Nine Inches of Snow and the Ebony Princess (5 page)

Now, she was doubly worried. She not only had to deal with David, but his eccentric family? Talk about a trial by fire. “They must be very close.”

Nurse Goodwich nodded. “And very protective.”

“Does anyone have any idea who struck him?”

“Not to my knowledge, no. Despite several witnesses to the event, I’m afraid they don’t have any idea who was behind the wheel. It all happened so fast.”

Nine Inches of Snow and the Ebony Princess

37

That was putting it mildly. One minute, he was kissing Aziza in the hospital kitchen, and no more than a half an hour later, he was mowed down crossing the street outside.

“The family is already offering a
substantial
reward though for any information, so I’m certain that should bring some helpful and knowledgeable bystander forward.”

“I’m sure it will.”

Nurse Goodwich finished briefing Aziza, and with a wink and a twinkling smile, finally left Aziza to her own devices. Aziza reviewed the patient assessment notes, cringing at the laundry list of injuries David sustained at the mercy of that mysterious car.

Recently, this sort of occurrence had been all too

commonplace. Aziza had treated three victims at the hospital last month alone who had been mowed down on the aptly nick-named

‘Boulevard of Death.’

She headed towards David’s room, suitably fortified and wondering at the type of man, or woman, who had been behind the wheel. What sort of human being could leave another to suffer like that? Had they been callous, or just drunk? To Aziza’s mind, that was just as bad.

She took a deep breath now before pushing open the door, came up short on the threshold when she saw an old man sitting at David’s bedside.

“It’s about time. We’ve been waiting for you, missy.” He stood, had to be at least six-five and imposing in his robustness.

He smiled, as if he realized how intimidating he was and wanted to soften his look.

Aziza instantly noticed his resemblance to David. Especially the deep dimples, bushy white eyebrows and hair notwithstanding.

He crossed the room and offered his hand.

Aziza experienced an instance of being surrounded and swallowed by his spirit when she put her hand in his, and he firmly shook it. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

38

Gracie C. McKeever

“You know my grandboy, and he knows you, and that’s

enough for me.”

Evidently, since he hadn’t blinked at her appearance or ethnicity.

He closed his eyes now and nodded before releasing her hand.

“Yep. You’re the one.”

“The one?”

He smiled and opened his eyes to stare at her. “You’re much prettier than I expected. My grandboy’s memories didn’t do you justice.”

David’s memories? Was he saying what Aziza thought he was saying? “You never clarified what you meant by me being the one.”

“Why, the one who’s going to bring my grandboy out of his coma.”

“Mr. Healey, I—”

“No need for formalities here. Call me Grandpa. Or Gramps works, too. That’s what my grandboys call me. You’re practically part of the family, a part we’re sorely missing. Don’t have any females in the clan, except for the boys’ mother. She’s a great asset and all, but we need new blood. And none of my other grandboys seem to want to cooperate, at least not until now. All of ‘em want to be the alpha, but none of them want to mate and settle down.”

Nurse Goodwich had understated! The man talked a mile a minute, and Aziza was finding him difficult to follow.

“You don’t have to worry about following me, missy. You just concentrate on leading our David out of the darkness. We’ll work on getting the son-of-a-bitch who did this to him.”

“I’m not sure I can guaran—” Aziza cut herself off when she realized what he said.

Was he reading her mind like the wolf last night? But the wolf hadn’t been reading her mind because he was part of her mind, her subconscious. Right?

Nine Inches of Snow and the Ebony Princess

39

“Oh, he wasn’t just your subconscious.”

If she weren’t herself an empath with some telepathic abilities, Aziza might have been shocked by the old man’s apparent mind-reading abilities.

Before she could respond, Aziza caught movement from the corner of her eyes. Someone who hadn’t been there before was sitting in the chair the old man had vacated.

It was David!

Aziza blinked. Okay, maybe it wasn’t David, but it was at least a damn good facsimile. She tried not to stare and let on to his grandfather that there was more than one David in the room.

Or did the old man see him, too?

Ghost-David raised a finger to his lips and shook his head.

“Is everything all right?” his grandfather asked, following her gaze before turning back to her with a question in his eyes.

Aziza was pretty sure the old man couldn’t see David. “E-everything’s fine. It’s just that I need to take your grandson’s vitals, and it would be better if you weren’t here when I did that.”

A lie, of course. She had taken patients’ vitals hundreds of times with their relatives present. It was just less stressful to everyone involved if the relative wasn’t present during an exam, especially now and under the circumstances.

“I understand perfectly. It’s like I told my grandson before you got here. I’m going to talk to my son and his wife and my other grandboys and make sure you two have the privacy you need.” He put a hand on her arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “So, I’ll leave you two alone now.”

“That would be perfect, Mr. Healey.” Aziza escorted him to the door, and he stopped at the threshold, leaned in, and kissed her on the cheek.

“Call me Grampa.” He opened the door and stepped into the hall, but before the door closed all the way, he popped his head back in. “Don’t forget to lock it.” Then, he was gone.

40

Gracie C. McKeever

What did the old man think she was going to do with his grandson?

Oh yeah, he could read her mind and knew exactly what she was going to do. Or at least what she
wanted
to do. Now whether or not her conscience and good sense would let her follow the call of her loins was another matter altogether.

“You can’t molest a man who asks for it.”

She shook herself, turned, and marched back to the chair where Ghost-David was now standing. “What is going on with you?”

“I’m not sure yet. I just know that I’m here, and I’m there.” He jutted his chin at his still body in the bed.

How jarring was this for him, able to communicate and move around in one form, but incapacitated and helpless in another?

“Can’t you just get back inside your body and, you know, bring yourself out of this?”

“I tried that already.”

“Oh.”

“I’m open to other suggestions, though.” He looked at her with an expectant expression that about broke her heart. After all, he was heir to a fortune and a rich, powerful businessman in his own right, accustomed to being in control and having people jump to attention when he entered a room. She couldn’t imagine it was easy for him to ask her, ask anyone, for help.

Aziza approached the bed, re-read the assessment notes to see if she had missed anything. When nothing jumped out at her after several minutes, she went to David’s bedside to take his vitals, heart pounding totally out of proportion to what it should at the prospect of sticking a thermometer in a grown man’s rectum.

She was unnerved, to say the least, knowing David was behind her and watching every move she made with his unconscious body.

When Aziza reached for his wrist to take his pulse, she heard a sharp gasp behind her and turned to see him gaping. “What’s wrong?”

Nine Inches of Snow and the Ebony Princess

41

“I…I’m not sure.”

“Do me a favor and turn around.”

The dazed expression turned to an Oscar the Grouch scowl.

“Why?”

Aziza automatically plopped a hand on her hip. “Look, homeboy, you may be the master of your domain out in the real world, but you’re in my world now. In here, I’m the boss, and you need to do what I say.” It took everything in her to get that out without her voice shaking, since David had the unerring ability to intimidate her and make a question sound like a command she should follow without back talk.

Arms folded across his hard-muscled chest, David reluctantly turned his back to her.

Aziza took a deep breath before placing her stethoscope against his bare chest to listen to his heartbeat and heard him gasp again.

“You felt that.” She watched him nod.

“One day, I’ll get you to tell me how you keep your

stethoscope so warm.” He turned, smiling at her when he approached.

“That’s for me to know…” She smiled, too, until her gaze locked with his. Something was eerily familiar about his eyes, something that shouldn’t have been. She had seen him the night before and gotten the full effect of their azure color at the fundraiser, but there was something more about his eyes, about him, that called to her like that of the wild.

A memory flickered to life about her soul mate. Her father had insisted he would be psychic. But what else would he be? “Did you have anything to do with my…visitor last night?”

David extended his hand. “Come here.”

She did, despite his dodgy answer, wanted to touch him, feel him against her, inside her, throbbing and hot. Filling her.

42

Gracie C. McKeever

Aziza put her hand in his, rewarded with surprising warmth.

She realized it wasn’t his flesh and bone that heated her skin. Their hands weren’t touching, their energy was.

She gaped when he twined his fingers with hers and drew her forward, his intensity and strength like a magnet, his spiritual energy pulling her rather than his muscles.

Once she was in his space, Aziza tilted back her head to stare up at him. “What now?”

“Let’s see.”

She had a moment to yelp before he tugged her towards the bed, and leaped into his body dragging Aziza with him.

Nine Inches of Snow and the Ebony Princess

43

David had always been a risk-taker, taking calculated gambles most of his personal and professional life. He’d never been reckless, at least not the way he’d been with Aziza just now, pulling her in with him when he wasn’t at least ninety-nine percent sure what would happen to her.

He’d let his eagerness get in the way of his judgment. He wanted her, had never been so hungry, so desperate to take a woman before now.

David held tight as they finally lurched to a stop.

Aziza didn’t scream or panic. In fact, she hadn’t made a sound the entire way in, except for that initial gasp of surprise when they’d first started to descend.

David pulled away to stare at her when the darkness around them gradually lightened. “Are you okay?”

She blinked, glanced around her, then back at him. “Not exactly a hospital kitchen.”

“Not even close.”

She nodded. “It’s cozy. Your bachelor pad?”

He laughed at her accuracy. He’d recreated the exact décor of his bedroom at home, down to the four-poster bed and matching burgundy and blue accents in the room.

David pulled her towards the king-sized bed in the middle of the space.

“How did you do this?”

“I wished for it.”

“Like magic, huh?”

44

Gracie C. McKeever

“Exactly.” He imagined explaining his heritage to her—how he’d taken a little knowledge from all his psychic and shapeshifting relatives and his own personal experience manipulating his anatomy to bring her into his mind—and wondered if she’d reject him.

David couldn’t see her fearing his gifts, not when he remembered her reaction to his wolf form. She hadn’t screamed or run when any other woman would have. Not Aziza.

But then, she had gifts of her own, gifts and mysteries she wasn’t even aware of.

David couldn’t wait to experience every luscious one of them from the inside out. “Sit with me.” He patted the firm mattress with one hand.

She sat down, but when he sat beside her and tried to lay her back on the bed, she resisted. “Did you see who hit you?”

“You plan on going after her for me?” He sensed she would, saw the protective and possessive alpha female gleaming out of her onyx gaze.

“
Her?
You saw the driver.”

“I don’t want you involved, Aziza.”

“I’m already
involved,
and I’m not turning back.” She peered at him for emphasis.

David suddenly felt her tooling around in his head. He tried to block her like before, but she was a lot stronger than he surmised.

Or was it that she was more dogged now than the last time she’d tried to read him?

She gawked at what she’d gleaned. “Why wouldn’t you tell me? Are you protecting her?”

“Hardly, but I can’t do anything about it from in here. Yet.”

“Yet?”

“Philomena will get her just desserts. I promise you that.”

David cupped her face with both hands and kissed her hard,
Nine Inches of Snow and the Ebony Princess

45

pushing his tongue into her mouth and teasing hers until she sighed and melted against him.

When he pulled away, her eyes were closed and her lips parted.

She looked so fuckable and tempting, it took everything in him not to just throw her down, rip off her clothes, and take her fast and hard.

David traced her lips with his thumb, and when she stuck out her tongue to lick it, he shuddered, imagined her licking his throbbing cock, instead.

How was it possible that a ghost could feel so intensely?

Take your clothes off
.

David wasn’t sure if the thought came from her or him until he felt Aziza’s fingers at the buttons of his shirt.

He closed his eyes and helped her along, willing the shirt off and leaving the pants for her deft touch, wanting to feel her divest him.

She unzipped his pants, dipped her hand inside and eagerly plucked out his cock, grasping it in both hands. When she bent her head to lap at the pre-come already gathered in the slit David saw fireworks.