A Needful Heart Read online

  A Needful Heart

  By

  J.M. Madden

  A Needful Heart

  Copyright 2012 J.M. Madden

  Published by J.M. Madden

  Cover by Viola Estrella

  Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Acknowledgements

  As always, I have to recognize my husband for being the fantastic man he is and supporting me in everything I want to do. He is my hero.

  I have to thank the girls of KYRW for being awesome critique partners and sounding boards. You ladies are the best!

  And to my parents, all of them, for being supportive whether you understand the media or not. I love you guys.

  Table Of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Thank You

  About The Author

  Other Books by J.M. Madden

  Bonus Excerpt - Wet Dream

  Chapter One

  Matt hoped for, yet dreaded, the possibility that Gina would brush against him as she strode down the hallway to the next exam room. The hope nagged at him. The dread, on the other hand, gnawed out his stomach and almost swamped him. What if she did brush against him? What if she glanced up at him with that gut-turning smile she had and said something to him, and expected some kind of response?

  His worries stalled as she bypassed him completely and went into the small lab room directly across from where he leaned. He blew the stale air from his lungs and tried to settle his thudding heart. The peaches and cream scent she wore wafted to him, teased him with her freshness and sent a fresh jolt of awareness down his body.

  Once a month for the past four years Matt had brought his neighbor George in for check-ups following a liver transplant. While George waited to be seen, Matt devoted his time to watching Gina and storing up images of her in his mind to tide him over till the next month. The shape of her ass in pink scrubs as it swayed down the hallway, the way her curly hair blew under the vent at the far end, the way her smiles came so easily when she greeted people and the way her ice-blue eyes crinkled at the corners. Every time they left the doctor’s office, Matt was frustrated and furious at himself for not talking to Gina about something other than George’s next appointment or the pills he was on. But nothing ever came to mind. She’d tried to start conversations before, and he had totally locked up. She had to think he was the village idiot. Or the Shelbyville, Indiana, idiot.

  Clenching his fists in frustration, he vowed to himself he was going to say something to her coherent, even if he had to stay here all day to do it. He needed to talk to her just to prove to himself that he could. Besides, it wasn’t like she’d respond. Her pristine little life didn’t have room for a roughneck like him in it. She’d give him a generic smile and dodge around him like she always did, and maybe he could get over this thing he had for her. Determined, planning words in his head, he stepped into the lab room doorway.

  Just as Gina started to exit.

  Head down, she was scanning a chart in her hand, totally oblivious. She plowed into him folder first. Papers flew and her arms wind-milled as she tried to keep her balance. Matt reached out to grab her but missed her arm. Horrified, he could only watch as she crashed to the hard tile. One of her tiny hands went down first to try to break her fall, and Matt heard the snap as soon as it hit. Her cry of pain made his stomach clench.

  Oh, fuck! I’ve broken her.

  He was on his knees in an instant, but the damage was done. Gina’s eyes were awash in tears as she struggled to sit up. He put a trembling hand behind her back to support her. “Gina, I am so sorry,” he began. His chest was tight with fear at what he had done and the urge to throw up was almost more than he could swallow down.

  Her fly-away brown hair shone in the light as she shook her head and looked up at him with a tight smile. “No, Matt, it wasn’t your fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

  She moaned as she cradled her right wrist. It was quite obviously broken. Matt had had enough broken bones in his life to know the sound. Then the instant nausea, the disbelief.

  Man, why hadn’t he just stood against the wall?

  Gina cradled her arm protectively as footsteps approached. Dr. Hamilton stepped in, saw her on the floor and dropped to her other side.

  “What happened?” he demanded. Gently, he took her wrist in his hands to examine it.

  “I knocked her down,” Matt admitted.

  Gina laughed, or tried to. “No, you didn’t, Matt. You were just standing there. I ran into you.” She gasped as the doctor turned her arm over.

  “Definitely broken. We’ll get a splint to bind you up so you can go to the hospital. Any other injuries?” The older man peered into her eyes over the tops of his bifocals.

  Gina turned her head and tested the rest of her body parts, but everything seemed to work correctly. “I think just my wrist. I put my hand down to catch myself.”

  Madison, one of the other RNs, came in the door and almost tripped on the group on the floor. “Oh, my God. What happened?” She knelt down and rested a hand on Gina’s knee. “What did you do, Gina?”

  “I fell and broke my arm. Klutz that I am.”

  Matt rumbled deep in his chest, fists clenched. Why was she taking the responsibility? It was his fault, not hers. He must have looked truly alarming, because Gina reached out and rested her good hand on his arm. “I did it, Matt. Not you.”

  For the first time, Gina got a good look at Matt’s face under the bill of his cap, and it worried her. He was pale, a tic in his jaw was pounding overtime and every one of his impressive muscles were clenched. The expression in his eyes made her think of a wild horse. Spooked. Shaken. “Matt, look at me.” She waited until he did. “You did not do this. I did. Just like the five other times I’ve broken a bone. It was all me.”

  Something must have gotten through to him, because he eased back a bit on his haunches. Some of the fierceness left his bold face. He looked down where her hand rested on his tattooed arm, and Gina couldn’t tell if he was surprised to see her touch him or what, but the expression on his face broke her heart. If the adrenalin wasn’t beginning to wear off, and her arm wasn’t beginning to throb, she would have probably taken more time to explore it.

  “We need to get you to the hospital, Gina,” Dr. Hamilton manipulated her arm into a s
oft splint as he spoke, and Gina gasped at the pain. Her eyes welled with tears as he gently strapped it on. He checked the circulation in her fingertips and guided her to hold her hand up, across her chest.

  “Ok, it seems good. Let me get one of the nurses to run you over to the hospital.”

  “I can walk over. It’s not that far.” It was only actually a quarter of a mile, but Gina dreaded every step even as she made the offer.

  “I’ll take her.”

  Matt’s voice brought all eyes to him. His skin took on a ruddy cast at the attention, but his eyes stayed determined. “George still has to be seen. I’ll take her over and come back for George.”

  Dr. Hamilton hesitated, his kind eyes shifting between Gina and the big man. “I don’t know…”

  “I’ll take her,” he repeated, and Gina could hear the determination in his voice.

  Dr. Hamilton reached out to clap him on the back but changed his mind at the last second. “Ok. Thank you, Matt.”

  Before she knew what happened, Gina was gently lifted her to her feet and guided down the hallway. Madison retrieved her purse from the break room, promised to check on her later, and out the door they went. Matt made her wait at a bench out front and jogged to get his truck, a big black dually. He bumped the curb and pulled it right up to the bench. Gina laughed at his total disregard for propriety, but she appreciated not having to walk any further than necessary because every step caused a ripple of pain to slide up her arm. He was so very gentle as he handed her up into the truck. Gina knew if she faltered, he would catch her in a heartbeat.

  “You don’t have to do this, Matt,” she told him faintly. The pain was really beginning to get to her.

  “I’m already doing it.”

  In less than a minute, he had pulled up in front of the emergency room doors. Gina tried to juggle her purse and grab the door handle with her left hand, but all she managed to do was drop the bag upside down on the ground. Contents scattered everywhere. Her lip gloss and mascara rolled away under the truck, and her credit cards fanned across the concrete.

  “Damn it!” Frustrated tears filled her eyes.

  Matt appeared in front of her as she prepared to drop to the ground to retrieve her things.

  “Just hold on a minute,” he grumbled. Leaning down, he snatched up all the items and shoved them in her purse, then zipped it closed when he was done. Gina was dismayed to see her cell phone in his big hands, in several pieces. “This didn’t survive. I’m sorry.”

  The new, shiny, red phone had been an extravagance, and it made her sad to see it broken. Great, just great.

  Slinging the purse strap over her shoulder, she left the pieces lying on the seat. She had other things to worry about right now.

  Matt held onto her good arm as she slid down out of the cab, and Gina appreciated the help. It was bad enough having to go to the emergency room like this. Sprawling on the concrete was not something she wanted to do in front of so many people she knew. Delores Jones manned the front desk, as she had every day for twenty years, and Gina sagged into her arms gratefully as she came through the doors. Concern darkened the older woman’s eyes.

  “Oh, girl, what did you do to yourself?”

  “Tumbleweed strikes again,” Gina mumbled, cradling her arm. “I fell.”

  “We’ll get you fixed right up, honey.”

  As Delores hustled her into the emergency, Gina turned to thank Matt for bringing her, but he was already gone.

  ***

  Though everybody tried to be gentle in their care, Gina was frazzled and in pain three hours later when she tried to sign her release paperwork with her left hand. Delores was still at the front desk. Her smile creased her kind face until she saw the bulky blue cast on Gina’s right arm and the sling that looped around her neck.

  “Oh, dear. You poor thing. And look how whipped you are.”

  Gina forced a smile at her concern, though it took more energy than she cared to expend. She was so tired.

  “Delores, can I get you to call me a cab? I’ll have to get my car later.”

  “Oh, no, dear. No cab. Your lumberjack chauffer is here. ” She waved a hand at the farthest, darkest corner of the waiting room.

  Matt dwarfed the molded plastic chair he sat on. His ball-capped head was bent over his folded hands, and he was running his thumbs over themselves. Gina could understand why Delores had called him a lumberjack. The red and black plaid shirt strained across his broad shoulders.

  The waiting room was crowded, but there was a cushion of several empty chairs around him, as if the people waiting felt the antagonism that rolled off of him.

  She glanced back to Delores. “Has he been here all this time?”

  The older woman smiled as she looked across the room. “He took George home, then came back to wait for you. He’s been here about two hours.”

  “Thanks, Delores.”

  Gina shook her head in wonder. Why had he done that? Surely it wasn’t guilt for knocking her down. It wasn’t his fault she hadn’t looked where she was going. She headed across the room.

  Matt looked up at her approach, and Gina was sure she saw relief cross his heavy features.

  “Matt, you didn’t have to come back. I’m fine. Delores is going to call me a cab, and I’m heading home.”

  Her neck craned as he stood up in front of her. Jeez! She’d never looked up at him from this perspective before. She’d always just kind of dodged around him in the hallway at work, or spoken to him through the reception window. Now that he stood in front of her this way, she realized exactly how big he was. He was easily a foot taller than her. And his chest! There was no way she could ever wrap her arms around him. Matt was a carpenter, but Gina knew he also laid brick. Surely the brick was responsible for all the rounded muscles. Her glance flicked down over his trim waist, heavy thighs, and the bulge at the apex of those thighs.

  Gina was surprised when a tingle of attraction danced down her spine. Matt Calvin had a pretty awesome bod. She dragged her eyes back up to his face and realized he wasn’t bad looking there, either, though not normally the type of guy who appealed to her. A little too grim, and controlled, and definitely too unapproachable. A brown beard lightly shadowed his jaw, and Gina tried to remember if she’d ever seen him clean shaven. She didn’t think she had.

  Overall, an aura of intimidation rolled off him. The dragon tattoo wrapped around his right forearm and disappeared under the rolled cuff of the flannel. She wondered how high it went. He’d been coming into the office for a long time, but she didn’t know a lot about him. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him smile. Though she’d felt him watch her. A lot. Everybody at the office seemed leery of him, but she didn’t know if there was a reason for that reserve or if they just reacted to the emotion they probably sensed inside him. He was so quiet when he brought George in. Never in the way. Actually, he’d seemed embarrassed when George requested he stand outside the exam room rather than wait in the waiting room. But the old man was a little shaky on his feet, and more than once Gina had watched Matt save him from a fall.

  Looking at him now, Gina totally understood why the old man would be so secure in those strong arms. Matt didn’t intimidate her, really. With little provocation, she herself could probably burrow into his embrace. Especially now, as weary as she was.

  “Don’t worry about the cab. I’ll drive you home.” His face was implacable, but his gaze flared with some emotion.

  Gina eyed him. “Ok, Matt, I’ll let you drive me home. Actually,” she said with a tired sigh, “I would love for you to take me home.”

  Her acquiescence eased the tight lines around his eyes, and Gina noticed they were a pretty light grayish-green. The sawdust covered cap usually shaded his face, and Gina couldn’t specifically remember noticing his eyes before.

  Hmmm.

  Towering over her, Matt guided her out of the hospital and to his truck, parked just a few spaces away. Gina had to use the running board to get up inside the big vehicle,
and she automatically reached for the safety handle with her right hand, in spite of the sling she wore. Pain sliced through her arm and up into her shoulder, stealing her breath. Matt’s big hands gripped her waist and guided her into the seat. For several long seconds, they lingered there, before finally pulling away. She shivered with reaction. She’d almost fallen again.

  Gina forced a smile to her lips. “Thank you.”

  His head tipped forward until the bill shaded his face. “No problem,” he mumbled. Slamming the door, he circled the front of the truck.

  Gina cradled her bulky arm to her chest and leaned back against the seat. For as big as it was, the truck rode surprisingly smooth. Gina felt her eyelids drifting down. She was so tired. Forcing herself up, she focused ahead deliberately. She needed to tell Matt how to get to her house.

  “If you turn left at Alber…,” she told him firmly, before relaxing her posture for just a moment.

  Matt couldn’t help but smile as he looked at the sleeping woman beside him. She had literally fallen asleep in the middle of the sentence. Not that he needed directions to her house. He knew exactly where it was, less than five blocks from his own. He’d known where it was the first week after he’d seen her at the fair. One of the men working for him at the time had asked her out, but the date had gone sour. Matt’s impression of Gina had gone up at the rebuff. The man had been slime.

  He braced her shoulder with his hand as he turned right. He couldn’t help but feel how small she was. And fragile.

  And breakable.

  Guilt ate at him. He should have been able to catch her when she’d fallen. Hell, he’d been right there.

  Memories of his own mother in the same position had dogged him for hours. The only difference was, Matt’s father had deliberately shoved her down. And Matt had been too small to catch her, even though he had been close enough. She’d left not long after that.