He folded her into his embrace as she cried.
“What kind of person is mad at someone in a coma?”
“Someone human,” he said. “You’d be surprised at the emotions family members go through in these situations.”
“It’s because everything feels so out of control,” Joseph chimed in patting her back.
Feeling her tense slightly, Declan frowned at him and brushed the nurse’s hand away.
“Possessive much? Sweetheart, if he’s jealous over gay man patting your shoulder, you should run.”
Nyxie lifted her head from Declan’s shoulder. She cast a glance at him and then at Joseph. “He just knows I don’t like being touched by people I don’t know well.”
“Oh.”
Declan brushed the tears off the cheek which had not been pressed against his chest. “Are you ready for a shower?”
“You don’t know how ready I am. I feel absolutely disgusting.”
He released her and held open the curtain as Nyxie grabbed her phone. “I don’t want to miss it if they call,” she said as he escorted her out of the ICU.
“I don’t think he’s been able to get the phones to them yet.”
It was after midnight, so unless they already had the phones and were waiting for a moment to call when no one else would know, they wouldn’t be calling. Yet she felt if she kept the phone with her, somehow she was keeping the girls with her.
“Junior put in the demand that a doctor of our choosing be allowed to give the girls physicals to prove they are in good health. He’s providing the girls with backpacks filled with clothing and nutritious snacks. The phones will be in the backpacks.”
“Are you examining them?” she asked hopefully, knowing he could sneak her in to see them if he did.
“I’m sorry. It’s a conflict of interest. He’ll probably find a pediatrician from out-of-town with a stellar reputation.”
“Oh,” she said, her shoulders dropping with resignation.
“Give me your phone, baby.” Declan said making her thrust the phone behind her back. “I’m not going to keep it. I just thought we could make a video greeting for your nieces.”
Nyxie looked at him wide-eyed as she reluctantly handed over the phone. “Do you think they’ll be able to figure out how to see it?” she asked.
“Kids play with their friends’ phones all the time. Here, take mine and I’ll give them a quick tutorial.” He quickly jabbed at his phone’s display then handed it to her.
“Point the phone at me and tap the red button.”
As Nyxie recorded, Declan quickly went through the phone’s basic features then he turned the camera on her.
“Hi, Lotus, Hi, Reina. God, I miss you. I don’t know if you remember the man who just gave you the cell phone lesson, but he’s one of Cody’s doctors. Dr. Stryker is helping me to get a lawyer to try to get y’all back. He bought you the phones so you can call me anytime. My number is already programed in the contacts. Cody has one also, but he’s not awake yet to use it, but you can leave him text messages and video messages and he can see them when he wakes up.
“I love you both so much and I want us to be back together again soon. Lotus, take care of Reina and, Reina, take care of Lotus.”
Declan swung the phone around to tape himself. “And I’ll take care of Nyxie and Cody, I promise,” he said before turning it back to their aunt.
She waved, tears in her eyes. “I love you and miss you. Bye, my little princesses. Bye, Bear-Bear.”
Nyxie’s forced cheerfulness turned to abject misery as soon as the camera was shut off.
“They’re fine,” he said.
“But you always hear horror stories about foster care and people who just do it for the money and kids who get abused in the system.”
“I think CPS is more careful these days. It’s much easier to do a thorough background check than it was just a few years ago.”
Declan quickly sent off the video to the girls’ phones. “Come on. You’ll feel better after a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.”
He slung his arm over her shoulders and ushered her into the bowels of the hospital to places where he needed a pass card to enter. “Wait here,” he said leaving her in the hallway only to emerge thirty seconds later. “Come on.”
He led her by the hand to a glorified changing room.
“Is this the men’s locker room?” she asked looking around nervously.
“It’s empty and I’d rather not have to explain why I swiped my card at the women’s changing room. I’ll make sure no one disturbs you while you’re undressed.”
He led her to his locker and handed her the pair of scrubs he’d procured then tugged his gym bag out. “Shampoo, conditioner, body wash—sorry, I guess you’ll smell like me until we can get to the store and buy you something girly.”
“I like the way you smell—but I’m fine with just plain soap. I don’t need anything fancy.”
“Well, this is what I have with me unless you want to use that antibacterial shit in there that dries out your skin.” He continued digging in his bag. “Shaving cream, razor.” He paused and stared at the razor then scavenged to the bottom of the shaving kit to find the new blades. He deftly replaced the old blades with the new. “You can’t be too careful. It’s never a good idea to share the blades especially since I work in a hospital—as a matter of fact, if you cut yourself, you probably should wash the area with that antibacterial shit for a good thirty seconds. Last thing you want is a staph infection.”
“Okay.”
He led her into the shower area and took the bath products from her, placed them on a small shelf inside then turned on the water. “It’s all yours.” he said taking the scrubs.
She stared at him wondering if he expected her to strip in front of him.
He stared back.
With a sigh, he turned around. “Are you always so modest?” he asked as he shifted his weight to one leg.
“Yes.” Her voice strained slightly as she pulled her dress over her head. “I have the body of a twelve-year-old, why would I want anyone to see it?” she said throwing his words back at him.
“Not for long if I have any say in it.”
He heard the curtain draw shut behind him and reached down and picked up her clothes and phone. “Did you throw away your other panties?”
“Of course not. I only have eight pairs. If I tossed one away, I wouldn’t have anything to wear on every other laundry day.”
“Ah.”
“I suppose they’re in Cody’s room.”
“Why do you want to know where my dirty undies are? Are you one of those men who likes to sniff them?”
Laughter exploded from him. “No, not particularly. I just thought I’d wash them in the sink so you can have a clean pair in the morning.”
“Really? You’d do that for me?”
“Of course, it’s my job to take care of you now. And frankly, I’m not doing a very good job or I would have offered you my car keys so you could go home and change while I was stuck at work.”
She laughed briefly. “That would’ve been a mistake. I don’t have a license.”
“You’re shitting me? DWI?”
“I never learned.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“I shit you not,” she laughed from behind the curtain, thinking the conversation sounded like a George Carlin routine. Her laughter sounded muted slightly by the whish of water running. “But if you really want to wash them, they’re in my pocket.”
Declan shifted the pink polyester dress around until he located the pocket and removed a plastic bag, the kind used to seal drug test specimen cups, with her white cotton panties inside. He also pulled out Jimbo’s credit card, the deposit slip with his phone number and the receipt for her pizza. He reached for his wallet and put the credit card and deposit slip inside for safe keeping.
In a moment of mischief, he placed Emily Saunders thong over a showerhead of a neighboring shower. Nyxie co
uld go without until morning.
“Be right back,” he said as he walked off with her clothes.
“You’re not going to let anyone come back here, are you?”
“Even if someone did come in, they’d just assume it was another man in the shower. No one’s going to bother you.”
A few minutes later, she could hear the sound of a hand dryer in the distance shortly before he alerted her to his return.
“Nyxie, have you read Fifty Shades?”
“No. What’s it about?”
“It’s about a woman who enters a relationship with a man who’s in the lifestyle. I’m going to set up the Kindle app on your phone and purchase the whole series for you to read. I don’t suppose you have an e-mail address.”
“Of course, I do. You don’t have to have a computer to have an e-mail account. We use the computers at the library.”
He thought about what her screen name might be as he proceeded with the sign in and cringed when the name Sexy-Nyxie came to mind. “Okay,” he said when he got to the line for her e-mail. “What is it?”
“It’s [email protected].”
“Gotcha. I’m setting your Amazon password as Declansuntil2017—capital D, no punctuation. Do you think you can remember that?”
The water shut off. “How can I forget?” she grumbled. “Assuming the legal fees go that high.”
“Trust me; lawyers know how to squeeze every penny they can out of you.”
“Towel?” Onyx’s hand shot out between the curtain and the wall.
“Hold on.”
Declan rushed to his locker and grabbed a clean towel out of his gym bag. “Sorry. The towels the hospital provides are rougher than cheap motel towels.”
The brown bath sheet was soft and thick and smelled of expensive fabric softener. It was so big it went around her twice. She opened the curtain and stepped out completely covered.
“Thank you, sir. That was just what I needed to feel human again.”
Declan touched his lips to her forehead momentarily before handing her the scrubs.
“Stay out of the maternity ward when you’re wearing these or security will be all over you like blood-sucking ticks on a mangy dog.”
Years ago, she heard about a woman who posed as a nurse to steal a baby from the mother’s room. She understood immediately why he advised her against it.
“I’ll get my brush while you get dressed,” he said with a chagrined expression when he realized she was making no moves to get dressed.
As soon as he rounded the corner, Nyxie hurriedly dressed in hopes of avoiding him catching her naked. When she padded out on bare feet wearing the blue drawstring bottoms and the pink wraparound tunic, he grinned.
“I never imagined anyone could make scrubs look smokin’.”
She shook her head in denial.
“Don’t shake your head at me. Just say, ‘Thank you, sir.’”
“Thank you, sir,” she said quietly, her eyes cast down. “I’ll try to….” Her lips pursed as she stopped midsentence.
Declan waited patiently for her to continue. “You’ll try to what?” he prompted.
“I don’t know exactly. I don’t want you to regret your decision to help me. I’ll try to be what you want me to be,” she said shyly. “Sometimes people give us their kids’ hand-me-downs or at holidays, a bag of groceries might be left on our doorstep, but no one has ever done anything like this for us and I want to make you happy. But I really don’t understand my role and how to please you.”
“I know you don’t, Nyx. But it’s late and I’m assisting in surgery first thing in the morning, so we can discuss it tomorrow. I’m off at eleven o’clock and I thought I’d take you to Chimera Flats so you can get your things. We can talk about it in the car.”
He handed her a hair brush and blow dryer then retrieved his toiletries from the shower. After drying them on a hospital towel, he packed them away, minus the hair binder she looped over the neck of his shampoo bottle.
When he joined her at the sinks, she was bent over drying the underside of her raven hair. The position gave rise to many lascivious thoughts—not to mention rise to a certain part of his anatomy.
She suddenly straightened, flipping her waist long silky mane over her head. A smile touched her lips as she saw the results of her efforts in the mirror, but it faded slightly when she spotted him watching her. Turning off the blow dryer, she turned around.
“I like your shampoo. I guess there’s truth in advertising.”
The small laugh was a nervous twitter when she caught his predatory gleam as he closed in on her. Her mouth felt suddenly dry, her lips parched, even after her tongue darted out of her mouth to wet them.
11
After reaching her, he stared into her wide brown eyes before lowering his mouth to hers. His kiss began as little nibbles against her lips, but soon it became apparent a taste would not be enough. His hunger began to grow. The more he kissed her, the more he wanted her. As he deepened the kiss, he became acutely aware of the tension in her body.
“Breathe, Nyxie, before you pass out,” he said. “Relax. I just want to kiss you.”
Her eyes were open as his head lowered, but he didn’t like what he saw. It wasn’t just nervousness. She wore a look of fear.
“Fuck,” he breathed stepping back.
“What’s wrong?” With her eyes wide open and her fingertips touching her lips as if she didn’t know her lips were capable of evoking the sensation she felt, she took a step back then a second. Before she could take a third, she backed into the sinks.
He wasn’t sure what was going on inside her head, but he took another step back so she wouldn’t feel cornered. “Go wait by the door.”
She took two steps before stopping. “Sir, do you have any toothpaste? I think if I put a little on my finger tip, it’ll suffice for now.”
“For God’s sake, you can use my toothbrush, Onyx.” His gruff tone wore a sexy rasp.
He pulled the dryer plug from the socket and wound it around the appliance as he crossed to his locker. When he returned, he handed her the toothbrush and a tube of Colgate.
“This is never going to work if you don’t trust me.”
“You’re taking this too fast for me.”
“I only kissed you,” he pointed out, annoyance tinting his tone.
Her eyes met his in the mirror, the toothbrush poised in the air. “My brother is upstairs fighting for his life. My nieces have been taken away. I’m sorry neither my heart nor my mind is on a relationship that feels contrived.”
Declan’s face hardened into an unreadable mask. “Brush your teeth, so I can brush mine. I want to get some sleep.”
After they had both brushed their teeth, Declan stuffed his gym bag back into his locker and led her down the hall to one of the rooms where the residents slept. Using his pass card, he unlocked the door and held it open until she entered.
“I hope you’re not claustrophobic.”
The room was barely wider than the hospital bed and nightstand. She suspected the bed had been shoved up against the wall to make room for the night stand. Next to the door sat a mesh chair like the one in the SICU. A small lamp with a low wattage bulb sat on the nightstand next to an alarm clock with a red display. Although the room had overhead fluorescent lights, only the lamp illuminated the small room. A half-opened door revealed and en suite handicap accessible powdered room.
“No,” she answered. “I’ve always liked small places. They make me feel safe.”
His eyebrows shot up. “That surprises me. Most people hate them.”
“Under the bed was safe. In the closet was usually safe. The only thing that gives me that claustrophobic feeling is having my upper arm trapped against my body. Sometimes, Reina would roll over in bed and sling her arm over mine and I hated that.”
Declan sat down on the edge of the bed and untied his brown leather dress shoes. “Some other childhood trauma?”
“No, nothing I can remember
. I didn’t even know it bothered me until it happened.”
He pulled back the covers and motioned towards the single bed. “After you. I should be on the outside in case I get paged.” She climbed in as he fiddled with his phone before putting it on to charge and setting it on the nightstand. “So does this mean you don’t want me to put my arm around you when we sleep? I’ll tell you now, that’s not happening.”
“No, just put your arm under mine. That’s never bothered me before.”
His lips tightened into a straight line at the thought of her with another man. “I thought we agreed not to discuss the men who came before me.”
“Sir, I was referring to Reina. I have three kids that I’d never leave alone at night,” she said, a smile playing on her lips. “The bed’s already full. Where would I put a man?”
“So, you’ve never spent a whole night in a man’s arms?”
“No, I’ve never slept with a man.”
The news that she had never slept over with her previous boyfriends pleased him immensely. Perhaps they would share a lot of firsts.
“Rollover and face the wall.”
When she felt the bed sag, she turned her head to make sure he wasn’t climbing in naked and was relieved to see him wearing his scrubs.
“Face. The. Wall.”
The firmness in his voice made her head snapped to attention—her whole body tensing.
The lamp clicked off, but a nightlight in an outlet in the bathroom lowly illuminated the room enough to make the windowless room navigable. “You need to learn to do as you’re told, Nyxie. I will not put up with disobedience in the bedroom and the sooner you figure that out, the more your backside will appreciate it,” he said as he slipped under the sheet and sidled up to her. “Relax. Lift your head.”
He slipped one arm under her neck and the other around her waist, pulling her against his muscular torso. “Night, Nyxie.”
“Night, Declan…sir,” she said.
She waited, nothing happened. As she realized they weren’t going to have sex, her tension began to ebb. She drew her hands up, crossed them at the wrist and tucked them under her chin.
The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan Page 9
