Chapter 15 #2
“Luca, meet Bianca Barlow, my new assistant that our mother hired to ruin my life.” I wave to Bianca’s slacken form. “Bianca, meet my brother Luca. Here’s hoping he can revive you and we can move past this awkward moment.”
“Shit. Kap.”
“Yup. Just help her, okay?” I glance over my shoulder at my brother. “I’m freaking out, Luca. She had a panic attack because she doesn’t like hospitals and I forced her here and then she passed out.”
Luca does a very quick neuro exam on her, checks her blood pressure with a portable cuff, her pulse ox with a finger probe, and listens to her heart with his stethoscope. “She’s fine,” he tells me. “Vitals are stable. She’s just unconscious.”
Then he waves the smelling salts beneath her nose. She jolts back, coming out of it too quickly with a fierce cry, waving away the stick Luca is holding before her face. She settles down by the end of the bed, her wild dark eyes all over us, scared and disoriented as she pants out uneven breaths.
“Hey there, pretty lady. Welcome back. I’m Dr. Luca Fritz.
This asshole’s brother.” He jabs a thumb in my direction.
“I’m a neurosurgeon here in the hospital and if it’s okay with you, I’d like to examine you quickly.
Make sure everything is okay. You passed out on this big galumph and gave him a good scare. ”
Bianca blinks those huge brown eyes of hers rapid fire, taking in the scene around her. She stares at Luca for a long beat and then her gaze flickers over to me. Holds there and then returns to him. “I passed out?”
“Rather dramatically,” I inform her.
She licks her dry lips and sits up a little straighter. “I’m fine.”
“I appreciate what you’re saying, but I’d like to make sure of that all the same,” Luca patiently requests. “He deals in hearts.” A nod in my direction. “I deal in brains.”
“And yet neither of you have a set between you.” She cocks an eyebrow, only to cover her face. “Sorry, that was rude. I didn’t mean that.”
A laugh hits the air from both of us. “I won’t argue it though, even if we did just meet and that was a little rude. What’s your name?” Luca questions.
“Bianca ‘I Hate Your Brother’ Barlow.”
Luca’s green eyes flash over to mine with a smirk I do not mistake. He likes her. Yeah, don’t we all.
“Alrighty then. Do you know where you are?”
“Hell. I’m in hell.”
She pushes off the gurney, forcing herself up and onto her fucking fuck-me heels. The color in her face isn’t great, but it isn’t as terrifying as it was when I carried her in here.
“Whoa. No need to stand up yet. You don’t want to pass out again,” Luca admonishes as we fly off the gurney, our arms outstretched on either side of her, ready to catch her should she fall.
“Stop. I said I’m fine. Look. Not drunk either.” She proceeds to close her eyes and touch each pointer finger to her nose while reciting the alphabet backward. Something I can’t even do sober.
“Alright, alright. I get it. You’re fine.
” Luca holds up his hands in surrender. “But if you feel dizzy or even if this guy gives you trouble, come find me. I work here two days a week.” Luca slips one of his business cards into her hand and closes her fingers around it.
“It was an absolute pleasure to meet you, Bianca. Don’t stay a stranger, okay? ”
Luca tosses me a wink I’d likely just as quickly ignore, and then he leaves.
“Well, that was fun,” I deadpan, my heart still beating off rhythm. “Do you think you can make it upstairs this time without swooning all over me?”
She goes for a pink plastic portable toilet we sit kids on when they’re unable to get out of their beds and chucks it at me. I duck to the side, and it flies right past my head.
“I hate you.”
“You said that already.” I take a seat on the bed, staring contritely at her.
“I’m sorry, Bianca. I shouldn’t have done that to you.
I had no clue your fear of hospitals was that bad.
Tell me truthfully where you are with this?
If you can’t go upstairs, I’ll drive you back across town to the foundation building and we’ll figure something else out. ”
Her pretty brown eyes that appear more amber under the fluorescent lights blink at me, perplexed. “I really passed out?”
“Yes.”
A headshake as she comes and sits down beside me. “I’ve never done that before. Had a panic attack that made me pass out.”
I tilt my head in her direction. “I’m not judging you. It’s my fault and I feel terrible.”
“But I’m here? In the hospital? How did I get back to this room?” She glances around at the mass of broken hospital parts.
“You passed out on me, and I carried you back here.”
Her head whips in my direction, eyes wide. “You carried me?”
“Yes. What’s that look for?”
Heat curls up her face in the form of an alluring blush. “Wasn’t I heavy? I’m not a small woman.”
Jesus. This shit again. I’m going to find her mother and her dipshit ex-fiancé and kill them both for doing this to her. “You weren’t heavy, Bianca. I carried you back here just fine.”
A gulp and then her eyes meet mine before falling to my arms. “I guess it’s a good thing you have all those… muscles under your shirt.”
I smirk at just how adorable she is when she’s like this. When her guard is down and she’s unabashedly vulnerable and honest. “Guess so. You can squeeze one if you want. I won’t judge that either.”
I get an eye roll instead of a squeeze.
“No? Too bad.”
“You don’t have to distract me anymore with that.”
“Right.” Because that’s clearly what I was doing when I told her I’m attracted to her. “Well, here we are in the hospital. What happens next is up to you. I realize I just trapped you in the Land of Oz after a tornado fucked up your world, but you have to tell me where your head is at.”
“Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” she quips.
I grin. “Why, I’m not a witch at all.”
She bursts into laughter, falling to the side, her forehead landing on my shoulder. “Okay. Okay,” she repeats, the second time more resolute as I wrap her up in my arms. “I’ll go upstairs because no woman wants to be this girl. But now that you’re aware of my unease, I hope you’ll play nice.”
My lips, those traitorous, needy, hungry bastards plant themselves in her hair. Then my nose takes over and inhales her sweet, delicious fragrance.
“Baby, I am not nice. I have the most to lose and the least to gain by being or even playing nice. Especially with a woman.” A woman I find as attractive as I find you.
My hands hit the back of her head, holding her to me, running the tips of my fingers through the silky strands of her hair.
“But after watching you collapse like that…” Fuck, I’ll never get that image out of my head.
“You have my word. If you tell me it’s too much, then it’s too much.
But I need you here, Bianca. You’re smart and by some miracle you seem to know what you’re doing with this foundation and I…
” Don’t . “I need you. I won’t fire you despite how much I say I want to.
” A sigh. “Can you do this with me? I can’t be here and there, and I need someone who can be. ”
I press her tighter against me when what I should do is release her altogether. Her hands find the sinew of my back, the blades of my shoulders, gripping me as if I’m her lifeline.
“If I have another panic attack, I’m done.”
“Agreed.”
“I won’t though.”
I smile, pressing my lips in tighter to her head. Breathing her in just a touch more. “I believe you.”
“Okay.” A steady breath and she pulls herself off me, her eyes peering back and meeting mine. “But no more attraction nonsense. Next time just give it to me straight instead of trying to distract me like that.”
“Promise,” I tell her, even as my gut sinks.