Wicked Attraction (The Protector)

  The doc frowned and looked taken aback. “Two years. But—”

  “Are the scans taken of my fiancée noticeably different than her previous records? By that I mean,” Ewan said calmly, “does she appear to have any new injuries or damage to the brain that were not noted in her old notes?”

  “The abnormalities are consistent with her previous records, but—”

  Again, Ewan cut her off. “You didn’t see anything else? Nothing new?”

  “Any abnormality in the scans is enough reason to keep a patient for observation,” the doc snapped, straightening and squaring her shoulders.

  Ewan tapped another message into his comm and gave the doc a steely grin. “I’m taking her home. I’ll hire private med staff for her and make sure she gets the care she needs.”

  “You can’t—”

  “According to the medical director of this hospital, I can.” Ewan lifted his comm to show the doc the screen.

  Nina couldn’t read the message there, but apparently the doc had no trouble because she pursed her lips. “Of course. Do what you want. Sign her out against med advice, that’s your right. I’m done here. I don’t need to take your abuse.”

  “Then I suggest you get out,” Ewan told her in a hard and unflinching tone.

  The doc left the room, closing the door behind her. Nina had watched this entire exchange with slightly raised brows and an elevated pulse rate that had nothing to do with her injuries. She’d seen Ewan in action a few times, but this time had been on her behalf, and there was no denying that she liked it.

  “My hero,” she told him.

  Ewan grinned. “Peter Barons and I sit on a few boards together. He’s the medical director here. C’mon. Let’s get you home.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Ewan had not expected Nina to be a very good convalescent, but she turned out to be surprisingly amenable to his caretaking efforts. After bringing her home, he’d settled her in the master bedroom with the media remotes, a stack of reading material, and comfortable pillows, along with a silly menu of options that he’d printed off his computer.

  “Foot massage?” Nina raised an eyebrow and wiggled her toes from under the blankets. “My feet might be the only part of me that don’t hurt.”

  Ewan sat on the edge of the bed to rub a hand along her thigh. “I’m happy to massage anything else you need.”

  “How about my lips?” She tapped her mouth lightly. “I can always use a massage there.”

  He kissed her, gladly, but keeping the pressure gentle. He couldn’t stop himself from nuzzling her neck before he pulled away, but although he’d gladly have spent more time inhaling the scent of her skin, all he had to do was look at the pattern of bruises on it to remind him that she’d been badly injured only two days ago. She pulled him onto the bed with her. They lay quietly together for a few minutes.

  “What can I bring you to eat? How about some soup?” Ewan said after a few minutes had passed, mostly to keep himself from falling asleep. He wanted to make sure she was taken care of before he gave in to the exhaustion. Sleeping in the chair next to her hospital bed had been next to impossible, and he was aching for sleep.

  Nina chuckled, letting her head fall back before she shook it and looked at him with such a look of amusement and adoration shining in her gaze that it warmed every part of him. “How about a rare steak and a baked potato and some cherry pie?”

  “If that’s what you want,” he agreed.

  She laughed again and reached to stroke her fingers along his cheek. “Adorable. I’ll come down to the kitchen. I don’t really like to eat in bed.”

  “You stay put,” he said, realizing at once it was a useless command. She’d only seemed like she was going to let him take care of her. “Nina. Please. You should rest.”

  “Ewan,” she said, “I’m fine. A little banged up, but this is nothing. Really.”

  He sighed. “I knew it was too good to be true, you staying in bed and letting me take care of you.”

  “Oh, you can take care of me in bed, all right,” she told him with a naughty grin and wiggling eyebrows, making him laugh. “But I need to eat first.”

  He tossed up his hands. “Fine. But I’m cooking. You sit and look pretty.”

  “Yes,” she cooed, “because that’s exactly my goal in life. To sit quietly and look pretty.”

  She kissed him with a little more heat, then pulled back with the same shining gaze to cup his face with both her hands. Holding him still to study him, she said in a low voice, “Thank you.”

  “For taking care of you?”

  Nina nodded. “Yes. But also just . . . thank you, Ewan. For helping to make this work. Me and you. Us.”

  A pang flashed through him that she felt she needed to thank him for what ought to have been something she could take for granted. “I want this to work. I want you.”

  “Kiss me.”

  He did. They breathed together for a moment or so. Ewan closed his eyes, sleepy but happy to be with her. He drew in her exhalation greedily until she giggled, and he opened his eyes. “I can’t get enough of you, Nina. I love the way you smell. The way you taste. I love everything about you.”

  “Good. Let’s keep doing this, then. Every day, better and better. What do you say?”

  “Yes. Forever.” He nuzzled at her cheek and then kissed her mouth again.

  Nina nodded. “Yes. Forever.”

  * * *

  It had taken some convincing to get Ewan to allow her to follow him to the kitchen so he could feed her, but Nina hated eating in bed—too many crumbs. And besides, as much as it was clear he wanted to dote on her, to take care of her, she really didn’t need him to. Her body had already kicked in to start healing the injuries from the accident. Even her blood pressure problems didn’t seem to be bothering her anymore. One thing, though, still niggled at the back of her brain.

  “Did anyone else come visit me?” she asked between mouthfuls of the delicious rare and better yet, real, steak.

  Ewan had not poured them glasses of wine, a fact she noticed with amusement but didn’t comment upon. He thought she shouldn’t drink in her delicate state. She loved him for that.

  “No. I don’t think so. You weren’t there very long, and even though I wasn’t there when you woke up, something I’m still mad about”—he shrugged at her noise of protest—“it’s true. I should’ve been there.”

  “Maybe I should have waited to come out of my unconscious state until you’d come back from the cafeteria,” Nina countered as she stabbed another bite of meat.

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  She waved her fork at him. “So is this idea that you somehow failed me because your stomach was empty.”

  “No,” Ewan repeated after a moment, rolling his eyes but smiling. “Nobody else came to visit you.”

  “The nurse said my brother had been in to see me.”

  Ewan frowned and shook his head. “You don’t have a brother.”

  “I know that,” Nina said. “So who came in to see me? And when?”

  “Maybe someone stopped by before I was able to get up to your room. They had me filling in a lot of information downstairs before I could get up to you.”

  Nina frowned. “That’s stupid, I have a medchip implanted. Why didn’t they just scan it?”

  “I don’t know, but I had to fill out a whole bunch of information in order to . . .” Here he coughed into his fist and looked away from her.

  “In order to what?” Nina asked him when he was clearly not going to finish his sentence. She put down her fork with a small clatter. “Ewan, what did you do?”

  “I wanted to make sure that all the expenses were covered, so you didn’t have to worry about anything.”

  She laughed softly. “According to my contract, you’re required to cover the costs of any medical expenses I incur during the course of my assignment with you.”

  “Yes, but you don’t work for me anymore. Did you forget?”

  She had, sort
of. Not that it made a difference. She would still protect him until her last breath, no contract necessary.

  “Ewan . . .”

  “Please don’t argue with me about it, Nina. I want to take care of you, and I don’t need to wait until we’re married to do it. Shiny fine?”

  How could she argue with him when he gave her that face? That smile? The look in his eyes made her sigh.

  “I’m disgusted,” Nina said.

  Ewan looked surprised. Confused. “What?”

  “We are the schmoopiest goops!” She sat back in her chair and put her hands over her eyes, laughing. Shaking her head. She peeked at him through her fingers. “We are disgusting!”

  “We’re amazing,” Ewan contradicted.

  “Yes,” Nina said. “We are.”

  When her personal comm pinged, she figured it would be Leona, checking in, or Al, who might have heard about the accident. Instead, it was her sister, Patrice. Nina recognized her at once, even though it had been years since she’d last seen or spoken to her.

  The last time she’d seen her sister, the words had been ugly, the emotions uglier. Nina and Patrice had always gotten along like oil and water, according to their mother, but Nina had never imagined her sister would have done all she had to push Nina out of their family. Now she was pinging? Had she heard about Nina’s accident?

  Surprised, all Nina managed was a barked out, “Hey!”

  “I got your number from your boss,” Patrice said in a careful tone. “I hope that was all right.”

  Nina licked some steak sauce from her upper lip. “Yeah, of course it is. It’s . . . good . . . to see you. Are you all right?”

  For a second, Patrice’s face showed how insulted she was that Nina would automatically assume the only reason she was pinging was because something was wrong. In the next moment though, her expression softened. She first nodded, hard, then shook her head more slowly. She cleared her throat before finally answering.

  “No. Not really.”

  “Talk to me.” Nina grabbed the glass of water from the table and drank to combat the slight dizziness at how surreal this was. The last time she and her sister had spoken, Patrice had told Nina that she should just pretend she had no family, because that was how she was acting. With a glance at Ewan, who was looking curious, she held up a finger to indicate that she’d tell him after the call ended.

  She got up to pace, her stomach sinking with dread at what might have happened in the family she hadn’t spoken to for so long. “Is everyone okay? Anyone hurt? Are the kids all right?”

  Patrice shook her head, another sour expression twisting over her face before it smoothed. “I don’t want to talk about it over the comm. Would you . . . meet me?”

  Nina hesitated, trying to figure out what, exactly, seemed wrong about all of this. A low vibration in Patrice’s tone, a heightened glitter in her eyes obvious even through the small, flat screen. Nina hadn’t seen or talked to her sister in a long time, but she still noticed that something wasn’t right in her demeanor.

  Nina shook her head. Obviously, Patrice had not heard about the buzzcycle and the trip to the hospital. It would be a few days before Nina would be recovered enough to go visiting, but she didn’t use that as her reason. If her sister didn’t know she’d been injured, Nina wasn’t going to offer up that information.

  “I’m on a job right now. I’m not sure I can. But this comm is protected, Patrice, so if there’s something you need to tell me, I can assure you that it’ll be kept private.”

  “I really need to see you in person.” Patrice coughed gently into the back of her hand and gave Nina a broad but unconvincing fake smile. “Besides, you haven’t even met your youngest nephew. Don’t you want to?”

  “Of course. Wow. You had another baby? When?” Nina’s heart clenched hard in a pang of sorrow. Long ago she’d figured that her sister’s children would be the closest she’d ever get to having any, herself, but after the family falling out, she’d never been allowed to be a part of their lives.

  “Yes, four now. He’s a little over a year old.” Patrice coughed again, her gaze cutting to the side of the screen, staring at something intently before looking back at Nina. “They’re my life.”

  “I can imagine.” She could. Almost. Imagination would never be a substitute for reality. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “I’d really rather do it in person. Please come meet me.”

  Nina sighed and drank again. The cool water didn’t erase the dizziness, and she sat in the kitchen chair again. Ewan had gotten up from the table to take care of the dishes, and a surge of love flowed over her. When she’d met him, he’d had an army of people taking care of him, and now he was taking care of her.

  “I’m working, Patrice. I can’t just go off and do whatever I want. I’d need to get permission from my client.”

  “You? Get permission?” Patrice burst into laughter that sounded genuine and lifted Nina’s heart—at least until it cut off abruptly. Her sister shook her head. “I can’t believe you’d allow someone else to boss you around.”

  Nina frowned. Time had passed, but it didn’t seem much had changed in her sister’s opinion of her. “Is it money? Because you could just ask me for it.”

  Patrice scowled. She looked like their mother when she did that, and Nina’s heart panged again. “It’s not about money. That was a long time ago, and I’m not going to get into it with you again. You should let it go.”

  “I’d let it go, except that money was the reason you told me to get out of your life and consider myself without a sister. Or a family,” Nina replied after she’d bitten her tongue hard enough to keep her tone neutral. “I haven’t spoken to you since then, out of respect for your wishes. Even though I wanted to reach out to you, many times. Yet you show up now, asking to see me in person, and I can’t help but wonder why. So if it’s about money, I’d rather you were just up-front about it, because I can afford to give you some money. I’m not sure I can afford to trust you.”

  Patrice visibly recoiled with a shudder. Her eyes closed. She brought her fists up to her cheeks, perhaps to hold back the silvery tears that slipped over her dark skin. She shook her head.

  “That’s a terrible thing to say,” Patrice muttered in a voice so low that Nina had trouble hearing her.

  Nina finished her water. The steak in her stomach sat heavily. Sweat had gone chilly all over her. If Patrice wanted an apology, Nina wasn’t sure she could muster one, even if she did feel bad about saying the truth aloud.

  “Patrice,” Nina said finally, gently, waiting until her sister looked at her. “What could be so bad that you can’t just tell me over the comm?”

  “If I could tell you what it was,” Patrice snapped, “believe me, I would. But shiny fine, if you don’t want to make amends and see me in person, that’s just great. Forget it. I’m sorry I pinged you. I should have known better. You haven’t changed.”

  Again, her gaze went somewhere offscreen. Her brow furrowed. She bit her lower lip and ducked her head.

  “I’m sorry. I thought things would be different. I didn’t know I would feel this way,” Patrice said.

  Her words didn’t make much sense, but before Nina had time to reply, the screen went blank. Nina thought about thumbing a return ping, but stopped herself. If her sister wanted to contact her, Patrice obviously knew how to find her.

  I didn’t know I would feel this way.

  “What did she mean?” Nina frowned against the spark of stinging tears.

  “Hey,” said Ewan from behind her, his eyebrows raising when she whirled around to face him. “Sorry. I waited until you were done so I didn’t interrupt. Everything all right? No. That was a stupid question, I could see it wasn’t.”

  “It was my sister. Patrice.”

  Ewan nodded. “The one you haven’t been in touch with.”

  Nina drew a breath and put her hands on her hips. “At first I thought maybe she’d heard about the accident, that she was worried. But c
learly that wasn’t the case.”

  “What did she want?” Ewan took her in his arms, but left her plenty of room so that she didn’t feel constrained.

  She appreciated that. Nina linked her fingers behind his neck. “I don’t know. Money, I’m going to guess.”

  Something about that still didn’t feel right. If it had been money, why wouldn’t Patrice simply ask for it? Why insist on meeting her in person?

  “She refused to talk about it over the comm. She insisted on it, actually, said she wanted to meet me. I told her I was on a job, and I couldn’t just take time off without permission.”

  “Hmm, asking me for permission. I kind of like how that sounds.” Ewan waggled his brows.

  She laughed before she could stop herself. “Uh-huh. Go ahead and keep liking how it sounds, because it’s not going to happen.”

  “Do you want to see her?” Ewan asked after a moment. “You don’t really need permission, Nina. I know you’re aware of that, but I’m going to say it anyway.”

  “Of course I know that. But I also don’t want to drop everything and rush to see her when she pings me out of the blue after so long, with no explanation, and expects me to jump when she snaps.” The words came out harder than she’d meant them to, and she paused to swallow some bitterness. “Sorry. I guess there’s still a sore spot about all of it.”

  “You never really told me what happened,” Ewan said, but shook his head immediately. “You don’t have to, now, if you don’t want to.”

  She didn’t want to revisit any of that, at least not now. After the meal and the spike of heightened feelings at her sister’s call, she was suddenly exhausted. Sleep would help her heal better than anything else, and she needed a lot of it. “Another time, maybe.”

  “Sure. No problem. Anytime.”

  “She didn’t even . . . she didn’t ask me anything about my life.” Nina swallowed hard against the ridges of emotion spiking in her throat. She let Ewan pull her closer so she could rest her head on his shoulder. His strong hands rested on her back. They moved together in a slow dance.