Hot Bodies Boxed Set: The Complete Vital Signs Erotic Romance Trilogy (43 page)

And there was someone else who seemed to know it too.

Starla Berring.

Starla strode into post-op, her head held high. She made a beeline for Harlan, not even seeming to notice that he was still embracing his wife. “Well, Doctor, I closed the incision and the patient is in recovery. The operation was a complete success.”

“Good for you, Starla,” he said. “I’d shake your hand, but you’re still in your gloves.”

“You can congratulate me when we’re all scrubbed out,” she replied, not even trying to hide the twinkle in her blue eyes.

Harlan let go of Joanna and headed over to the scrub sink. He washed his hands right alongside Starla, chatting her up the whole time. When they were finished, he shook her hand and clapped her on the back as if they were old friends. Joanna fumed.

Joanna hated to admit it, but she was jealous. And her feelings proved that no matter how much anger or animosity she might feel towards Harlan right now, she still loved him just as much as she had they day they’d married. Maybe even more.

Not that she had much right to be jealous of anyone at this point where her husband was concerned. Her hold on Harlan was tenuous at best, and he was slipping through her fingers more and more with every passing day. And now that cheap whore Starla Berring was making her move on him, just like she always did whenever there was a man around who even had the slightest chance of becoming single. Starla was an opportunist who moved in for the kill whenever she smelled blood in the water. And the saddest part of all was, Joanna knew that the younger woman would have her fun with Harlan, then throw him out with the trash as soon as she got bored with him.

That would be her first mistake. Because Dr. Harlan Wilkinson wasn’t exactly the type who liked getting tossed to the curb. He would fight back like a cornered animal.

That is, if Joanna let things progress that far. As she stood watching her husband talk and joke with a younger, prettier woman who was making a big show of flirting with him, Joanna steeled her resolve. From that moment forward, Joanna’s sole purpose in life would be to win back her husband’s heart for good.

And she would stop at nothing to make it happen.

Eight

Billy Hartzell made his daily rounds with a spring in his step. He was feeling good today. Funny what some quickie sex in the women’s locker could do for a young man’s mood—even if Starla’s odd behavior after the fact put a damper on things. Whatever confusion he might feel over the encounter, the fact remained that he was a horny young man who’d just blown a six-month load.

There was something else that had Billy feeling good that morning, though. Another young woman had caught his eye.

He didn’t know her name yet. He’d only seen her once, in fact. But that didn’t mean she didn’t make a strong impression on him. She sure as hell had. To the point that he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

He’d only seen her for a minute or so as they passed in the hallway. She’d stumbled into him—literally—as he was rushing past with a dolly full of soiled bedpans. Only chance—or perhaps fate—prevented him from upsetting their nasty contents all over the beautiful young woman’s clean scrubs. Disaster avoided, Billy glimpsed the petite, dark-haired beauty for the slightest of moments, even managed to crack a joke. But even before he had a chance to enjoy her laugh, she was gone. He’d stood there, staring at the empty space that her body had occupied just moments before, his whole body tingling with a strange euphoria he’d never felt before.

Billy had heard of love at first sight, but he’d always thought that was something that only happened in the movies. But now he wasn’t so sure.

He had to find more about this mystery woman. Hell, he had to find
her.
And fast. He’d just seen her the one time, but the more time that elapsed since that chance meeting, the more he feared he’d never see her again. What if she decided to change jobs? What if she was just a contract temp like him, destined to leave for another job in another place far away any day now? What if—

Billy felt a sharp jab on his left shoulder. He spun around, and stared into the dingy, wrinkled eyes of Maryam Malone, head nurse administrator for the hospital. “Billy, we need a new batch of IV bags at the south end of Geriatrics, pronto. Would you mind stoppin’ your daydreaming and gettin’ a move on?”

Billy flushed deep red. “Sorry, Miss Malone.”

“Not a problem, hon,” Maryam said, and patted him on the shoulder. “Just try not to dawdle too much. We’re understaffed and underfunded, and you’re makin’ more money per hour than nurses that’ve been here thirty years just fer slingin’ bedpans. So I can’t well afford for you to be messin’ around on the clock. You hear?”

“Yes ma’am, I hear,” Billy murmured, flushing even deeper. “I’ll get right on it.”

“All right, hon,” Maryam clucked, and sent him on his way. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he could have sworn that the old woman had patted his bottom as he walked away. Billy glanced back over his shoulder at the knobby old woman before moving on, and sure enough, the woman was leering at him and licking her thin, wrinkled lips.

Dirty old geezer,
he thought to himself with a chuckle. Even a dried-up old stick like her wanted his bod. Gross. He really needed to get out of this small town.

But he couldn’t, even if he wanted to. Something had happened, something that had changed everything.

There was only one woman in this town that Billy had eyes for now. A woman that would make him stay in this godforsaken town forever, if that’s what it took. The woman of his dreams.

The only problem was, that woman hadn’t seemed to notice him at all. Even worse, Billy didn’t even know who she was, or where to find her.

He really knew how to pick ‘em, didn’t he?

Billy trudged into the medical supply room to retrieve the IV bags he needed. And ran right into Starla Berring.

“Hi, sweetheart,” she cooed at him. “Haven’t seen ya for a couple days.”

“Ummm, yeah,” he said. “Yesterday was my day off, plus I’ve been pretty busy—“

She sidled up to him, pressed her whole body up against his. “Too busy to bother with little ol’ me, huh?”

“Well—“

Starla just pressed against him even harder. “Billy, honey, I’ve got a key to the door of this here supply closet. I can lock it from the inside, and we can get busy right here and now. Nobody will ever know. We can even use one of the condoms they keep in here for distribution at the free clinic.” She nodded at a large plastic jar of brightly-colored condoms. “Convenient, ain’t it?”

“Starla, ummm, this really isn’t a good time—“ Billy stammered. And it wasn’t. He had work to do. And he had to find the mysterious, nameless woman he just might have fallen in love with this morning. But even if his mind and heart weren’t in it, his body sure as hell was. His cock went rock-hard against Starla’s thigh.

Starla cast her eyes downward at the bulge in Billy’s scrubs and giggled. “Well, maybe
you
don’t think it’s a good time, but I can guarantee that something else does.”

Billy abruptly backed away. “Look, Starla, you’re a real nice girl and all, and we did have ourselves some fun the other day, but I think that was just a one-time thing.”

Starla threw her head back and laughed. “Aw, honey, whenever you get into
my
britches, it’s
never
just a one-time thing.”

She reached out for him then, but only grabbed empty air. Billy grabbed a packet of IV bags from the shelf and made a dash for the corridor.

Once he arrived in Geriatrics, he saw that the IV bags he grabbed were the wrong size. They were larger than normal, designed for dosing obese patients. But that shouldn’t matter, should it? After all, they were still marked with standard metric measurements. They might be twice the size of the regular IV bags, but any nurse worth her salt who filled them would just read the measurements and adjust accordingly, right? Of course. That’s what he would do. That’s what
anybody
would do. Reading and checking (and re-checking) IV measurements was Nursing 101.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to go back to the supply room and double-check that there weren’t standard IV bags available. He waited until he was sure Starla had left, then popped his head back into the supply closet. He searched in vain for standard-sized IV bags, but there just weren’t any. The oversized ones were apparently all the hospital had.

Oh well. It would have to do. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a problem.

Billy shrugged. He didn’t have time to think about that too much. He was already running behind as it was. He strolled up to the nurses’ station on Geriatrics Ward Two, and tossed the packet of IV bags in front of the duty nurse. “Here’s your IV bags as requested, ma’am. Anything else you need on the ward at the moment?”

The middle-aged nurse looked up at him over the rims of her reading glasses. “Well, it took you long enough, didn’t it?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. Things are a little crazy here today.”

The women shrugged. “Just drop them over there,” she muttered, pointing to an overladen supply cart. “The shift nurse will take things from here.”

Billy did as he was told, then headed back to the main nurses’ station for his next assignment. More dirty bedpans and emptying butt-bags, most likely.
I didn’t go to nursing school for this shit
, he thought. And it was shit, literally. Cleaning up other peoples’ filth made up his entire job description on this gig. Had he known beforehand that this was what contract nursing work would be like, he wouldn’t have signed up in the first place. This sure as hell wasn’t in the brochure.

Then again, meeting his beautiful mystery woman just might make this shit job worthwhile. There was only one way to find out.

He had to find her.

He decided to take the first step on his quest at the nurses’ station. Maryam Malone was on duty. That old woman was a big-time gossip and all-around busybody. If anyone knew how to find his mystery woman in this hospital, it would be her. Failing that, Statesville wasn’t exactly a big place. He’d go door to door if he had to.

He sauntered up to the nurses’ station, full of renewed purpose. He’d gladly empty out another five hundred shitty bedpans if that’s what it took for him to find the woman of his dreams. Though he’d much prefer something more interesting to do instead. Not to mention
cleaner.

“Hiya, Miss Maryam. I got those IV bags down to Geriatrics like you asked. What else do you need me to do?”

Maryam looked up from a stack of patient files. “Oh, um, Billy. I didn’t expect you back here so soon.”

“Well, you gave me a pretty simple task, Miss Maryam. And you did tell me to be quick about it.”

“So I did,” the older woman mused. “Well, truth be told, Billy, I ain’t exactly planned out what I want you to do next. So why don’t you just have a seat there in my private office for a few minutes while I have a chance to figure something out.”

With that, Maryam went back to her stack of patient files—but not without stealing a lascivious glance that a woman of her age had no business giving a hot young twenty-two-year old. Billy felt a cold chill go up and down his spine at the very thought of a dried-up old stick like Maryam Malone finding him attractive. It was obvious the lady was just stashing him back here so she could stare at his ass some more.

This was borderline sexual harassment, for Chrissakes. When was this hell going to end?

A moment later, he got his answer.

Dana Johnson walked up to Maryam at the nurses’ station, a frown pulling her beautiful features downward. “Maryam, I’m telling you, you have got to get me away from Joanna and Darth Vader. I don’t think I can stand working with those two for another minute. I’ll do anything to get out of OR duty with those two.
Anything.
I’ll go to Labor & Delivery and help give epidurals. I’ll empty bedpans. I’ll—“

Billy’s head jerked around at the sound of that familiar female voice. It was just as sweet and lovely as he remembered. Their eyes met, and locked.

It was magic.

“H-Hi,” Billy stammered. Suddenly his tongue felt too large for his mouth. “We met in the hallway. D-do you remember me?”

Dana’s smile lit up her entire face. “Of course I remember you. You were so funny. So cute and funny.”

Billy clapped his hands. It was probably the best compliment of his life. “Wow. Thanks!”

“I never learned your name,” Dana said. “Mine’s Dana. Dana Johnson.” She extended her hand, and he shook it. The feel of her velvet-soft skin against his palm was like nothing else he’d ever touched before, or even imagined. It was as if his entire life had led up to the exact moment their hands touched. And now that he had her hand in his, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to let it go.

Dana gazed up into Billy’s blue eyes. “So what’s your name?” she asked, squeezing his hand hard. He could feel the tiny bones of her fingers, almost like a bird’s, and he suddenly had a powerful urge to protect her with all his might.

At long last, Billy finally found his voice. “It’s Billy. Billy Hartzell. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dana Johnson.”

Dana’s amber eyes sparkled. “The pleasure is all mine, Billy.”

They just stood there staring into each others’ eyes for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a minute or two. Finally, Maryam got fed up and loudly cleared her throat. “Pardon me, lovebirds, but you’re both on the clock.”

They both turned to Maryam, who was red-faced, her hands balled into fists. Any frank observer could see that the old nurse was jealous. An awkward moment, to be sure. But then Maryam took a deep breath, seemed to collect herself, and everything returned to normal. She looked at Dana, then at Billy, then back to Dana. Finally, she spoke, her voice raspier than usual. “Well, Dana, if you’re looking for a chance to escape the OR, I’ve got an assignment for ya. You an’ Billy can do it together. How’s that sound?”

The pair of them literally jumped up and down, clasping hands and giggling. Lovebirds, indeed.

“Now hold on, kids,” Maryam said, and all at once her jealousy melted away. “You ain’t even heard what I want the two of you to do yet.”

“I’m sure whatever it is, it’s fine,” Dana said softly, cutting her eyes at Billy, who nodded in agreement.

“Don’t say that ‘til I tell you what it is.” Maryam sighed. “We’re short-staffed in Psychiatric. Well, hell, we’re short-staffed everywhere. But
especially
in Psychiatric. The shrinks need some help with restraining and sedating patients. I think the two of you would be perfect for that. Billy’s big and strong, and the combo of Dana’s pretty little face along with her drug dosing should help get things under control up there. Neither of you are certified for Psychiatric work, so I can’t force ya to do it, but if ya do, I’d consider it a personal favor.”

Billy and Dana exchanged glances, and they both nodded simultaneously. “We’ll be happy to do it,” Dana said. Billy smiled in agreement.

Maryam clucked. “Well, y’all might not be so happy about it once you’ve been up there for a couple hours. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. But I’ll make a note in my files that the both of you volunteered for this. Might be a nice thing for you to have in your corner, come raise time, Dana.” She cut a cryptic glance at Billy. “Well, you two best get going. I’ll phone up to Psychiatric and tell them y’all are on your way.”