Midnight Heat (Black Phoenix Book 2) (3 page)

The cool swipe of something across his arm.

His stomach turned.

The bite of a needle sliding into his flesh.

He hissed out a breath. “Warn a man, will you?”

“You told me not to talk.”

“Jesus.”

“I’m going to inject the local anesthetic now. It might sting a bit.”

“Yeah, I got that.” He didn’t even try to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

“Baby,” Rebecca said under her breath as she stuck him again, then once more.

“Sadist.”

She laughed softly and Dominic smiled. Then she ran her fingers through his hair, gently outlining the injury above his left ear and his smile faded. It should have hurt like hell. Instead, it made him ache. For the days when she touched him because she wanted to, not because it was her job.

Damn it, the past was a place he didn’t want to visit tonight. Reliving the pain and loss didn’t change anything. He’d hurt Becca too much to ever hope he would have a chance to make up for prior mistakes. He couldn’t have her. Deep down in his gut he knew that. But it didn’t ease the frustration. It didn’t lessen the anguish inside of him.

“Do you have a preference to how I close this one?”

“You’re the doctor.”

“I’ll glue it.”

He grunted.

“So, you were driving Isabeau’s car?”

“Her SUV. I prefer Noah’s Aston Martin convertible, but…I don’t remember why I was in the SUV.”

“It’ll come back to you. For now, be happy you were. After all, if you’d been in his convertible, that handsome face of yours would be a permanent fixture in a semi’s grille.”

He hadn’t considered that.

“She was very worried when she got here. You were trying pretty hard to allay her fear. You must care deeply for her.”

“Isabeau? I do.” Like a sister. At least he thought the way be felt about her was comparable to the feelings one would have for a sister. He didn’t have any siblings, so he didn’t know if siblings got as close as he and Isabeau.

He’d never shared a friendship with a woman before. Never shared much with a woman beyond sex. Yet, with Isabeau it was different. She knew most of his secrets, and he knew most of hers. Like the demons she continued to struggle with after her own automobile accident years ago. “I’m sure it brought back a few painful memories for her.”

“Her left hand?”

“You noticed her scars?”

“The rock caught my eye first. It definitely makes a statement.”

“What statement is that?”

“It says taken in bold, capital letters.”

He chuckled, then groaned when the action made his head throb, and his side scream. “Pretty sure that’s what Noah was going for. He’s a bit…enamored, with his wife.”

There was the briefest hesitation before she replied, “At first I thought she was with you, that it was your statement.”

He could have told her that Isabeau wasn’t his type, that he liked his women to have more meat on their bones. Liked them full breasted, with enough ass to fill his hands. When he had a woman beneath him, he wanted to know that she could handle anything he gave her. He didn’t want to have to worry she’d break. He could have told her that the last woman he’d been with had been everything and more than he wanted in a woman. And because of it he hadn’t been with anyone since. Not in years.

Nearly three, to be exact.

He kept all of that to himself.

“Can you feel that?”

She meant the poke to his arm, not the ache of need that lodged in his chest. “Pressure. No pain.”

“Good. How long have you been back in the States?”

“Ten months. Three in Long Island City, New York, the rest at Noah and Isabeau’s in Auburn.” With a deep breath in preparation of the assault his head was going to take, he opened his eyes. “I’ve been meaning to call you.”

She glanced at him before refocusing on his arm. “I’m sure you have,” she said, her tone disbelieving. “When was your last tetanus shot?”

“I have no idea.”

“You’ll need one.” Rebecca held the needle away from his skin, picked up a pair of scissors, snipped, and placed everything on the tray at her right. “There you go, Stud, you won’t even have a noticeable scar.”

“I’ve always hated how you call me that.”

“I know, but it fits you so well. You’ll have to lose the jewelry, nothing metal near the CT scanner.”

He removed the small hoop from his ear and the ring from his index finger, dropping them in the pocket of her lab coat when she held it open for him. “Give them to Isabeau.”

“Sure.” She scooped something off the tray, pushed his hair back with her left hand, and bent over him again. So close her hot breath brushed across his skin when she spoke. “I’m going to use tissue adhesive on this laceration. I’ve been told it stings like hell. You might also feel a small amount of heat as it dries.”

She was right.

“Almost done here.” She bent over him and a piece of her hair slid free from the intricate knot at the back of her neck, laying like fire across her cheek. He wanted to skim his fingertips over it. One touch. One touch he wanted so damn badly his hands began to shake.

Dominic dragged in air to loosen the knots in his stomach and only succeeded in filling his lungs with her scent. A scent he’d never quite managed to forget. “Jesus, you smell good.”

“Obviously, your olfactory system was damaged in that accident as I smell like I’ve been at this for sixteen hours already.”

Then she looked down and the air between them thickened. A deep breath became impossible.

Three years. Three agonizingly long goddamn years. Because of him. Because she’d cared and that scared the hell out of him.

“I love you, Dominic.”

Okay, she’d more than cared. God, he’d fucked up. If he hadn’t been absolutely sure of that before, he was now. Laying here, her touching him as if he were nothing but another patient instead of the man she’d once confessed to love. Looking at him as if seeing him again was no big deal, as if it wasn’t the giant kick in the ribs that seeing her again was for him.

She was coolly professional. Calm and unflustered. While he was…“I’m sorry, Becca.”

She straightened away from him as if his words burned. Pushed to her feet so quickly the stool she’d been sitting on skidded backward and bounced off the wall.

The metallic clang echoed in Dominic’s skull. Pain exploded behind his eyes. Nausea washed over him.

Rebecca opened her mouth to respond, then closed it and took a step in retreat. She removed her gloves, disposed of them and shut off the overhead lamp. Then she refocused on him and sighed. “Dominic, we…” She was quiet a moment, just looking at him and he held his breath. “I can’t give you anything more for the pain until after the scan.”

It was his turn to sigh. “It doesn’t matter.” There was nothing she could give him that would help.

Except for forgiveness.
Never gonna happen, mate.

“Someone will come by soon and take you down for your CT scan.”

Bloody wonderful.
Dominic let out a breath. He forced himself to watch her leave. Walk away from him, the way he had done to her. He didn’t need an expensive college degree to know he wasn’t going to see her again. Not tonight. Not any time in the near future.

“Lights on or off?” she asked softly.

“Off.”

She curled her hand around the door pull before plunging the room into darkness. Which was perfect, really, because he found he wasn’t strong enough to watch her walk away after all.

* * *

Damn it. Damn it.
Damn it.

Rebecca walked with purpose in the direction of the radiology department. She needed to make arrangements to have Dominic admitted for overnight observation. But before she could do that, she needed to see what the holdup was on his CT scan. The sooner she could get him scanned, the sooner she could get him upstairs, out of the emergency department, and her care. Then, she could escape home, crawl into bed, and put this night behind her.

Her emotions were in turmoil; had been since they’d wheeled him through those doors unconscious and bleeding. Damn, why did he still have to look so good? And why, oh why did he have to apologize? The Dom she knew would never have said he was sorry. He’d been cocky, confident, and sexy as hell but never apologetic. Not about his looks, his attitude, or even the women who flirted with him everywhere they went.

Rebecca could handle the old Dominic.

The heartbreaker.

The stud.

She wasn’t sure how to handle this new Dominic.

Injured.

Vulnerable.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it, Stud.” But it was a start.

Damn him.

Rebecca shoved her hands in her lab coat pockets and hung a right. As her left hand brushed past the ink pen and touched on Dominic’s ring, she closed her fist around it. Heart stuck in her throat, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Having been up for nearly thirty-six hours straight, she needed sleep. At least eight hours of deep, dreamless sleep. Only she’d bet her sleep was going to be anything but dreamless. Not with the way she kept recalling the past.

Opening her eyes, she pushed thoughts of sleep and Dominic aside. Across the room, heads close together in intimate conversation, stood Noah and Isabeau. Noah was holding his wife’s hand, then he lifted it to his mouth, and pressed his lips into the center of her palm. Isabeau’s eyes slid closed, she swayed a little closer to Noah.

A knot of envy lodged so firmly in Rebecca’s throat that she found it hard to breathe. Swallowing, she fell back a step and turned toward the exit, her fist tightened around Dom’s ring. She was in the waiting room, not radiology. She could find her way around this hospital blindfolded, so why had her feet brought her here? More importantly, why was she still standing there? She needed to head down to radiology, away from these people who only made her yearn for something she’d lost long ago.

“Doctor Dahlman?”

Damn.

“Doctor Dahlman?”

Because she had no other choice, Rebecca faced Isabeau, who came closer.

“Was there something you wanted to tell us? Do you have an update?” Isabeau asked.

“No, I’m sorry. I…” She sighed and wondered how to explain this.
I’m an idiot
? That might work. ”Honestly, I’m not sure why I came to the waiting room. I meant to…”

“Do you need a minute to sit down? I’m sure it’s been a shock seeing Dominic like that.”

Rebecca stared at Isabeau, a little stunned. Did she know about her and Dominic’s history? How much of it? “I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

Isabeau pushed a lock of hair back from her face, behind one ear, and gave Rebecca a sympathetic smile. “I understand.”

She couldn’t possibly. Yet, as crazy as it seemed, there was something comforting in those two words. Rebecca let out a slow nod. She tightened her hand around the objects in her pocket, then pulled them out. “Dominic asked me to give these to you for safekeeping.”

“Okay.”

Suddenly, the very last thing she wanted was to give up Dominic’s jewelry. It didn’t make any sense. He’d left her, walked away without a backward glance. He’d stomped all over her heart and she wanted to hoard his jewelry like some love-starved child?

“I’m sorry, Becca.”

So was she. Sorry she let him get to her. Again. She dropped the earring and ring into Isabeau’s hand and took a step in retreat before she could do something totally idiotic like snatch them back. “I have to go.”

“Rebecca, is it all right if I call you Rebecca?”

“Sure.”

“Rebecca, Noah and I are going to stay until we get the results of Dom’s scan.”

She took another step in retreat. “Sure, okay.”

“I just want you to know that we’ll be here,” Isabeau said with a terrifying gentleness. “In case you decide you do need to sit down for a minute.”

Damn. She did understand, after all.

Rebecca blinked to combat the sudden burning of her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. Then she turned on her heel and fled.

Chapter Three

Rebecca didn’t need more than a glimpse out the peephole to recognize the man standing on her front step. The tall, leanly muscled body imbued with sex appeal; the black as midnight hair. “Dominic,” she said as she opened the door.

He stood beneath the glow of the porch light in a blue long-sleeved button front shirt, cuffs rolled back to expose his forearms, dark sunglasses and low slung Levis. Not the type meant to be hidden beneath a suit coat, the shirt fit his slender body like it had been made for him, emphasizing his broad shoulders and chest, his flat stomach. He looked like the rock star he was—absolutely heart-stopping—and like the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, every cell in her body stood up and took notice.

A slow smile curved his lips. Did he know the effect he had on her? Probably did. He’d always had that confidence, that touch of arrogance.

Wait a minute.

Something was different about him. That confidence used to have a vein of cockiness running through it. Tonight, it seemed to be missing. Surprised, she looked him over, from the top of his head to his booted feet and back again. “You’re supposed to be resting.”

His smile vanished. “I can’t sit around any longer. I’m ready to crawl out of my skin.”

He’d been released from the hospital all of ten hours ago, nowhere near long enough for him to be crawling out of his skin. “How did you get here? Tell me you didn’t drive.”

“You never told me I couldn’t drive.”

“No, I just told you to rest. You knew what I meant.”

“The insurance company gave Isabeau a rental until she gets her new car. I was restless and thought…”

“What? What did you think? Do you have any idea how dangerous—?” Rebecca let out a controlled breath and resisted calling him a damn idiot. Barely. “How bad is the headache?”

He frowned. “How do you know I have a headache?”

“The sunglasses after dark look is a bit much, even for you.”

“I never realized just how bright streetlamps were,” he muttered.