The Wolfe (129 page)

Base Hospital

Present Day

The waiting room, plus the two
additional smaller ‘family’ waiting rooms were jammed full of more naval brass
than Jeremy Scatler had ever seen in her five-and-a-half year naval career as a
nurse. She’d never seen the waiting room of the emergency ward so full. Period.
Men wearing Pentagon security badges scrutinized her closely as if she were
Saddam Hussein in drag.

A little awestruck, she pushed her
way through the sea of uniforms and noticed that, outside the emergency room
doors, reporters were jockeying for positions as military police kept them at
bay. It was a chaotic scene and she found her irritation blossoming at the
pushy officers and staff. They looked at her as if she didn’t belong, hell, she
worked here. She gave a snotty young ensign a piece of her elbow when he didn’t
move out of her way fast enough.

She finally reached the nurse’s
station, letting out an irritated sigh. The other nurses at the station were
busy with their own cases as she took a seat and logged on to the computer.

“This is unbelievable.” she
exclaimed softly.

The Asian nurse next to her shook
her head. “Can you believe this? You’d think the president was here.”

Jeremy tossed her long blond hair
over her shoulder and re-secured the rubber band. When it wasn’t being
contained or pulled back, she had a head full of soft spiral waves.

“What is all this about, anyway?”
Jeremy asked as she began to review some of the current patient charts. “I
heard they brought in a cabinet member with chest pains.”

“No,” the other woman said firmly. “They
brought in a CIA big-wig.”

Jeremy looked confused and finally
just shook her head. They would never get a straight answer from the navy and
they knew it.

“Jeremy, can you take Room Three?
Got a clean leg wound there.” A harried young doctor approached the station.

“Sure, Al,” she said, standing up
from the computer and slinging her stethoscope around her neck. “What kind of a
leg wound?”

“Bullet,” he replied, obviously in a
rush. “Passed clean through his thigh. He just needs it cleaned and a stitch or
two. I am prescribing him antibiotics and a painkiller right now.”

Jeremy left the station, pushing
through the naval personnel and wishing somebody would explode a bomb in the middle
of them; anything to be rid of their presence. She may have been in the navy,
but she didn’t like the haughty brass that went with it and she really hated it
when they invaded her quiet hospital sanctuary like they owned the place.

The hallway behind the nurse’s
station was relatively quiet and she fought her irritation down as she went to
Room Three. It was not strange to be tending a bullet wound on a naval base and
she didn’t give it a second thought. Unconcerned with her impending duty, she looked
forward to being done with it and getting off shift in a couple of hours.

At Room Three, she took a sharp turn
and yanked back the shielding curtain. There was a body on the gurney, but she
didn’t look up as she went to the sink and washed her hands. Her manner very
brisk and business-like because those fools in the waiting room had pissed her
off and she still wasn’t entirely calm. She was usually much more friendly when
she first entered an examining room.

Drying her hands, she slipped on a
pair of latex gloves and read the patient chart on the computer monitor before
turning around.

There was a man on the gurney. But
not just any man; it was a very large man dressed in filthy fatigues. He was
dirty and smeared with grime and blood, and there was a huge patch of gauze
over his left thigh. He looked as if he had seen the wrong end of a fight.

Sighing, she assumed she was looking
at another victim of an enlisted barroom brawl.

Jeremy did everything but look at
his face, her eyes roving over the massive body that was almost too big to
believe. But as her gaze trailed up the length of him and came to rest on his
hazel-gold eyes, it was as if she had been kicked in the guts. In spite of his
disheveled appearance and torn clothing, he was positively gorgeous. The kind
of man who makes your jaw drop before you can control it. As her cousin,
Jennifer, would say,
Yeah, I’d have his baby.

The power of speech actually left
her for a moment as he gazed back openly, yet it was not a leering sort of
stare. It was honest and friendly and…deeply embarrassed, Jeremy hoped her
shock didn’t show.

“Hi,” he smiled weakly.

“Hi yourself,” she managed to
squeeze out. “What in the hell happened to you?”

He laughed softly and laid his head
back on the pillow as she came around the gurney and lifted up the gauze.

“Been in a fight,” he replied
vaguely.

“Hmmm,” she cocked an eyebrow and
threw the bloody gauze in the trash, realizing her stomach had a giddy quiver
to it. “I hope you won.”

He gave her a faint nod, studying
her intently. God, if she wasn’t the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
When those pale green eyes looked at him he felt as if he were being sucked in
by some huge unseen vacuum. He thought he had forgotten how to breathe when he
had first caught a glimpse of her. All he could think was that it was a good
thing his vitals had already been taken, because he knew his blood pressure was
now through the ceiling.

Jeremy put on a pair of pretty
glasses she always used for close-up work and settled down on a stool, entirely
aware of his hot eyes on her. With sweaty palms, she cut away a good portion of
his pants in an attempt to gain a clear field, but finally gave up and cut the
entire pant-leg off.

When she examined the wound closer,
she was aware that his legs were as big around as small trees and an
involuntary shudder went through her. She tried to ignore the tingling in her
fingers when she touched his skin. Unnerved and disturbed by her less-than-professional
reaction, she cleared her throat and tried the stern approach.

“Well, commander,” she noted the insignia
chain hanging around his neck. “It’s a clean wound, all right. I hope you got
the guy who did this to you.”

He was laying on his back on the
gurney and put his hands over his face in a weary gesture. Jeremy’s heart nearly
stopped at the pure size of his arms.

“Will I live?” he deliberately
avoided answering her statement.

“You will.” She went over to the
counter and began putting a few things together. “A few stitches and you’ll be
done.”

He looked over at her, her back
turned to him. Dressed in her nursing uniform, which could be less than
flattering, she wore it like a goddess. She had the most fantastic ass he had
ever seen. He was quickly coming to realize that this woman was physically perfect
and he fought off the urge to groan with sheer pleasure. He was disturbed with
himself for the reaction; he simply wasn’t the leering type.

“Great,” he replied with a sigh,
still watching her and wanting to keep the conversation going. What else could
he say to hear her respond in that sweet, honeyed voice? “By the way, what’s to
do in this little town of yours?”

She glanced over at him. “Where are
you from, sailor boy?”

He smiled. “Norfolk’s my base. How
long have you been stationed on the coast?”

She came back over to him with a
hypodermic and a few other things. “Ever since I got out of nursing school,
about six years,” she swabbed his skin with alcohol. “My dad was in the Navy
and insisted I join up, so I really had no choice.”

He didn’t flinch when she injected him.
“Same here,” he said. “My brothers and I had to go the same route - Annapolis
and a naval career. My dad would have disowned us if we had chosen anything
else.”

She smiled for the first time and
his heart thumped madly against his ribs. “Maybe we have the same father,” she
said, concentrating on her task.

“Doubt it,” he was staring openly at
her. “My dad didn’t breed offspring as beautiful as you.”

Her cheeks turned a delightful shade
of pink as she gave him a stitch. “Strange you should say that, since my dad
always called me Ribs. I don’t equate ribs with beautiful.”

“Ribs?” he repeated, amused. “Why in
the hell did he call you that?”

She flicked her eyes to him,
embarrassed, as she threaded another stitch. “Because they always stuck out.
When I was a kid, I used to like to run around with my shirt off and my ribs
were so defined they looked like steps. I looked like a poster child for the
Starving Children of the World.”

He grinned broadly. “Do you still
run around with your shirt off?”

She fought off a grin. “None of your
business.”

He laughed softly, watching her
lovely face as she concentrated. Whatever she had shot him full of was taking
effect and making him drowsy and he was having difficulty focusing. Wildly
curious to know her name without asking, he thought he could be cool and read
her nametag without her noticing.

She glanced up at him and saw him blinking
his eyes rapidly, staring at her chest. He had gorgeous golden eyes.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“Oh… nothing,” he replied
sheepishly, laying his head back down. So much for being cool. He only hoped
she didn’t think he was staring at her boobs.

“Trying to see my ribs?” she raised
a disapproving brow.

He shook his head, fighting off a
grin. “No, I swear it.”

She smirked, turning back to his
leg. “My name really
is
Jeremy. It’s not a misprint.”

“Come again?”

She looked at him. “You were reading
my nametag, and my name really is Jeremy. I was supposed to be a boy.”

She swore his eyes turned smoky and
intense as he gazed back at her. “You are definitely not a boy,” he said.

Jeremy felt a chill run up her spine
at his tone and she forced herself to look away because she knew she was blushing
madly. God, she’d only known this man a matter of minutes but already he was
affecting her like no one ever had.

“I’m Wade Wolfe,” he said after a
moment. “Nice to meet you, Nurse Jeremy.”

She grinned. “’Nice to meet you,
too’ she says as she sticks a needle in his leg.”

He smiled at her humor, still
watching that incredible face. Honestly, he could not take his eyes off her. He
was seized with the urge to know everything about her and wracked his brain
madly for a line that would not sound as if he was trying to get into her pants.
It was the strangest, most powerful reaction he had ever had to a woman.

“Do you live on base?” he asked
casually.

“Yes,” she said as she had him roll
onto his right side so she could get to the exit wound. “But my dad has a
little vacation house on Coronado Island and I spend a lot of my time there.”

“Ah, yes, Coronado,” he said fondly.
“I remember it well.”

“You do?” she asked, looking at him.
“When were you there?”

He drew in a long, deep breath,
feeling the sedative. “A while ago. Training.”

“Oh,” she said, sensing he was being
evasive. “Well, you should check it out on an off-duty level sometime. It’s a
neat place, especially the Del.”

“The hotel? I have seen it from the
outside,” he said, putting one of those massive arms over his forehead.

Jeremy saw the arm and involuntarily
shuddered, forcing herself back to her work when what she really wanted to do
was fondle his bicep. “Go inside it next time. They have a great restaurant.”

“Whenever I have been in San Diego
it’s always been on a stopover,” he replied. “Maybe someday I’ll take a few
days off here and take your advice.”

“Well, if you do, let me know,” she
said, giving him another injection. “I’ll tell you all the hip spots.”

She had meant it innocently and he
knew it, yet it was the opening he was looking for. He could only hope she
didn’t think he was a womanizing jerk for being so forward.

“Then I am letting you know now,” he
said. “I have got forty-eight hours before I go back to Virginia and not a damn
thing to do. That is, if you are not working or have other plans. Maybe you
could show me the hip spots?”

Her head came up and she looked at
him blankly. Truth was, she was stunned he had literally asked her out, but she
made it an absolute rule to never date a patient or any person she worked with
for obvious reasons. Her dilemma was tremendous because she definitely wanted
to see him again, yet she didn’t want to break her rule of self-preservation.

But much to her dismay, she found
herself responding. “No, I’m not busy. Today’s my Friday and I have got the
next two days off.”

He grinned triumphantly. “Outstanding.”

But her head went down rapidly,
too
rapidly, angry at herself for responding to his invitation. Why had she agreed
so readily?

Wade was afraid he had offended her
as he watched the top of her lowered head. As soon as she responded to his
invitation, she seemed to regret it. He felt a stab of uncertainty and genuine
disappointment.