by A. M. Kusi
“Don’t try to keep up with us,” the paramedic said, handing Ethan a sheet of paper with the hospital address printed on it.
He nodded and walked to his car, pulling out his keys.
“Ethan, let me get Mila and I’ll come with you,” Harper called after him.
“I think you guys have done enough, don’t you?” he yelled at them, before getting in his car and driving off to follow the ambulance.
Ethan’s body grew hot with a protective rage. Jax had taken things too far this time. Isa had been hurt because of their idiocy, and that bothered him more than he cared to admit.
Seeing Isa’s hair splayed out over the white pillow in the sterile hospital room only made her seem more vulnerable and in need of his protection. The monitors beeped in the otherwise quiet area. He checked his phone, seeing texts from their friends.
Jax: I’m so sorry. Please tell Isa I would have never done that if I’d known she was in the bath.
Harper: Have her call me as soon as she wakes.
He watched her as she slept. He wanted more than anything to look into those two dark blue pools and see that she was going to be okay. His stomach twisted in unease. She hadn’t woken yet. If he admitted the truth, he was angry at himself for goofing around with Jax in the first place. He should have remembered that man was do or die.
Isa stirred as her eyes fluttered open and she winced.
“Hey.” He spoke softly. “The doctor said you might have a headache.” He stood and brought the water to her mouth. She sipped from the straw and glanced around the room. A flash of panic crossed her face before she seemed to regain her composure.
“Do you remember what happened?” he asked, sitting back in the chair next to her.
“Who are you? Wait . . . who am I?” she asked, her voice quiet.
A jolt of panic ripped through him as his body tensed. Oh my God. She has amnesia.
He watched her confused expression change as her full lips turned into a smile. He sighed with relief. “You’re just messing with me?”
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” she said, raising a hand to the back of her head, wincing.
“Take it easy. You got a concussion.”
“When I was told my body was a knockout, I didn’t think I would be the one being knocked out.” She tried to laugh, but he could tell she was in pain. “What were you doing in my room anyways?” she asked, all humor gone from her expression.
“Jax told me they had to move me to a different room because there was something wrong with mine. I just wanted a shower before we went to grab dinner. His idea for payback. He wanted me to tell you he is sorry and he never thought you would be . . . well, naked. Harper wants you to call her when you are up for it.”
“She isn’t here?” Isa asked, finding the call button for the nurse.
He glanced down before answering her. “I kinda told them not to come. I was pissed that you got hurt and figured you would be better off without their meddling faces.”
She let out a long exhale. “I don’t know what is going on with them. I know pregnancy and breastfeeding mess with your hormones, but this has gone too far.”
He nodded. “I think I am partly to blame.”
She looked at him curiously, so he continued. “I got him going, messing around. He’s always been super competitive. I know he didn’t mean for it to go this far, but I’ll be knocking some sense into him when I get back.”
Something flashed in her eyes, before she smiled. “I think Harper will be taking care of that.”
He laughed, remembering the way Harper’s small fists had beat into Jax’s chest as she’d yelled at him when Isa had been loaded into the ambulance. “Do you think they will stop now?”
“I think it’s time we turn the tables and get them back, don’t you agree?” she asked.
“What do you mean? How?”
“Let’s pretend we do suddenly like each other, that we are falling head over heels in love, and they will get off our backs. Then, when the two weeks are over, we’ll burst their bubble and tell them it was all an act. They’ll hopefully learn to mind their own damn business,” she said, smiling mischievously.
“You want to fake being in a relationship?” he asked, clarifying.
“We would have to be convincing so the surprise is that much more shocking to them,” she explained.
“And they’d lay off the matchmaking, giving us space.”
Isa nodded carefully. “Exactly.”
“Okay, my love. Let’s play pretend.”
***
Isa and Ethan were able to leave the hospital after a few hours of observation, with several pages of information about taking care of a person with a concussion. The nurse stressed the need for rest as she led them out of the room.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her,” Ethan promised.
Isa couldn’t help how his words affected her. Ethan was one of the good ones.
They walked down the bright hallway. Isa had managed to sleep a little bit in the hours they had stayed under observation, but Ethan had been awake whenever her eyes found his, watching over her. Her chest tightened as something foreign grew inside her whenever her gaze met his. She could sense the danger of getting close to him.
“What do you say we stop for some dinner before we head back?” Ethan asked.
“Technically, at three in the morning, it would be breakfast.” She smiled.
“Whatever you want to call it. I am starving.”
“Okay.”
They got into the car before he did a quick search on the GPS and drove to a hole-in-the-wall diner. A few drunk old men were loudly arguing over something at the counter, while a group of college-aged girls hungrily wolfed down some greasy platters, giggling in between bites. They seemed to be the only sober patrons at the early hour.
After they were seated, Isa and Ethan looked over their menu and decided on eggs, toast, pancakes, and bacon.
“Coffee too, please,” Ethan said to the waitress.
“Did you get any sleep?” Isa asked, watching the waitress go.
“Nah,” he said, turning his gaze to the darkness outside the window.
“I’m sorry,” she said, the pounding in her head having subsided some from the meds the doctor had given her.
Ethan turned back to face her. “I’ll be fine. Nothing a cup of good coffee can’t fix.”
The waitress returned with two cups of hot brew and placed small creamer containers in a pile between them.
“Besides, I believe the doctor said for you to rest and relax for the next week or so. It’s my job as your pretend boyfriend to ensure you are taken care of.” He winked.
Isa smiled. “We should set some ground rules about that.”
Ethan stirred a couple of packets of sugar and one creamer into his coffee before asking, “Like what?”
Isa added cream to her coffee and took a sip. The hot liquid was a little bitter, but not bad. “Well, we need to be convincing.” She set the cup back down. “We need to talk the talk, and walk the walk. Have you ever acted before?”
Ethan laughed. “Nope.”
“We need to do things that couples do when they’re together, like holding hands, some minor PDA, maybe some pet names, and eye-fucking,” she added flirtatiously.
Ethan looked taken aback. “Eye-fucking?”
“Yeah, you know that look that Jax always gives Harper? I’ve even seen River do the same thing with Ella. They look at each other like they are imagining exactly what they want to do to each other once they are alone.”
“So that’s the proper term for it, huh?”
She smiled. “Sure is.”
“Let’s practice,” he suggested. “To make sure I know what you mean.”
“Okay.” She took a deep breath and stared into his
eyes—two black diamonds that seared through her.
Ethan sat stoic, staring back at her for a minute before saying, “I don’t think you’re very good at this.”
Isa rolled her eyes. “I was waiting for you. Go on, you try first.”
“Oh, okay.”
This time, Isa’s smile faded as his intense onyx gaze raked over her body and then move back to her eyes. Her face flushed hot and heat pool between her thighs. He was looking at her as though he wanted to cover her in maple syrup and devour her. Those dark eyes burned with lust-filled fantasies. She swallowed before letting out a barely audible sigh and squeezed her legs together to help alleviate the pressure.
The waitress plopped the two plates and a container of maple syrup in front of them before walking away, breaking their moment.
“How was that?” he asked, smirking.
“That was fine,” Isa said, grabbing the sticky syrup container and pouring it over her pancakes, trying not to think about him pouring it all over her instead.
“Just fine? Maybe we should keep practicing.”
“I think we’re good,” she said, before shoving a big bite of the fluffy pancakes into her mouth.
Ethan poured his maple syrup on the side, preferring to dip his pancakes in it. “What about kissing?”
Isa nearly choked. She washed down the mouthful with some more bitter coffee. “K-kissing?”
“Yeah. I mean, couples kiss. If we want to be convincing, we should probably do some of that too.”
Isa couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. He was right; if they were going to be a fake couple, they’d have to kiss in front of their friends. They would know something wasn’t right. Harper had seen Isa with previous boyfriends. Lack of kissing and touching would surely set off alarm bells. “Yes, I guess we will. Look, how about you act like you would normally when you have a girlfriend with me, and I’ll try to do the same with you. That way they will be fooled. But only when they are around to witness it.”
“Sounds like a deal. Should we practice?”
“Kissing?” she asked, heat ignited her body once more.
“Yeah, I mean we probably shouldn’t do it for the first time in front of them, right?” he asked, his face still unreadable.
“Uh . . .” Isa imagined his full lips on her own. Her body reacted almost primally to him without contact; she already knew that. Touching him, kissing him, would bring whatever they had between them to a whole other level. She couldn’t do that without the careful watch of their friends’ eyes to make sure she didn’t take it too far. Ethan wasn’t the tonight-only kind of guy—he had already said he wanted a relationship, a marriage, for God’s sake. She wasn’t what he was looking for, and she had a feeling she could care too much, too quickly with this man. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
“I think we should wait. Maybe we won’t even need to kiss on the mouth in front of them anyways.”
Ethan looked disappointed. “Okay, if that’s what you want.”
“Did you want to kiss me?” she asked, always up-front.
“Yes,” he answered, surprising her with his own honesty.
“For research purposes?” she pressed.
“I guess you could call it that.”
Isa wasn’t sure what to say. Suddenly their plan didn’t seem so uncomplicated after all.
Chapter 6
Ethan drove them back to the inn. Isa had fallen asleep before they were even out of the city. He glanced over at her sleeping figure, wishing he could reach out and take her hand. When she had given him the lesson in eye-fucking, he knew she’d been just as responsive to him as he was to her. The red tinge to her cheeks had made him think she could read his salacious thoughts. The truth was, he wasn’t a good actor. Everything he did was honest. She might have been playing pretend, but he wanted to get to know her for real.
She surprised him at every turn. She was blunt, which was refreshing. He could tell she really took care of those she was close to, seeing her with Harper and Mila, but he also guessed that the list of people she did protect was short. Ethan had to admit, he’d been disappointed when she didn’t want to kiss him. But, he’d seen the fear in her eyes. He had scared her, and while that normally would have turned him off a woman, with Isa, he saw it as a challenge. When she had been hurt, his urge to protect her erupted inside him like a force he had never known. That meant something. He wanted to find out just what that was.
After arriving at the inn, Ethan went around to the passenger’s side. He opened the door and unbuckled Isa carefully. Some of her brown hair had draped over half of her face. He moved his hand across the smoothness of her cheek. The sight of her face, illuminated in the twilight, was like a punch to his chest. Her olive skin glowed like she was an apparition sent to haunt him with her beauty. Long brown lashes kissed the top of her freckled cheeks. She relaxed her jaw, leaving her pink lips parted just enough for those honey-sweet exhales to intoxicate his senses. She was breathtaking. More than anything, Ethan wanted to kiss this sleeping beauty. As tempting as it was, he knew that stealing kisses was wrong. Instead, he looped his arms under her body and picked her up. She stiffened for a moment.
“Shhh, I got you,” he said. Isa relaxed in his arms, snuggling her head against his chest as he walked in through the lobby.
A dark figure on the couch caught his attention. Jax stood and walked into the light. He looked thoroughly penitent.
“Help me get her into her room,” Ethan said, taking the steps. Jax’s footsteps and the jingle of keys sounded behind him.
His friend opened her door and held it for Ethan. Ethan laid Isa carefully on her bed before pulling her shoes off and then covering her with the blanket. He softly smoothed his hand over her forehead. Worry clenched his gut at the thought of leaving her alone. She was concussed, after all.
Ethan left the room, not closing the door all the way.
Jax was waiting outside. “I’m so sorry, bro,” he said, and Ethan could see the sincerity in his face.
“It’s not me you should be apologizing to.”
“I know. I’ll tell her when she wakes up,” Jax promised.
“You in the doghouse?”
“Yeah. But also, I wanted to wait up for you guys so I stayed on the couch. Harper is really worried,” he explained, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Isa will be okay, thankfully.”
“You’re really falling for her.” It was a statement, not a question.
Ethan looked back to Isa’s door, shrugging. “Harper was right. Isa is someone special. She has all these layers, man.”
Jax smiled in the dimly lit hallway. “And you want to find out what’s underneath them, huh?”
“Thanks to you, I saw her without any of them.” He elbowed Jax in the ribs.
Jax laughed. “I’ll go back and tell my wife she was right.”
“Isn’t that how you get out of the doghouse anyway?”
Jax smirked. “That woman is usually right about most things. I knew it, but I’m glad you’re beginning to catch on too.”
The distinct cries of a baby broke up the silence of the inn.
“I better go help with Mila. Harper needs her rest.”
“Good night, bro,” Ethan said, turning towards his room.
“Night,” Jax called, on his way to his suite.
Ethan took a quick shower and changed into sleep pants. After grabbing a blanket and pillow from his bed, he crept across the hall towards Isa’s room. She was sleeping, curled up on her side. He had a feeling she would fit perfectly against him. As much as he wanted to join her on the bed, his mama had raised him to be a gentleman. He made himself a spot on the floor. Turning on his side, he faced her so that she would be the last thing he saw before he fell asleep.
***
Isa awoke with a dry mouth and a pounding
headache. It sounded like someone was mowing outside her window. She opened her eyes—she was back in her suite. Isa smiled, remembering Ethan carrying her inside like the heroes did in the novels she had read so many times. I can’t believe he did that.
She sat carefully, feeling the bump on the back of her head. Isa winced in pain. It was time for more meds and water, but first she needed to pee. Rubbing her eyes, she slid her legs off the bed and gave herself a moment to wake up. She caught sight of Ethan sprawled out and snoring on her floor. He had stayed with her, taken care of her.
Her chest tightened and she stood abruptly. Too quickly—the room started spinning. She instinctively reached towards the bedside table to steady herself as she dropped to her knees.
Crash
She started with dismay. Ethan jerked awake with a gasp. Water dripped down her arm, soaking through her shirt. She hadn’t noticed the water glass on the table that she’d knocked clean to the floor.
“Well, that’s one way to wake up,” Ethan said, his voice hoarse.
“I’m so sorry. I got dizzy and sort of fell.”
His features grew concerned as he stood, reaching his hand out to her. She slid her small fingers into his warm palm, grateful for the help. A tremble rocked her body as he pulled her closer, as if to steady her.
Ethan’s big arms held her firmly and safely against his chest. A swirling awareness spun through her, created by the connection of their bodies. Hot and cold met wherever they touched, blending into a storm as her body zinged with energy. If this is what it is like touching him with clothes on, what would it be like with nothing?
“Looks like someone is happy to see me,” she said, feeling his morning erection against her thigh. She was having a difficult time remembering exactly why kissing him last night was a bad idea.
“Can you blame me?” he asked, smirking, which only served to turn her on even more. She knew she should move away, but his touch was addictive.
“Thinking about that kiss?” he asked.
