Page 65 of Wanting What’s Wrong

Four

Jackson

T he pressure behind my eyes builds as I glare at the young intern with her star-struck eyes under the too bright fluorescent lights of the hospital hallway.

She’s explaining Mina will be okay, going over the discharge packet.

Repeating what the other doctors have been telling me all night while I made them run tests they insisted weren’t necessary and keep her overnight for observation just in case.

Nothing to worry about. It’s a trauma response. A fear trigger.

Her memories should come back.

Memories. Should . Fucking should? I need more than fucking should.

“You, you’re a student, right?” I bark, causing the intern to shrink back. “You don’t get to learn on my…” I shake my head. “Where’s Dr. Mumford? I want the head of the fucking department not some first-year. ”

She deflates, stuttering, but I don’t care. She’s not my priority, Mina is.

The low hum of hospital sounds thrum in my ears as I ask for the hundredth time if they’ve run every possible test. Taken every precaution.

“Yes, Mr. Sanders.” The head of Neurology, Dr. Denise Mumford, nods, releasing the terrified young woman, and takes over outside the closed door to Mina’s private room.

“It’s not usual, but it happens. You said she is terrified of the water.

The slight bump she took isn’t enough for concern.

Her brain is…” She tips her head back and forth, crossing her arms. “Fine. But, she’s protecting herself subconsciously.

It’s psychological. Not neurological. I can have Dr. Ozmec, the psychiatrist, come back to talk to you again. Explain—”

I wave my hand then run it over the top of my head.

All I want is to get back inside the room where she’s started singing Simply the Best by Tina Turner at the top of her lungs.

She’s never going to win American Idol, but normally she’d never sing outside of the shower where she never knew anyone listened.

I listened.

She was asleep still when I stepped out here to talk to the other doctor but she’s clearly awake now and I need to be next to her.

“No,” I groan, weary because unlike Mina, I’ve been up all night.

As she slept, I kept an eye on the monitors.

Watched her chest rise and fall. Made sure any blip on the screen was checked by a doctor.

“But I want your cell number and Dr. Ozmec’s.

If there is one flicker of anything in the next couple days, I’m fucking calling you both and you better come running. ”

She nods. “I wrote the numbers on the discharge paperwork myself. Oh and…” I spin toward the door, tugging the cool metal handle, the throb down low reminding me of what a perverted asshole I am thinking of when I stripped her clothes and put her in the hospital gown unwilling to let anyone else touch her.

“Th at was an amazing eighty-yard hail Mary in the Cotton Bowl. You brought it home. Go Trojans!”

I shake my head, squinting at the dark-haired woman.

Who the fuck cares? Have I been reduced to this one moment in my life?

I’m a fuck for being grumpy about everyone bringing it up all the fucking time but especially right now when Mina could have fucking died.

If I wasn’t there, if no one noticed she’s fallen in… what could have happened?

I shake my head, stomping through the door, fighting off the thoughts of the could be’s and what if’s, determined to not waste one more fucking second of my life on anything that doesn’t work toward the only thing that really matters.

Mina being mine. In every way possible.

And today, somehow it feels like I could make that happen.

Our parents are in South Africa on their second honeymoon, a trip booked so long ago there was simply no way my dad could avoid it without telling my stepmom the truth about the financial disaster that’s looming.

They’re not even on the same continent as we are, which means they’re not around to stop whatever is about to happen between their two children.

What started last night with my little sister’s hand on my dick.

If only she hadn’t slipped and fallen into the pool...where would we be right now?

Back under the bright lights of the room, she looks so small in the bed my heart clenches in an invisible fist. Each breath I take is agony, thinking of her under the water, struggling for her own, but she flashes me a smile that releases the knots in my chest. I unclench my fists as she waves like she’s having the time of her life.

Once the doctors gave me the test results, assured me they were all clear, and moved us to the room, I’ll admit I leveraged my ‘celebrity’ status to get into the closed gift shop and damn near emptied it of every flower and stuffed animal they had .

Now, wearing the shitty blue hospital gown, Mina is surrounded by teddy bears, unicorns, frogs, dogs, cats and every other plush thing money could buy.

And I swear, even with what’s happened, she’s the happiest I can ever remember.

The room smells like roses and lilies but somehow it’s her scent that rises above it all.

She sits up when she sees me, crossing her legs Indian style, the blankets falling from her thighs and, there’s a flash of that pink dream between her legs before she tugs at the faded blue gown, stuffing it in the bowl of space in her lap.

“Oopsie.” She pouts, a blush rising on her cheeks.

I gave up an hour ago on feeling bad about being hard again.

Once they were sure she was safe, my dick was rampant and ready like usual when I’m close to her, only it’s worse.

I could have lost her and seems my dick is aware of that and is done with any sort of politeness.

“I’m not wearing any panties,” she whispers, feigning embarrassment, and the groan that rumbles from my chest makes her eyes widen.

“You okay, lil’ mint?” I ask, running my knuckles down her hair, then reaching over and pinching her chin as she crinkles her nose.

“Yes. I feel grrrrr eeeeeat! Like Tony the Tiger says.” She chirps, then reaches up and strokes my forearm, a fierce flicker in her eyes. “And you feel pretty great too .”

After triage last night, then scans and tests, I noticed she was acting… different . The shy insecurity she usually carries was replaced by a playful flirtation. A sassy, sexy new Mina emerged, and I’ve been trying to catch up ever since.

“ Jack son.” She says my name like it tastes really fucking good and I could beat off just thinking of it for the next fifty years. “ Jack’s son. Son of Jack.”

“The doctor says you’ll be fine. We’re going to get you home.”

“Tell me again, who you are? To me , I mean. Who are you to me ? And, while you’re at it, who am I ? I’ve lost my memory, right?”

God, don’t make me say it again. I’m already going to hell.

“I told you, baby,” I murmur, returning to stroking her hair, imagining threading my fingers through it, tugging it backwards as I ruin her with every dripping inch of my virgin dick.

When she got the all clear last night, I was so fucking relieved. She reached for my hand as I sat on the edge of the hospital bed, humming her favorite song from when we were little…

I’m a little tea pot

Short and stout

Here is my handle

Here is my spout

I brushed her cheek with my fingers, praying for her to be okay.

“Who are you?” She whispered. “You’re hot and I know you. I know I love you. But, I don’t know who you are…”

I didn’t think, the words spilled out before I could stop myself. “I’m your boyfriend, lil’ mint.”

I shouldn’t have.

I should take it back.

I should fix it right now.

But I don’t want to.

“Yes, you told me. I remember that . You’re my boyfriend, ” she sing-songs, bobbing her head back and forth like a six-year-old who just won the biggest teddy bear at the county fair.

“Jack’s my boyfriend, ” she announces, pointing toward my head as a nurse steps through the door, smiling, offering me a shrug.

Mina’s never called me Jack before. I like it but I have something else she’s going to be calling me as soon as I get her home.

“You guys all set? Valet has your car at the front door, Mr. Sanders.”

“ Mister Sanders,” Mina says, grinning, then lowering her voice just for me. “One day maybe I’ll be Mrs. Sanders? Wait, what is my last name?”

Again, I don’t think, I answer with the first thing that comes to mind. “Miller. Mina Miller is your name.”

The nurse furrows her brow, but doesn’t correct me. “I have a wheelchair here to take her downstairs.”

“I’ll push her,” I snap, dismissing the nurse with a nod. I don’t want anyone else near Mina right now. It’s just us, our parents are halfway around the fucking world, we’re in our own little fantasy bubble and yes, it’s fucking wrong, but I’m going to ride this wave straight into Satan’s kitchen.

I can handle the heat.

As I pull into the driveway back at the lake house, my head is spinning. I would have died for her before, but now? I’d kill for her. Every-fucking-one.

She’s still my Mina but so fucking extra . Her exotic-green eyes and her soft little heart. She’s different but somehow, even more vulnerable than before, and I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure I guard her with everything I have.

She practically jumped in my lap when we got in the car, as the warm orange sun made fire on the horizon. I gathered my strength and buckled her playful ass in and tried to figure out how I was going to make this all come out okay.

I held her hand, kissed every knuckle and damn near lost my mind tasting her skin.

She fired off questions about how we met, where was our first kiss, our first date, our last date and on and on.

I answered every question, lying my fucking ass off, letting all my fantasies fly high.

All the things I’d always hoped for. Wished for.

I told the stories and felt like they were true.