After locking up the office, I headed to the stairwell. It was just after ten, and most took the elevator at night. As for me. I had an unnatural fear of elevators late at night, thanks to a slasher movie I’d seen in my childhood. The more I considered my issues, the more I realized I probably needed a therapist.
I started down the stairs when my shoe hit a slippery spot. I screamed as both feet slid across the stairs, and the back of my head slammed down hard onto the edge of one step.
Chapter 27
Xander
It was late when the sound of my bedroom door opening woke me. There shouldn’t be anyone in my house, but there was no reason to worry since I already knew who it was. Just enough light was coming through the window to make out her smile.
“What are you doing?” My voice was rough, both from sleep and arousal. “How did you get inside my house?”
“I have my ways,” she replied as she climbed onto the bed dressed in nothing but a Reckless Release t-shirt.
It wasn’t the first time I’d had a woman seduce me wearing one of my band’s t-shirts, but fuck me if it wasn’t the hottest thing I’d ever seen. “I can’t believe you’re here,” I murmured when she was straddling my hips.
“I’m here to collect on those new benefits we discussed,” she cooed.
I sat up to pull her closer. I had to taste her. For months, I’d been fantasizing about her, and she was finally in my bed. My dick throbbed against her hot core as my mouth claimed hers. She tasted like waffles. I might have laughed at the woman who made the best waffles tasting like waffles if I wasn’t so turned on.
“I need you, Xander.” Her voice was breathy with need. “I was a fool for ever thinking those other guys were right for me. It’s always been you.”
That didn’t sound like something Cami would say, but I pushed that thought to the back of my mind. All I wanted to think about was stripping off Cami’s t-shirt and fucking her every way imaginable.
The buzzing sound pulled me away from her. “No,” I called out as the dream faded. Opening my eyes, I looked over at my cursed phone. “I am going to kill whoever is calling me.” My dick was rock hard and aching under the blankets.
Snatching my phone off the nightstand, I snapped, “What?”
“Hey.” That one word was enough to know something was wrong.
I sat up in bed, instantly awake. “Cami? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she assured me. “Mostly fine. Sorry for waking you up.”
“Don’t apologize. What’s going on, babe?”
“I need a ride home from the hospital,” she explained. “I really am fine.”
“I’ll be right there,” I promised. “Which hospital?”
“The one in San Ramon,” she replied. “Again, sorry I woke you up.”
“You can always wake me up,” I told her. “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes. Where are you at in the hospital?”
“I’m in the emergency room,” she replied. “They won’t release me unless I have someone to drive me home.”
I wanted to ask more about why she was at the hospital, but I decided against it. I’d ask her when I picked her up. We said our goodbyes, and I was dressed and out the door in five minutes. The entire drive, I kept reminding myself that she was okay. She’d told me she was okay. People went to emergency all the time. Hell, I’d been a frequent patient during my childhood, so I knew it could be nothing.
None of the reassurances I gave myself eased my worries. At least, those worries killed my raging hard-on.
Chapter 28
Cami
“He didn’t even ask for waffles.”
“What was that?” the nurse who’d just stepped in to check on me asked.
“Nothing,” I replied. “My friend should be here in a few minutes. I can sit in the waiting room if the doctor wants to release me now.”
That seemed like a reasonable suggestion. I wouldn’t have to do all the paperwork after Xander arrived. I was exhausted, and all I wanted to do was climb into bed and sleep for ten hours. I couldn’t since I had appointments the next day, but the sooner I got home, the more sleep I’d get.
“We can’t release you unless your ride arrives. Will this friend be the person staying with you?” Her question was unexpected.
“Staying with me?” I asked. “No one said anything about me needing someone to stay with me.”
“I’ll stay with her, and I’m driving her home.”
Xander’s announcement drew my attention and that of my nurse. She turned and gawked at him in stunned silence before finally regaining the ability to speak. “You’re Xander Marsh.”
The smile he flashed her was the same one that had groupies tossing panties at him. I suspected my pretty redheaded nurse wanted to throw her panties at him—in a figurative sense, at least. Who could blame her? I certainly wasn’t immune to Xander’s charm. Dressed in worn jeans, a black hoodie, and a baseball cap, he looked like he’d just thrown on clothes and raced out the door when I called.
“That’s me,” he replied.
The nurse looked between us, and I could tell she wanted to ask about our relationship. I could relate to her dilemma. One of my patients was the daughter of a well-known musician. I’d been flustered the first few times he’d come to my office with his daughter. It was hard remaining composed when you wanted to let out a fangirl scream and jump up and down. My nurse was trying to be professional. If she followed celebrity gossip, she’d probably heard about me dating Xander but hadn’t recognized me before Xander’s arrival. I took pity on her and explained our relationship—our fake relationship.
“Xander is more than my friend. I can tell you want to ask.”
Xander sat beside me on the hospital bed, slipped an arm around my shoulders, and kissed the top of my head.
The nurse’s cheeks flushed, and she cleared her throat. “Sorry. We’ve had other big names in the hospital, so I shouldn’t be acting this way.”
Xander could be arrogant and clueless at times, but he was usually a sweet guy. That’s why I wasn’t surprised by his response. “We had a benefit show a few months back, and I was so excited to see some of my favorite musicians that I didn’t realize I was staring like a zombie until one of them came over to ask if I was high. It’s more than a little awesome that I have that effect on some people now.”
The nurse smiled, looking much less embarrassed. “I’ll go get the discharge paperwork.”
Once she was out of the room, Xander asked, “Concussion?”
“How’d you know?”
“I’ve had a couple myself. I guess I get to wake you up every hour.”
I shook my head. “They don’t do that anymore. There are no signs of internal bleeding. I was out for less than a minute, but they wanted to play it safe, so they did a CT scan.”
“What happened?” he asked. His arm was still around me, and I leaned into his side. It was nice having him with me.
“I slipped in the stairwell. Someone spilled something slippery on the steps. Luckily, when I screamed, the cleaning crew heard me.”
“You could have been killed,” he said softly.
“That’s being a little too dramatic.” Sure, I could have died, but it wasn’t likely. It’s not like I’d fallen all the way down a flight of stairs. “I’m glad I got the padded laptop bag.” I gestured to the bag sitting on a chair beside my purse. “I checked it already, and nothing was damaged.”
“Who the fuck spills something in a stairwell and doesn’t clean up?” He sounded thoroughly pissed. “The least they could have done was report the spill.”
“Calm down. If the spill happened after six, the person would have needed to send an email to have it cleaned up. Before you start ranting about them cleaning it up themselves, oil is hard to clean up. Even if they wiped it down, the stairs would still be slippery.”
Xander was frowning. “Why would someone have oil in the stairwell?”
“They could have broken the bottle
and cleaned up the glass,” I suggested. “It’s likely they even tried to wipe up most of the spill. I don’t know.”
“Maybe someone put it there on purpose.”
I laughed at his suggestion. “You’ve been watching detective shows again, haven’t you?”
He let out a tired sigh. “You’re right. I’m probably being paranoid. Still, why would someone be walking down the stairs with oil after hours?”
“It could have been something else,” I pointed out.
“You also said there was cleaning staff in the building,” he argued. “Why didn’t they find one of them? Or they could have put a note on the door to the stairwell to warn people that they were slippery. I know it would have been a lot of work to put a sign up on each floor, but that shit is seriously dangerous.”
“The spill may have happened before the nighttime cleaning crew arrived.” My tone was exasperated as I pulled away from Xander. “The person who spilled it should have done more. I don’t know why they didn’t, but my head is throbbing, and I’m exhausted. Can we stop talking about this?”
While he didn’t look happy about it, Xander nodded. “All right. I’m sorry about pushing this. I’m just worried.”
“You don’t have to stay with me,” I told him. “It’s almost morning, so I can just stay up until someone else can come over.”
“I’ll stay with you,” he replied.
“You don’t have to,” I argued.
“You’ve already said that.” Xander looked like he wanted to say more, but we were interrupted by the nurse.
“I’ve got your discharge paperwork. We’ll have you out of here in a few minutes.”
Chapter 29
Xander
It pissed me off when Cami told me I didn’t have to stay with her. Our friendship was more complicated than it had been a week ago, but we were still friends. No matter how much I wanted her, I wasn’t going to try to seduce her while she had a concussion. She couldn’t possibly think I was the kind of asshole who’d take advantage of her situation. Had she only dated assholes, I could blame it on her past, but from what I could tell, most of the guys she’d dated were decent, even if some of them were a little strange.
Was I letting any of my annoyance show? Nope. I was smiling and acting like Mr. Nice Guy as I drove Cami back to her place.
“You’re irritated,” she said as I parked in her space at her condo.
“What makes you think that?” My voice was calm and pleasant.
She let out a huff of irritation. “Come on, Xan. We’re close enough that you don’t need to play this game with me. I know you’re annoyed about something. It’s why you’re trying to keep the conversation going constantly. You always talk this much when you’re nervous or pissy, and you don’t seem nervous.”
With my hands still on the steering wheel, I contemplated refusing to talk about what was going on in my head. It definitely wasn’t the best time for it. Cami needed to get upstairs and sleep. She was exhausted. Hell, I was exhausted. Still, I knew her well enough to realize she wouldn’t let it go.
“Let’s go up to your place first,” I told her.
“Okay,” she agreed.
Once we were inside, Cami set her stuff down and collapsed onto her sofa. “I’m so glad I’m home. Thank you for picking me up.”
“Any time, babe,” was my soft reply.
I took a seat in the armchair close to the sofa.
“Before I crash, please tell me why you’re in a mood,” she prompted.
“I don’t want to talk too much about this now because you need your sleep. When you were arguing about me not needing to stay with you, it irked me. Things got a little awkward, but I thought we were working through that. No matter where things go between us, you are my friend. That’s not going to change. If you need a ride in the middle of the night or need someone to stay with you, you can count on me. I’m not some asshole who’s going to push things when you’re injured.”
“I’m sorry, Xan,” she said quietly. “You’re right about our friendship. I also know you’re not a jerk—not that kind of jerk, anyway.”
“Hey!”
My indignation earned me a weak laugh. “You’re an endearing jerk. You say things that you should probably keep to yourself, but you’re still a good guy. I’m sorry for acting so weird about you staying with me. It honestly wasn’t about you. I’m just terrible at letting people take care of me.”
“You’ll have to get used to it. I always take care of my friends. You look like you’re about to drop, so why don’t you get some sleep?”
She nodded and stood. “You can sleep in my spare room. There’s just a twin in there, but it will still be more comfortable than my sofa.”
“You have a spare bedroom?” I couldn’t figure out how I didn’t know that considering how often I was at her place.
“Yes, I do. My cousin stayed with me for a short time when she was going to college,” she explained. “It didn’t work out, so she decided to go to college elsewhere, but the bed’s still in there. It’s on the other side of the living room, just past my office.”
“Huh.” I looked in that direction. “I always thought that was a closet.”
“You might still feel that way once you see it. It’s not a very big room.”
“That could be why your cousin left,” I remarked. “Maybe she didn’t like being put in the closet.”
Cami grinned. “That might be why I put her there.”
I chuckled and walked over to kiss her forehead. “Sweet dreams, babe. If you need anything, yell.”
“Thanks again, Xan.” On those words, she headed off to her bedroom.
It took me quite some time to doze off once I settled into bed. My mind kept going over Cami’s accident. She might be right about me watching too many detective shows. That could be what made me wonder if someone had intentionally put oil on the stairs so Cami would fall. It was always possible I was looking for some nefarious plot when there wasn’t one. Finally, I decided that I’d talk to Cami more about it in the morning. Her office building had security, so they might even be able to figure out who’d spilled the oil in the stairwell.
As I finally drifted off to sleep on the twin bed, I thought about how glad I was that Cami had called me. She might not see the significance of her actions, but I did. It felt pretty fucking awesome to know I was the one she’d called.
Chapter 30
Cami
My head was pounding, and I was still groggy when I heard rustling in my room. Forcing my eyes open, I found Xander watching me. “What are you doing?”
“Just checking on you,” he replied. “I know you said I don’t need to wake you up, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to look in on you a few times.”
“What if I’d been sleeping naked on top of my blankets?” I asked.
He grinned. “That would have been a pleasant surprise.”
“Perv,” I accused groggily.
“Don’t worry,” he replied with a soft chuckle. “I would have quickly left the room, but I didn’t think you’d sleep naked with me here.”
He had a point. I didn’t usually sleep naked anyway, but I definitely wouldn’t with Xander sleeping in the room down the hall from mine. When I tried to sit up, I cringed from the pain. It wasn’t going to be a fun day.
Xander was immediately at my side. “Are you okay? Do you need me to help you to the bathroom or get you some water? Should I run out and grab some Tylenol?”
I caught myself before I made the mistake of shaking my head. “I already have some if I need it. It’s not that bad.”
His look said he didn’t believe me. “You look like you’re in a lot of pain.”
“I’m okay. Once I get moving, and I’m distracted, I’ll feel better.”
He nodded. “Would you like to go back to sleep?”
“I think I’m going to try eating something,” I replied. “I’m so hungry that I’m starting to feel a little queasy. I didn’t get a chance to gr
ab dinner last night.”
“What are you in the mood for?” he asked. “I’ll run out and pick something up.”
Normally, I’d insist on making breakfast. I prefer my cooking to most of what I can get in a restaurant, but I wasn’t up to cooking, and cereal didn’t appeal to me.
“I would love an omelet with bacon, avocado, tomato, and jack cheese,” I told him.
“Hash browns? Toast? Pastries?” he asked.
“Just the omelet, but I guess it usually comes with all that,” I replied.
“I’ll eat whatever you don’t want,” he assured me before heading to the bedroom door. “Do you have an extra toothbrush I can use? Maybe I could use your hairbrush, too?”
“Sure.” I walked toward the bathroom and handed him a new toothbrush and a hairbrush.
“Any dizziness when you walk?” he asked, his focus on me.
“No dizziness,” I assured him.
“Do you remember what day of the week it is?”
“Thursday,” I replied without hesitation. “I only have four appointments today, starting at ten.”
Xander frowned. “The doctor said you need to rest today. Can you reschedule? Or are these some of your patients who need to see you today?”
I considered my schedule before responding. I could move three of my appointments. They were all doing reasonably well, but one needed her weekly sessions to remain consistent. She was a six-year-old girl who’d recently lost her father. She was terrified of being away from her mother and having a hard time dealing with her grief. I couldn’t cancel on her. “I have to be there for one of my appointments. It’s at four.”
He nodded. “I’ll let the band know I’m not going to be able to make practice today so I can drive you.”
“Are you sure they’ll be okay with you canceling? I could ask Bentley or Piper to drive me. I’m not trying to avoid you. I just hate that you’re canceling practice.”
I’d need to look at my discharge paperwork to see if I had any driving restrictions, but even if I didn’t, I’d need a ride to my office since that’s where my car was parked.
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