you being slow.”
Irritated, Leo rose out of the chair. She looked at him, her gaze traveling the length of him. He ignored the flicker of sensual awareness as she studied him. She had to tip her head back to see his face.
“I think you need to settle down there.”
She looked past him to Jeff. “Is he your bodyguard?”
“No, ma’am.” Leo heard the amusement in Jeff’s voice, but he ignored it.
She looked back at Leo. “I would suggest you take a seat and shut it, soldier. I’m here for Markinson not some overgrown idiot.”
He stepped in front of her to stop her. That was a mistake. This close he could see the sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her cute nose. Her skin wasn’t ivory, but golden, as if she spent a lot of time in the sun. Worse, her scent teased his senses. It wasn’t anything like perfume, though, just sexy, musky woman.
He shook his head and tried to keep his mind on the problem at hand. “Your attitude needs an adjustment.”
She looked up at him. He expected something different than the annoyance he read in her eyes. One perfectly sculpted eyebrow rose.
“Oh, really? Listen, I have two more people to work with today and Markinson here takes the longest because he whines. A lot.”
“Aw, come on, Johnson, I don’t.” Jeff did sound like he was whining but he wasn’t about to take the nurse’s side in the argument.
“Pftt. You cry more than a cheerleader with a broken fingernail.”
Leo was ready to give the woman a piece of his mind but he heard Jeff chuckle. “Santini, you can cool it. Johnson is all bark and no bite.”
She looked past Leo again, her attention focusing on Jeff. He could see the slight softening of her gaze. If he hadn’t been watching so closely, he would have missed it.
“Don’t be lying to these people here or I will make you regret it.”
She had lowered her voice, but he heard the change in her tone. It hit him that she was handling Jeff the same way his mother handled him and his brothers.
When she looked back at Leo, her gaze hardened. “Are you going to move, Santini, or do I need to make you cry like a girl, too?”
He wanted to argue with her. She was mean as they said but he realized it might be part of her job. As a medic himself, he understood the position she was in. Sometimes patients needed to be pushed. He nodded and stepped aside.
“Now that the bulldog is going to let me near you I have to say I am ashamed of you. Talking about me behind my back. That’s just not right, Markinson.”
She motioned behind her and that’s when Leo saw the orderly. Leo stepped out of the way and she pulled the curtain closed.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Jeff said.
“Yeah? What if some sweet little old lady walked by and got a shot of you moving and you showed her some skin. She’d pass out. Can’t cause that kind of ruckus.”
Leo could tell from her voice she was joking but he knew that she had done it to save his friend the embarrassment of being lifted in front of Leo. His opinion of her went up a notch.
The curtain opened quickly and he found himself face to face with her again. Well, face to chest because she was so much shorter than he was. And in that short minute, he couldn’t think. She was looking up at him with those amazing eyes and his brain just stopped functioning. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise and all he could think was that he wanted a taste.
She recovered faster than he did. “Make a hole, Santini.”
She barked the order like a drill sergeant. Years of being raised by a Marine and years in the military came raring up and he acted immediately. Once he did, he noticed she let out a slow breath.
“Markinson will be back in about forty five minutes if he isn’t too much of a wimp today. Come on,” she said and marched out the door.
“You don’t have to wait around, Santini,” Jeff said. “I’m not that much on company when I get back.”
“Do you have any physical therapy
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