by Ginny Glass
At least that was what I managed to tell myself in the moments before I finally dozed off. I’d only been out for a few hours when my phone rang.
“Yeah.” I rubbed my eyes and tried to put together something that resembled a coherent thought.
“Is this Aaron Lyons?” The professional female voice on the other end made my heart race. This sort of call was never good.
“Yes. Who is this?”
“My name is Cindy Diesel, I’m a nurse at Donner County Hospital.”
Oh, God. Oh. God.
“We have a patient here by the name of Nathan Howell.”
“Is he okay? What happened?”
“Are you a family member?”
“No, just a—” What the hell was I? Fuck buddy? Potential partner? “—friend.”
“Then I can’t tell you anything other than that he is here and requested that we call you.”
Helpful. Real helpful. “Thanks for calling.” I hoped my sarcasm was understood over the phone.
What now? He’d had them call me for a reason, but I wasn’t exactly the person I’d expect him to put down as an emergency contact. Especially after our fight. There was no reason I had to show up down there. What was I supposed to do? If he was dying, I had no idea what his wishes were or how to contact anyone who would know better than I did. If he was only mildly injured, I had no idea what I was supposed to say to him. Sorry didn’t really seem appropriate. Then again, neither did anything else.
And if I didn’t show up at all? Aside from the guilt I expected would plague me for years to come, I might never get a second chance to make things right with Nathan. That I knew I would regret. Decision made, I climbed out of bed and started putting on my clothes.
*
The woman at the reception desk at the hospital was only slightly less helpful than the nurse I talked to on the phone. After a series of questions and a lot of rephrasing, I managed to get her to give me Nathan’s room number. With all that trouble, I started to wonder if in addition to being a steer roper, he worked as some sort of secret agent. I laughed as I remembered our joking about me being a spy.
My laughter stopped once I stood outside his room. I still hadn’t gotten anyone to give me any sort of idea of what to expect on the other side. Broken arm? Missing leg? Crushed skull? Hell, no one would even tell me if he was conscious.
I knocked on the half-open door and waited for a response. Nothing. After a moment, I pushed it open and walked in.
Even though I remembered him being a tall, strong man, he looked small lying in the pure white hospital bed. My body broke out into an instant sweat. A nearby machine beeped at a constant pace as a light traveled across the screen, repeating the same pattern over and over again. Nathan’s head was turned away from me, but he wasn’t moving. Blood pounded in my ears as I tried to figure out what to do next. Touch him? Wake him up? Sit down in a chair and wait?
He also wasn’t hooked up to any of the major equipment I saw on TV shows. That had to be a good sign. “Nathan?” I kept my voice low and soft, afraid to wake him if he was asleep.
At first he stayed perfectly still, the sheets crumpled, then he rolled to look at me. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.”
“Well, it’s hard to ignore middle-of-the night phone calls.” I studied him for a few minutes, trying to deduce the extent of his injuries.
“About that…” The sly look on his face made the worry I’d been holding on to melt away. Instantly my body felt lighter.
“You don’t have to explain anything to me.” Part of me didn’t want to deal with anything at that moment. I knew it was coming, but I wasn’t ready.
“I do, though. The nurses kept nagging me for a name of someone they could call. I’m supposed to be able to go home in the morning, but not by myself. Apparently I am not fit to watch over myself. At least until the pain meds all wear off.”
“What happened?” All I could see were a couple scratches on his forehead. The rodeo had ended for the day when I left, so I knew that wasn’t the problem.
“I feel like an idiot, but after you left I was heading back to the hotel and not paying attention. I managed to stick my foot in pothole and—” he clicked his tongue and pulled back the sheet to reveal a bulky white cast over his right foot and lower leg.
“Is it broken?”
“Yeah, but at least it doesn’t need surgery. Just two months on crutches, some wasted time in physical therapy and a whole bunch of laughing from my friends back in Denver.”
“Does this mean you’ll have to stop competing?” Part of me wanted him to say yes and I immediately felt guilty. If he couldn’t show up at a rodeo I was supplying for, we’d be free to do whatever we wanted and all the worries I’d had earlier would be gone.
It wasn’t what I really wanted, though. I wanted him to have the time to jump on steers or out of planes or whatever it was he wanted to do. It made him happy. Anyone could see that.
He shrugged. “It’s still up in the air. They’ll have to look at it in another month and reassess. Until then, I’ll have time to catch up on all those boring activities you’re so into. Maybe you can recommend some books?”
Such a smart-ass. Even in a hospital bed, facing the idea of giving up his career, he was making jokes. “So, you have to stick around here for a couple days?”
“Seems that way. I was hoping that maybe you might be able to help me out. I need some sort of day nurse agency or something to come to the hotel and watch me.”
“No.”
“Oh. I totally understand. As I said, I knew I shouldn’t give them your name, but they were bugging me and I’ve taken a lot of pain medication.” He was talking so fast I could barely understand him.
“No, I won’t give you the name of an agency, because you are going to come stay at my ranch house.” I almost couldn’t believe I’d offered it. The decision felt right, though, so I continued. “If it’s okay with you.”
“Yes.” He grinned from ear to ear in a goofy way that I blamed on the drugs. “I promise not to be much trouble. I’ll sleep on the couch and…”
“Just shut up.” I sat down in the chair next to the hospital bed and stared into his gray-blue eyes. I didn’t know why, but I liked all the little surprises that came with him. They might not have been as exciting as his adventures, but it was a journey I wanted to go on with him. At least for now, he wouldn’t end up competing anywhere I was supplying to until his ankle healed. If it healed. That was a couple months of getting to know him and coming up with a plan. “Maybe we can spend a little time discussing that whole Denver-isn’t-that-faraway thing you mentioned earlier.”
“I’d like that.”
*
Passion is only a download away!
Why not start with the first four books in the Love Letters series? Available now!
Love Letters Volume 1: Obeying Desire
Love Letters Volume 1 contains four hot novellas that will tempt you to submit to desire:
A Is for Assignment by Ginny Glass
B Is for Bondage by Christina Thacher
C Is for Curious by Emily Cale
D Is for Detained by Maggie Wells
Love Letters Volume 2: Duty to Please
Discover four sexy stories with a military twist in Love Letters Volume 2: Duty to Please.
E Is for Entice by Emily Cale
F Is for Fallout by Ginny Glass
G Is for Gun-Shy by Christina Thacher
H Is for Hotshot by Maggie Wells
Love Letters Volume 3: Wicked Whispers
Verbal foreplay goes a long way in these four steamy stories in Love Letters Volume 3: Wicked Whispers.
I Is for Indecent by Christina Thacher
J Is for Jaded by Maggie Wells
K Is for Kick-Start by Ginny Glass
L Is for Lessons by Emily Cale
Love Letters Volume 4: Travel to Temptation
Passion is only a short trip away in Love Letters Volume 4: Travel to Tempta
tion.
M Is for Melting by Maggie Wells
N Is for Naughty by Christina Thacher
O Is for One More Night by Ginny Glass
P Is for Predicament by Emily Cale
Q Is for Quarrel by Ginny Glass and Christina Thacher
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About the Authors
Ginny Glass grew up in the rural South thinking that she wanted to be a stage actress. She discovered a love of romance novels early on, and reading romance eventually became a love of writing it (admittedly spiced up a bit from her early collections of soft-focus category novels). Ginny is also the owner/operator of WordSugar Designs, a graphic design firm that specializes in author promotions and book cover design.
Ginny currently lives in the desert Southwest with her husband and a very spoiled dog named Piper. Her drama is on the page now instead of the stage, but comes with the luxury of being able to always work in her pajamas.
Find Ginny at www.ginnyglass.com or www.twitter.com/ginnyglass.
Find WordSugar Designs at www.wordsugardesigns.com.
*
Christina Thacher is the pseudonym for a bankruptcy lawyer with a naughty imagination and some extra time sitting in the back of courtrooms. After reading a lot of steamy stories—thankful no one can tell what’s on her eReader!—she suddenly realized no one can tell what she’s typing on her laptop, either. Several bankruptcy hearings later, Chris had written her first erotic novella.
Chris dreams up deliciously dominating men and the women who hold their own, even in BDSM relationships. She admits she’s still waiting for her own romantic hero to arrive. After he shows up, though, he’ll have to share her with the men in her stories. They may be too good to be true, but that doesn’t stop her from loving them.
You can reach Chris at www.christinathacher.com.
*
Emily Cale never intended to write dirty books, it just worked out that way. While her creative writing professors would be appalled at the way she turned out, she’s delighted to spend her days hanging out with her kinky characters. Some might call her crazy, but she prefers the term multipublished erotic romance writer. When Emily isn’t writing, you can find her curled up on her couch with her husband and two needy cats.
Find Emily at www.emilycale.com.
*
Maggie Wells is a deep-down dirty girl with a weakness for hot heroes and happy endings. By day she is buried in spreadsheets, but at night she pens tales of people tangling up the sheets. The product of a charming rogue and a shameless flirt, this mild-mannered married lady has a naughty streak a mile wide.
Fueled by supertankers of Diet Coke, Maggie juggles fictional romance and the real deal by keeping her slow-talking Southern gentleman constantly amused and their two children mildly embarrassed. They are the food purveyors to three dogs, a passel of fish, and one impertinent house rabbit she claims is the love of her life. Shh. Don’t tell her husband.
You can find her online at http://www.maggiewells.com, on Twitter @maggiewells1, or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMaggieWells
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ISBN: 978-14268-9651-4
LOVE LETTERS VOLUME 6: COWBOY’S COMMAND
Copyright © 2013 by Ginny Glass, Christina Thacher, Emily Cale, Margaret Ethridge
Edited by Deborah Nemeth
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
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