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PIPER
The dayafter Leo was discharged was my day off. Usually, that meant sleeping in. After three twelve-hour workdays in a row, I usually needed it—especially since twelve hours shifts often turned into at least fifteen. But for some reason, I was up bright and early around midday. Energy coursed through me even before my coffee.
But as I caught up on some household tasks around my apartment, I realized it wasn't normal energy. It was more like restless energy, and at first, I couldn’t figure out why.
At work, I prided myself for my stamina. But on my days off, I was a lot more low-key. Except today.
Was it because of Leo? I was definitely going to miss him. There was no doubt that he and his friends were involved in some bad things, but he himself was a real charmer. Even when he was in pain, he had a smile ready for me, usually accompanied by a flirty comment. Though he was a few years older than me, he had a kind of boyish look to him. Mischievous like. It wasn’t until the third time I’d grabbed a quick snack in the relative quiet of his hospital room, that I realized who he reminded me of: Colby.
Not so much in looks, but in demeanor. Leo was quick-witted and often made me laugh. Colby had been the same way.
So yes, I’d miss him, but that was the nature of my work. The patients—both the nice ones and the crabby ones—left. It was often like having a series of very short-term friendships, at least with the nice ones. But that was what was supposed to happen. I wanted patients to get better and be released from the hospital. It was far better than the alternative.
Leo was now just one of many former patients I’d think about from time to time and then eventually forget. It was almost like my brain was a hard drive and as I met new patients, some of the older ones would get overwritten in my mind.
Except I didn’t think that would happen with Leo. As I carried my coffee over to the window, my gaze fell on the rusted fire escape outside, but in my mind’s eye, I could see the gleam in his hazel eyes and the slightly crooked grin that gave him a sexy and carefree look. It wasn’t a face I was likely to forget anytime soon.
And yet… that didn’t account for the entirety of the connection I felt for the young man. Nor did the fact that he reminded me of Colby.
I sighed as I took a sip of coffee. The hot liquid stung my tongue, and I grimaced. In that moment, a thought that I’d been trying to subdue for the last few days pushed on through.
Part of the reason I was fascinated with Leo was because of his friend. Not the tall, handsome man who’d picked him up at the hospital, but the other one. The huge brute of a man who’d burst into his hospital room that first night.
Cesare.
Though I’d tried not to, thoughts of the big man had flitted around my brain ever since then. Sometimes I’d remember how small I felt standing next to the huge man. Or how dark his tanned skin was next to mine. Or how his nearly black eyes had seemed to gaze right inside of me.
Or how it had felt when he’d kissed me.
And held me.
And made me feel so very many things.
Technically, I’d kissed him. I’d had to—it was the only way to prevent more violence from happening. But that was just the beginning. Cesare had taken over almost immediately, deepening the kiss and ravishing my mouth. He’d made me feel things I’d never felt before, and fear was only one of them.
Setting the coffee on the peeling white paint of the window sill, I stared down at the dirty alleyway behind the building, shaking my head. I’d never understand how I could possibly have felt anything more than just fear in that moment. A stranger, the strongest and most powerfully built man I’d ever encountered, had held me in his arms. There’d been a gun trapped between our chests. Matteo had also had a gun, and presumably, the man who entered the hospital room had, too.
I should’ve been terrified, and part of me had been. But then all thoughts except for Cesare had faded. He’d overpowered my senses with his masculine scent. The taste of his mouth. The feel of his powerful muscles as he held me. Somewhere deep inside, I’d felt relief. Someone else was in charge. What happened next wasn’t in my hands, it was in Cesare’s.
But what did it say about me that I’d wanted to leave that kind of control in the hands of a stranger, and a clearly shady one at that? It made no sense, but I’d felt it. In his arms, with him in charge, I’d felt almost… safe. Which was ridiculous. I didn’t know the ins and outs of the situation, but clearly, we were not safe.
Yet Cesare had made me feel like I was.
And he’d made me feel other things that were hard to admit to as well. Like longing. And arousal.
Afterwards, I’d felt like I was losing my mind. Maybe that’s why I kept visiting Leo. I did bring up Cesare’s name a few times, but Leo hadn’t said much about him. And then, quite to my surprise, I found how much I’d enjoyed the younger man’s company, so I kept coming back. But I never forgot about his large friend and how he’d made me feel.
Abandoning the coffee, I looked around my small studio apartment. Normally, at the end of the workweek, there was a ton to do. After an all-night shift, I was usually so tired that I barely had time to take my scrubs off before falling into bed. But now, when I needed distracting from my thoughts, there didn’t seem to be much to do.
Or maybe my mind was skipping over the pile of laundry in the chair by the bed and the dust bunnies in the corners in order to keep obsessing over Cesare. Well, not obsessing over him, but going over and over our brief encounter in my mind.
And okay, over him as well. He wasn’t someone you’d forget easily, that was for sure. He was built like a mountain with hugely broad shoulders and bulging biceps. His stomach was flat, no doubt with chiseled abs to match. But it was his face that stuck with me the most. The dark eyes under thick eyebrows. The smoldering gaze. The sexy goatee.
How was it possible for a man to look both hot as sin and dangerous as hell at the same time?
The question persisted as I started scrubbing the kitchen sink. Who was Cesare, and why had I had such a strong reaction to him?
By the time I’d moved onto scouring the burner on the tiny stovetop, it occurred to me who might know the answer to that—Maggie.
