“Hell, I’m fine, damn it,” Ryan growled in the waiting area down the hall.
Carol furrowed her brows and glanced back at the hall, but she was unable to see Ryan. The thrill of seeing him back without a scratch was tempered by worry that he’d be angry with Tom… or her… for letting North into the exam room with her.
Jake said in a scolding tone, “Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who is a horrible patient. If you won’t go peaceably, I’ll have to send you to Matthew to check you out instead of Carol. And you definitely won’t make brownie points there. Guaranteed. Your choice.”
Her heart tripping, Carol looked at Tom.
He gave her a wry smile. “Guess that makes four times. Unless he was wounded in some other fashion.”
“Is that my brother growling about something?” Rosalind asked.
“It’s him. But I’m not sure what about. I’ve got to go. Trouble at the hospital.” Concerning your brother, but Carol wasn’t about to tell his sister that, in the event it wasn’t anything. “I’ll call you later.”
“Look forward to it.” They disconnected.
Her blood running cold, Carol shoved the next patient record into the holder. If Ryan had been shot because he was trying to protect her, she didn’t want to even think about it.
She hurried in the direction of the waiting room.
Chapter 18
WHEN CAROL SAW RYAN’S SHIRTSLEEVE BLOODIED, she frowned and quickened her pace toward the hospital waiting area. “Let’s get you into an exam room.”
“I’m fine. It’s just a graze, for Chr—”
She gave him a look to curb his tongue. He noted the two small girls in the waiting area and snorted. Then he wordlessly went with her down the hall as she held his arm, his whole body tensing. Touching him made her feel so much more secure. Although she was afraid that once he saw Tom and the goose egg he was sporting, Ryan would be more than furious with the both of them.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I was chasing one of the reds as a wolf, and when I located him, he shifted and held a gun on me.”
They approached the exam room as Jake followed behind. “And then he fired a shot at you?”
“A couple, but he missed all three times, dove into his pickup, and vamoosed.”
“Missed all three times?” She touched the sleeve of his shirt, blood spotting the blue and white print.
“He got lucky. One ricocheted off a tree, or he would never have hit me.”
She frowned at him. “You went after him even when you learned he had a gun, didn’t you?” Not surprising, but she didn’t like that he took such risks, either. “You shouldn’t have.”
He gave her a hard scowl back, his hands clenched into fists. She felt his muscle tighten beneath her fingertips. “By lunging at him, I threw him off guard. If I hadn’t, he could have fired several steady shots at my retreating backside.”
“I hope you didn’t continue to chase him,” she scolded.
“While he was driving a pickup? Not likely.”
“I would have thought you might continue to look for clues of the other guys. At least you came straight away here to be treated.”
He didn’t say anything.
She looked back at Jake. “You did come straight here, right?”
Jake shook his head.
Ryan said, “If Jake hadn’t insisted, I wouldn’t be here to be examined by you or Doc. I have a job to do, and being a patient is not on the schedule.”
“Were you this bad the other times?”
His expression puzzled, he frowned at her. “What do you mean?”
“When you were shot the three other times. Did you behave as unruly as a patient before?”
“I was unconscious for two of them.”
Shocked, she parted her lips.
That’s when Ryan noticed Tom in the exam room, and his swollen, red cheek. “Hell, what happened?”
“North tried to take her. My fault.” Tom looked guiltily at Jake.
Jake cursed under his breath and motioned to the break room. “Tell me what happened.”
Silence stretched between Ryan and Carol. She figured he was mad at her already, not even knowing what had happened. She led him into the exam room and shut the door. He still didn’t say anything, which made her more self-conscious than before. “It was all my fault,” she finally admitted. “Not Tom’s. He insisted Matthew see to the patient. But the man was truly sick.”
“He was a red,” Ryan growled.
“Yes, but we couldn’t smell him. For that reason, Tom wasn’t going to let him see me, thinking he was human.” She guided Ryan across the room and held onto his good arm to help him up on the exam table. Once he was settled, she released him, but she remained standing next to him.
“Hell, Carol. If you couldn’t smell he was a red or a gray, Matthew should have seen him.”
“I know. I know. It was my fault,” she reiterated. “I… I just wanted to prove that I could continue to see patients, human or lupus garou, without getting anyone in any trouble.”
Ryan didn’t say anything for a moment, as if he was really considering why this was so important to her.
“He got away.” Ryan sounded resigned and a little weary as he tucked a curl of hair behind her ear. “A guy could get used to a woman fawning over him.”
The way he’d been acting so reluctant to be examined, she expected him to keep up the resistance. This business with North and the way he’d dropped the subject… well, the change in his attitude totally threw her. Maybe in front of Tom and Jake or anyone like Christian who was within earshot, Ryan felt he had to put on a show. Mostly, she was glad he wasn’t angry with her about her seeing North and putting both Tom and herself at risk.
“I’ll be more careful next time,” she said softly, hating to acquiesce but not willing to get anyone hurt on account of her being so stubborn.
She pressed against his knees to unbutton his shirt, but he spread his thighs, pulled her between his legs, and lifted a brow. “Easier to get to the buttons.” He looked like he was attempting to contain a smile. Devilish, desirous, rakish.
She tried to be professional about this while his legs caged her in, his inner thighs touching her flesh, heating her skin through her scrubs, making her nipples tingle. She should have pushed away, moved to the side of him, but she didn’t imagine standing next to his thigh on the outside would feel any less… erotic.
All at once, she was reminded of the way he’d touched her earlier that morning in the canopied bed, the way his hands and mouth and body had teased her into submission. Left her body flaming with desire. Even now with their close proximity, the way his hard inner thighs touched her, his face leaning closer to hers, she was growing wet with need.
Her mind warred with her heart. She wanted to lift her chin and kiss his lips, to wrap her arms around his waist, to hold him close and know he was safe. But Doc would be coming soon.
She meant to reach up and unbutton Ryan’s shirt and take care of him like a nurse was supposed to, but his hand cupped her chin and his mouth lowered to hers. A quick kiss, she thought. A really… quick… kiss.
But as soon as she tilted her lips up to meet his, as soon as she closed her eyes to savor the really quick kiss, she was lost. Lost in the way his hands held her hips, keeping her from bolting, lost in the way his alluring mouth firmly pressed against hers, increasing the pressure and gliding over hers, his mouth coaxing hers open. Creating an intimate path between them.
She moaned and swore he echoed her sentiment, his hands drawing lower and over her buttocks, pulling her against his groin. Despite being wounded, he was hard and wanting all over again. Somehow in her lust-filled thoughts, she heard someone coming as Ryan’s tongue tangled with hers. She paused, momentarily still, rashly wanting to carry on with reckless abandon but knowing she couldn’t.