Heal Me (Magnolia Series Book 2) Read online

  He gives me small sweet pecks in return before tucking my head against his chest. “Sweet dreams, Hummingbird. I love you.”

  “I love you too, baby. Sleep tight,” I whisper, finally letting sleep take me.

  ~

  I slowly wake up feeling a warm, hard body pressed against my back while hands and lips ghost over my bare skin. At first, I think I’m dreaming, but then memories of last night flood my consciousness and I can’t help but shiver as my body remembers its skilled admirer.

  “Good morning, beautiful. Did you have sweet dreams?” he asks, slowly kissing his way up my neck.

  His voice has the ability to turn me into a greedy cat, stretching and begging to be petted some more. I hum happily and turn over, being mindful of his shoulder and leg. “Good morning, handsome.” I smile up at him, my fingers going straight to play in his sexy bed head. It’s way too adorable to resist. “No dreams, but I slept better than I have in awhile. How about you?”

  He just smiles at me, his hand trailing over my stomach. He looks happier than I’ve ever seen him, and it’s impossible not to smile right back. He’s so gorgeous with his messy hair, day old scruff, and that joy shining out of his blue eyes. I love seeing it on his face and knowing it’s all for me.

  “What’s got you so happy this morning?” I ask after several long minutes pass of nothing but smiles between us.

  He leans down and kisses from my forehead to my nose. “You. Seeing that beautiful smile again. Nothing’s better.”

  I reach over and run my fingernail down the valley between his pecs and abs.

  He buries his face into my neck and I get warm, wet kisses and whispers breathed into my ear. “I love you.”

  My breath hitches, and my heart skips a beat. Hearing him say those three little words will never get old.

  In no time, he has me panting and moaning as he continues to explore my neck with his lips and tongue.

  I pull his head back before he renders me speechless and look into his beautiful, crystal blue eyes while my fingers trail over his scruffy jaw. “I love you too,” I whisper.

  Those eyes instantly go from shiny and bright to dark and intense right before his lips crash against mine. More moans escape my throat as his tongue sweeps into my mouth and another part of him presses into my hip.

  I shiver remembering how good he felt inside of me last night. I want him there again so I tell him so. “I need you, Nik. Now,” I pant against his lips.

  “Soon, love. Let me touch you for a while,” his velvet voice whispers in my ear, as his hand and lips begin to roam again.

  Dear God, he’s going to be the death of me.

  He bends his head over my breast and I watch as his tongue swirls around my nipple. My hips buck as a bolt of pleasure runs straight to my core, but his hand is already there to press them back down again. He keeps his attention slow and steady, licking and sucking my nipple as if it’s a sugary treat he wants to last forever. His hand is cupped over my mound the whole time as my hips rise and fall, desperate for more friction.

  It’s only been minutes and I’m already at the edge. My body has never responded so readily before. He plays it as if he knows its every string, note, and chord by heart.

  “Nik, please,” I beg him, reaching down between us to wrap my hand around his length and squeezing it gently, hoping to spur him on.

  “Greedy,” he growls, my nipple trapped between his teeth, his hips pumping his dick against my palm.

  His name rips from my throat when he slides into my wet aching walls a second later and immediately starts pressing against that spot deep inside me that only he knows. His fingers start rolling over my clit while his tongue begins to flick the nipple he’s sucked into his mouth. He’s everywhere at once, overwhelming me in the most delicious way. A few blissfully torturous moments later, I shatter around him. He follows right behind me, his pleasure sending delicious aftershocks through me.

  He halfway collapses onto my side. “Best morning ever,” I hear him whisper through my heavy panting.

  I giggle my agreement, then my stomach growls loudly.

  Nik’s head and eyebrows shoot up as he grins down at me. “Uh oh, I made my Hummingbird hungry. We best feed her so she’ll have plenty of energy for later,” he growls and nibbles on my neck, making me squeal.

  He continues to nibble and tickle me into a fit of giggles until I hear something ringing and I beg him to stop. “Nik! Wait, wait, wait! I hear something.”

  “You’re just trying to distract me,” he growls again but his hand stalls above me when the ringing peals through the house again. “Is that the doorbell? Is someone supposed to be here?” he asks.

  Then it hits me – it’s Tuesday morning.

  “Oh shit, Nik! That’s gotta be your PT guy. We totally forgot you have therapy today,” I scramble out of the bed and run to the dresser to find him some clothes. I grab him a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and toss them to him as he swings his feet over the side of the bed. “Here, you get dressed while I go answer the door,” I tell him, but don’t give him a chance to respond because the dude outside is trying to kill my doorbell. I run out of the room to save it and my ears.

  “HUMMINGBIRD!!” Nik yells before I barely make it out of the room, scaring me half to death.

  I spin around. “What?!? What’s wrong?”

  He’s smirking but his eyebrows are drawn down in a scowl. “Clothes, Hummingbird. You better be putting on some clothes, because I’m not too keen on Mr. Impatient out there getting a free peep show of my girl.”

  “Oh my God! I almost answered the door naked! And it’s all your fault because you… you… you. ARH! I can’t think straight after you turn my insides to jelly and with you sitting there looking like that,” I yell and wave my hands wildly at his insanely gorgeous and still very naked body.

  His laughter fills the room as I stomp around looking for something to put on. I settle for one of his t-shirts and a pair of his boxers, shoving my body into them as quickly as I can before heading towards the door.

  But, once more, Nik stops me. This time he grabs my hand as I walk past him then pulls me between his thighs.

  “Nik,” I whine, “that guy is gonna beat down the door if I don’t hurry.”

  “Give me a kiss first,” he insists, puckering his lips up at me adorably, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

  All the tension leaves my body at seeing it and I lean down and give him a big smooch. “Mmmmm, I love you,” I hum.

  He smiles brilliantly. “I love you too, now go answer the door,” he says, turning me around and smacking me soundly on my ass.

  “Hey! Watch it, mister! I will get you back for that,” I try to fuss, but fail because I’m too flustered and giggly.

  He just winks at me as I finally make it out of the bedroom. I hurry down the hall to the front door – which is now being pounded on – and fling it open. “I’m so sorry! We were still asleep,” I blurt out hurriedly to the guy behind it.

  “Sorry! You guys had me worried. I didn’t know if something might be wrong with Mr. Jensen. Hello, by the way, I’m Tristan the physical therapist. We spoke on the phone last week,” he says with a big smile, his hand held out for me to shake.

  Now that I’ve had a chance to calm down and really look at him, all I can say is…Hello, Tristan! Lordy, he’s cute! Guess I’m about to find out if my jolly giant is hiding a big green monster under all his sweetness.

  I smile back and shake his hand. “Hey, Tristan, I’m Ellie. Come on in and I’ll get Nik. You can set up in the living room over there,” I invite him in and wave him that way.

  EVERYBODY KNOWS SHE’S MINE

  ~

  Nik

  After Ellie comes back and helps me get dressed, I hobble out to meet this Tristan dude. I have a feeling I’m going to have a love-hate relationship with him. I want to speed up my recovery, but I’m not looking forward to the pain he’s going to put me through to achieve that.

  I find him s
tanding in the living room filling out paperwork on his clipboard. For some reason, I immediately start sizing him up, even though I’m not normally one to do that.

  He’s definitely shorter than me, by at least five or six inches. He’s smaller built too, not that I’m a ‘roid head or anything, but still. All and all, he’s a shrimp.

  Nik, 1; Tristan, big fat ZERO.

  By the look of his arms, he obviously works out though. He has a sleeve of tattoos on each of them, and I can see them under his collar too. I got nothing against those, unless Ellie likes them.

  Nik, 2 Tristan, 1.

  I also get a point for working out.

  He’s got dark hair and eyes. Ellie likes my blond hair and she just told me not forty-five minutes ago that my blue eyes are her second favorite thing about me.

  Nik, 3; Tristan, 1.

  He comes to life as soon as he realizes I’m in the room. “Oh hey! There you are. I’m Tristan. It’s nice to meet you, Nik.”

  Shit, he has manners and a friendly smile. Good thing I get point for those too.

  Nik, 4; Tristan, 2.

  I’m gonna hold off on giving him a point for being friendly. First impressions aren’t everything.

  “Hey, nice to meet you too, I think. I’ll tell you for sure after I see what kind of torture you have planned for me,” I joke, shaking his hand.

  He laughs and then throws his clipboard back into his bag. “I’ll take it easy on you today. I just want to see where you’re at and then Wednesday we can really get to work. Sound like a plan?”

  “Yep, I wanna be back to normal asap, so bring it on.”

  “My kinda patient. Walk back and forth a time or two with the crutch and then without and let me see how your range of motion is. Take it easy, though, we’re not trying for any awards today.”

  I make three turns around the living room. With the crutch it isn’t so bad, but without hurts like a bitch today. I can’t help but grin knowing why that is.

  He smiles when he notices mine. “Bet it’s nice to be able to move around, huh?”

  If you only knew, buddy.

  “Yeah, much better than how I’ve been the last few weeks,” I say in response to his question, as well my thoughts.

  Next, he waves me towards the recliner. “All right, you’re not doing half bad, considering. You’re really stiff, but that’s completely normal. Take a seat. Everything else we can do with you sitting down.”

  I lower myself down while he holds the chair still for me.

  “Let’s see how your arm’s doing. Do a couple of curls for me.”

  I do those with no problem.

  “Good. Now I want you to push down on my fist and then push it up. Try not to use your bi’s and tri’s too much,” he says, holding his arm out to me. “Like I said before though, no heroics.”

  Yeah, that hurts. And I can’t believe how weak my arm has gotten in just a few weeks.

  He notices my disappointment. “Hey, no worries, man. You got shot and you’ve hardly used it in three weeks. It’s not just the bone healing but your muscles too. It’s gonna take some time. I’ll give you a few gentle exercises to do over the next month to keep it moving and once your shoulder blade is completely healed, you can go back to the heavy weights. It’ll be back to normal in no time. I’m gonna stretch your leg, knee, and ankle a bit now. It’s not gonna feel good, but we need to see how much work we have to do. Let me know the second it’s too much, all right?”

  “Yep. Go for it.”

  He takes my leg in his hands, one under my ankle and the other just below my knee, and lifts it up as far as my muscles and ligaments will let him then lowers it down to a more comfortable level.

  I’m stiff for sure, but there really isn’t any pain.

  He shifts the hand he has on my ankle to the bottom of my foot and puts the other one above my knee on my thigh this time and slowly presses my knee towards my chest.

  Ouch.

  “Where’d you feel that?” he asks when he sees me wince.

  “Umm, mostly my ankle and knee. They’re really stiff. But it wasn’t too bad.”

  “All right, push against my hand until your leg is straight,” he tells me, squeezing my foot as he gently presses against it.

  I press back against him until I get it straight, but FUCKING A, does it hurt.

  “Yeah, that one will probably be your toughest to overcome. This type of movement puts more pressure on your bones than walking does. You’ll hate my guts the first time I make you do squats,” he says, with a slight smirk.

  I might already hate you, asshole.

  “I want you to flex your foot forward then backwards. Go slow and easy,” he says, still holding my leg.

  Son of a bitch! I don’t know which way is worse. Both make it feel like my ankle is going to explode.

  Ellie’s suddenly by my side and pries my hand off the armrest to hold in hers. “Is it really necessary to make it so painful for him?” she asks, brushing my hair off my forehead gently.

  I forget about the pain when I see her. She’s wearing what must be one of the new outfits she got last week. It’s a pair of tight black shorts and a baby blue top that’s all soft and flowy looking. She looks amazing in it. Her hair is falling in waves around her beautiful face and she has on just a tiny bit of lip gloss and mascara, just like the day I met her. The glow she’s had since this morning, along with the pink that’s blooming in her cheeks as I stare at her, makes her absolutely breathtaking. At least to me anyway.

  “I’m afraid so, Ellie. No pain, no gain, they say,” Tristan responds brightly, breaking us out of our love bubble. His smirk has turned into a hundred-watt smile as he looks at Ellie.

  Yep, I fucking hate him.

  The way her name sounded coming out of his mouth makes me want to deck him. Not to mention how he’s looking at her.

  Keep it up, asshole, keep it up.

  “Therapy isn’t a walk in the park. It’s gonna take a lot of work to get this leg back to normal and pain free,” he continues, rolling my ankle around, none too gently.

  I jerk my foot against his hold, ignoring the shock of pain it sends up my leg, trying to wake him up from his Ellie stupor. I get it, she gorgeous, but she’s mine!

  His smile falters a bit when he finally peels his eyes off my girl and looks at me. I have no doubt my anger is very evident. He does his best to recover, plastering a fake smile on his face. “You’re doing great, man. Really,” he sputters.

  I glare at him. I’ll just blame it on the pain.

  Ellie turns my scowling face toward her worried one. Seeing those blues eyes and the love they hold calms me a bit.

  “You okay? I’m sure he’ll let you take a break if you need it.”

  Nope. No way am I letting asshole think I’m a wimp. “I’m good, love. This is nothing compared to getting shot.” I smile at her and pull her down for a quick kiss. She doesn’t hesitate to return it.

  Take that, buddy.

  “I’m gonna go fix you breakfast then, if you’re good without me,” she says, reaching up to smooth my hair down with a grin. I didn’t bother to brush it earlier, so it’s probably a mess after last night and this morning.

  I kiss her other hand. “I’m good. I promise,” I assure her. “Breakfast sounds fantastic. I need to replenish some of my energy,” I tease her with a wink.

  She rolls her eyes and does her best not to smile too much then leans over again and kisses my cheek. “I’m looking forward to depleting it again,” she whispers in my ear before she stands up and walks away.

  I turn and watch her sweet little ass being so lovingly caressed in those shorts, as she heads to the kitchen. Just before she gets there I call out to her, “Hey, Ellie?”

  She stops, turning back to look at me. “Yeah?”

  “I love you.”

  I can see the blush rising on her cheeks from way over here, and her brilliant smile too. “I love you too, Nik,” she says, then blows me a kiss before disappearing.


  I look back at asshole with a big smile on my face. His smile is barely hanging on.

  He shakes his head. “You’re one lucky bastard, dude. How long y’all been married?” he asks.

  To lie or not to lie?

  “I am very lucky and we’re not married yet, but we’re working on it,” I tell him.

  There, I didn’t lie, not really.

  “Well, best of luck to you then,” he tells me with a smirk.

  “Thanks. How soon before you can get me mobile enough to dance?” I ask him.

  He gives me a dubious look. “You need to dance at the wedding?”

  “No. Ellie was never able to go to prom so I’m going to put one together for her. The works. But none of that will matter if I can’t dance with her most of the night.”

  “Nice man. She’ll love that. Any woman would. Uh, I’d say two months before you can be on it for several hours straight without it killing you. You’ll need to block out three or four days afterward to get over it too.”

  Tristan stays another thirty minutes or so, then finally packs up and leaves. If I could’ve moved around well enough, I would’ve shoved his smiling ass out the door much sooner. When Ellie came back with my breakfast, he only had eyes for her. She smiled back at him, but you could tell she was just being polite. He’s supposed to be coming here three times a week for the next month or so too.

  Just no. Hell no.

  Ellie can take me to his office and drop me off. Or I’ll get Al to come get me. Either way, he’s not coming back out here to flirt with her.

  “Hey you. What’s got you all scowly?” Ellie asks, sitting down on the couch beside me.

  “Hey. Where’d you come from?” I dodge her question with one of my own, adding my best smile as another distraction. It’s real though, I can’t help but smile when I see her looking so light and free.

  She leans over and kisses my lips when I pucker them up towards her. “I just finished cleaning the kitchen and putting supper in the slowcooker. How does roast and potatoes sound?”