Parallel Seduction Read Free Page A

cute.
    "Now, are you going to tell me about those dreams of yours or not, Lieutenant? 'Cause it's two in the morning, and it's going to be a long shift otherwise."
    "Is that why you backed off my meds?"
    "You needed to wake up a little, sir. That's all. Besides, you missed Hope Harper's last three visits."
    He studied the ceiling tiles so she wouldn't see how the news that Hope had visited him while he slept—repeatedly—made his heart race. Unfortunately, he couldn't control the monitors beside his bed, and their previously semi-steady beeping accelerated like mad. He raked a hand through his disheveled hair, willing his heart to cease its rapid palpitations.
    "Look, next time she comes … wake me up, all right?"
    "Are you sure you don't prefer those dreams?" Shelby ventured silkily. "Because from the sound of it—"
    "Wake me up," he commanded, assuming his voice of leadership.
    "Got it, sir." She stood and pulled down his sheet, which he immediately jerked back over himself. After all, he was totally naked beneath the thin material, and he wasn't exactly prepared for his nurse to see him in the buff.
    "I have to check your bandages," she reminded him, reaching yet again for the cover and giving it a staunch tug.
    This time the cool fabric rose like a ship's sail, then popped back with a crisp salute, totally exposing him. But Shelby never looked at his groin—or any other part of his anatomy, for that matter—training all of her attention on gently unfastening the dressing on his right thigh.
    As she bent over him, her brow knit in concentration, it occurred to him that she fit the profile. His profile. She was small, compact, and had fabulously large breasts. His taste for her type—in the human variety—had been nearly insatiable, as he'd chased them almost endlessly in the bars around Jackson and Teton Village. Even Jared had recently remarked on his need for human women, and Scott had absolutely no defense for his actions. It almost seemed like some sort of compulsion written into his hybrid DNA, as if the part of his genetic map that read "human" drove him like a randy missile to seek the females of humankind for mating.
    Yet nothing in him was stirred by this blonde medic's proximity, her beauty, nor even his own sheer nakedness, and it wouldn't have been even if she were human. The inescapable fact was that his love of petite, fair-skinned blondes had now been directed toward one specific and very particular human woman: Hope Harper. And now with the sensual dreams of her kicking in like his sought-after pain meds, it didn't seem he had a chance in hell of curbing his attraction toward the woman.
    He was lost to her already. Completely. He only prayed that time and his injured body wouldn't prove him a fool.
    "I've been dreaming about her as my wife," he whispered into the half darkness, staring at the top of Shelby's bent head. "And other things … since I was a prisoner at Warren."
    He wasn't sure why he suddenly felt like confessing, or why he yearned to tell this stranger his secrets, but relief fell over him like a soothing blanket of protection.
    She nodded, continuing to inspect his wound. "Kinda strange, isn't that?"
    "It's got me all tangled up inside."
    Shelby reapplied the bandage, gently covered him with the sheet, and then collapsed into the chair beside him again. "Yeah, well, that Hope really is something else," she agreed with a bob of her head. "A real piece of work, that one."
    He frowned, not sure what she meant. But he didn't have to ask, either, because she quickly continued, "I mean, it's like she doesn't even realize she's almost blind. She just pops down here every few hours, determined to see you, but doesn't even worry about herself. I'd be worried if I couldn't see where I was going around this place. Wouldn't you?"
    An inexplicable melancholy came over him then; he'd thought talking to Shelby would ease his murky feelings of desire and longing for Hope.