Vamps: Human and Paranormal (41 page)

That bigger part of me was thinking, What the hell?

Listlessly I picked up the next chart and headed over to the waiting room.  I looked down and saw the name, saying it allowed as I tried to wrap my Dean steeped mind around it.

“Gus Miller?”

I looked around the room and saw him, sitting there, looking both gorgeous and pained.  Suddenly his pained looked turned to a curious little smile as he recognized me.

“So this is what you do.”

I couldn’t help but smile back.  “You’ve found me out, my little secret.” 

And then the pained look returned to him as he struggled out of the chair he was folded in.  As he stood--trying to stand straight--and then walked toward me, I saw his problem right away.

“Wow,”  I said as I led him slowly into the back and had him sit on one of our padded work tables.  Looks like you threw out your back and pulled a muscle in your hip ...”  I watched as he gingerly sat himself down, reflexively shifting his weight off the offending hip.  “I’d say a buttock muscle.”

Gus gave a pained laugh.  “Should’ve come to you instead of the three doctors I ended up going to.”

“Funny how it doesn’t work that way, huh?”

“Shit,”  Gus said.  “the first doctor was about twelve and thought I had a blood clot.  The next said bursitis and gave me steroids and pain killers.  Then my doctor just kept giving me more of those.  Finally I went to a bone doctor and he poked and prodded me until he told me none of them were right.  He said exactly what you said.” 

“And they’re the ones making the big bucks.”  I looked down at his chart and saw a familiar name.  “You went to doctor Coulter?”

“Yeah, the bone doctor.  He was real nice ... he’s the one sent me to you.  Told me to ask for you by name.”  He kept smiling bigger and bigger.  “I just didn’t recognize the last name.”

“Oh, yeah.  Well I’m glad he did.”  I didn’t want to, but I suddenly had the need to confess my stalking problem to him.  “I keep going past your shop, and there’s only your sister there.  She’s not much for small talk.  Wouldn’t even tell me you were injured.”

“That’s my sis for you.  She’s only a year older, but still feels like she needs to protect me.”

“I just wanted to thank you ... for saving Ozzie and Harriet again.  I promise they’re doing fine now.”

“Good ...”  Gus got this look on his face, kind of like he was in pain again, but different, like he had something caught in his throat for a moment.  “So how did things work out with that guy you were dating?”

“So far so good.  You’ve met him already.”

“Really, who?”

“Doctor Coulter.”

Gus suddenly looked crestfallen.  He must’ve had a crush on my boyfriend.

Then he brightened and wriggled his eyebrows.  “So he recommended you because you’re dating, not because you’re good.”

I poked Gus in the ribs and told him to lie down on his stomach.  “Just remember I diagnosed you on sight, okay.  No giving me shit about my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” 

Yep, he really did sound jealous.  I was going to have to set up a meeting with him and the gay football player.  Maybe in a couple weeks once I got Gus walking better.

I pulled the privacy curtain and had him stand up.  He hadn’t been sitting on the table long, but I could tell it hurt standing up.  “Okay, now turn around.  I’m going to check out your alignment.”

Gus did as he was told.

“Take your shirt off a minute.” 

Again he did as he was told.  I shook my head at the sight of his strong hard torso.  What a waste.  But he was really perfect for the football player.

I had him stand as straight as he could, then I told him to slowly bend over at the waist.  He groaned as he did so, and I traced his hips and spine with my fingers.  Nothing out of alignment there.  I had him slowly stand up straight again, this time rounding his back as he ascended.  I touched his vertebrae and saw nothing wrong there either.

“Looks like you probably just wrenched your back.  A muscular thing, which is good.”

I had him bend again, but this time I pulled down the back of his sweat pants, looking for any deformities of the musculature as he moved.  Nothing deformed, but I could see how much tenser his left buttocks was compared to his right.

“Lie down on the table on your stomach.  Let’s see exactly which muscles are causing this.”

Gus was obedient, crawling onto the table, groaning softly as he stretched out on the table.  I pulled down his pants a little more and started pushing in on the muscles of his butt.  The top muscles elicited no response, but about halfway down the medius region Gus groaned loudly.

“That hurt?”

“Nah, I’m just ticklish.”

I dug my fingers into the muscle furthest into his backside and his entire body jerked in pain.

“Okay, okay ... it hurts like hell!”

I smiled.  The muscle was balled up stiff, but it was nothing that I couldn’t fix with a few weeks of therapy.

              “Okay, Gus, We’re going to do a few simple exercises, and then I’ll apply some heat and electrodes, and then Vince the massage therapist will rub the problem area.”

“Electrodes?”  He was sitting up, that pained look on his face again.

“It’s very low voltage, makes kind of a tingling sensation, but what it really does is help the muscles heal faster.

“Great, hook me up.”

“Not yet.  We’ve got some exercises to do first.”

“That’s funny.  I come in here barely able to walk and you’re going to make me do exercise.”

“Lie down on your back, smart guy.”

He smiled, though it was clearly painful for him to do this. 

“First we’ll work on your abdominals”  I said, but what I was thinking was he really didn’t need to work on them at all.  But professionally I knew he did. 

I put my hands on his hip bones and pressed in, telling him to clench his belly in.  Thee they were, the muscle group that holds the hips and spine in place.  I had him flex again, but this time I had him put his hands on his hips bones instead. 

“Now do that twenty times, real slow.”  I instructed.

Next I had him stretching out the side muscles on each hip, and he said he could feel the difference between the two legs.  One was weaker and “Tight as hell.”

After that we did more stretches and some leg lifts.

“That’s enough for today.”  I pulled the privacy curtain again and told him to roll over on his belly again I went and grabbed some electrode pads and a heat pack

When I got back he was on his belly.

“Well, I’m going to pull your pants down enough that I can apply the electrodes and the heat pack.”

Gus flinched a little as I pulled down the back of his sweats, and he twitched again as I applied the pads.  “Ticklish?”

“Some ... maybe.”

Once the electrodes were applied and hooked up to the machine I turned it on and slowly raised the voltage until he said he could feel it tingling.

“It’ll feel like little fingers pushing in on the muscles.  If it gets too much, just hit this bell.”  I put a bell hop bell next to the table, and then I set the timer for ten minutes.  Then I covered his rump with the heat pads.

The groan Gus gave this time wasn’t of misery or pain, but relief.

“Told you I know what I’m doing.”

When the timer went off I returned and took off the heat pad, and then peeled off the sticky electrodes.  “This might hurt.”

But he didn’t flinch or anything.  His bottom was smooth and hairless.

I had Vince with me and I told Gus that Vince was going to manipulate the areas that were affected. “You’re in good hands.”

Vince always grimaced when I used this pun, but I still couldn’t resist using it.

A few moments after I the curtained area I heard Gus yelp and groan and curse.  Yep, Vince had found the spot.

When Vince was done Gus wobbled out of the curtained area and toward the reception area.  He looked tired, but his gate was already longer and he was standing looser and straighter.

“You have therapy ordered three times a week for a month.  I personally don’t think it will take quite that long to get you working again, but three times a week sounds like the best bet.”

Gus shrugged, a dazed look on his face.  Often patients were so relaxed after the heat and electrodes, and the massage, that they were on cloud nine when they left.

“Feel free to soak in a hot tub tonight.  You may be a little soar in the morning.”

“Worse than I already am?”  He said, his smile a killer.

“Smart ass.”

*****

Chapter 17

The next night I wore the green dress -- Dean took me to the opera.  Now, I’d never gone, so I didn’t know whether I’d like it or not.  I enjoyed the milling around of the well dressed people, I enjoyed the orchestra as it struck a fan fair.  But as the short, middle aged men and women waddled out on stage, all playing far younger roles than their ages could comfortably allow, and after they started howling at the top of their lungs, I realized I despised opera.

Dean, as usual, picked up on my discomfort with the singing and let me off the hook.  “Boy, these guys blow.  Wanna get outta here?”

It was just in time before my headache stiffened into a migraine.  Instead we walked down the streets of New York for a little while.  The night had turned uncommonly cool for the middle of summer, and Dean took off his blazer and draped it around my shoulders.

We stopped in an all night diner and ordered a slice of apple pie ala mode and pecan pie with whipped cream.  We set the pie in the middle of the table and shared, talking about the new pinning procedure that was making the rounds in surgery.  Then we got on the subject of my work and his last referral to me.

“I knew that last patient of yours you sent me.”

“Really, which one?”

“How many have you sent me?”  I suddenly wondered.

“Seven ... eight tops.”

“And I was wondering why I was so popular.”  I smiled and stole the last bit of pecan pie.  “Well his name’s Gus and he owns a botanical shop down the street from my apartment.”

“Tall, blond guy with back and hip problems?”

“Yep, that’s the one.  He saved Ozzie and Harriet’s lives last week ... and the week before that.”

“And who are Ozzie and Harriet.”

I just sat there shocked.  Had I really never introduced him to my roommates, or had he just not been listening?  “They’re the spider plant and violet that hang in my window.”

Dean crunched on the last bite of apple pie, his eyes scanning the ceiling of the greasy spoon for any memory of my potted plants.  “Nope, sorry.  I don’t even remember there being plants in your windows.”  He wriggled his eyebrows and shot me one of his red hot sexy smiles.  “But then again I’m usually obsessed about getting you in the bed.”

When we got back to my place Dean started kissing me before the front door even closed.  But I pulled his lips off me long enough to pull him over to the window and I introduced him to Ozzie and Harriet.

“Uh ... nice plants.”

I shook my head at the word “nice.”  They were better than nice, they were fabulous.  They were the physical proof that I was capable of nurturing a relationship ... or at least a pet by Alcoholics Anonymous standards.

But as I looked into his bemused eyes I realized he hadn’t a clue, and I couldn’t hold it against him.  He had no idea how important they were to me. 

“They’re better than nice,”  I whispered as I pulled him to me by his tie, kissing his succulent, perfect mouth. “They’re fabulous.”

I pulled him to the bedroom and shimmied out of my dress, slipping off my bra and panties in the dark.  Dean just stood there watching me as I stripped down to nothing at all, his eyes so dark I felt the heat emanating from them as he perused my every inch and curve.

I grabbed his tie again and took him in a lip lock again, pulling off his silk tie while he unbuttoned his shirt.  In moments we were on the bed, grappling to better lick and suck and kiss each other’s lovely parts.  Somehow we came into a sixty-nine position, with me on top, sucking his magnificent cock, he had his face buried in my pussy, licking and sucking and nibbling on my sex until my insides were ready for a nuclear meltdown.

Then suddenly he’d pushed me forward until my hips were over his, I heard the rip of a condom pack and then I felt him enter me from behind.  I still hadn’t gotten used to this position, me facing away from him, but as he leaned up, his hands cupping my breasts as his hips bucked up into me, I started to feel myself teetering on the edge of my first orgasm for the evening.  Which usually meant, if I was ready to cream myself this early during sex, that I would be insane with orgasms and exhausted by the time Dean was finished with me.

“Oh god,” I moaned as one of his hands slipped down my body and stroked my gloriously filled sex, his fingers roughing up my clitoris.  My body shook as it clamped down hard on Dean’s unflaggingly hard cock.