Uniform Desires (Make Mine Military Romance) (74 page)

Duncan nodded, but didn’t seem optimistic. “Diego’s mother isn’t doing well, so I doubt she’ll be able to come. I told her I would make sure he was taken care of.”

They pushed through the door and Grif caught his breath. Again. Poor guy was strung up like a side of beef. The soft neck brace had been replaced by a Halo, a wire contraption screwed into his skull and braced against his shoulders to keep his neck immobile. His face was black and blue, giving his Hispanic complexion an odd cast. The eye patch over his right eye was the only part that seemed normal.

Duncan didn’t flinch at all, but then Grif hadn’t expected him to. The man had seen more in his forty-odd years than any man should. That experience made him as solid as a rock.
 

When he crossed to Ortiz’s side and rested a hand on his shoulder, Grif’s throat tightened with emotion. They’d all been in and out of hospitals over and over again. It was just wrong that Ortiz would be here for possibly months because he had turned around to check on Kendall’s safety.

Grif would be ready if his fellow Marine needed anything.

As soon as she was allowed to get to her feet, she wanted to see her father. The doctors and nurses had told her he was okay, even Grif and Emily, but she needed to see for herself. So, hand clutching the silk robe Grif had brought her from home, she headed down the hallway to see him.

Grif glared at her the entire trip and held his hands out as if to catch her if she fell.
 

“I’m fine, damn it. Just let me walk.”

Her father’s face crumpled into relief when he saw her and they both battled tears as she leaned over to hug him, carefully. She shook her head at him when she pulled away, because his entire left side was a mass of bruises and casts. His leg was suspended to a frame over the bed and the cast reached all the way up his thigh. There was also an incision over his clavicle.
 

Frank followed her gaze. “They put a pin in here, to help it heal.”

“You’ll be setting off airport scanners wherever you go.”

Her father grinned at her, though he seemed a bit weak.
 

Grif brought a chair over for her to sit in and she sank down. She gave him a smile, feeling bad that she’d snapped at him earlier. He’d only been looking out for her.

“Grif tell you what’s been going on?”

Frank nodded, frowning. “I never would have suspected she’d do something so crazy. I can’t tell you how sorry I am for bringing her into our lives.”

“No need, Dad. It’s done.”

They visited for a while before they both began to tire. Emily came in just as he fell asleep.
 

She didn’t seem surprised when she saw Kendall at her father’s bedside. “He asks about you all the time. I’m glad you were able to come over.”

Dropping her bag to the chair, she turned to give Kendall a careful hug.

The housekeeper’s arms were so comforting, she let herself sag into them for a
 
moment. Emily seemed to need the connection just as much, because it was a long minute before she released her and stepped back.

Before she went back to her room, she wanted to see Ortiz. Grif told her reluctantly where his room was, so she headed down there. He followed close on her heels. Then held her as she cried for the wounded Marine.

They released her the next day.
 

Kendall had never been so glad to see the outside of a building. June in Vail was truly spectacular and she’d missed being able to get out.
 

Though she was cautioned to take it easy for at least a week and to come in for anything at all, they didn’t think there was any risk for the baby. She was to follow up with her regular OB next week.

She thought for sure they’d have to wade through reporters, but there didn’t seem to be any around.

“They think you’re at Herrington House.”

She didn’t know how he’d managed that, but it made her happy.

Grif drove her home as slowly as the law allowed. Kendall thought she’d be a little freaked getting into a big SUV, so similar to the one she’d crashed in, but it didn’t bother her. Pulling the seatbelt across her lap bothered her more, because she had bruises from the crash.

She smiled as Grif looked across at her again. “I’m fine. Just drive. You’re watching me more than the road and it’s freaking me out.”

Tightening his jaw, his head swung forward and he kept it there for the most part.

She watched the evergreen scenery flash by and wished she had sunglasses. There was still a bit of an ache on the right side of her head, but she’d been assured it would go away within the week.

The baby dragged something across the inside of her right belly and she rested her hand there. One of the ultrasound techs had told her it was a foot, but it felt bigger than that. She rubbed it a bit and was rewarded with a bump.
Okay, maybe it is a foot.
 

When Grif walked her off the elevator on her floor, Brian Calvert, the blond bodyguard, already stood outside her condo door.

He smiled when they reached him.

“Mrs. Parks, can I just say how very glad I am that you and the baby are okay.”

She smiled as he brought out a small bouquet. Kendall was unaccountably touched. She didn’t know Mr. Calvert very well at all, but he seemed to be a really nice guy. “Thank you very much. I appreciate that.”

Though she’d only been gone a few days, the apartment smelled musty, like it hadn’t been opened at all, which she knew wasn’t true. Grif had returned several times for items she needed.

Dropping her clothes to the floor as she walked in, she headed straight for the shower. “I need help in the shower, Grif.”

His rich blue eyes flared with heat. Kendall adjusted the faucets while he took off his clothes, the prosthetic and the neoprene-like liner from his arm. The skin on his stump seemed irritated. She cradled it in her hands to look closer.

“Why is it red like this?”

He pulled away from her touch and stepped under the water.

“You haven’t been taking care of it like you’re supposed to, have you? You’ve been busy taking care of us.”

Kendall carefully walked into the stall. The water flowed over her shoulders, breasts, then belly and it felt so good. The disinfectant stink from the hospital had pervaded her pores, souring other scents. Reaching out, she rested her hands against Grif’s chest. Knowing he wouldn’t let her fall, she rolled her head forward to let the water loosen the knots in her neck.
 

She indulged herself for a couple of minutes before turning her attention to Grif. He’d been by her side, or Ortiz’s, or her father’s the entire time they’d been in the hospital. She doubted he’d taken care of his amputation the way he was supposed to in that time. He’d told her he was supposed to wash the sleeve out every night. There wouldn’t have been a place to do that. Knowing Grif, he wouldn’t have deliberately hindered himself by taking off the prosthesis in the hospital room. He would have been on guard for her the entire time.

Lathering the bath poof with his soap, she urged him to face away and began to lather him down. He groaned, sagging against the wall of the shower. His amputation hung on her side, so she carefully lathered it as well. The skin looked red and aggravated in patches, as if he had poison ivy. She turned him into the water and held his arm up toward the faucet to make sure all the soap was rinsed. Then, with a quick shampoo and a final rinse of her own, she urged him out of the stall.

She wrapped one towel around herself, knotting it at her breast, then began to pat him down with another. “Do we need to put anything on these spots?”

He shook his head. “They’ll heal up pretty quick if I leave them to air dry. It’s just where moisture had built up inside the sleeve.”

She turned to the sink, where he’d left the sleeve. She had watched him wash it out before, so she started to run water inside it.

“Don’t do that, Kendall. I can take care of my own shit.”

Continuing to slosh water inside the device, she crooked a brow at him. “I know you can, but you haven’t been because you’ve been taking care of other people. You are just as important.”

“No, I’m not. Don’t. That thing stinks. I’ll do it later.” He tried to pull her away from the sink, but she resisted.

“You might as well let me finish. Do you need to put soap in it?”

“No,” he sighed. “Just water.”

Water sloshed inside as she closed the end with her fist and shook it back and forth, then dumped it again. She repeated the process half a dozen more times before he told her it was enough.
 

“Let it drip for a minute then put it on the rod to dry.”

The appliance to dry the sleeve looked like a paper towel holder with a rounded top. Positioning it carefully, she left it, not convinced she’d done it correctly.

“It’s fine, Kendall. Leave it. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I did. And I’ll do it many more times in my lifetime, I’m sure.”

His look sharpened on her face, but she turned away.

“I’m ready to just relax. I’ll dive into business stuff later.”

Unwrapping her towel, she ran it down her legs, then squeezed her hair to get out the excess moisture. Padding across the bedroom, she crawled into the bed naked. It had gotten to the point that any sleeping position other than her side was out of the question, so she laid down on her left side to watch Grif dry off.
 

They were both needy. She smiled when she realized he had already begun to harden. It had been almost a week since they’d made love, the longest they’d gone without since they’d married. A tingle of arousal swirled down through her body.
 

Grif tossed the towel aside and crawled into bed facing her. He ran his fingertip over the pouting tip of her breast and she gasped. They had become so sensitive.
 

He shifted up onto his right elbow and ran his left hand over every part of her body he could reach, swirling around her belly, then lower to her ready heat. Pressing his mouth to hers, slipping his tongue inside her mouth, he mimicked every action his finger made in her slickness. As he circled her clit, hovering on the high side like she liked, he whispered into her neck and ear how much he’d missed loving her.
 

Kendall ran her fingers over his chest, then up his neck. Stubble had begun to darken his jaw and it rasped under her nails as she pulled him close, panting into his neck as he sent her into a white haze of rippling pleasure. When she’d caught her breath, she ran her hands down his body, pulling him to her. Lifting her right thigh over his hips, she angled for him to enter her.

When they made love this way it was slow and easy, but this time there was an urgency that hadn’t been there before. As if they were conscious of exactly how close she and the baby had come to dying. Even as he surged into her body, he clutched her to him, mouth never leaving her own.
 

They both began to move faster, searching for that perfect resonance that would carry them to that peak, and they both found it at the same time. For a breathless moment, they hovered on that brink, before tumbling into climax. Kendall cried out, arching against Grif as he spasmed and released into her body. Heat spread through her womb as his hips continued to surge, no longer under any kind of control.

It took several long minutes for their heart rates to return to normal and their bodies to stop quivering, but they held each other the entire time.
 

“Well,” he sighed, “I don’t know about you but I’m ready for a shower.”

Kendall giggled, knowing he spoke the truth but not wanting to move. Lethargy had moved in with a vengeance and it was all she could do to keep her eyes open. “Just let me close my eyes for a minute.”

He snorted but pulled her closer anyway. “Okay.”

Grif watched Kendall sleep and felt a contentment he’d never known before. She’d drifted away as soon as she’d closed her eyes, but he didn’t blame her. This week had been the most harrowing of his life, even more so than when he’d lost his hand, and it had been just as trying for her. Constantly wondering if the baby would be okay had put shadows under her eyes. Her father’s health had also kept her on edge because of his cardiac history. She’d whispered to Grif one night that she worried his heart would give out from all the crises going on at once.

But Frank now seemed stronger than before, as if the lack of Deedra’s malevolent energy in his life had finally begun to let him heal. It didn’t hurt that Emily now catered to his every whim.

As if she hadn’t before.

Movement in his peripheral caught his attention and it took him a moment to realize the baby had moved. Grif stared, waiting for another bump, but he had quieted. Just when he was about to turn away, the baby moved again. Conscious of not waking Kendall, Grif rested his hand against her belly.
 

The baby kicked, as if to say hello. Tears came to Grif’s eyes at the thought of looking into his child’s determined little face for the first time. The boy would be hardy, just like his mom and dad. Grif had been desperately afraid he would never get the chance to do that this week. Happiness didn’t normally stop into his life, certainly not to stay, so the past few months had been like a dream. He’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop.