Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (58 page)

I
was in a hospital
. Even with a broken nose, there was simply no mistaking that smell of artificial cleanliness which fought to keep less pleasant odors at bay.

Two women talked close by but I couldn’t make out the words. One of the voices belonged to Nora, but I didn’t recognize the other. Probably a doctor or nurse.

My body was numb all over. I knew I was laying horizontally and therefore likely on a bed, but I couldn’t feel my body on the mattress. I might have been floating, but my head felt so heavy I knew there was no way it would be able to resist the pull of gravity.

My legs and arms wouldn’t move, but I tried not to panic. The doctors had probably put me under enough drugs to knock out an elephant. Not being able to move my limbs didn’t mean paralysis.

The only bone I remembered breaking was the one in my nose. Perhaps a few in my face as well. Maybe a couple of ribs. I often didn’t notice those until a doctor did an x-ray.

Then a knee had hit my head and I’d blacked out. I had a vague recollection of waking up and seeing a lot of bodies in masks looking down at me. Presumably I’d been in surgery. Either that or I’d been abducted by aliens.

The head injury must have been a bad one. What did that mean? Brain damage? I couldn’t have brain damage. Someone with brain damage probably wouldn’t be able to lie there contemplating whether or not they had brain damage.

The voices were still talking, but I could pick out the odd word or two now. They mentioned me by name, and I definitely heard a reference to ‘cock.’

Oh shit, please tell me my cock still works.

That worry faded away when it finally dawned on me that Nora was beside my bed. She’d come from the fight to be by my side. What had I done to deserve her loyalty? The last time I’d been with her, I’d left her alone in bed and told her it was over.

I hadn’t meant it, but she didn’t know that.

I’d never wanted to end things between us. That had just seemed like the sensible option.

My life was full of decisions that were selfish and anything but sensible. For once, I’d decided to do the right thing, even if it had made me feel like shit in the process.

Nora was still here. Still by my side. She’d even come to the fight, even though she must have hated every minute of it.

Me being knocked out must have confirmed every fear she’d had about me fighting. And yet here she was.

I began to pick up more of the conversation taking place beside my bed. The other woman might not be a doctor after all. Nora and the woman were talking to each other like they were old friends.

“So would you stay at home and wait for him to return beaten and bloody?” the stranger said.

“No,” Nora replied. She sounded exhausted.

How long had I been here for?

“Then this can’t work,” the woman said. “I’m sorry, Nora, I really am.”

“It can work. It has to.”

“Why?”

“Because I love him.”

I already felt like I was floating. Now I felt like I’d just shot up through the ceiling.

The beeping of the machine next to me sped up in response to my drastically escalated heart rate. Both the women approached, and I heard one of them press buttons on the machine, before taking my pulse at the wrist.

I sure hoped she was a doctor and not just some random friend of Nora’s.

One of my eyes opened sharply as the woman yanked my eyelid up. The light startled me, but my body didn’t move in response. The eyelid dropped shut, but then she opened it again and this time shone a light in my eye.

Okay, enough of this crap.

I forced my other eye open, and then blinked a few times to adjust to the light. I had to squint for the time being, but it was a start.

“Is he awake?” Nora asked excitedly.

“Yes,” the woman replied. I could make out the white jacket that doctors always wore, so she at least had some training, even if so far it only extended to blinding me.

“I didn’t think he’d wake up so quickly,” Nora said.

“Neither did we. We gave him enough to knock him out for an entire day.”

I tried to talk, but my mouth was so dry that I had to peel my tongue off the roof of my mouth. The nurse quickly shoved a straw in between my lips and I slowly sucked up a few drips of precious liquid. I didn’t exactly feel thirsty—presumably one of the needles stuck in my arm was supplying me with fluids—but the water provided a natural comfort to my weary body and it meant I could move my dry tongue.

“Riker, it’s me,” Nora said softly.

“Stand back please, Nora,” the doctor said. “We need to do some tests.”

The doctor must have hit an alarm, because three other doctors streamed into the room and started poking and prodding at me.

I lay there patiently and answered questions designed to test that I still had all my senses. I think I passed, but I wouldn’t know if I’d given the wrong answer.

I might be imagining everything right now. Maybe I wasn’t really a fighter. Maybe in reality I worked a nice respectable office job, brought home a good salary, and had a mortgage. Nora might be my wife, not the woman I’d abandoned.

After an hour, the doctors left me alone and told me to get some sleep. I’d slept plenty, but I had to admit my body was tired.

“Can I stay with him?” Nora asked.

She was still here. I must be forgetting something, because I couldn’t remember a single reason why she would still be by my side right now.

“No, you need to leave. He’s going to fall asleep again soon.”

There was no way in hell I was going to fall asleep again now. I had to tell Nora how I really felt, before she came to her senses.

The last thing I wanted was to—

“
H
ow is he
?” Duke asked as I returned to the waiting area.

Duke and Gayle had showed up after getting everyone out of the gym, and finishing up what sounded like a rather awkward conversation with the police.

“He woke up and the doctors ran some tests. They’re not telling me anything and now he’s asleep again.”

Gayle growled in frustration. “We tried to get details, but no one will tell us anything because we’re not family.”

“We’re the closest thing he has to family,” Duke snapped, blaming the messenger.

“I know that,” Gayle replied. “But they have so many fucking rules at these places.”

“I bet they’d let us pay the bill though, wouldn’t they?” Duke replied.

We sat there in silence, occasionally getting up to pace around the waiting room. Every time a doctor or nurse entered the room, we looked up expectantly hoping for news. Nothing.

The battery on my phone had died a long time ago, and I could only keep myself amused for so long with out-of-date women’s magazines.

I’d had enough. I stood up and stormed over to the reception desk. Just before I could make a scene and get myself kicked out, Alison came into the room and motioned for me to join her in a private room.

That couldn’t be good. What couldn’t she tell us in public?

I grabbed Gayle and Duke and the four of us stood in a small room looked a lot like it might be for grieving relatives.

“Tell us what’s going on,” Duke demanded as soon as the door was shut. “And don’t give us that BS about not being relatives because—”

“Duke, calm down. Alison is a friend.”

“This is Duke?” Alison asked.

I nodded. “You can tell us, right?”

“Yeah. I told the attending physician that you three were essentially family in all but name. Oh, and if he asks, Nora, you’re engaged to Riker.”

I nodded. I’d marry him right this second if I thought it would make difference.

“What’s the news?” Gayle asked nervously.

“He responded well to all the tests for brain damage. We won’t be able to say for sure for another few days, but he seems fine. Mentally.”

“Physically?” I asked.

“He’s got a few broken bones.”

“That’s normal after a fight,” Duke explained.

“There’s nothing normal about it,” Alison snapped back, forgetting the professional demeanor she’d been keeping in place so far. “He’s broken his nose, a couple of ribs, and he has fractures on his cheekbones. But that’s not the problem.”

“What is?” I asked. “You said he was going to be fine.”

“I said I thought he would be fine
mentally
. Physically, I’m concerned.”

“Broken bones always heal,” Duke said casually. “Trust me, that guy has had more broken bones than you’ll see in ten years on the job.”

“He has a subdural hematoma,” Alison said. “The blow to the head lead to a build up of blood beneath the skill. We drained a build up of blood to keep him out of immediate danger, but if he takes another knock like that he could suffer a stroke. Or worse.”

Gayle and I read between the lines a bit quicker than Duke, who was still trying to process everything he’d heard.

“So how long will that take to heal?” Duke asked. “I can guarantee you the first question he’s going to ask when he wakes up is ‘when can I have a rematch with Elliot?’”

“The build up of blood is always going to be there,” Alison replied. “The risk of further damage is low enough that we don’t want to risk brain surgery. However, that means he must avoid any serious trauma to the head.”

“He’s a fighter,” Duke said. “How can he avoid serious trauma to the head?”

“By not fighting,” Alison replied impatiently. “Riker cannot fight again. Never.”

This was all my fault. I’d practically wished for this. I’d wanted him to stop fighting, and now he had no choice. All it took was a life-threatening injury.

Riker would be devastated at this news. Fighting was his life, and I doubted I would be able to replace that role, no matter how much I wanted to.

“You should all go home and get some sleep,” Alison suggested. “He’s going to be out for hours.”

“I’m staying,” I replied immediately. “Can I wait in his room?”

Alison hesitated and then nodded. “Just you though. I don’t want too many people crowding over him when he wakes up.”

“You two should go home,” I said to Duke and Gayle. “I’ll call you if anything happens.”

“Your battery’s dead,” Gayle pointed out.

“Oh shit, you’re right.”

“I have a charger in my locker,” Alison said. “I’ll go get it.”

“Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.”

“That’s the idea,” she replied, as she left the room.

“He’s not going to take the news well,” Gayle said.

“I’ll tell him,” I replied. “Better he hate me than either of you.”

“He’s not going to hate you,” Duke said. “Trust me on that.”

“We’ll see.”

I didn’t have Duke’s confidence. All this was my fault. I should never have gone to the fight. At one point, I thought he’d seen me, and I’d been a distraction, but I knew that couldn’t be the case.

There’s no way he’d have been able to pick me out in the crowd while in the middle of the toughest fight of his career.

But I still felt guilty.

I’d gotten what I wanted, but I’d never felt so empty.

I
woke
up to the sight of a drowsy looking Nora battling to stay awake by the side of my bed.

She looked exhausted. Her face was pale, and there were large bags under her eyes. To me, she was still the most beautiful person I’d ever laid eyes on. There was no one else I’d rather be looking at right now.

My body quickly adapted to being awake this time. I could open my eyes without it blinding me, and after clearing my throat I could actually talk.

“You look as bad as I feel,” I said groggily.

Nora jumped at the sound of my voice as if she’d previously been sleeping with her eyes open.

“You’re awake.”

“More so than you by the looks of it.”

I tried to sit up in bed, but the second I lifted my body from the mattress, the blood seemed to drain from my head and I became dizzy.

At least my muscles seemed to work now. I moved all my limbs, and even made sure there was still life in my cock. Never hurt to check these things.

“Hang on,” Nora said, before pressing a button to raise the bed and tilt me into a half-sitting, half-laying position.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, I am. There’s no problem with your eyes.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I went to the fight.”

I almost answered ‘I know,’ but stopped myself just in time. I didn’t want Nora to know I’d seen her in the crowd. If she knew that, she might work out why I was distracted just before I took the knock-out blow.

I couldn’t let Nora blame herself for this mess.

“I thought you hated me fighting,” I replied.

“I do, but I wanted to support you. Besides, I know how important fighting is to you.”

“It’s my life.”

Nora looked down at her feet and rubbed her tired eyes.

My life was fighting in a steel cage. That was all I had. What did that say about me? Even when someone positive had come into my life, I’d just pushed her away and kept her at distance.

I told myself I just wanted to protect her, but it wasn’t only that. I was scared. It sounds stupid for a fighter to be scared of something so minor as a relationship, but the truth was undeniable. I’d panicked out of fear, and I didn’t know if I would get a second chance.

“It’s probably a stupid question,” Nora said slowly, “but how are you feeling?”

“Weak,” I replied. “My entire body feels lethargic, as if I’m recovering from the flu.”

“They’ve given you a lot of drugs.”

“There’s some pain in my chest when I breathe.”

“That’ll be the cracked ribs.”

“Yeah, I thought the feeling was familiar.”

I never noticed ribs breaking during fights, but I could sure as hell feel them after. I had a broken nose as well, but that would heal easily enough.

“Any headaches?” Nora asked.

I closed my eyes for a second, but couldn’t detect any pain in my head. My body ached all over, and there was a feeling of numbness about me, but no pain.

“I’m fine,” I replied. “I’ll be up and about in no time.”

Nora smiled. She was trying to be reassuring, but nothing in that smile had me convinced. There was bad news.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing that can’t wait until you’re better.”

“I’m not going to get better if I’m worried about what bad news you have. Spit it out. As you know only too well, I’m a big boy. I can handle it.”

Nora smiled a little more warmly this time, but she still looked uncomfortable.

“The doctors can explain it a lot better than I can,” she said.

“And I won’t be able to understand them. Put it in layman’s terms for me.”

“You took a nasty blow to the head.”

“I figured that much out,” I replied. “I still remember the knee slamming into me. Then everything went dark.”

“You have a subdural hematoma—a build up of blood under your skull. The surgeons had to operate.”

Any surgery involving my skull was not a thought I relished, but at least I couldn’t remember it.

“I’m okay now?”

“You aren’t in any immediate danger. You just need to make sure not to get another blow to the head like that.”

“Well that’s not so bad,” I replied. “I just need to make sure I keep my focus next time, and avoid getting knocked out.”

“You don’t understand,” Nora said softly. “There can’t be a next time. You can’t fight again, Riker. It’s too risky.”

Nora had never wanted me to fight, so at first I didn’t take her words seriously. I was about to argue when I noticed the look in her eyes. Tears had formed in the corner of each eye, and they weren’t tears of joy to see me awake.

She meant it. I couldn’t fight again.

If I couldn’t fight, what the hell could I do? I wasn’t about to start stacking shelves in a supermarket. I didn’t have what one manager had once described as a “customer-facing personality.” In other words, I scared off the shoppers.

I had to keep fighting. I had to make it into the UFC. I had to face Tyler Young in the ring.

“I’ll wear a head brace,” I said desperately. “Something with a bit of padding.”

“That won’t help. Besides, I can’t imagine your opponents would allow that.”

For the first time since I’d woken up, I tore my gaze away from Nora and stared up at the ceiling. There had to be a way out of this, but I sure as hell couldn’t think of one right now.

“How long will I be stuck in here for?” I asked.

“A month or so. They need to do daily tests, and you’ll have to have some physical therapy as well to make sure your coordination and balance haven’t been affected.”

“What then?”

“Then we sit down and work this out. Together.”

I tried to shake my head, but that hurt my neck. She’d told the nurse she loved me. Had she meant it, or had it just been in the heat of the moment?

Either way, I couldn’t be with Nora now. Before the injury, I had a job she hated. Now, I didn’t even have a job.

“I don’t need you to look after me,” I said defiantly.

“I’m not going to be looking after you,” she replied. “You’ll be back on your feet before you know it.”

“I’m only good for one thing, and I can’t do that any more.”

“Actually,” Nora said, smiling, “you’re good for something else as well, and the doctor said you won’t have any problems with that.”

In spite of everything, I smiled. I couldn’t help it. She just had that effect on me.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I’m not sure everything’s working down there. How about you come a little closer and we can test it out.”

Nora laughed. “You are under a cocktail of drugs that could knock out an elephant, you have broken bones, and I haven’t slept in over thirty hours.”

“What’s your point?”

“My point is that until the doctors say otherwise, the only thing you’re doing in that bed is resting.”

My cock hardened enough to raise the bed covers and make it clear that rest was the last thing on my mind.

Nora caught sight of it and smiled. “How are you even awake?” Nora asked. “You should be asleep, not horny.”

“That’s the effect you have on me. Come on, I’ve always wanted to do it in a hospital.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t already. You’re in here often enough from what I hear.”

“Ugh, nurses these days are so boring. It’s all ‘no, you need to rest,’ or ‘you’ll tear your stitches out,’ or ‘I’ll get fired,’ or ‘that won’t fit inside me.’ ”

Nora shook her head in mock despair. “You just need to get better insurance, I suppose. Actually, speaking of stitches, you have a rather nasty scar on your side. The doctor asked me how you got it, but I didn’t know.”

I clasped my hand to the scar. It still hurt every time I thought about the dull blade piercing my skin and tearing at the flesh. “Tyler,” I muttered in reply.

“The guy from prison?” Nora asked.

I nodded. “He didn’t fight fair.”

Nora lifted the bedcovers up to get a look at the scar, but I distracted her with a glimpse of something much larger and altogether more interesting.

Nora stared down at my cock as it twitched with desire and longing. She bit her lip and gasped gently, as the same desire flooding me washed over her as well.

“Whatever you do,” Nora said, licking her lips, “don’t tell your doctors about this.”

Before I could reply, her hot, succulent lips were wrapped around my cock, and her head had disappeared view.

“Oh shit,” I yelled, as her lips nearly made it to the base of my cock, before she came up, sucking as if her life depended on it.

I let out a low groan, before realizing that perhaps sounding like I was in pain while in hospital, was just a surefire way to get interrupted.

She couldn’t fit my entire cock in her mouth, but she got damn close, which is more than most women did. The tip of my head tickled the back of her throat, but she managed not to gag. Just.

My cock throbbed and pulsed in her warm, wet mouth as Nora kept inching further and further down my cock. When she pulled up, she gasped for air, and then went immediately back down on it, determined not to stop until I’d finished.

She didn’t have to wait long.

My muscles stiffened—or at least, the ones that still worked did—and I gritted my teeth before releasing and exploding into Nora’s mouth.

Nora kept her lips clamped tight over my cock; not a drop of air, or anything else, escaping the seal, until she had swallowed every last drop.

When her head reappeared by the side of the bed she was licking her lips with seductive abandon.

“Now do you promise to get some rest?” she asked with a grin.

“Whatever you say, nurse,” I replied. “Speaking of rest, you should get home. You need the sleep even more than I do.”

Nora didn’t put up too much of a fight. She had even less energy than me at this point. I kept the smile on my face until she left the room. Once she was out of sight, I let my real emotions wash over me.

Much to my surprise, I was still smiling.

I’d thought that fighting Tyler was the only important thing in my life, but over the last few weeks I’d barely thought about him.

I’d lost my identity. I was no longer a fighter. I’d lost the only thing important to me.

But I’d gained something even better. Nora.