MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) by Claire Branson Read Free Book Online Page A

him as she started the car, concerned by the new color in his cheeks. It wasn't a healthy color. Under the tan and the flush his skin had a greenish tint, and the hectic spots of pink across his cheekbones concerned her.
    "Are you out of your mind?"
    He looked startled, but before he could answer he slumped against the seat, eyes rolling back in his head. Erin swore. Loudly. Well, if he was going to pass out, she wasn't going to dump him on the side of the road. She took the turn toward her apartment.
    Getting him inside was not easy. The man was heavy. Erin had some experience hauling patients around, but he was nearly twice her size. At least she didn't have to cart him up stairs. She woke him enough to get him on his feet – glad he could wake at all – then half-carried half-supported him into the lobby and then the elevator. He leaned against the wall as it went up, and she staggered them both out into the hall and up to her door.
    Once in the apartment, she dropped him onto the couch and stood over him, panting a little. The sudden loss of consciousness worried her. He wasn't losing any blood, and he shouldn't be getting worse, but he was. His forehead was far too hot. He looked up at her through glazed, bleary eyes.
    "Tell me what's going on," Erin demanded as she pulled a cloth from the cabinet and wet it with cold water, laying it over his forehead. "This isn't the kind of reaction you should be having at this point. Your injuries are sutured and bandaged." She lifted the gauze to check, then turned him onto his side to check his back. "And none of them have broken open again."
    "Dirty," he said, voice rough in his throat, and Erin shook her head.
    That shouldn't even be a problem. They’d cleaned and disinfected the lacerations before they were sutured.
    "We took care of that," she said.
    He shook his head back at her. Strands of his hair were clinging to his damp forehead.
    "There is a... It's because of the claws."
    Claws. And boot prints.
    "We knew it was probably claw marks. That's why we cleaned them so thoroughly.”
    She turned the cloth over so that the cooler side rested against his skin, and he sighed softly.
    It made absolutely no sense. There was sign of infection though, she decided when she looked down at the wounds again. The cuts were warm to the touch, looking inflamed around their edges. It was exactly what neither of them needed. At least she had a weekend off to deal with it.
    With a sigh of her own, Erin set to work disinfecting the lacerations once more.

Chapter Three
    A day and a half into it, Devlin was driving her completely insane
    Trying to keep the man in bed, despite his obvious pain and almost debilitating injuries, was nearly impossible. The infection had mostly healed. The lacerations were no longer red and hot around their edges, though they were just beginning to scab over, and the bruises on his ribs were fading into yellow green smudges that didn't hold the crisp outlines of boot prints. Erin was going to have to let him go soon.
    "I'm glad you're feeling better," she said as she took a seat at the end of the couch next to his feet, a bowl of ice cream in one hand. He was eating his own with some alacrity, more interested in the ice cream than he'd been in listening to her otherwise.
    "As am I," he answered, pausing to swallow a mouthful of ice cream before he spoke. "I can get out of your hair tonight."
    Erin sighed.
    "If you insist," she said. "I would like you to stay for one more night, considering your injuries, but I'm not going to make you."
    "You couldn't make me if you tried."
    She looked over at him. "Couldn't I?"
    His expression went a little uncertain, and Erin laughed as she went back to the frozen treat sitting in front of her.
    "Thank you," Devlin said after a moment. "For helping me. It was kind of you to give up your days off to nurse someone sick.”
    Erin lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "I don't mind. You needed help."
    "All the same," Devin said. "It was a