Protector (Navy SEALS Romance Book 3) by Rachel Hanna Page A

hospital. He’d blocked every thought and memory of her for so long that he wondered if he’d remember what she felt like, but when he carried her to his bed, the lost years dissolved. The smell of her hair, the sounds she made when he curled against her, all of it came back to him.
    He looked down at Madison’s sleeping form and his breath caught in his throat. He had to force his attention back to the phone, which he answered with a brush of his thumb.
    “Hello?” he whispered after seeing his sister’s number on the screen.
    “Angel! It’s Mama!” Manuela cried, choking back a sob before she could speak.
    “What? What happened?” he demanded, sitting up straighter and pulling his arm out from under Madison’s head. She, too, sat straight up in the bed, pulling the sheets tighter around her.
    “No, no. It’s good news… Mama opened her eyes! You’ve got to get up here!”
    “I’m coming, Mani. You tell Mama I’m on my way!” he shouted into the phone, already jumping from the bed and reaching for his jeans. He slid them on while Manuela tried to fill him in, dropping the phone only long enough to reach pull his shirt over his head.
    “Should I…” Madison gestured to the door, but Angel shook his head.
    “No, stay here! Don’t you dare leave!” he hissed, holding the phone away and kissing Madison quickly on the lips. “I’ll call you and tell you what’s going on.”
    She nodded, but the second Angel was out the door she fell back against the pillows, doubts creeping into her mind. The sight of his fleeing back racing out the door in the middle of the night had been every nightmare she’d had when they were together, and the reality of what they’d just done hit her full force.
    There was no going back from this. They’d slept together, and any second thoughts she had now would be the end of them...for good.

    * * *
    “ M amacita ! Estoy aqui!” Angel said urgently when he burst through the door of her room. For the entire drive over to the hospital, he’d imagined his mother sitting up in her bed, smiling at his sister, maybe drinking sips of water now and then. She would hold out her arms to him and let him hold her close now that she wasn’t hooked up to machines.
    The reality was far from it.
    “What’s going on, Mani? I thought you said she opened her eyes!” he said, fresh anguish at seeing her still connected to wires and tubes, her eyes closed tightly, pouring over him.
    “She did, I promise! But the nurse said it’s a long process. It’s not like the movies, where the guy waking up from a coma just blinks his eyes and asks what happened,” she explained. “They don’t just yawn and roll over, you know. It can take days for her to regain consciousness, and even then the breathing tube won’t let her talk until they take it out.”
    “I know, I’m sorry kiddo. Come here,” he replied in a dejected voice, reaching for his tearful little sister. He hugged her tightly and said, “I just got all excited about Mama waking up.”
    “It’s okay. We’re all tense. But the nurse said the more we talk to her and encourage her to open her eyes, the better she’ll be. I’ve been reading to her from her favorite magazine.” She pointed to Spanish People lying on the chair.
    “Mama always did love the celebrity gossip! Hey, why don’t you nap in the chair, huh? I’ll wake you up if she so much as moves a pinkie toe.”
    “You promise?” Manuela asked, forcing back a yawn. She glanced at her watch instinctively, her shoulders drooping when she saw the time.
    “Of course. Just go to sleep right there, I’ll talk to Mama for a while.” He waited until his sister had her head resting against the chair back and a thin hospital blanket pulled up to her neck, then he sat on the edge of his mother’s bed and took her hand, giving it a firm squeeze.
    “Mama, you’ll never guess what happened,” he began, whispering as he looked over his shoulder to make sure his sister