Jill Shalvis - Tangling With Ty

“I’m going to call the nurse and get you another painkiller.”

“Don’t. She’s mean.”

“Baby.”

He laughed, then nearly cried at the fire in his ribs.

“I wouldn’t laugh,” she advised, but there was something in her voice now, something… He managed to crane his neck and peer over his shoulder. Yep, that was his ass hanging right out for the world to see. He closed his eyes. “You getting a good view?”

She tossed his blanket over him. “I’m a doctor. I’ve seen it all.”

“Yeah, well, this isn’t quite how I imagined you seeing me. Nicole, I’m not staying here overnight.”

“But-”

“I’m not,” he said, and looked up at her. “I…can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I hate hospitals.”

“Everyone says that.”

“But I mean it.”

She stared at him for a long moment, then sighed and sat next to him. “Okay, so you have a hospital phobia-”

“I’m not staying.”

“You can’t go home alone, you’ll need someone to watch over you, help you.”

Much as that went against the grain, he had to agree with her, if only for the simple fact that he couldn’t even see straight. “For how long?”

“At least tonight and all day tomorrow. Maybe even a second night. After your hard head improves, then you can hobble around on your own if you’re careful.”

“Fine.”

“Who’s going to help you?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

She crossed her arms. “I know you don’t have any family you’ll call.”

That cleared some of the haze from his vision. “Really? How do you know that?”

“You…told me.”

Given the look of compassion in her gaze, he’d told her plenty. Terrific. “You listened to the ramblings of a drugged man?”

“You were happy enough to let your mouth run.”

What had he said? “Did I mention anything about your interesting lingerie fetish? Because I have to tell you, Nicole, I find it fascinating that you’re so tough and impenetrable on the outside, and so…” A smile curved his lips. “So incredibly soft on the inside.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

“I’m trying.”

She blew out a breath. “You didn’t say anything embarrassing, if that’s what you’re worried about. You just said…you had a sister you didn’t know about and that she was e-mailing you.”

“And…?”

“Just that…your mother didn’t want you.”

Hell. He’d spilled his guts all over her. Her voice had softened, and that was definitely pity on her face. He didn’t want her pity, he didn’t want anyone’s pity. He wanted out of this bed and he wanted that now. “Well. This has been fun.”

She held him down with a hand to his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Ty.”

For what? he wondered. Falling through her ceiling or for being so pathetic as to have his own mother cast him aside? “This isn’t your problem.”

She nodded, agreeing, and turned away. Made it to the door, which she studied for a long minute, as if fascinated by the wood. Then she turned around. “I know you’re alone. That you’re too proud to ask any friends for help. As a doctor, I can’t release you knowing that.”

“I’m leaving, Nicole, come hell or high water.”

“I know.” She closed her eyes. Opened them again and leveled them right on him. “Which is why you’re coming home with me.”

SHE WAS CRAZY. Or so Nicole told herself the entire drive home with Ty dozing next to her. She let Suzanne and Taylor fuss over getting him up the stairs. She gave him another pain pill, which he bitched about like a two-year-old but finally took when she threatened to pull out a needle instead.

Then she settled him in her bed and stepped back, wondering why just his pale face made her want to fuss. She’d never fussed a day in her life.

Ty looked around at the no-frills bedroom with the bare walls, at the bed with its navy-blue comforter and two pillows, and not a thing out of place except on the chair in the corner, which held some clothes and a perilous stack of medical journals. “Not even a romance novel to read?”

“I have those.” She gestured to the journals and he shook his head.

“I guess I’m not surprised,” he said. “God forbid you actually take time off when you’re off. So. You’re really giving up the bed for me?”

“You didn’t like the hospital, remember?”

“Hmm.”

Nicole glared at him. “What does that mean? What’s wrong with the bed?”

He blinked sexy eyes at her. Waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “You’re not in it.”

Wasn’t he something. “I’m taking the couch, big guy.”

“You don’t have a couch, you have an ancient, scary-looking futon masquerading as a couch. The only other thing you have out there is a nice-size hole in your ceiling and a mess on your floor.”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed.” She did have the futon, ancient or otherwise, and put together with a blanket, she’d be fine. “Goodnight, Ty.”

He leaned back against her pillows and looked at the ceiling, his faced lined with pain. “Aren’t you going to read me a bedtime story?”

“Sure. Once upon a time there was this idiot who fell through a ceiling and landed on his head.”

He closed his eyes. “Ha ha.”

“So why are you afraid of hospitals?”

“I just don’t like them, all right?”

“All right.” He didn’t look at her, didn’t move a muscle, and yet she knew in that moment his pain was more in memory than physical. “Look, don’t get too comfy. I’ll be waking you every few hours.”

He cracked open an eye. “Is that a promise?”

“To check on your hard head, Ace.”

“I got something else you could check on.”

“Uh-huh, and with all the drugs in you, it’d work really well, too.”

A ghost of a cocky smile played around his mouth. “Try me.”

“Goodnight, Ty.”

“’Night. Nicole?”

At the door already, she turned.

“Why did you take me home with you?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Because you were hurt.”

“Truth.”

She sighed. “I don’t know why.”

He nodded, and closed his eyes again. Almost immediately, his breathing evened out as the drugs finally claimed him.

For a long moment Nicole stood there, just staring at him. She had a man in her bed, when she’d never put one there before, much less yearned for one. There’d always been too much to do, too many people to save.

Now he lay in her bed, and she was yearning. Yearning and hurting at the same time, because he’d never get serious. Oh, she believed he was serious about getting into her purple panties.

But for him, this was simple lust.

That scared her. It scared her because she thought maybe, just maybe, she could feel more than that in return.

NICOLE DIDN’T GO to sleep, but kept herself busy, mostly continuing to watch her patient. She swept up some of the mess in her living room. She cleaned out whatever was growing in her fridge, and she reassured Taylor and Suzanne that Ty was fine. Twice. After an hour and a half, she sat at his hip, munching on a bag of pretzels. “Ty?”

He didn’t budge.

“Ty?”

“I knew you’d be back, begging me to take you.”

“I’m here to check on you.”

“Then check on me.” His voice was groggy but there was nothing groggy in those eyes when they opened and watched her with an intensity that made her squirm.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’d feel better if you stopped sucking on that pretzel. It’s making my blood drain southward.”

“You’re fine,” she decided, swallowing the pretzel and leaving him to go back to sleep, which he did instantly.