“I can’t.”
“Are you purposely trying to make a fool of me?”
“No.” David clamped his mouth shut to keep from laughing. Damn, but those were sure good drugs.
“Ahem!” From the doorway, the nurse cleared her throat. “May I help you?” she asked in French.
“My wife, she . . .” Simply saying the words made him chuckle. Or maybe it was because Maddie’s long slender fingers were still tickling the hell out of his butt.
“This is your wife?”
“Oui.”
David said, cheerful.
The nurse marched over to the gurney and stuck a small plastic cup in Maddie’s hand.
“What’s this?” She gaped at the cup.
The nurse spit out instructions in French before breezing out the door.
“What did she say?” Maddie asked, still staring suspiciously at the cup.
“You still wanna be my pretend bride?”
“Yes, why?”
David grinned. “Because the nurse said you have to help me get naked so I can pee in that cup.”
SIXTEEN
T
HANK GOD, DAVID
had finally fallen asleep. If she had to hear him call her his sweetie pie or snooker doodles or make smooching noises one more time she could not be held responsible for her actions.
Who knew he was such a sentimental fool when he was loaded on painkillers?
They’d been at the hospital for over six hours and now it was just after eleven o’clock at night. After running tests, casting his wrist and giving him a dose of antibiotics, the doctor had dismissed him with a prescription of Vicodin and orders to get plenty of rest.
Plenty of rest. Ha.
She drove through the darkened streets of Monaco looking for a hotel. David snored softly in the back seat. She really didn’t want to stop for the night. She wanted to keep searching for Cassie, but David was counting on her to take care of things and she wouldn’t let him down.
Plus, she needed some sleep herself. And food and a bath.
The thought of a hot bath was what tipped her over the edge. Besides, Cassie and Shriver had to sleep too. She stopped at the first hotel she found.
Since she’d been masquerading as his wife all night, she went ahead and checked them in as Mr. and Mrs. Marshall because she was honestly afraid to leave David alone for the night. He was so snockered she feared he’d pitch face first into the pillow and smother himself. But she did request a room with two beds.
“David,” she said, after she’d procured their room and went back to the car to roust him.
“Hmph.”
“Come on, wake up. Time for bed.”
“Huh?”
She repeated herself.
“You’re waking me up to put me back to sleep?”
“In a bed.”
“With you?” He gave her the same sly, sexy grin he’d been throwing her way ever since they’d gorked him at the hospital.
“No, not with me. I have my own bed.”
“Rats.” He reached up to finger a strand of her hair that had swung loose from her ponytail. “I love your hair. It’s so soft and pretty.”
“Come on, Lothario. Give me your good arm.”
After several failed attempts, she finally got him out of the car, onto his feet and into the hotel. David leaned heavily against her and by the time they made it to their room, Maddie’s entire left side tingled with radiant heat from his body.
She propped him against the wall while she opened the door and turned to find him sliding slowly to the floor.
“No, no, no, none of that. Stay on your feet.” She caught him just before his legs gave way and got a shockingly good look at the depth of the bruising on his face. She cringed in sympathy.
“Hey there,” he said brightly. “Where have you been all my life, beautiful?”
“Avoiding guys like you.”
“How come?”
“How come what?” she said, getting her shoulder under his left arm and jacking him up.
“How come you’ve been avoiding me?”
“Shhh,” she said.
“Why?” He glanced up and down the hall. “Is someone coming?”
If she hadn’t been so tired and hungry and worried, this whole fiasco might have been comical. As it was, she couldn’t wait to get him inside and into bed.
Once over the threshold, Maddie was unsettled to discover there was only one bed. The thought of having to complain and get switched to another room this late at night was so daunting, she simply blew it off. David would be passed out cold in no time flat and she could sleep on the covers in her clothes. No problem. Especially after being handcuffed to him last night.
But last night you were mad at him.
So?
Tonight you’re feeling sorry for him. It’s a whole other thing.
As if anything sexual was going to happen. The man was a walking—albeit barely—pharmacy.
After dumping David on the bed, she stepped over to the phone to call room service.
“We stopped serving at ten,” the woman on the other end told her.
“Please,” Maddie begged, lying through her teeth. “We’re on our honeymoon and my husband broke his wrist and our luggage got lost and I’m just at my wits’ end.”
The woman murmured sympathetically. “I could send up something simple,” she relented. “Soup, crackers, cheese, fruit.”
“Perfect, thank you, you’re a lifesaver.” Maddie hung up and turned to find David eyeing her with a seductive gleam in his eyes.
“Hey babe.”
“Room service is on the way. I’m going to hop into the shower.”
“Can I come with you?” He was peering at her with cocky, Cary Grant charm.
“No.”
“You’re no fun.” He pretended to pout.
“Do you think you can let room service in if they show up while I’m still in the shower?”
“Sure thing.” His speech was still slurred. She wondered how long it would be before the shot wore off.
“How’s your wrist?”
He stared down at the green Fiberglas cast. “Looks okay to me.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Nope.” He pulled open the drawer to the bedside table and leaned so far over to peer inside that Maddie feared he’d topple into it.
“What are you looking for?”
“A comb. My hair is mussed up.”
“Your hair is always mussed up. I like it that way.”
“Really?” He ran his good hand through his hair and grinned again.
“I love it. Now can you behave for five minutes?” God, it was like having a toddler.
“Uh-huh.”
She went to the bathroom, leaned against the door and let out a sigh before slipping off her sweater. That’s when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
Egad! She looked horrible. More proof that David was out of his head if he could flirt with her when she looked like this. Her hair was lank and stringy, dark circles ringed her eyes and dots of David’s blood were splattered on her cheek.
Idly, she wondered how he’d managed to drive his car off the cliff, but the time had never been right to ask. She undressed and stepped into the shower.
The hot water was pure heaven and while she yearned to luxuriate under the pulsing spray, she didn’t dare leave him alone for too long. Her legs were hairy but her razor was in her bag and only God knew where that was. She’d just have to live with prickly legs.
Maddie got out of the shower, wrapped her hair in a towel, put on one of the two white terrycloth robes hanging on the bathroom door and stuffed her underwear in the sink to soak. After David fell asleep, she would wash her things out by hand and hang them over the towel rack to dry.
She returned to the bedroom to find David munching on bread and sipping champagne.
“What are you doing?” She marched across the room to snatch the glass from his hand.
“Drinking champagne and feeling no pain.”
“Are you nuts? Mixing alcohol and barbiturates? You’re not some sixties rock star.”
“Ah, what’s it gonna hurt?”
“For starters, it could put you into a coma.” Maddie eyed the bottle. “How did you even get that opened?”
“Room service did it for me.”
“How efficient of them.”
“Wanna cracker?” David extended his plate of crackers and cheese toward her. “I’ll share.”
“Stop eating on the covers. You’re getting crumbs all over,” she said, but what she was thinking was, Honey, you can eat crackers in my bed anytime.
“You sound like my father.”
“Your father? I’d have thought I sounded like your mother.”
“Nope. Dad was the perfectionist. Military man. Toe the line or suffer the consequences. Do you have any idea how many push-ups I can do?”
She shot a glance at his broken wrist. “Right now?”
“Well, maybe not right this minute. But normally, I can do five hundred and seventeen.”
“Why not five hundred and eighteen?”
“Dad’s record was five hundred and sixteen.”
“Ah. Right. Competition. I guess your Dad was impressed when you broke his record.”
“He was dead by the time I broke his record.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
David shrugged and wobbled a little. “Aw, he was an s.o.b.”
Something about the way he said those words tore at her heart. “Made your life difficult, did he?”
“He made me the man I am today.” There was pride in his voice.
“What happened to him? If you don’t mind me asking?” Henri had said David didn’t like talking about himself but the pain medication had loosened his lips and Maddie was going to take full advantage.
David shrugged. “He and my mom were killed when I was twelve. They were gunned down in the streets of a Third World country. My father was a four star general in town for a peace treaty.” He laughed harshly at the irony.
“That’s awful.” Maddie put a hand to her chest. A lump of sympathy crowded her throat and her heart ripped for the poor little boy he’d once been.
“The embassy was in chaos and I was in shock. I just walked out the back entrance and ended up wandering the streets for three days, living as best as I could before the authorities found me and sent me to New York to live with my mother’s older sister.”
“Your Aunt Caroline.”
“Yeah.” He looked surprised. “How did you know?”
“Henri blabbed.”
David rolled his eyes. “That crazy Frenchman. He thinks if he tells you something personal about me you’ll fall in love with me.”
“Really?”
He waved a dismissive hand. “You know how the French are about romance. From the minute we stepped off the plane together he’s been convinced you’re my lover.”
Maddie felt breathless. “Whatever gave him that idea?”
“He says it’s the way I look at you.”
Flustered, Maddie changed the subject. “Did they ever catch the people who murdered your parents?”
“Nope.”
Well, that explained a lot about him. She understood now why he was so dogged, so determined. Why he had such a strong need to see justice done, to win at all costs.
She didn’t know what to say. Any words she could dredge up sounded silly or misguided or patronizing. Instead, she ended up telling him how her mother had gone a bit crazy after their dad left. How she drank too much, forgot to pay the bills or buy groceries. How she hopped from one inappropriate guy to another, dragging her and Cassie along with her.
“I mean here I was fifteen and waiting up until three o’clock in the morning for my mom to come home from the nightclubs when it should have been the other way around. I never really got to be a kid, you know.”
“Wow,” David said. “That’s pretty heavy duty.”
“Not nearly as heavy duty as your story. And mine does have a happy ending. My mother met her current husband, Stanley, and he snapped her out of the funk she was in. Stanley’s a rock solid guy. She’s tried pretty hard to make up for those years she fumbled. I don’t hold anything against her. She did the best she could.”
“I appreciate you sharing that with me.” He traced a finger over her cheek. “It took a lot of courage for you to open up.”
She cleared her throat, eager to retreat from the intimacy of their shared confidences. “Do you need some help with the soup?”
“Normally I would say no. I’m an independent bastard.” David raised his casted wrist. “But, considering that I have no depth perception with one eye swollen shut, I’m right handed and so hungry I could eat a mastodon raw, I’ll take you up on the offer.”
She sat beside him on the edge of the bed and her heart beat crazily.
He leaned over to sniff her neck. “You smell soapy clean.”
“Thank you,” she said primly, desperate to ignore the thrill of pleasure his warm breath generated as it raised the hairs on her nape.
“And you look really cute with your hair all twisted up in a towel. How do women do that?”
“Ancient feminine secret. If I told you I’d have to kill you.” She dished up a bite of chicken soup and held her palm under the spoon so she wouldn’t spill any on him. “Open up.”
“I feel like a fool.”
“Don’t let that stop you. Come on.”
Reluctantly, he opened his mouth and she touched the spoon to his lips.
Her gaze met his one good eye.
Feeding an invalid should not have been provocative or seductive or erotic.
But heaven help her, it was.
When he flicked out his tongue to accept the soup something hot and melty ran through her.
“Hmm,” he moaned. “I didn’t know soup could taste so good.”
Hell, she never knew that the noise of a man appreciating his soup could sound so sexy. Even the slightest touch, the briefest glance, the smallest sound took on heightened significance.
A drop of wet liquid glistened on his lip and she had the most irresistible urge to kiss it off.
Help me! Help me! Help me!
she prayed. She was rapidly losing control.
Maddie gulped and with a trembling hand, went back for the next spoonful. What was happening to her?
“Too bad I’m so busted up,” he said.
“What?” she sounded panicky even to her own ears. Why did she have this overwhelming desire to get naked and rub herself all over him?
“If I weren’t banged up, you wouldn’t have to feed me. I notice you’re having a little trouble.”
“If you weren’t banged up, I wouldn’t be snuggled up next to you in bed.”