Page 7 of Relentless
“I’m more than happy to follow your orders, Doc,” he said, with a cocky arch of his eyebrow and a teasing grin. Sabina snickered as Asher and Chad groaned. Sonya and Michael both sighed. Again.
“I think some of those pain meds are still in your system,” she shot back with an eye roll.
“Unfortunately, I think you’re wrong about that,” Asher said. “I think we’re going to have to endure weeks of innuendos about you playing doctor, Kara. Even though you’re not his doctor. I hope you’re up for that.”
“I know I am,” Ethan said with a grin. Sonya closed her eyes, no doubt praying for patience, while Michael hid a laugh behind a cough.
Sabina, on the other hand, smacked his good leg. “Stop acting like you’re seventeen and leave my sister alone.” Her reprimand might have carried weight had she not said it on a snort of laughter.
“He’s only reverting because he doesn’t want to face the fact that he’s going to be bedridden for at least a few weeks,” Michael said. “None of the boys—or girls—were any good at sitting still.”
“Yes, well, he’s an adult now—occasionally, anyway—and he’s going to have to deal with it,” Sonya said.
“I agree, Mom,” Ethan said. “And I have no doubt that having Kara nursing me back to health will help me deal—”
“Do not finish that sentence, Ethan Warwick,” Sabina interjected.
“I don’t know, I think it could be kind of fun,” Asher muttered.
“I wouldn’t mind hearing the rest,” Michael added, earning an arched brow from his wife.
Chad sighed. “Please don’t make Sabina regret marrying into this family.”
Nothing the Warwicks did would ever make Sabina regret marrying Chad, and the ridiculousness of the conversation made it impossible for Kara not to laugh. “Believe me,” she said, stepping into the fray. “There is nothing Ethan can dish out that I haven’t dealt with before. You forget what I’ve been doing and where I’ve been living these past eight years. Compared to some of the men I’ve treated, Ethan is practically a gentleman.” Everyone in the room except Ethan chuckled. His brow dropped and a small frown touched his lips. Ignoring his curious reaction, she continued. “And what I’m about to say is probably going to make the jokes and innuendos ten times worse.”
“Oh, yay,” Sabina said, sarcasm heavy in her tone.
“Hush and listen to your sister,” Chad said. “Ireallywant to hear where this is going.” Sabina shook her head at her grinning husband, but turned an expectant look on her.
Kara took a deep breath. “My house, or at least the one I’m staying in for the next two months, is the only house with a bedroom on the ground floor.”
After a beat, Asher spoke. “And?”
She glanced at Ethan to see a grin spreading across his face. A wolfish grin that had her heart rate picking up. She might regret what she was about to say. Putting the two of them together wouldn’t be the relaxing two months she’d planned for herself. It might even be akin to throwing gasoline on a fire that she wasn’t prepared to handle.
But she couldn’t deny that the idea also teased and pricked her sense of adventure.
She was tempting fate—or something—and she knew it.
So did he.
And she did it anyway.
“When he’s discharged,” she said, “I think he needs to come home with me.”
CHAPTERFOUR
“Stay hereuntil I get the garage open and the alarm off,” Kara said. In the passenger seat beside her, Ethan ignored the order and reached for the door handle.
“I am not an invalid. I’ll be fine,” he said, his tone as close to snapping as she’d ever heard it. She could hardly blame him, though. They’d waited hours for the ortho consult, only to have the doctor confirm Kara’s tentative prognosis and recovery plan. Then after that, a snafu with his discharge papers had them waiting another several hours. It was now close to midnight, and he’d refused any medication stronger than Advil since she’d first arrived at the hospital. Between the fatigue and the pain, Ethan was just plain cranky.
She put a hand on his arm to stop him from exiting the car. He may be irritable, but chancing further injury wasn’t going to happen. Not on her watch. “You are, in fact, an invalid,” she said. “Remember what the doctor said? You need to keep your leg immobile for two weeks. Then two more weeks of reduced movement. I know that’s not always going to be possible, but I’m not going to allow you to push it any more than necessary.”
“You know how conservative doctors are. She didn’t mean it,” he shot back.
Kara let her head fall back against the headrest and looked heavenward. “Lord save me from patients who think they know more than I do.”
Ethan narrowed his eyes at her. “What does that mean?”
