Monroe, Marla - Their Reluctant Submissive [Knights in Black Leather 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (22 page)

“Kelly. Everything is fine. We’ve got you, babe. Relax and wake up for us.” Marx settled into an easy rhythm with Jackson.

“Feel our hands on you, Kelly. We’re here with you. Wake up for us. We need you to let us know that you’re okay now.” Jackson alternated with Marx. They both rubbed light circles on her wrists under the restraints.

He watched her eyes move back and forth under her eyelids and how she moved her mouth around the tube. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked at them. Marx wasn’t sure if she knew who they were at first until he felt her hand move. He looked down and relaxed. She was holding her thumb up, their signal that she was good to go when she was wearing a gag.

“Jackson, look.” He pointed to her hand.

“Thank God.” Jackson bent down and kissed her again.

Marx couldn’t stop the slight grin that escaped when she looked in his direction. She was going to be all right. Half the battle was over, and they had won. He prepared for whatever came next.

* * * *

Kelly coughed until she thought she would be sick. They told her that the more she coughed, the better off she was, but damn it hurt! She had no idea what day it was or even what time of the day or night. The last time she had been awake, they had pulled the tube out of her throat. Well, actually, they had made her cough it out. That hadn’t been pleasant at all. In fact, she could pretty much guarantee it had been about the worse thing she could remember having to deal with.

Her head hurt, her chest hurt, hell, her entire body ached. She looked around again and focused on the dry erase board across the room with a clock above it. It was five o’clock and the board said it was Thursday, October, 20
^th
. She didn’t know if it was morning or night, but at least now she knew she had been in the hospital since the fifteenth.

A nurse poked her head in the room and seeing her awake, smiled. She slipped inside and checked the machine sending something into her vein.

“Morning, Kelly. How are you feeling this morning?”

“Thirsty.” Her voice sounded like a low grade of sandpaper.

The nurse took a plastic jug and spooned a piece of ice into her mouth.

“Suck on that. Dr. Greer will be by soon. He may let you have liquids to drink today. We’ll see. How’s the cough?”

Kelly frowned at her. Surely they could hear her all over the freaking hospital. She was coughing up her lungs every few minutes.” And right on cue, she started hacking.

The nurse winced and nodded. “Rough. I know it hurts, but you’ve got to cough that stuff up so you can get well.”

After adjusting the head of her bed into a slightly higher position, she slipped out of the room leaving Kelly alone with her thoughts. The sharp pain in her head and chest when she coughed, along with the multitude of dull aches and burning sensations she could deal with. The not being able to breathe without coughing and feeling as if she might suffocate was unnerving.

Kelly thought back to what had happened. She remembered going to bed worried about Steve, Ben, and Stacey. She woke up hot and having trouble breathing. That was when she realized there was a fire. She had gotten on the floor and tried to crawl out of her bedroom. She hadn’t been able to see a thing in the dark, but she remembered there had been a lot of smoke. Her eyes were stinging, and she couldn’t manage to get a deep breath. The noise had been deafening, a roaring that made her think of the old monster movies. Something fell on her, and that was all she remembered.

“Hello, Kelly. How are you doing? Do you remember me from yesterday?” A man in a white coat stood at the foot of her bed when she opened her eyes gain.

“Dr. F.” She knew it started with an F, but she wasn’t sure about the rest.

He chuckled. “Well, you did slightly alter my name a few times when we first got that tube out of your throat. Tell me how you’re doing.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Chest hurts. Hard to breathe.”

“I’m sure it is hard to breathe. Let me listen and see how you sound. I want you to take as deep a breath as you can each time I move my stethoscope.” He leaned over and placed the metal piece on her chest, moving it several times when she breathed.

Kelly couldn’t help coughing with the deep breaths, but he didn’t seem to care. He just nodded and moved to listen to her back. Over and over she drew in deep breaths and ended with a painful cough. When he had finished listening to her, he looked in her throat and checked her burns. At some point a nurse came in and helped him with the burns. She looked at them as they uncovered the ones she could see. They really didn’t look all that bad. Knowing that she had been in a fire, she had expected to see terrible burns that would leave behind hideous scars for her to have to live with.

“Well, young lady, you’re doing remarkably well considering what you’ve been through. I don’t think any of the burns are going to leave any scarring. That cut on your head is so close to your hairline that the small scar that it leaves won’t be noticeable.” He propped one hip on the edge of her bed.

“What about my voice? It’s horrible. When will the cough go away?”

“You’re voice will slowly improve, but there is a small chance that you might have some damage to your vocal chords. That means that if you do, there will be some rasp in it left over.”

Kelly opened her mouth to ask if something could be done to fix her voice if there was any damage, but he held up his hand when she started to speak.

“Don’t worry about it right now. Our main focus for now is your lungs. You’re slowly recovering from a light case of pneumonia. It is vital that you do the breathing exercises the respiratory therapist is helping you with and taking the breathing treatments. I know that with your cracked ribs the coughing is rough, but you have to get that stuff out of your lungs. Don’t try to keep from coughing.” The doctor wagged his finger at her.

“Can I at least have something to drink? My mouth and throat are so dry it’s hard to swallow.” She saw the nurse wink at her from across the room.

“I think that can be arranged. I’m going to start you off on clear liquids, and if you handle them okay, you can have soft foods at dinner tonight.”

“When am I getting out of here?”

He chuckled. “Pushing it, aren’t you? I think we’ll move you to a room tomorrow morning if you don’t spike a temperature tonight. How is that for a start? I know for a fact you have two nice men who have been keeping the coffeepot in the waiting room empty since you got here.”

Kelly couldn’t stop the smile that stretched her parched lips. She knew they had been visiting her. She remembered hearing them talk to her off and on over the last several days. She couldn’t wait to see them.

The doctor left, and not five minutes later, the nurse returned with a mug of ice water for her.

“Don’t make yourself sick by drinking too much at one time. Small sips until your body gets used to you drinking again. I’m going to go let your men in to see you now. It’s a little early, but you’re our only patient back here today, and the doctor is finished.” The nurse slipped back through the glass door.

Kelly concentrated on sipping the cool water without choking. It was difficult at first, but after a few seconds the soreness settled down some. Mindful that she didn’t want to end up getting sick from drinking too much at one time, she set the mug back on the table by her bed. That little bit of activity had exhausted her. She closed her eyes and waited on her men to come in.

A noise at the door alerted her that she had company. She opened her eyes and smiled to see both Jackson and Marx standing at the foot of her bed.

“I told you to be quiet, she was sleeping.” Marx sounded aggravated at his brother.

“No I wasn’t. I was waiting on you to get in here.” She winced at how bad her voice sounded.

“Shh, don’t try to talk, baby. I know your throat has to hurt.” Jackson hurried to her side and took her hand.

Marx took the other side of the bed and carefully picked up her other hand. She still had an IV in her arm and dressings on the back of her hands.

“I missed you two.” She couldn’t help the tears that filled her eyes. For some reason she was getting emotional.

“We missed you, too, kitten. We’ve been so worried about you.” Jackson bent over and kissed her lightly on the lips.

“The doctor said I can move to a room tomorrow if I don’t run any fever tonight.” She couldn’t help but wish that they would stay with her so she wouldn’t be alone, but she knew they had a ranch to run.

“Can’t wait, babe.” Jackson smiled down at her.

Kelly turned to Marx. He was watching her closely as he held her hand with both of his.

“How are you, Marx?”

“Better now that you’re awake. Are you hurting anywhere? Do you need something for pain?”

“I’m fine.” She started coughing again. “Or at least I am when I’m not coughing.”

Marx handed her the water so she could take a sip. He held it for her then set it back on the table.

“The doctor said you need to cough though to get rid of the pneumonia,” Jackson said.

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” She pouted. Then she sighed and decided she needed to find out how bad the fire was. Deep down she knew everything was probably gone, but she needed to hear it out loud so she could prepare herself for starting over.

“Did I lose everything?”

Marx frowned. “Don’t worry about that right now. All that’s important is that you’re alive and getting well.”

“I know, but I need to know what I have to deal with when I get out. I’ll need clothes and a place to stay. Can you find out if they have something open in one of the other buildings?”

The look on Marx’s face scared her. Oh, God! Did all of the apartments burn? Was anyone killed? What about Tessa?

“Is Tessa okay?”

“She’s fine. Her building wasn’t burned. There was some smoke damage and water damage in some of the apartments, but your building is the only one that burned to the ground.” Jackson quickly spoke up as if to reassure her.

“And you can stop worrying about where you’re going to live when you get out. You have a home.” Marx folded his arms across his chest.

Chapter Twenty

Tessa stared at Marx then looked over at Jackson. Both men looked settled on the subject of where she was going to live. She had a niggling of an idea that they were talking about out on the ranch with them. That wasn’t happening. It was too soon to even contemplate that with them. Things had been going so well lately, she didn’t want to take a chance that it would change the dynamics in their relationship.

“No. I’m sure Tessa will let me crash at her place until I can find another apartment.”

“Not happening, kitten.” Marx’s voice brooked no argument.

She looked over at Jackson, but could tell she would get no help from him on the issue. How would she ever be able to resist anything they asked of her if she was always surrounded by them? They would have her trussed up and at their mercy in no time. Where they were concerned, she was afraid she wasn’t strong enough to refuse them anything.

“Kelly, why is the idea of staying with us so abhorrent to you?” Jackson asked.

“I–I can’t think around the two of you. You’re too overwhelming.”

“All we want is to see you happy and to take care of you. We would never hurt you.” Jackson’s words seemed so innocent, but she latched on to the
take care of her
part.

“I don’t need you to take care of me. I can take care of myself. I like taking care of myself.”

Marx walked over to the door and back before speaking. She couldn’t help but notice how agitated he was. It didn’t scare her as much as arouse her. She was lying in a hospital bed, and she wanted them. It didn’t make sense. She wanted her independence, and yet they called to her in a way no man or men ever had. She wanted to let them take care of her, and that was what frightened her more than anything.

“We know you can take care of yourself, Kelly, but we want to do it for you. You don’t have to lose your independence just by letting us care for you as well.” Marx sounded desperate.

It was something she didn’t associate with the man. He was always in control, and nothing seemed to bother him. For a second, the idea that he was afraid she would reject him crossed her mind, but she dismissed it. She wasn’t that important to him, or Jackson, for that matter. She was just one in a long line of submissives they had selected to entertain their needs for a while. The more often she repeated that the less chance she would end up a basket case when they eventually tired of her. Because they would grow tired of her.

“Babe, is there anything we can get you? We’ll bring you some clothes for when you get to leave.” Jackson looked from her to his brother and back again. He was obviously trying to change the subject.

“Thanks, but I don’t know of anything. Hopefully they will let me leave in a few days. I can’t stand to just lie around. I need to get back to work. I have a lot of orders to catch up on.”

“Even once you are discharged, the doctor isn’t going to let you go back to work for a while, babe. You’re going to have to rest up your lungs. You’ve got pneumonia. You don’t just get over that in a few days.” Marx watched her.