Parallel Seduction by Deidre Knight Page B

couldn't exactly prevent him from leaving," the woman told them, tapping data into some kind of device, although Hope couldn't see what it was.
    "Well, did you try to stop him?" Anna insisted, obviously upset by this news. As was Hope—from what she'd seen, Scott had no business being out of the medical complex so soon. He'd been drugged up and delirious as recently as last night.
    The nurse sighed, and Hope gathered that she looked up at them both. "He's a mind of his own, the lieutenant. We did everything in our power to get him to stay, but there was no convincing him."
    "Was he even able to walk out of his own volition?" Hope asked worriedly. "His legs … how could he leave unless in a wheelchair? On a stretcher?"
    A beeping noise interrupted them—some patient calling for the nurse—and she moved around the desk. "The healers visited him. He felt better, and we tried to explain that the relief might only be temporary. He ignored us, grabbed a pair of crutches, a packet of pain pills, and hobbled his way back toward base. Wouldn't let a single medic escort him to quarters, either."
    "Stupid, stubborn man," Anna muttered under her breath.
    Hope pretty much had to agree with that assessment. A lifetime of dealing with doctors and her diabetes was enough to convince her that he'd made a ridiculous choice. "What was he thinking?" she wondered aloud.
    Anna turned to her, slumping against the counter. "That he'd have a better shot of seeing you outside the medical wing, that's what."
    Hope frowned. "You can't be serious."
    "Oh, trust me. I've known the lieutenant for a long, long time. Determination is his default operating mode."
    "I was coming back—"
    Anna patted her on the arm. "Not enough. Not nearly enough for a warrior like Dillon. He couldn't stand you seeing him laid out like that."
    Hope's thoughts whirled; from all indications, Scott cared for her as much as she did for him, which was a ridiculous thought, at least on the surface. They barely knew each other, only … that wasn't nearly the full truth.
    And she had a feeling that the "truth" was about to confront her, full on, back at the main cabin.
    "I wondered when you'd come to see me." It was Scott's voice in the half darkness of Hope's new quarters. She and Anna were just inside the door, not completely in the room, but not quite in the hallway either. They stood, frozen, as Anna quickly interpreted the layout of events for her.
    "He's lying there in your bunk. Quite at home, I must say, spread out on your pillow and blankets like he owns the place."
    "Heard that," he rumbled, and there was the sound of him stirring.
    "Indeed, sir," Anna chirped, then added, "I'm gone, then," and her booted footsteps immediately retreated down the hallway.
    We're alone now, away from the hospital …   and we have some privacy, finally. That was Hope's first thought, and then a second chased right on the heels of that one. What will happen between us now — now that those dreams can become actual reality? The worst part? She knew exactly what an expert he was in bed, and how fine his chiseled body felt beneath her fingertips, all glistening with sweaty sex. And what a great fucking cock the alien possessed, including what he'd apparently done with it inside of her on many an occasion. Great fucking cock, indeed, she thought, stifling a nervous giggle.
    "Come closer," he invited hoarsely, patting the bed beside him.
    "Shouldn't you be in a hospital bed—not my bed?"
    Pushing the door shut with her back, she stood in what was now, at least for her, complete darkness. The late-day sun had slipped low enough that this lower-level room received almost no light, and without the additional hallway illumination, she was marooned.
    "You got a problem with me being in your bed, Harper?"
    "Call me Hope." Damn it, she kept telling people—all kinds of people, all over the base—just to call her by her first name.
    "Hope," he ventured silkily, "I