Page 92 of Protective Heroes

She blinked. Her lips fell open.

Hell, she looked ready to pass out.

Grabbing her by the arm, he looked into her eyes. “Feeling all right?”

“Yes, of course. Don’t be silly.” She stared down at his big fingers wrapped around her delicate arm. The skin of his hand was tanner, more callused. And she was as pale and delicate as a flower petal. He was tempted to pull her onto the bed with him and just hold her. Why? Who the hell knew? But the way she looked like someone needed to care for her had his protective side rearing up once again.

She pulled her arm out of his grasp and moved to the foot of the bed.

As she took a seat on the rolling stool and began to open plastic trays with sealed, sterile lids, he watched calm return to her.

“How long have you been a nurse?”

“Two years, but I’ve only been here for one.” She took off the gauze bandage and smeared a thick brownish-yellow liquid over his cut.

“And you like it here?”

“Yes, very much. You never know what you’re going to have walk through that door.” Her brows puckered again, and he wondered if she was concentrating on his cut really hard or worried about Ford.

He didn’t like feeling as if he had to vie for her attention. He’d had women in the past—plenty of them. He’d never had to go begging for someone to be with him. But Allison wasn’t falling into his arms as most women did. Sure, she was a professional, supposed to be caring for him. But that didn’t mean...

He cut off his thoughts as she raised a lethal needle and filled a vial. “I’m just going to numb the site and then we’ll get started, okay?”

“Sure.” He didn’t flinch as she administered the local and the hot sting of numbing agent moved through his skin until his whole foot felt deadened.

She patted his leg, and his cock jerked as if to meet her touch. “You did well.”

“Well enough to get your phone number for later?”

She removed her hand and stood. “Um, I’m not allowed to date patients.”

“I’m only a patient for today.”

Her gaze travelled over his face and down to his chest and then back up. Did she like what she saw? Was it his imagination or was her pulse going wild in her long throat?

“I’m sorry, Lincoln.”

He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She was beautiful, obviously smart and very good with her hands. And he hadn’t felt such a spark with a woman in too long. He opened his mouth to speak but the doctor came in, took up the stool and immediately began suturing his foot.

Allison shouldn’t be standing by watching.

She should be straddling me, sinking over my cock. And she will be soon enough.

Two

Allison had spent far too little time sleeping lately. The toll on her was a pair of dark bruises under each eye. She’d used a lot of concealer to try to cover them, but the only answer was a tube of bright red lipstick to draw attention away.

She applied it and leaned away from the mirror to examine her reflection. The ugly fluorescent lighting of the hospital’s restroom didn’t help her appearance at all, and she grunted.

Spinning away, she headed out to work. Whatever today brought, she would slap a smile on her face and make the most of it. Being a nurse meant more than just healing someone. She couldn’t count the number of men she’d just listened to.

Coming back from war, going into it. Even the young guys struggling to get through basic training.

A few of those men stuck out in her mind, but recently one had her heart doing backflips and her body aching in ways she wished it would not. She’d tried for a week to get Lincoln out of her head. Of course, it didn’t help that he’d come back daily to have her change the dressing on his wound and check it.

Then there was Ford...

She’d been so worried about him that she’d gone into the hospital to find his room. In her time as a nurse, she hadn’t often seen a man in so much pain, and she just had to see him without that grimace or the beads of sweat on his face.

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