by Lori Wilde
“Eeek!” Maddie screeched and trod the brakes, coming to a stop just in the nick of time to keep from plowing over David Marshall.
Chapter
FIFTEEN
MADDIE?” DAVID BLINKED against the headlight glare at the ethereal form of the woman hurrying toward him in the rain.
Was she a mirage?
If she was a mirage, she was the most beautiful mirage ever to be conjured by a delusional brain.
But how did she get here? How did she get away from Antonio Banderas? Had she talked the policeman into letting her go? Or had she escaped? She was a pretty good escape artist. Maybe she’d challenged Antonio to a drinking contest. If that was the case, he felt sorry for Antonio.
Maybe you’re dead and living out a sexual fantasy.
No, that couldn’t be. His sex fantasies centered on his masculine prowess and pleasing Maddie within an inch of her life. In his current condition, he couldn’t satisfy a sock puppet.
“David!” she cried and reached him just as his knees gave way.
His nose filled with the wonderful smell of her. It was Maddie. No mistaking her aroma. He had no idea how she’d found him, but she was here.
Thank God.
She caught him under his arms and he almost bit through his lip to keep from screaming in pain. He grunted and fell against her.
“Are you all right?”
“My arm,” he managed to pant.
“Omigod, your wrist is broken.”
“Yeah.”
“And your face! Oh!” She hovered, just dying to mother him. He couldn’t say he minded. “Your poor handsome face.”
She thought he was handsome? He would have smiled if his lip didn’t hurt so much.
“Oooooh.” She touched his left eye that was swollen shut.
“Easy.”
“Poor baby.” Tenderly, she kissed his cheek.
In a million years David would never have suspected he would enjoy being made a fuss over. He’d lost his mother at a young age and he’d toughened up quick, eschewing mushy emotions, going so far as to make fun of boys who cried on the playground. But Maddie’s concern made him want to wallow in his wounds. He wanted more touching and kissing and caressing.
“What happened?” she whispered.
“Can’t talk now,” he mumbled through gritted teeth. It was all he could do to stay conscious.
“Yes, yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. Here. You grab on to me so I won’t hurt you.”
He wrapped his good hand around her upper arm. “Let’s get to the car.”
“Are you sure you can make it?”
“I’ll be fine, woman, unless I end up catching pneumonia from standing here in the rain.”
“I’m sorry,” she apologized again. “I’m just so flustered at seeing you beat up. It hurts me here.” She touched her heart with her fingers and David felt something inside his chest flip.
Shake it off.
Determinedly, he put one foot in front of the other and ignored the sappy feelings stirring inside him. At last, they made it and Maddie helped him ease slowly into the passenger seat.
He was soaked to the skin and the eye that was swollen shut throbbed like an ingrown toenail. His teeth chattered—tick-tick-tickety-tick—like loose rice in a tin cup. He was cold and dizzy and his body hurt like the blazes in a dozen different places.
Buck up. You can’t look weak in front of her.
“Breathe deeply,” she coached. “I’ll get you to the hospital as quickly as I can.”
He nodded, just barely. Her calm competency reassured him. He lay back against the seat and concentrated on dealing with the pain.
She didn’t ask any more questions and he was glad for that. He wasn’t ready to tell her about Blanco yet, or the stupidity that had landed him in the canyon.
“Maddie,” he said. “I left you behind with Antonio for your own good. I shudder to think what would have happened if you’d been with me.”
“Shh,” she said. “No talking. We can talk later. You hang in there.”
In that moment he knew she’d forgiven him for ditching her. She wasn’t going to hold a grudge or pick a fight.
What a woman.
The car smelled of her. Nice. Womanly. Uniquely Maddie. They rumbled along in the rain.
“Move over, step on the gas, Grandma,” Maddie grumbled to a slow moving vehicle in front of them. “We have an emergency here.”
She was adorable in her urgency. David gazed at her with his one good eye. She drove with both hands on the wheel, eyes trained on the road, her chin set with serious intent. Right now, he loved her take-charge attitude. Sometimes, the way she tried to muscle in and take over infuriated him, but for the time being, he loved that she was in the driver’s seat.
“Outta my way, sucker,” she said and slammed her palm into the horn. “Hey, that jerk flipped me off. Well, up yours too, buddy.”
He almost smiled. If his damned wrist didn’t hurt so much he would have.
She was colorful. He had to grant her that.
“Here we go, here we are. It’s the hospital.”
Maddie left the car running and dashed inside the squat white building with a large red cross over the door of the emergency entrance. Sisters-of-something-or-other hospital. He couldn’t read the lettering too clearly. Having just one eye played hell with a guy’s visual acuity.
But his eye was still sharp enough to notice the sweet sway of Maddie’s hips as she hurried inside. Watching her hips made him think of when he’d touched her on the train. And thinking of the train made him remember that after Henri’s phone call, they’d forgotten to retrieve their luggage.
Too bad. He had condoms in his bag. Not because he’d been planning on getting lucky. The rubbers had been tucked in the side pocket ever since an unfruitful vacation to a singles resort last year.
Yeah, Mr. One-Armed Cyclops. As if you could even do anything if you had condoms.
But the lack of protection didn’t stop him from thinking about making love to Maddie. Damn if he wasn’t working on a woody, in spite of his plentiful aches.
You’ve made enough mistakes this trip. Stop thinking about sex.
Still, it was better than thinking about the pain.
Maddie returned shortly with a nurse and an orderly. They helped him out of the car and into a wheelchair.
The orderly wheeled him into an exam room, while Maddie stayed at the reception area to answer the desk clerk’s questions.
The nurse assisted him onto the gurney and asked him if he was allergic to anything. She started an IV in his good hand, and then left the room. Later, she returned with an injection.
He was grinning two minutes after the drug hit his veins. Ah, sweet freedom from pain. The nurse departed again, but left the door ajar.
“Payment?” He heard the desk clerk ask in French.
“No par-lay fran-say,” Maddie replied. “Habla español? Habla ingles?”
Maddie and the clerk began a cobbled conversation of French, Spanish and English he couldn’t really follow as he drifted in and out on a sea of morphine relief. What he did follow, was the soothing lilt of Maddie’s voice. The sound of it grounded him, kept him from completely floating away.
“Psssstt.”
Huh?
“Psssstt, David,” Maddie whispered from the doorway.
Reluctantly, he pried open his eye. He thought he said, “what is it?” but it came out more like “mphmlottamut.”
“You got insurance?”
He nodded.
“Can you give me the info? They were making a big deal out of getting paid so I had to pretend to be your wife. Until I told them we were married they weren’t even going to let me see you. But now they want this money situation taken care of.”
“Wife?”
Now there was a pleasant thought. Maddie as his wife. He imagined coming home from work to find her cooking dinner. No, scratch that image. Maddie wasn’t the domestic goddess type. Let’s see. He
envisioned them getting up at dawn every morning, running five miles together before coming home to make love in a sweaty heap on the floor. Ah, much better.
“Don’t blow my cover, okay? I’ll get freaky if they won’t let me in to see you. I need to see you to know you’re okay.”
Aw, but that was sweet. “I’m okay.”
“Just play along, please?”
“Sure. When did we get married?”
“I told them we were on our honeymoon after a whirlwind courtship.”
She approached the gurney, her gaze sweeping over him. A look of concern worried her cute little face but when she caught him watching her, she forced a smile.
“Our honeymoon, huh?”
“It was the only thing I could think of to explain my ignorance of your medical history. The nurses think you’re terribly romantic, proposing to me during a gondola ride in Venice with us both in Regency era dress.”
“Great. You make me sound like a doofus.”
“It’s always been my fantasy marriage proposal from the time I was a kid, so sue me.”
“I knew it.” He smiled.
“Knew what?”
“You’re much more romantic than you let on.”
“It was a childhood fantasy. Luckily I had one, it made the lie more convincing.”
“So how did I perform on the wedding night?” He tried to wink but being one-eyed, it didn’t come off very debonair and his words were definitely slurred.
“David! You’re drugged.”
He gave her a thumbs up with his good hand.
“Terrific,” she muttered. “Just what I need. A stoned FBI agent with a broken wrist.”
“Wallet,” he said.
“What?”
“My insurance card is in my wallet. Take my Mastercard too, just in case they won’t take American insurance. I’m not sure how their health care system works. Maybe you have to pay and your insurance company reimburses you.”
“Where’s your wallet?”
“Right hip pocket.”
She glanced around the room. “Where’s your pants?”
“I’m still wearing them.”
“Why haven’t they taken your pants off yet?”
“I dunno.” David felt as placid as a marshmallow riding around on a magic carpet. “Maybe they decided to leave the task for my young bride.”
“You’re a lot friendlier when you’re looped. You know that?” Maddie complained. “I’m really starting to miss the old, grouchy Marshall.”
“Why? He’s an egotistical asshole. Stick with me, kiddo, and I’ll make sure to always put you first.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Why are you afraid of a little TLC? You can dish it out but you can’t take it?”
“Could you just lift your butt off the gurney?” She was running her hand underneath the back of his thigh.
He laughed. “That tickles.”
“Raise your butt.”
“You know, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“Poor you. Butt in the air.”
He dug into the gurney with his heels and arched his back. “How’s that?”
She was skimming her hands over his backside, grappling for his pocket. “Quit squirming.”
“I can’t.”
“Are you purposely trying to make a fool of me?”
“No.” David clamped his mouth shut to keep from laughing. Damn, but those were sure good drugs.
“Ahem!” From the doorway, the nurse cleared her throat. “May I help you?” she asked in French.
“My wife, she . . .” Simply saying the words made him chuckle. Or maybe it was because Maddie’s long slender fingers were still tickling the hell out of his butt.
“This is your wife?”
“Oui.” David said, cheerful.
The nurse marched over to the gurney and stuck a small plastic cup in Maddie’s hand.
“What’s this?” She gaped at the cup.
The nurse spit out instructions in French before breezing out the door.
“What did she say?” Maddie asked, still staring suspiciously at the cup.
“You still wanna be my pretend bride?”
“Yes, why?”
David grinned. “Because the nurse said you have to help me get naked so I can pee in that cup.”
Chapter
SIXTEEN
THANK GOD, DAVID had finally fallen asleep. If she had to hear him call her his sweetie pie or snooker doodles or make smooching noises one more time she could not be held responsible for her actions.
Who knew he was such a sentimental fool when he was loaded on painkillers?
They’d been at the hospital for over six hours and now it was just after eleven o’clock at night. After running tests, casting his wrist and giving him a dose of antibiotics, the doctor had dismissed him with a prescription of Vicodin and orders to get plenty of rest.
Plenty of rest. Ha.
She drove through the darkened streets of Monaco looking for a hotel. David snored softly in the back seat. She really didn’t want to stop for the night. She wanted to keep searching for Cassie, but David was counting on her to take care of things and she wouldn’t let him down.
Plus, she needed some sleep herself. And food and a bath.
The thought of a hot bath was what tipped her over the edge. Besides, Cassie and Shriver had to sleep too. She stopped at the first hotel she found.
Since she’d been masquerading as his wife all night, she went ahead and checked them in as Mr. and Mrs. Marshall because she was honestly afraid to leave David alone for the night. He was so snockered she feared he’d pitch face first into the pillow and smother himself. But she did request a room with two beds.
“David,” she said, after she’d procured their room and went back to the car to roust him.
“Hmph.”
“Come on, wake up. Time for bed.”
“Huh?”
She repeated herself.
“You’re waking me up to put me back to sleep?”
“In a bed.”
“With you?” He gave her the same sly, sexy grin he’d been throwing her way ever since they’d gorked him at the hospital.
“No, not with me. I have my own bed.”
“Rats.” He reached up to finger a strand of her hair that had swung loose from her ponytail. “I love your hair. It’s so soft and pretty.”
“Come on, Lothario. Give me your good arm.”
After several failed attempts, she finally got him out of the car, onto his feet and into the hotel. David leaned heavily against her and by the time they made it to their room, Maddie’s entire left side tingled with radiant heat from his body.
She propped him against the wall while she opened the door and turned to find him sliding slowly to the floor.
“No, no, no, none of that. Stay on your feet.” She caught him just before his legs gave way and got a shockingly good look at the depth of the bruising on his face. She cringed in sympathy.
“Hey there,” he said brightly. “Where have you been all my life, beautiful?”
“Avoiding guys like you.”
“How come?”
“How come what?” she said, getting her shoulder under his left arm and jacking him up.
“How come you’ve been avoiding me?”
“Shhh,” she said.
“Why?” He glanced up and down the hall. “Is someone coming?”
If she hadn’t been so tired and hungry and worried, this whole fiasco might have been comical. As it was, she couldn’t wait to get him inside and into bed.
Once over the threshold, Maddie was unsettled to discover there was only one bed. The thought of having to complain and get switched to another room this late at night was so daunting, she simply blew it off. David would be passed out cold in no time flat and she could sleep on the covers in her clothes. No problem. Especially after being handcuffed to him last night.
But last night yo
u were mad at him.
So?
Tonight you’re feeling sorry for him. It’s a whole other thing.
As if anything sexual was going to happen. The man was a walking—albeit barely—pharmacy.
After dumping David on the bed, she stepped over to the phone to call room service.
“We stopped serving at ten,” the woman on the other end told her.
“Please,” Maddie begged, lying through her teeth. “We’re on our honeymoon and my husband broke his wrist and our luggage got lost and I’m just at my wits’ end.”
The woman murmured sympathetically. “I could send up something simple,” she relented. “Soup, crackers, cheese, fruit.”
“Perfect, thank you, you’re a lifesaver.” Maddie hung up and turned to find David eyeing her with a seductive gleam in his eyes.
“Hey babe.”
“Room service is on the way. I’m going to hop into the shower.”
“Can I come with you?” He was peering at her with cocky, Cary Grant charm.
“No.”
“You’re no fun.” He pretended to pout.
“Do you think you can let room service in if they show up while I’m still in the shower?”
“Sure thing.” His speech was still slurred. She wondered how long it would be before the shot wore off.
“How’s your wrist?”
He stared down at the green Fiberglas cast. “Looks okay to me.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Nope.” He pulled open the drawer to the bedside table and leaned so far over to peer inside that Maddie feared he’d topple into it.
“What are you looking for?”
“A comb. My hair is mussed up.”
“Your hair is always mussed up. I like it that way.”
“Really?” He ran his good hand through his hair and grinned again.
“I love it. Now can you behave for five minutes?” God, it was like having a toddler.
“Uh-huh.”
She went to the bathroom, leaned against the door and let out a sigh before slipping off her sweater. That’s when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
Egad! She looked horrible. More proof that David was out of his head if he could flirt with her when she looked like this. Her hair was lank and stringy, dark circles ringed her eyes and dots of David’s blood were splattered on her cheek.
