Authors: Carrie Cox

Tags: #alpha male, #billionaire brothers, #Romance, #billionaire, #serials

Steel: Blackthorne MC #1 (7 page)

BOOK: Steel: Blackthorne MC #1

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I waited for Nick to speak. I expected his words to be full of anger and reprimands, but instead his voice was soft when he asked me, “Are you okay? Do you want to go somewhere quiet?”

“I just want to go to sleep,” I said, and that was the truth. I was absolutely exhausted after everything that had happened today. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get to sleep with all this stress, but right now, lying on a bed with my door locked against Damien Blackthorne, Chad and Tom seemed like the best idea in the world.

I followed Nick across the building, and the sound from the bar faded behind us. We travelled along the same wooden paneled corridor until we came to a green door. Nick opened the door and gestured for me to enter first.

I took a step inside and then felt my stomach tighten.

Crap. There was only one bed.

Normally I’d expect Nick to be a gentleman and let me sleep on the bed alone, but right now Nick needed sleep even more than I did. He was badly hurt, and I wasn’t convinced that the doctor had done a good job.

I stood in the centre of the room and sniffed back the tears that were threatening to fall. Why was this happening to me? I just wanted to go home.

“Don’t cry, Ella, please,” Nick said softly behind me.

“I’m not!”

I felt him lift a lock of my hair away from the back of my neck as he moved behind me. “I will make sure you get home, I promise. Just be patient for a couple more days.”

I felt him behind me and I leaned back against his hard body. I hated myself for it, but I yearned to feel his arms around me. I wanted any amount of comfort I could get.

“Why can’t you just let me go now?” A tear wound its way down my cheek, and I turned around and buried my face in his chest so he wouldn’t see. He smelled so good, of some kind of citrusy cologne. I breathed in the scent of him as my fingers ran over his abs and up his back. I felt his muscles under his shirt tense, sending a flash of lust through me. I wanted him. I wanted him more than I had ever wanted any man. I needed to feel him inside me. I wanted him to whisper in my ear and tell me everything was going to be okay as he thrust himself into me.

I felt his lips brush my hair as he pulled me against him. I could feel his hardness against my belly, and my fingers inched down, eager to hold him in my hand.

But Nick took a deep breath and then put a hand up against the wall to steady himself. He really didn’t look good.

“What is it?” I moved towards him, cupping his chin in my hands and looking up into his eyes.

“It’s nothing. Just a little tired I guess.” He looked spaced out and his skin felt burning hot.

I was sure Nick had an infection and he needed more antibiotics.

“Here sit on the bed,” I said, guiding him to sit on the corner of the mattress.

“No,” he said with a husky voice. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the chair.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Nick. You are not well, and you’re not in a position to argue.” I kept my tone bossy to hide my nervousness as I reached for the bottom of his T-shirt. As I pulled the fabric up, his eyes shot up to meet mine with a questioning look.

“Don’t get any ideas,” I said primly, even though I was having quite a few ideas of my own just from being this close to him. “I want to check on the dressing.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said and smiled. “I forgot you’re a medical student.” He helped me lift of his T-shirt.

I licked my lips. I’d already seen his body, but that didn’t stop me wanting to reach out and touch him. I wanted to run my hands along his muscles and feel every inch of him. I pulled my hand away quickly as if his skin burned me. I needed to focus.

I gently pushed on his shoulders to make him lie down on the bed and he grinned at me. “Well, this is nice. I like it when a girl takes charge.” He winked at me, but his voice sounded weak.

I tried to ignore him and focused on the dressing. It had come loose and there was some evidence of bleeding, but that seemed to have stopped now. The skin was very red and inflamed around the wound. I decided to go back and get the doctor. He would be able to give Nick another shot of antibiotics.

As I moved away, Nick called after me. “Hey, where are you going?”

“To get the doctor.”

Nick struggled to sit up, and I couldn’t help noticing the strong muscles in his arm tense under his weight.

Jesus. I needed to snap out of it.

Nick shook his head. “You can’t leave the room. I can’t let you out of my sight.”

“Look, I promise I’m not going to try and escape. I really am just going to get the doctor. Damien won’t even know.”

Nick fell back against the bed. “Okay, I’ll trust you, Ella. Don’t let me down.”

It took me five minutes to find the doctor, and when I eventually did, I was unsurprised to find him in a back room playing poker. He waved a hand in my face as I tried to speak to him.

“Not now, sweetheart. This is an important hand.”

“I need your help. It’s Nick. I think he has an infection.”

He looked at me for a moment, then sighed. “I’ll just finish up this hand,” he said.

I looked over his shoulder at his cards and said, “You can’t win with those cards. You may as well come with me now.”

His mouth dropped open and the other people at the table looked like they would like to murder me, but I didn’t care. I needed to get the doctor to Nick and fast.

The doctor followed me to the room, muttering something about a fussy woman overreacting.

“I have a year of medical school,” I informed him haughtily. “And he’s really sick.”

“Wow, a whole year,” the doctor said, sarcastically, taking a long drag of his cigarette.

I decided to ignore him. He wasn’t worth bothering with.

“Perhaps you could take a few more years at school before you start lecturing me about…” His words died on his lips as he saw Nick laying on the bed. Even to someone without any medical knowledge at all, it was obvious he wasn’t doing well.

The doctor removed the dressing from Nick’s shoulder. “He must have dislodged it somehow,” he said defensively. “And it was probably already infected when you got here,” he continued when I didn’t respond.

I felt incredibly guilty. The dressing would have become loose during his fight with the biker when he was trying to protect me.

“Instead of making excuses, perhaps you should clean the wound again and give it a new dressing and give him more antibiotics. You do have some don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah,” the doctor said, nodding and looking down at Nick with concern. “I’ll go and get some now.”

After the doctor left us alone in the room, I stared down at Nick.

He looked so beautiful lying there. He could have done anything with his life. He didn’t have to be tied up with this biker gang. I wondered how he had gotten involved in it all. Had he joined as a young kid and not been allowed to leave? Had his father been in the gang?

As I stared down at his handsome face, he stirred and looked up at me.

“Ella,” he said urgently and reached out for my hand. “Be careful. Don’t trust them.”

I felt icy trickles of dread creep along my spine. “Trust who?”

“They think you saw something,” he said. “No matter what you saw that night, tell them you saw nothing. Your life depends on it.”

“What?” I shook my head. He wasn’t making any sense.

“Are you talking about something that happened last night? I can’t remember anything. I had too much to drink. What did happen?”

Nick didn’t answer. His eyes fluttered shut.

It was probably just his fever talking. At least I hoped it was. What the hell had happened last night? What was I supposed to have seen? And did involve my friend Claire?

I felt a tug of guilt because I knew he was feeling very sick, but I shook his arm, trying to wake him again. I needed to know what had happened.

“What happened last night, Nick?” I asked urgently. “Did something happened to Claire? Is she okay?”

He blinked up at me and looked confused, and then the door opened and the doctor entered the room.

After the doctor gave Nick another shot of antibiotics and a sedative, I refused to leave his side.

“He’ll be out for the count until morning,” the doctor said. “So you may as well get some sleep.”

I nodded, but I had no intention of sleeping.

After the doctor left, I sat on the edge of the bed holding Nick’s hand and prayed he would survive this. I needed him in more ways than one. He held the key to everything, and I was starting to realize he was the only chance I had of getting out of this mess.

***

To Follow Nick and Ella’s passionate story in STEEL part two click here

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The complete STEEL series

The Desire Series