She felt out of it and afraid she had broken facial and skull bones. She tried to take stock of her injuries while she laid still and unmoving but she kept slipping in and out of consciousness and her vision kept going blurry. For the first time in her life, she wished she had had one of those cell phone things to call Hunter for help, hell she would even welcome Nicole's help at the moment. It was her last thought as she fell unconscious.
Jett was riding along in his limo when he saw Mandy running, driven by a force only she could see or feel. She mesmerized him and before he could yell out the window, he watched her slam full force into the low laying tree branch. He yelled at Xavier who stopped the limo on a dime. Jett was out and running toward her before the car completely stopped. He ran at full speed to Mandy’s unconscious and still body. He gently felt her neck with nimble fingers, searching for a broken neck. Feeling no signs of neck or spinal damage, he ever so carefully lifted her into his arms and walked with slow measured steps to the limo where Xavier helped him to get in the back without jostling her. He then instructed Xavier to drive as fast as need be to the nearest hospital emergency room.
Mandy’s eyes fluttered open and she groaned then cried in considerable pain as she tried to reach her hands for her head. Jett stopped her from touching it and causing more damage.
"Mandy, sweetheart you are okay now. Please just relax and let me take care of you. You are seriously hurt and I am taking you to the nearest hospital emergency room." Mandy confused and mumbling nonsense, tried to struggle against him until he used a commanding tone with her. "No. Do not move. You will lie still and relax in my arms. I promise no one will harm you."
"You––you haunted my fantasy dreams all night long, you asshole! Stay out of my head!" Mandy growled still half in and half out of consciousness and breathed in deeply trying to focus. "Mm. God, you smell as delicious as you did in my fantasies. My own personal ambrosia in the form of a sinfully sexy devil. You gave me more orgasms in my fantasies than I could count. Mm…." Mandy mumbled and purred incoherently while in great pain.
In a moment of clarity, she told Jett her head hurt like hell itself in the back, forehead and top of her face and how she was sure she shattered something. She screamed as the excruciating pain overwhelmed her. As she slipped back into the bliss of unconsciousness she heard Jett's sexy chuckle.
"You truly are a god among men, Master. You gave her that many orgasms and you weren’t even there. Oh yes. You definitely have a gift." Xavier said and tried to keep a straight face. Then burst out with laughter.
"You are lucky I like you Xavier, else I'd throw you out of this limo while it was still moving. Jett growled back then genuinely smiled at the majestic beauty in his arms. So, you fantasized about me all night long, did you my little tigress? I fantasized about you as well. Although, I seriously doubt they were about the same things, but one day soon, they will become our reality. I am going to open your horizons to unimaginable levels and take care of you so well, you will never want to leave me. You just don’t know it yet sweetheart. Jett silently said to her while he continued to stare at her beautiful, exquisite face and luscious body. Something unusual caught his eye.
"Alert me when we reach the hospital." He demanded and put up the one way divider to give him and Mandy some privacy. Jett was infatuated with Mandy and looked down. He pulled the side of her sports bra down, exposing a large portion of her breast and saw the deeply indented scar she had tried to hide beneath her sports bra. He was shocked to see the deep ragged scar and knew from experience that it was from a very deep and lethal knife wound. He gently pulled the bra back into place and ever so gently rolled her to her side with the intention of seeing if she had any other injuries from her fall. He gasped in shock and anger when he saw what he had neglected to see before. Deep whip scars marred Mandy's beautiful back in horizontal lines across the middle.
Jett used the same level of extreme care to turn her on her back again and instinct told him those scars littered the landscape of her bum and thighs as well. He raised his hand and with the lightest of touches ran it along her scalp. He pulled out her pony tail only to find more evidence of damage at the back of her head. There he felt a large ragged scar and deep indentation where no hair grew and felt hair extensions surgically implanted below and above the area, most likely put in to cover it up. He lifted and separated the hair. What he saw there, nearly caused his heart to stop. Mandy had a bullet wound and not just any bullet wound, but one that resembled damage from an execution style shooting. He knew it was a true miracle that she was still alive.
"Who the fuck did this to you, tigress?" He whispered, his anger at the perpetrator knew no bounds.
"My ex-husband tried to murder me. Please don’t tell anyone or he will find me." Mandy, her eyes still closed, spoke in a quiet childlike whisper, full of terror.
Jett knew at once she wasn’t consciously aware of what she had just confessed to him. It was the terrified part of her deep subconscious that spoke.
"Your secret is forever safe with me. I promise sweetheart that no one will hear a word from this mouth." He whispered in her ear and watched her smile and then relax. On a subconscious level, she had just given him a measure of her trust and he had a deep feeling that she did not give it out easily if at all. He considered it a cherished gift and refused to betray that trust, but he would find out about her past in order to keep her safe from future harm. Her fearful and mistrustful behavior toward him made perfect sense. It had haunted him from the moment she cowered before him in her office. He knew exactly where that kind of fear came from, he lived through it himself.
Jett adamantly refused to leave her side when they reached the hospital. He felt deeply responsible for her and strangely overprotective. The few times she momentarily awoke, she had displayed extreme terror. She would not let anyone but him near her. It got so bad that the neurosurgeon ordered she be put into a medically induced coma. She had extreme swelling of the frontal lobe of her brain and near the base by her former injury which was where she landed on the cement after she flipped. In order for her to heal properly, she needed to remain immobile and completely relaxed. He worried the coma would only trap her in flashbacks of what must have been a truly horrific past. Something he knew only too much about.
The scars, knowledge of a horrific past and its baggage and everything that came with her did not faze him one bit. He still wanted her despite everything and felt bonded to her with a passion that defied logic. He knew deep down he had no right to ask her to be his, no matter how deeply he desired it He was not the normal, loving, vanilla-type guy she deserved in her life. He also carried far too much baggage from his own past that he kept hidden away from the world. He promised to be completely honest with her about his chosen lifestyle. He owed her honesty and would give her nothing less.
When Xavier arrived with her friends, he explained the situation to them and abruptly left. They would care for her now. He could see the depth of their love for and loyalty to her in their eyes. It made him respect her even more. With one last glance, he said a silent goodbye.
Mandy woke and instinct told her she was back in that hospital room. Before she could scream in terror, she forced herself to remain calm and rational while she tried to convince herself it was just a nightmare.
The pain told her it was not a nightmare, this was really happening. Her head and face were in excruciating pain but she still felt it could not be too serious. She was leaving right that moment too! Mandy hated hospitals and with good reason. When she tried to move her hands, they felt heavy which alarmed her until she realized Emmitt and Hunter were on either side of her holding them in their own hands.
The sight of her two best friends at each side of the bed flooded her heart with warmth as if generated by the sun and spilled over into a tremendous love for them both. She had so many questions and her head now hurt like someone had bashed it in over and over again.
When she tried to remember what happened to her, all s
he managed to remember was small flashes of Jett holding her, smiling at her and not leaving her side. The last flash must have been wishful thinking, since Jett was nowhere to be seen.
Exhausted and in pain, she reached for the call button and pushed it. Too late, she realized she pushed the morphine pump button, not the damn call button. Before she fell back into a deep sleep she heard a whisper in her ear, "dream of me, tigress.…" in her ear and felt a soft kiss on her forehead, combined with the scent of Drakar Noir men’s cologne. She could do no more at that moment except smile and whisper, "I will," as the morphine pulled her back into the bliss of darkness once more.
Three
MANDY WOKE AGAIN with a start. She was still in the hospital room. It really had not been a dream after all. Visions of her last lengthy hospital stay flooded her mind with the force of a tidal wave. She looked frantically around the white sterile room which smelled strongly of antiseptic and found Hunter and Emmitt talking quietly on the other side of the room. Deep worry and lack of sleep had aged their faces. Good lord, how long have I been unconscious?
"What––happened?" Mandy croaked, her throat was as dry as the Sahara desert. She made hand motions of putting a cup to her lips when she caught Hunter's eye.
"Oh thank God, you’re awake! You’re really awake sweetheart!" Hunter's husky voice sounded overjoyed.
"We were worried you wouldn’t wake up girl, that the damage to your brain was too bad! The doctor warned it was a possibility." Emmitt said full of relief.
"So not helping dear." Hunter growled.
Talk later dammit, I need a drink! "Thirsty!" Mandy croaked out again and glared at her friends. Hunter rushed to her side with a glass of ice water and a straw. After drinking two glasses of ice water down, Mandy's throat felt somewhat normal again. "What happened to me? What am I doing in a damn hospital? I’m leaving right now!" Mandy hissed in confusion and anger.
"Calm down sweetheart and I’ll tell you what I know!" Hunter said calmly, trying to reassure her. He waited until Mandy calmed down a bit. "Now, if you’re ready to relax and shut up, I’ll tell you." Hunter stood over Mandy from the side of her bed, his arms crossed over his chest like a scolding school teacher. He waited until Mandy relaxed back onto the bed and nodded. Only then did he smile, sit beside her on the bed, hold her hands in his and continued. "You had only gone around three or four miles when Jett found you. He was driving along when he saw you run right into a low lying branch, flip over it and land on your head on the cement. It clearly won the fight and you ended up with a fractured skull, forehead and eye socket. Jett rushed to your side and was the one who brought you to the hospital after he made sure you did not break your neck or your spine.
According to the nurse on duty, he carried you in and refused to leave your side. He intimidated the doctors and nurses who rushed to your aide and wisely, they just worked around him. He sent his driver, Xavier, to pick up Emmitt and I and bring us here. He further gave Emmitt a ride back home to get his car before he left." Hunter explained.
"The doctor and the surgeon explained that you seriously fractured your skull in three places. They also had to repair the blood flow to your right eye and fixed your broken nose. They might have at least considered letting you heal at home, but you crashed twice sweetheart. Your brain keeps swelling from the inside due to the new trauma combined with the damage you already had from the old gunshot wound. They had to put you in a medically induced coma for the past two weeks until the swelling receded and stayed down. They only pulled you out of the coma three days ago and said you would wake when your brain healed enough for you to do so." Emmitt explained when Hunter paused, tears welling in his eyes. "Sweetheart, why didn’t you tell me you had been shot execution style? Did David do that to you?" Hunter whispered softly.
"I don’t want to talk about David, ever!" Mandy growled, her voice dropping several octaves.
"Okay, we get it!" Emmitt glared at Hunter and held his hands up in surrender. "Geeze Louise, don’t go all exorcist on us girl!"
"Guys, I’m sorry. I really hate hospitals and will just say, for a very good reason and leave it at that. I did not mean to bark at you both, but my past is not up for discussion anymore today." Mandy’s eyes grew confused again as she asked, "Are you sure Jett was telling the truth? I have no memory of running into a tree branch."
"What can you remember sweetheart?" Hunter asked in extreme concern.
"Odd flashes to be honest. I remember clearly hearing a deep laugh behind me while running and the fear that my ex escaped prison and found me, but no one was there. After that, all I have are odd flashes of Jett’s face and murmured words. That is it and then I woke up here and saw you two whispering across the room." Mandy lied through her teeth. The truth was, she needed time to think about what all the flashes meant. She needed to separate fact from fiction in her mind and to do that, she unfortunately needed to confront Jett and thank him as well.
"Call the doctor in here for me, Emmitt. I am going home now."
"Mandy, I don’t think that’s…." Emmitt did not get to finish his sentence. He was interrupted by his now pissed-off best friend.
"Right Now!" Mandy screamed in anger and frustration.
"Alright, alright! We are going!" Emmitt glared and Hunter stared at her with compassion for a moment before he followed his boyfriend out of the room, knowing Mandy needed a few moments to herself.
Mandy watched them leave the room and sighed heavily. She felt like shit for yelling at them.
She heard Emmitt's worried tone, "What is the matter with her, Hunter? It’s like she woke up a completely different person."
Once her friends were out of sight and hearing range, Mandy pulled back the blankets and stood on shaky wobbly legs, aiming for the general direction of the bathroom, not caring who saw her ass falling out of her gown. If they were that desperate, then let them stare. She had to get to a mirror to see how bad the damage was. She was also determined to take care of her toiletry needs then find her damn clothes and escape. She was almost to the bathroom, hobbling along when the anger rose up like an inferno of self-hatred. How could she have been so damn careless to imagine David was out of prison and laughing behind her? Then ended up running right into a tree branch. It was damn embarrassing getting flipped onto her head and knocked on her ass by an inanimate object.
Not even Master Yang had been able to knock her on her ass in training. Two weeks in the hospital and she lost everything she had worked so hard for with running and training. Now she was going to have to build up her strength all over again in Krav Maga training and build up her running endurance, all from scratch because she was stupid!!!. Mandy wanted nothing more in that moment than to blame Jett, because if not for him getting into her head, she wouldn’t have been running distracted. Why couldn’t he have just left her alone! Dammit! She only had a second’s warning before that familiar heat arose in her body Think of the devil and he shall appear from Hell.
"Get your beautiful ass back into bed Mandy and I mean right now."
His all too familiar deep and gravelly, sexy-as-sin voice belongs in a medieval torture chamber, not in my hospital room.
"Go straight to Hell Jett and quit staring at my naked ass! I can feel the heat of your eyes. I am going to the bathroom to pee, if you must know. Afterward, I am going home. I have a workout to do and a run to complete and start over getting my strength back up. Congratulations, you did your good Samaritan deed of the day and boosted your self-image, now get the hell out of my room before I turn your balls into a new kind of caviar." Mandy growled and forced her body to stand proud even though it hurt like hell and began to seize up. Oh shit! I am going to fall any second now and right in front of Mr. I’m always perfect!
"No." Jett growled from right behind her.
"No?" Mandy’s voice squeaked in shock even as she clenched her fists, ready to punch Jett right in the kisser. Well, maybe after she coerced him to help her to the bathroom.
"That’s right
tigress, I said no. Don’t make me say it again, woman. My palm is itching to smack that beautiful ass of yours just to see it turn a beautiful dark red. Now come here, so I can carry you to the bathroom. Then, we will continue this conversation."
"Ha! You wish." The sarcastic reply flew right out of her mouth before she could stop it. Before she could say another word, she was lifted into his strong and powerful arms and carried right into the bathroom and set gently down on the toilet. Jett then sat down on the edge of the tub right across from her.
Mandy felt her face blaze hotly at his nearness and her lack of clothing. "You can leave now. I am not peeing in front of you. We are not that damn close for one and for two, I don’t want to be. So go on now, shoo!" Mandy made a shooing motion with her hand toward the bathroom door. Jett stayed put with that arrogant smirk on his face and for a moment, she wondered if he was deaf, dumb or both.
Jett laughed at her but his eyes told a completely different story. He was going to remain in the room and watch her for several reasons. The nicest of them all, was to make sure she didn’t fall when she was finished. After carefully running all the options through his head, he finally decided to concede to her wishes, for now. "Alright tigress, this once I will step out but you will call me the moment you are done or else." He growled and pulled on the door to close it, but decided to leave it open a crack so he could hear her call out for his help.
Moments later, he heard the toilet flush and heard her struggle to stand. He growled loudly in warning but decided to wait a moment before he pushed the door open, in case she was behind it. He saw her through the crack standing in front of the mirror. There wasn’t much to see, other than the light red circle around her eye that had been damaged and a the cut across her forehead. She healed remarkably fast. He was strangely affected by her and was contemplating what it meant that he was drawn to her. That she haunted his every minute of the day and night. He did not get a chance to move before the door flew open and smacked him in the forehead.
His Every Fantasy Page 4
