Worth the Fall by Mara Jacobs Read Free Book Online

Christ, the deep blue silk against her olive skin, made even deeper from her tan. He had to touch her. Had to touch that soft skin. Had to slide that blue strap off her shoulder…taste her…all of her….
    “ Mr. Ryan? Can you hear me?”
    Of course I can hear you, baby. Say my name. Don ’t call me Mr. Ryan. Why so polite now? Call me Petey when my hands are on you like this. Scream my name.
    “ Mr. Ryan? It’s Dr. Thompson. Can you open your eyes?”
    Awww, fuck.
    Petey slowly opened his eyes, coming out of his drug-induced fog. He hoped like hell he wasn’t sporting wood and if so that his mom wasn’t in the room with him and the doc.
    He did a quick look around, and was grateful that it was just him, Doc, and Barb, the nurse who ’d been with him in pre-op. He did a quick look down at Mr. Happy and was relieved to find that his dream, or haze, or whatever the hell it was, hadn’t yet made its way south.
    “ How’d it go?” he asked.
    “ Very well. Dr. Wright had to do more repairs than originally thought, so it took longer than expected, but I think you’ll be happy with the results.”
    Petey shot the doc a “yeah, right” look.
    “ Eventually.”
    Petey raised a brow.
    “When you’re eighty and able to walk without a cane.”
    He chuckled at that, but it came out rough and raspy and hurt his throat. Which made him cough, which made him hurt.
    “Let’s get you some water. How’s the pain. Do you—”
    “ Fine. The pain’s fine.”
    “ Well, what we gave you will probably be wearing off shortly, maybe pretty soon with your size. We could—”
    Petey grabbed the doctor ’s arm as he began to write something in his chart. “Doc. No pain meds. Do you understand? I am refusing all pain meds and I’d like you to put that in my chart.”
    The doctor stopped writing and looked at Petey. Really looked at him. It was all Petey could do to meet his gaze, but he did, not even mentally flinching. The doc was no dummy and he got it soon enough. Nodding, he wrote in the chart. “How about some Tylenol, if needed?”
    “ Without codeine?”
    “ If that’s what you’d prefer.”
    “ It is.”
    “ Good. I’ll make a notation.” He finished writing and handed the chart to Barb, who did something with it near the end of the bed. He then looked at Petey again. “Dr. Wright will be in shortly to talk with you. He’s in another surgery, and then needs to head back to Marquette. He’ll want to give you some specific information about the surgery. The dos and don’ts, that sort of thing.”
    Petey nodded along. A knee brace for at least a week, maybe two. Shit, maybe a lot longer if it was as bad as the doc let on. Keeping it elevated whenever he sat. He knew the drill. Knew it a little too well, which is why he didn ’t want to go anywhere near painkillers. After his last surgery a few years ago, he’d returned to the ice sooner than he probably should have and had gobbled the little bastards like candy just to get through the season.
    It hadn ’t really gotten to problem proportions—thanks to Lizzie ransacking his house and flushing them all down the toilet then not leaving him alone for pretty much the next two weeks—but it’d had the potential to get out of hand. He wasn’t about to take any chances now, when he had the rest of his life gaping before him. He’d need all his faculties to make some decisions that he thought he’d had months for which to prepare.
    “ Your parents and your friend are out in the family waiting area. It’s okay with me if you’d like to see them.”
    He sighed, looked around the room, and sighed again. “Yeah, it’s probably best to get it over with.”
    In seconds, his mom and Lizzie were flitting around him, fluffing pillows, checking on his ice-chip level. His father was at the foot of the bed, grilling Dr. Thompson and Dr. Wright, who ’d arrived at the same time.
    “ There’s over three months left in the season. He’ll be ready to go before then,