Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic) (23 page)

“Then we’ll start with that. What would you like?”

“Sid, I already said I wasn’t hungry.”

“And your opinion has been vetoed. If I call the nurse in here, I have a feeling that this isn’t the first time that you’ve rejected food.”

He sighed and raised a hand to his forehead. “Fine, do whatever the hell you want.”

“I will.” She got up and walked out to the nurse’s station.

“Hi, what can I do for you?”

She looked at the name tag. “Oh, hi Anna. I’m Sidonie. You called me earlier I think.”

“Sure did. He’s grouchy, in case you didn’t know.”

“Yeah, I noticed that.”

Anna chuckled. “So what’s going on?”

“Can he eat?”

“Can he? Yep. Will he? That’s another story.”

“He’s going to eat if I have to cram the food down his throat.”

“Okay then, what do you want brought in? I have a menu.”

“I don’t need it. If possible, a turkey sandwich and chips. Actually, make it two.”

“All right, I can have the kitchen send something up in a bit. What to drink?”

“Got any OJ?”

“Of course.” Anna grinned.

“Thanks, Anna.”

Sidonie walked back into the room and plopped back into the chair. Den was silent, so she assumed he was asleep. There was no point in waking him until the food arrived, so she let him be. But she took the hand without a bandage and held it.

Sidonie rubbed her fingers over his relaxed palm.

Over and over again.

She looked over him and prayed that he would be whole when all was said and done. She didn’t realize Anna had opened the door until the other women popped her head into the room.

“Hey. Brought up the food if you’re ready for it.” Anna walked over to the table and sat the tray down. “Wow. He fell asleep, huh?”

“Yeah. It should keep until he gets back up.”

Sidonie sat in the silent room as one hour bled into the next. Before she knew it, she had laid her head on Den’s hand and fallen asleep for herself. She had nightmares that all started with her in the hospital. She ran the halls, looked for Den, and couldn’t find him. When she ran downstairs, to the basement, he was there.

On a slab.

Sidonie gasped and jerked awake. She looked at the bed and he was there, whole and alive. So long as the terrifying vision she had was wrong, she’d take it.

“Thank you, Jesus.”

When he finally woke moments later, she smiled at the scowl on his face.

“Are you hungry?”

“Maybe a little bit,” he conceded.

“All right, then open up.”

She picked up one of the sandwiches and held it up to his mouth.

“I’m not an invalid you know.”

Sidonie rolled her eyes as she looked around. He was laid up in a hospital bed after heaven knows what kind of surgery he’d had. And not to mention she had no idea what had happened to land him here in the first place.

“Fine then, point taken. Feed away,” he muttered.

“All right. Buzzz-zzzz, look at the airplane, Den!”

“You are a harpy woman.”

“Aww… Is Dennie wennie angries?”

“Lady, I’m going to heal so I can spank the hell out of you when I get out of here.”

“That’s what I’m counting on.”

“You better pray that I mellow… a lot before I walk out of here.”

“Come on big man, eat.”

“Okay.” He took a bite of the offered sandwich.

When he finished the first one, he looked at her. “Since you are fussing about my eating habits, when was the last time you ate?”

Sidonie stopped wrestling with the chip bag long enough to think. “Uh, lunchtime.”

“Yeah, eat the other sandwich.”

“Nope. It’s for my sick boy toy.”

“I’ll show you sick when the nurse comes in to check on us and you’re coming on my hand.”

“No way.”

“It would scratch another requirement off of the lists.”

“Nope. You have to gimme the cock to fulfill the public sex requirement.” She winked.

“I got some cock for you all right.”

“Can you even get it up?”

“Maybe?” He thought about it for a second and looked down at the blanket, where a tiny tent started to form right before her eyes.

“You are a piece of work. Are you going to call your parents?”

“I guess I have to eventually. What time is it?”

Sidonie grabbed her purse and looked at her phone. “Ah, it’s ten thirtyish.”

“Ish?”

“Fine, Den. It’s ten twenty-seven.”

“Thank you.”

“Time Nazi.”

“Food Nazi.”

“Oh, I liked it better when you were asleep.”

“So this is what it would be like to live with you?”

“You’ve thought that far ahead?”

“You haven’t?” The statement was a challenge in honesty. No way would she admit to how often she thought about the two of them together as a couple.

She lifted the other sandwich to his lips and he took a bite. “Eat.”

“It’s for you.”

“And I want you to have it.”

“How about we share?”

“I can do that.”

She took a bite, and then gave him another until there was nothing left. Once he finished, he looked at the bed where a bag of chips sat.

“Can you?” He winked.

“Sure.” She gave him one at a time, and even had a few for herself. When he slurped the last of the orange juice from the bottom of the bottle, she smiled. “That wasn’t so hard. See?”

“I’ve got something that can be so-ooo hard.”

“You are loopy. Have you been pushing that button for the morphine on the sly?”

“Nah. It’s delivered automatically.”

“I did hear you complain about a sponge bath.”

“I don’t want some person I don’t know touching me.”

“Well, it’s better than being rank.”

“I don’t stink!” He huffed, but then he gingerly lifted an arm and took a deep breath. “Do I?”

“If you have to ask…” Sidonie quipped.

“Fine. But since you have complaints, you do it.”

She shrugged. “Okay, let me grab a few things.”

She checked the bathroom and found a large tub that she filled with a plethora of things: bodywash, a cloth, and a bottle of lotion.

When she had everything together, she poured a dollop of the wash into the bin and half filled it with water. She didn’t want to make a mess on his bed, so she grabbed towels and carried them with her.

“I’m going to need your help here. You’ll have to roll a little left and a little right so I can put these under you. Okay?”

“That’s fine.” But when he rolled left, she heard him hiss.

“Take it easy.”

“I am,” he spat out from between gritted teeth.

When she finally got him settled, she used the cooling water and a cloth to rub gently over his exposed skin, what little there was of it.

His hips were one large patch of rash red skin.

“I have a question.”

“Shoot.”

“What the heck happened to you?”

He sighed. “Might as well tell you. It’s a long story though.”

“Where am I going tonight? Nowhere.”

“I was on doubles the last two nights so I could have a longer weekend. When I was on the last part of the shift, I got a call to be OTL for a burgundy late model Ford with multiple occupants due to a robbery at a fast food joint earlier in the night.

“When I was on patrol, I saw a car pass by that matched the description. It was a souped up thing, with a lot of money invested. But when I pulled behind the car, the driver started behaving erratically—”

“I hate to interrupt, but what’s an OTL? And what exactly constitutes erratic driving?”

He laughed and winced. “Sorry for the office speak. OTL means on the lookout. If there’s been a crime performed, officers are sent information to watch out for. In this case, the only real description of the perps was the car they got away in.

“Now, driving erratic can mean a number of things. Anything from swerving to unnecessary lane changes. It’s hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.”

“Okay. Gotcha, continue.”

She slid the gown upward and looked at his unmarked torso before she squeezed the cloth and washed over the skin there.

“Well, I turned on the lights and siren, then asked them to pull over with the loudspeaker. They kept driving for a few blocks, then stopped all of a sudden. I radioed in for backup due to the odd behaviors and walked to the car to get the information from the driver.

“When I got to the side door, the window rolled down and I was the end of a small automatic. Old piece of shit misfired and I ducked, but not quickly enough. The backseat passenger came at me next, only his gun worked and I took a bullet to the collar, just above the Kevlar, then another in the arm.” She looked at the bandaged arm within its sling and she immediately felt grateful he hadn’t taken one to the face instead.

“Wow. But I heard something about you being run over.”

“Yeah. Well, I was pissed and I ran behind the car. When I popped off a clip in the back of the tires, the driver backed up and caught my belt in the muffler on my way down. They dragged me a half mile before I was able to wrangle myself loose.”

“So they shot you and backed up over you, too? Overkill much?”

“There’s no counting for how people think when they are on an adrenaline rush.”

“Did they catch the fuckers?”

“Probably. I took out the tires with my shots, so they didn’t get too far on sparking rims.” He grinned.

“Good.”

When she finished with the through soaping, she emptied the basin and refilled it with fresh water that she used to remove the soap residue from the cleaned skin. Once she felt he was clean enough, she emptied the basin and helped him to shrug on a fresh gown.

“I can’t wait to get out of here,” he muttered.

“Why? You tired of my bedside manner yet?”

“Maybe.” He grinned and laid his head back on the pillow.

“If you’re healthy enough to complain maybe you should give yourself the next sponge bath.”

“Maybe I will. Or better yet, I can chain you to my side and when you get sick of the smell, you’ll cave.”

“Probably, but you’re weaker than a newborn baby. I think I could take you.”

“If you feel Froggy, then jump woman.”

“I—”

“Are you terrorizing your nurses again?” Sidonie looked up, where a diminutive woman waited by the door.

One look at her told her all she needed to know. It was Den’s mother. The woman was clearly of Asian descent, but she had an Americanized look to her that led Sidonie to believe she was native Carolinian born and her accent only confirmed it.

“No, Mom,” he said with a sheepish tone that her son used when he was in the wrong.

“Yes, he has, Mrs. McTavish,” Sidonie joked.

“Hi, darling. So nice to meet you. I’ll make sure that when he’s back on his feet that he apologizes.”

“No need. He already did,” she lied.

“Well, that’s a new one.” The woman shuffled into the room and Sidonie offered her the seat that had slept in just a little while before. “Did you have anything to eat, Dennis Veera?”

Sidonie chucked. Den pursed his lips slightly. “Yes, ma’am, Sidonie here refused to let me go without eating and fed me herself.”

“I’m just going to go.” Sidonie picked her purse up and sidled for the door.

“Wait.” Den’s tone brooked no argument.

“What?”

“Are you going back home now?”

“Since your parents have arrived, I think it would be for the best.”

He seemed disappointed, but said nothing.

“It was nice meeting you, Mrs. McTavish.”

She opened the door, where a huge man stood with his hand on the knob.

“Sorry, sir.” She opened it wider to admit him entry.

“No problem, miss.” It was funny, Den looked just like his father, but at a smaller size. He was about halfway between his mother’s diminutive height and his father’s hulking stature. He had inherited the man’s curls as well, even though the elder McTavish had a ginger hue to his locks instead of the coal color that Den sported.

“Sidonie, don’t go,” Den demanded, even as the statement was blatantly vulnerable. How could she say no to that?

She turned back and looked at Den just before she dropped her eyes. “I’ll just go downstairs and catch some air while you talk to your folks. But I have to go home tomorrow.” She could likely convince her BFF to stay at her place and just go to work from there in the morning. With a quick jaunt, she could be home by three when school let out.