Surrender: A Little Harmless Military Romance Read Online Free Page B

ringing.
    "I didn't want our neighbors to see me try to learn how to ride a bike."
    "Yes, injuring a stranger is even better." Even with her head spinning, she could hear the sarcasm in the old man’s voice.
    "Dear, are you okay? Do you need help up?"
    They each took an arm, and she tried to stand, but the world around her started to spin. The colors of the surrounding landscape blurred.
    "Oh, that's not good," she said weakly as her spinning world went to complete black.
     
    * * * *
     
    Mal's heart was pounding so damn hard as he hurried into the Potomac ER. He rushed to the information desk. "I'm the POC for Amanda Forrester."
    "Are you her husband?" the woman asked.
    "No. I'm...was a friend of her husband's. The ER called me and said she had been injured."
    The woman nodded to the people behind the counter. "This one's here for Forrester.” She turned back to Mal. They’ll let you in."
    There was a buzz and he strode over to the doors. A round, happy nurse smiled at him. "She's right down here in room 5F."
    "How is she doing?"
    "Fine. She hit her head, and they are talking of admitting her for that reason. But I'm not too sure Ms. Forrester agrees."
    She opened the door, and he felt his heart slide down into his stomach. She looked so damned pale. She had bandages on both hands. There were dark circles beneath her eyes and at that moment, she looked so still.
    “We’re keeping the lights dimmed because they hurt her eyes.”
    “Concussion?”
    “Slight. Not anything major.”
    “I hear you whispering over there,” she said, a smile playing about her mouth. “I didn’t lose my hearing, Nurse Brady.”
    The nurse chuckled. “If I thought you were sleeping, I would have had to wake you up.”
    She slowly opened her eyes. “Mal, they called you.”
    “I’ll leave you two alone. Ms. Forrester, just so you know, the doctor is not giving up on you being here overnight.”
    “Tell him to stick it.”
    The nurse giggled and left them alone.
    “I see you’re already making friends,” he said. He tried to keep his tone light, but it was hard. His throat was still tight. He had never known terror like what he felt getting that call.
    “Come on in. I don’t bite, Malachai.”
    He collected himself and walked to the side of her bed. “How are you doing?”
    “I’ve had better days. You?”
    “Well, I was having a great day until they called me.”
    “You can go now.”
    He heard the amusement in her voice, and he smiled. “Not a chance. I didn’t know I was on your list of contacts.”
    She shook her head, and he thought it was more about clearing it than it was to deny what he was saying. “Remember, you said to put you on there after Kyle died, that I was to put you on there.”
    He had, but it had been over a year and her brother had moved to the area. He was trying not to let the fact she left him on her contact list get to him, but it was hard. And he was in big trouble if just a simple thing like that was getting him excited.
    “I thought they would call your brother.”
    “They did before I was coherent enough to tell them he was still on TDY in San Antonio. Addy is out at her father’s, so I didn’t want to bother her.”
    “Nothing like being a woman’s last resort to make a guy feel good about himself.”
    One side of her mouth curved, and he felt the flutter in his chest that he hated. The one that kept him up at nights, and the one that was making it damned hard to find another woman.
    Pushing that thought aside, he moved to sit in the chair beside her. She looked so small lying there on the bed. Mal knew she hated being considered fragile. She was a tough woman, but at the moment she didn’t look that way. It was damned hard not to gather her in his arms to hold.
    “I thought you said you were going to just rest today?” he asked.
    She pouted, and he had to resist the urge to kiss it away.
    “I was, but I just couldn’t settle.”
    “Really?” he asked, not trying to hide the