Sam licked his lip as if trying to distract himself from my snapping. “Though I have no qualms about inserting a thermometer wherever it needs to go, this one works just fine in your mouth. Open.”
I opened my mouth obediently and he slid the digital thermometer under my tongue. I wouldn’t admit that I was disappointed. For as much as I protested, getting checked intimately might make me feel cherished for just a moment. As if Sam still cared about me after all these years.
“Good girl,” he praised.
I looked down, keeping my eyes away from his steady, calming gaze. I’d been around him for less than ten minutes and already my body was betraying my mind. Despite the wound, the pain and my no-goodverybad night, Sam’s presence brought heat to my body and my face. Though I thought I’d let my feelings for him fade over the years, all that yearning came roaring back.
Sam
“You need stitches, sweetheart,” I said, trying to keep my tone light as the thermometer beeped. Removing it from her mouth, I read the screen. Perfectly normal given the circumstances. “Ninety-eight point nine.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Will they hurt?”
“I’ll numb the area first, and that part isn’t pleasant. You’ll feel some pulling after that, but it shouldn’t hurt much.” I rustled through the supplies, quickly gathering the materials I needed to suture the cut. “You need a tetanus booster too.”
“Do you have that here or do I need to go somewhere else?” she asked, the anxiety in her voice tugging at something long dormant inside me.
“In the summer, since the creek is so close, I give ‘em out when someone gets a fishing hook through their hand. It’s convenient and saves Doc time for other things. So, he gives me a bunch to keep all year too.”
What Mikayla probably didn’t remember was that after I got my paramedic license, I’d been deployed overseas and trained to be a combat medic. It gave me an advantage in emergencysituations and put me in a good place to intercept mid-way between the town and the local hospital.
She nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer. “Bonnie thinks I’m getting in on Friday morning.” Changing the topic, she shut her eyes tight as I injected the anesthetic around the wound.
“Deep breaths, honey,” I said, waiting for the numbing agent to work. After a full minute I spoke again, hoping to keep her distracted. “With this storm, you’ll probably be trapped here until then, so you’ll be right on time,” I teased, and then focused on pulling the thread through the needle.
“I’m not sure I should stay here.” She blinked her eyes open and shifted to look at me. “Aren’t you married?”
I bit my tongue to avoid saying something I shouldn’t. “I divorced Crystal years ago.”
My ex-wife had cheated on me, numerous times and stupidly—with people in town, as if I wouldn’t find out. She had been fooling around with other people since our wedding night. She’d even had the audacity to have sex at our reception with someone’s out of town date. I’d had more than a few relationships since then, but no one long term. It figured that the one woman I thought about most would be the one to pop up on my doorstep in the middle of the night, needing to be rescued.
I’d always been protective of Mickie but as I sat there patching her up, I realized it was more than that. If anyone in the world could use a Daddy Dom of her very own, it was her. After all this time I wondered if she’d be willing to embark into a relationship with me.
Her presence tugged a memory to the forefront of my mind. The night before her graduation, I’d found an envelope with a letter on my doorstep. It had been after I’d dropped her off at home and addressed her reckless behavior atVern’s. She’d acted upset, but I hadn’t received it until much later andMikayla hadn’t brought it up. The letter was torn to pieces, but the fragments were big enough for me to piece together. She’d written paragraphs in her sweet cursive handwriting explaining her emotions and feelings. I never figured out when it had been delivered, only that she hadn’t wanted me to read it. Maybe she’d lost her nerve after she put it there. Circumstances beyond our control had forced us apart after that since she’d moved away shortly after. Whatever chance we might have had was lost to distance. I hadn’t fought for answers back then, not when I figured our age gap of fourteen years was an issue. Looking back, I should have. If I had pursued Mikayla it would have been a better relationship than anything with my ex-wife.
In her letter, Mickie explained that after the first time I punished her with a spanking—something I had threatened often—she’d thought of ways to get my attention to earn another. She’d given me her submission because I’d played the role of her disciplinarian for years. But our dynamic never moved beyond that, even when she’d told me that she loved me.
Fate had now brought us together again and I’d be damned if I’d let her leave town without a proper conversation.
Moving up the length of the cut slowly but steadily, had me lost in the movement and my memories. Finally, I glanced at the sweet woman allowing me to take care of her. I wanted to ask what she’d been up to, how things had been going, if she had anyone special in her life. Instead I kept quiet because what I wanted to do—once she was feeling better—was tug her across my lap and spank her for being so reckless. If I mentioned it now, she would either brat more to make the spanking happen sooner or run for the hills.
Let her run. A nagging voice in my head said.Then fucking chase her. I agreed with my inner self.
If Mickie ran this time, I’d chase her all the way across the world if I needed to, toss her over my shoulder and spank her bratty ass all the way back home.
“I really don’t know what to say, Sam. I’m sorry you and Crystal went through a divorce. Was it amicable?”
“No, sweetheart. Nothing about my marriage or my divorce was amicable. Though I certainly tried to make it that way.” I sighed. The closeness of her body, the sadness in her eyes, and the soft cadence of her voice made me want to wrap my arms around her and never let go.
“Are you dating anyone, Sam? I’d hate to hear about some random chick being locked up with my boyfriend, you know?”
“No, Mickie, I’m not,” I stated firmly, unable to think of why my relationship status mattered to her unless she’d been thinking of me even after she’d left town. “Are you?”
“No, I’m not dating.” She shook her head, then coughed back a groan. “Ugh. My stomach feels like it’s trying to escape my body.”
“I don’t want to give you pain meds because of your head, but I have something to calm your stomach if you need it.”
“Is it a shot?”
