Page 88 of Winters Heat

The nurse rushed in behind her. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Winters.”

Christ, could this get any worse? Someone needed to save Sandy, or whatever the nurse’s name was, before Mia killed an innocent woman.

The air conditioning kicked on, chilling the room even more, wisping up the already sterile hospital smell. He hated it. The stench was stuck in his nose. Mia was yelling at him. Nurse Sandy left, no doubt calling for security. And he was trapped in the bed, tied down by wires and hooked up to monitors. Mia’s warpath left no escape. He was stuck and had to think of something to say. But nothing intelligent surfaced.

“I’m sorry. I just need… some space. Or something.” Not intelligent. Bumbling, stumbling idiot might’ve been a better description. He needed to tell her the honest truth and be done with it. This was for her. And despite whatever crazy, emotion-fueled insanity he continued to drown in right now, he should, at the very least, man up, and give her some sort of explanation.

“You needed space? You’re a freakin’ liar.”

“Mia, look…” He pulled at his shaggy beard, wanting to tear it out and replace the pain in his chest with a different, more physical pain. “My life is dangerous. Nothing’s safe, obviously. You met me, and look how your life’s been turned upside down. Hell, your pretty little cheek is still bruised.”

“Don’t talk to me aboutmy pretty little cheek.You don’t have any right to wake up and pull this stunt.” Her voice broke, and it hurt down to his soul. “You don’t know what you’ve put me through.”

“See, the thing is, I do. You never should’ve dealt with any of it.”

“Colby, that doesn’t matter. You and me. That’s what matters.” Her words were painful enough to last until his last breaths.

“Damn it, Mia. Don’t you see? I’m doing this because of you. Because you matter to me. You’re the only thing I can think of. I wake up wanting to see you after I dreamed of you.” Admitting it only made the hurt worse. His stomach tightened. His throat constricted. He was dying to embrace her and could barely string together the words. “Mia, I… Look, I feel for you. I—”

“Excuse me? Youfeelfor me? Grow a set already, Winters. Don’t stand behind the lie of protecting me. When you figure out what you’re so scared of, you find me. Otherwise, don’t worry your heart. And you won’t have to concern your nurse with keeping me away from you. I’m gone.”

She stormed out, the privacy curtain trailing after her in a harsh breeze.

Shit.

That went all wrong. Nothing like he envisioned. He had to get out of this bed. He needed to chase her down and explain everything. She needed to understand he shouldn’t love her. She deserved so much more than that burden.

Winters ripped the blanket off of him only to see electrical compression wraps on his calves and a collection bag for his catheter. Fucking fantastic. He grabbed the remote hanging by his bed and pressed the nurse call button once, twice, and then again.

Where the hell was she?

He tried to lean forward to release his legs and groaned. His body hurt. Every muscle was sore, weak, and pathetic. Just like him in the love life department. It might take weeks of physical therapy and training to get back to where he needed to be physically, but he was done for when it came to Mia. Some wounds never healed.

He leaned over again, undid the Velcro on one leg wrap, then moved the other. His lungs burned, and his pulse raced. He paused for a breath. How was he so out of breath? His plan to run after Mia might need to be downgraded to a speedy walk. God, he hated being sidelined.

The nurse shuffled into his room. Her concerned glance morphed into alarm as she saw him batting at the wires holding him back and working to undo his second leg wrap.

“Mr. Winters.”

“Get these wires off me.” He motioned to the catheter. “Take this fucking thing out.”

“You’ve only been awake for minutes afterdaysrecovering from serious injuries.”

“I’ve got places to go.”

“I’ll get Dr. Tuska in here. You can talk to him.”

Winters struggled against his pain, unhooking wire after wire on his chest. Alarms beeped. He studied the pole holding his IV bag. “Does this thing move, or do you need to unhook it?”

“Sir. Calm down.” She pulled a phone from her pocket and paged the doctor or security. Who knew?

“Sit your ass back in that bed,” a familiar male voice yelled, and the nurse jumped straight into the air.

Jared’s steely face was pissed. He sped past the nurse, who had one hand over her mouth and the other pressed against her chest.

“Whatever the fuck you’re doing… Why ever the hell you’re trying to break out of here like it’s the clink, you stop. Right now. You got me?”

The wide-eyed nurse pressed herself against the wall and sidestepped toward the door. With her exit, the loud click of the large door closing echoed through the room.

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