Page 25 of A Sudden Response

Eric stood up and busied himself with cleaning his dinner mess instead of responding to her. “When Nathan gets here, you’re taking your pills.”

She snorted, then winced when a fresh wave of pain shot through her temple. “Pain medication doesn’t work for me,” Joe reminded him as she pressed her fingertips against her temples in hopes that the pressure would help.

It didn’t.

“They’ll help you sleep,” Eric pointed out, positioning the television so that it once again faced the bed. Joe didn’t bother telling him that the glare from the television was hurting her eyes. That would just make him more determined to force the painkillers down her throat and she wasn’t taking them. Besides, if she took them, then she wouldn’t be allowed to return to work tomorrow. Not that she thought anything would happen, but if anything did, she could get in trouble for having narcotics in her system.

“I’m not taking them,” Joe said as she carefully turned over onto her side to face away from the television. She could have kissed Eric when he shut the bedroom light off a few seconds later.

When she felt him climb onto the bed and settle next to her, Joe closed her eyes, more than willing to spend the next three orfour hours struggling to fall asleep as long as she knew that Eric was safe.

He placed his hand on her blanket-clad hip and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not,” she muttered sleepily.

“We’ll see.”

“No, we won’t,” Joe promised him as she snuggled back against his body.

“I just left in the middle of a date,” Nathan suddenly announced, “so you better believe you’re taking the damn pills even if we have to hold you down and shove a tube down your throat!”

Narrowing her eyes, Joe rolled over so that she could glare at Nathan and watched him yank his tie loose as he matched her glare. “You wouldn’t dare.”

CHAPTER 11

“We didn’t kill her, did we?” Nathan asked, shifting nervously as he glanced back down at Joe.

Eric shifted her in his arms, careful to keep her arms pinned against her sides as he raised one hand to check her carotid artery. “Strong and steady. She’s just out,” he said, gently pulling away from her so that he could lay her down on the bed. As he got to his feet, Nathan pulled the covers up and tucked her in.

“Thanks for getting the pills,” Eric said, rubbing his sore shoulder.

She’d put up a hell of a fight. It wasn’t because the pills were a waste of time and wouldn’t work like she’d claimed the entire time they’d been forced to take matters into their own hands. No, the reason that she came really fucking close to kneeing him in the balls was very simple. She thought she was going to work tomorrow.

It wasn’t fucking happening.

She had fifteen stitches in her head, for fuck sake, and needed to rest, but she refused to listen to reason. The little pain in the ass actually argued that a head injury wouldn’t interfere with her doing her job or her ability to lift a patient. Joe was toodamn stubborn and this little incident just showed him that she needed to get the hell out of this field while she still could. She was a young, an incredibly beautiful woman and it was just so fucking wrong that this job was her life.

He knew that she would fight him every inch of the way, but once he had her off the rig for good, she’d thank him. She needed to start living her life and he knew that she wouldn’t allow herself to do that as long as she still had this job. Once he found her something else to do, he knew it would only be a matter of time before she realized that it was the best thing for her.

“Mom’s going to kill us,” Nathan pointed out.

It pretty much went without saying that their mother would throttle them when she found out that they’d kept this from her. The woman truly believed that they were incapable of taking care of themselves when they were sick. It didn’t matter that two of them were EMTs with more medical experience than her, she was their mother and only she could take care of them.

Eric looked over at his brother and winced as he took in the tailored suit that was now a mass of wrinkles thanks to the ten-minute wrestling match Joe insisted on before they could get her to take the damn pills. In the end, they’d been forced to shove the pills down her throat before clamping a hand over her mouth to stop her from spitting them out again and pinching her nose shut until she swallowed them.

“You might want to throw your suit in the dryer before you go back to your date,” Eric pointed out, fighting back a yawn. Today had been a really fucking long day.

Nathan shrugged out of his coat and tossed it on the chair in the corner. “It’s already late and I’d rather not have to come back here in four hours to do this all over again when she wakes up.”

Eric didn’t think ten o’clock was too late to finish his date, but if Nathan was willing to stay and help with the next wrestlingmatch, then he wasn’t going to be stupid enough to point it out. He was, however, curious.

“Is everything okay?” Eric asked as he shoved his pants off and tossed them aside before pulling off his socks while Nathan pulled off his shirt.

“With what?” Nathan asked as he toed off his shoes.

“With Caitlyn,” Eric said, wondering if his brother was already starting to pull away from this one. His brother had a nasty habit of dumping women that, in Eric’s opinion, were damn near perfect for his brother.

“Nothing’s wrong. She’s great,” Nathan said, shrugging it off.

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