s team at Wynter Security.
Yet it sounded as if the younger man hadn’t even known the building where his team leader lived until now.
Was that because Declan did have something to hide?
If he did, then Fawn had a feeling she wouldn’t ever know what that secret was. One thing she had learned in the past few days was that Declan was a very private man, and that he usually deflected any conversation that might impinge on that privacy with a deceptively easy and light Irish charm.
“I never thought to ask,” Declan interrupted her thoughts. “Do you have…someone at home that having you move in with me for a couple of weeks is going to piss off?”
Fawn felt what she hoped had remained an inner flinch. “For one thing, I’m not moving in with you,” she snapped. “With the agreement of the hospital, I have been employed to take care of you while you recuperate. After which, as I already told you, I will return to my nursing job there.”
“And for another?”
She frowned her irritation. “What?”
“You said ‘for one thing,’ which implies there must be a second reason,” Declan pointed out mildly.
“You’re smooth,” she admired dryly. “And no, my accepting the position of staying with you for the next two weeks while you recover is not inconveniencing anyone who may be in my life.”
Declan’s mouth quirked. “That told me precisely nothing.”
She grinned unrepentantly. “It wasn’t meant to.”
He snorted. “And you think I’m smooth.”
She shrugged. “Takes one to recognize another one.”
Fawn had no intention of discussing her home situation with Declan. It was absolutely none of his or anyone else’s business.
“Need any help carrying the bags?” Danny offered once they had driven down into and parked the SUV in the underground garage beneath an apartment building, where Fawn supposed Declan must live. It had looked to be a tall building, and it was in a very prestigious area of London.
“We’ll manage,” Declan refused gruffly as he stepped down from the back of the vehicle.
That his movements were slightly stiff was the only outward evidence that he had found the twenty-minute drive something of an ordeal and was now in some discomfort.
Men!
Why did they have to be so stubborn all the damn time?
Declan had been shot twice. Would it really hurt him to admit that he was in pain?
The first thing Fawn intended to do once they reached his apartment was to administer some of his prescribed painkillers.
The most common thing to hinder a macho man’s full recovery was allowing him to refuse to accept the medication that would alleviate any pain or discomfort he was in.
And Declan was easily the most macho man Fawn had ever met.
“ I’ll manage,” Fawn corrected as she took both her own bag and Declan’s rucksack from Danny before turning back to face Declan. “After you,” she invited with a grin.
“Could I have a quick word first, boss?” Danny made the request softly.
The two men’s gazes met, a silent conversation seeming to take place, before Declan gave an abrupt nod. “Excuse us,” he told Fawn distractedly.
In other words, she was temporarily dismissed.
Fawn wasn’t sure how she felt about the two men stepping far enough away that she couldn’t overhear any of their conversation. Maybe a little irritated.
Even more so when, whatever that conversation had been about, it resulted in a deep frown between Declan’s eyes when he rejoined her a few minutes later. Danny gave her a brief wave before he stepped back into the vehicle and drove away.
“Everything okay?” Fawn prompted.
“Fine,” Declan dismissed.
“Anything I need to know?”
“No.”
“O-kay,” she said slowly. “In case you missed it, that was an I-don’t-believe-you okay.”
“I didn’t miss it,” he assured.
In other words, he knew exactly what she was asking him, and he wasn’t about to share what Danny had just discussed with him.
Which was…well, fine. For the moment. But Fawn wouldn’t let Declan off so easily if that conversation should prove to be about something that might affect his health or the safety of either of them.
“You’re much stronger than you look,” Declan admired as she easily carried their bags when the two of them walked toward where Fawn could see four elevators, their silver doors gleaming from the lights glowing above them.
“I’m a lot of things more than I look,” she assured him pertly.
“I’m starting to realize that,” Declan acknowledged enigmatically.
Fawn didn’t add anything else, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still concerned. If Declan believed he had effectively diverted her attention from his conversation with Danny, then he was sadly mistaken. She was simply saving the subject for further discussion, if or when it became necessary.
Of course, Declan’s conversation with Danny could have been purely work-related, and so nothing to do with her.
But a part of Fawn didn’t believe Danny would have asked to talk to Declan in private if that was the case.
Or that the older man would have scowled so darkly as he listened to what Danny had to say.
After all, the reason Declan had been a patient in the hospital where she worked was because he had been shot. Twice.
She followed Declan as he walked to the farthest elevator, watching as he swiped a card and then pressed his thumbprint against the touch-recognition screen. The doors immediately opened.
“After you.” He turned her previous comment back on her as he stepped back to allow her to enter the elevator ahead of him.
Fawn was looking forward to changing into some of the casual clothes she had brought with her, but only after she had given Declan the painkillers and suggested he take a nap before dinner.
Except the moment they stepped out of the elevator into what was obviously the penthouse apartment, from the view she could see out the windows of what she believed was a thirty-story building, she realized the two of them weren’t alone.