Once they find you, they catch you and they make you feel all sticky and sweet all over.
Squirming, I try to get him to loosen his grip but he’s adamant on not letting me slip. I bite my lip when his gaze shines with ownership and possession. It makes my skin feel too hot and itchy and I flick my hair away from my neck. John’s eyes flash with passion, his hand pulling me closer until I clear my throat and say in a flighty voice,
“You’ll have to let go now.” I yank my arm back when he refuses to cooperate. “I’m not who you think I am.”
“Wife,” he groans and he’s so exhausted that I fill with reluctant sympathy for him. “Stay with me...” He reaches for me again but I take a step back and he lets out a low curse. “Feels like am drifting...”
He feels rootless.
I know the feeling.
I take a deep breath and when he reaches for me again, I let him hold me. Relief floods his eyes, the corners of his mouth curving and it does something inconvenient to me. It gets the blood and the hormones going, my body turning so sensitive that every little thread in my garments feel like a chain. My knees shake when he takes my hand and lifts it to his mouth. His reflexes are too slow and the kiss sloppy but it still feels like we’re in bed, a late afternoon when the curtains are drawn and the only music in my ears is the sound of his heartbeat.
“Precious,” he groans and his eyes flutter. “Precious to me...”
“Getting all attached I see,” the doctor says who’s just walked into the room. “Well, I wouldn’t let him do that if I were you.”
Doing as I’m told, I worm out of John’s grip and he growls, low and dangerous and I’m worried what will happen when he regains his strength. His muscles tense like he’s planning on pouncing on the doc and I slowly shake my head, calmly warning him not to do that.
“When will his memory return?” I ask, trying not to sound nervous and I’m told it might take weeks or months. That’s good. Then I still have time. Scratching his head, doc asks,
“Any idea why he keeps insisting you’re his wife? Have you two met before?”
“Never,” I lie with blushing cheeks.
John lets out a hoarse chuckle. “Have met...she belongs to...,” he puts his hand on his heart to show what he means and my own heart pounds faster. Helplessly I shake my head at the doc and doc raises his brows and shrugs. I feel myself pale when doc tells the nurse to give John a certain kind of medication that’ll make him more clearheaded, something that’ll help with the slurring and the lethargy.
Great. That’s exactly what I need. For him to get all dark and dangerous again.
But to my relief John doesn’t want to take the pills when the nurse gives them to him. The relief dies just as fast when he points at me. “You...”
Flushing, I gasp, “He has no right to make any demands.”
The nurse shrugs and since she’s softhearted like most people around here, she mutters that maybe we can make an exception. Clenching my teeth, I take the plastic cup with water and quickly give the pills to John. I twitch when his lips touch my hand. He gives me a stern look as if what he really wanted was for me to feed them to him using my tongue. I blush at the thought, hoping he won’t notice my heightened temperature when I cup the back of his neck and help him drink. His Adam’s apple bobs, the veins on his arms straining, his skin turning a darker tone as if he’s blushing and I wonder what’s working him up so much when I notice just how close my cleavage is to his face.
I’m not wearing my conservative uniform, didn’t get a chance to put it on and John seems to more than enjoy the view. Inhaling, I quickly withdraw, putting the cup down and I make a move to leave but groan when John attempts to follow. He nearly falls off the bed and the nurse curses to herself.
“I don’t have time for this. Chrissy, I’m sorry but do you mind looking out for him for me? Just give him a quick cleaning and put on a band aid...,” Exasperated, she runs out of the room and the doctor has also gone. It’s just me and John now.
“Be nice,” I breathe and his eyes narrow. He watches my every move as I walk over to him. The air sparkles with electricity and I want to hyperventilate or open the windows or something, anything that’ll help me navigate this situation. Cleaning his arm up and rubbing on some alcohol, I say, “How come you’re bleeding? Don’t tell me you just yanked the needle right out?”
He nods and I groan.
“That’s dangerous.” I put on a band-aid. “You should care more about your well-being.”
“Wantyouto care,” he moans, making an attempt to sit up and my muscles go weak when he manages. He’s getting stronger. Oh no...He glances at me, his gaze slow and penetrating and I feel a throbbing between my legs. “Do you care about me, Autumn?”
“The name’s Chrissy,” I yap and he growls,
“Autumn. My winter, my spring, my summer, my fall. My woman, my life, my world...” his gaze darkens, “I dare you to deny it.”
“I deny it,” I whisper and he clenches his fists. “Take these, they’ll help you sleep...” The doctor left them in another plastic cup but John slams it out of my hand and the pills and cup roll across the floor. “That wasn’t very nice of you...” I trail off when John rises and inwardly I moan because why can’t he just be a good patient like everybody else?
I back off, trying to get him to make sense but give up when he drags himself into the hallway with a haunted and determined look on his face. I gasp when John uses a patient’s bed to steady himself but he’s too heavy and manages to shoot the bed across the floor and along with its patient it smack into the wall.
“He didn’t mean it,” I say with an excusatory smile at the middle-aged woman who starts barking at me. “He just forgot to take his meds.”Literally. I scowl at John who seems to have no care about the consequences of his actions and he keeps on stalking toward me. A gasp leaves my mouth when John grabs a pair of crutches that were leaning against the wall and he uses them to get ahead faster.
“He stole my crutches!” an old man yells and I groan. John better calm down and stop attracting so much attention. If he attracts all this attention, I will too. Frustrated with the crutches, John lets out a curse and throws them back on the floor right when a doctor’s running toward an emergency and he slips and slides across the floor like a snowboard.