This Love (Cowboys & Angels 6)

“Okay, Mr. Parker. You’re all set to go. Just need you to sign these discharge papers and then you and Mrs. Parker can head on out.”

Me breath hitched in me throat, and I was about to correct the nurse, when Cord replied, “Thank goodness. I’m ready to get my Irish cailin home.”

The nurse flashed me a sweet smile.

“Must be newlyweds. I can always tell.”

Me eyes widened, and I wasn’t sure what to say. The idea of being married to Cord sent a strange thrill through me body.

As if her last comment wasn’t enough to jolt Cord, she went on. “Your wife certainly loves you. It’s obvious when she looks at you, the same when you look at her.”

Me stomach dropped to the floor, and I stood speechless. Cord had been signing his discharge papers when he looked directly at me. I’d thought for sure he’d be running away at the nurse’s words. But he wasn’t, and what he had said next made me entire body warm.

“I’m a hell of a lucky man, that’s for sure.”

He winked, and I grinned like those two silly teenagers I’d met at the store earlier today.

After pulling up me car, I jumped out and ran to the passenger door to help Cord get in.

The nurse was trying her best to help Cord, but he refused. “I’m fine, honestly,” Cord said to the nurse. I had a sneaky feeling she wanted to put her arms around him.

“You kids have fun this weekend. No rushing! You’ll have plenty of time with your wife!” the nurse called out. I groaned and walked back to me side of the car as I heard Cord thank her.

“Thanks, Betty! You know young love! Hopefully she’ll keep her naughty down for a few days.”

The nurse giggled and covered her flushed cheeks.

Cord had informed the older nurse that while we were, in fact, on our honeymoon, I had asked to try something new in the bedroom, and it had caught him off guard when he was carrying me up the stairs. That’s when he tossed me to safety and fell. He had the poor woman eating out of his hand with our made-up honeymoon story. Before that, I swore every nurse who came into his room checked his ribs “just once more” to make sure they hadn’t been broken…as if the X-ray wasn’t good enough.

Once I got into the car and pulled away, I slapped him on the chest.

“Ouch! I’m sore, Maebh! I just fell down a flight of stairs.”

“And you’ll fall down another one if you tell one more person I’m doing naughty things to you!”

He leaned his chair back and closed his eyes. “Well, you did blow me on the lake. I get the feeling you like public sex.”

Rolling me eyes, I drove back to the lake house. It was two in the morning, and I was exhausted. They had given Cord something for the pain at the hospital, along with a prescription if he felt like he needed it.

We had been five minutes away from the hospital when he fell asleep. It took another ten minutes to get him into the house and up the stairs to his room.

Cord reached out his hand and took mine. With a pouting lip, he whispered, “Don’t leave me. Please stay.”

Oh, sweet baby Jesus. How do I say no to that face?

Keeping me shirt and panties on, I crawled into bed and let Cord pull me against his body. I had envisioned this night being totally different, but something about him holding me in his arms felt perfectly right.

Me eyes drifted closed and snapped back open when Cord spoke.

“I’ve never slept with a woman in my bed.”

“Never?” I asked, me heart racing.

“Mmm…never.”

And just like that, he fell asleep, and I laid there another hour letting his words replay over and over in me head.

My eyes opened, and I smiled. Then panicked.

My heart beat twice the normal beats per minute, and I was positive I was sweating.

Maebh was in my bed.

In my arms.

Sleeping.

And we both had clothes on.

And I fucking loved it.

Jesus H. Christ. What in the hell is wrong with me?

I had never in my life slept next to a woman. Never had a woman in my bed. Not even for a quick fuck. I fucked in their beds, got up and left. I’d rolled around in a few hotel beds—but never stayed the night. I never spooned or cuddled. And I sure as fuck never had my hard-as-a-rock cock pressed into a woman’s panty-covered ass.

I groaned internally. Not because I didn’t love every single second of this. I did. I groaned because I wasn’t the type of guy who liked this shit…until Maebh O’Sullivan entered my world and turned it upside down and inside out.

Nothing about my life had been normal since this Irish beauty ran into me at my bar. I wanted her like I’d never wanted another woman. Hell, I didn’t even want any other woman. The idea of flirting with one of the nurses last night was the last thing on my mind, even if the two young pretty ones kept coming in. Maebh rolled her eyes a time or two, and I found myself wondering if she was jealous. If the roles had been reversed, and it had been male nurses falling all over Maebh, I’d have beaten their asses. Maebh was mine, and I had no problem letting any douchebag who tried to get her attention know that fact.