Nurse Matt Owens paused and held my eyes for a minute before leaning over to type some notes on the computer. My skin flushed when he looked away. I liked the feeling of his eyes on me. I only wished he did it with personal interest instead of the clinical way he evaluated my injury.

I shifted on the stretcher as he gently manipulated my wrist, his hands steady and warm through the gloves. The pain was mostly manageable, until he held onto my forearm with one hand, and flexed my hand backward with the other. I jumped and yelped, unable to hide how much even that small movement hurt.

His eyes were sympathetic, but his hands remained firmly on my arm, steadying me. “Sorry. Bad news? There’s a lot of swelling, and the skin is already turning a nice shade of purple.”

He looked back down at my wrist, and manipulated my fingers and wrist again. When he held my hand still and slowly moved his thumb in circles over the top of my wrist, my breath hitched. The pain of the injury mixed with a deeper pleasure that shot straight to my cock. I quickly shifted my good arm to cover my lap.

“Pain?” Matt’s concerned eyes met mine as he moved his thumb, gently rubbing the swollen skin between my thumb and pointer finger.

“A little.”

“Pressure points can help alleviate pain sometimes, but right now you’re too swollen to receive any real benefit. This pressure point is called the Valley of Harmony, but I’m sensing this is less than harmonic for you.”

I thought I saw the smallest hint of a smirk on his lips, but I couldn’t be sure since his face was still tilted down toward my arm. I cursed at myself for getting turned on by a nurse’s clinical exam.

“I’ve just called for a tech from Radiology to escort you down for your scans. Do you have any questions?”

I laughed under my breath. Did I have any questions? A whole litany of questions came to my mind ranging from where the hell was the exit so I can finally go home to what’s your phone number.

After I settled on the new stretcher, the tech wheeled me down the hallway towards Radiology. All I thought about was whether Matt would be there when I got back from the tests. If he was, and I hadn’t killed anyone from the pain taking over my whole body, maybe I’d actually work up the courage to strike up a conversation that had nothing to do with sludgy coffee, sucky fluorescent lighting, or beautiful ER lobbies, and get to know more about Nurse Owens. Maybe I’d embrace the new Chase Williams like Brett wanted me to and actually go after what I wanted for the first time in my life.