The Billionaire's Second Chance by Peyton Reeser Page A

Finding myself on my butt on the ground didn’t make it any better. It is pounding pretty hard right now though, Doctor . ” Shannon said while closing her eyes and raising a hand to shield her face from the bright lights in the examination room.
    “Okay, well let’s do this,” said Dr. Tyler. “I’ll have the nurse come in and take care of that gash; put some antibiotic ointment on your hands and knee and we’ll put a little icepack on your foot to get things started. Then let me arrange for an x-ray of your ankle. Since I can see you are in clear discomfort we’ll give you something to take the edge off that headache. The bump is superficial and y ou don’t have a concussion so there won’t be any danger. It will however make you little loopy he said while he waving fingers in the air making a loopy motion in an obvious attempt to break the tension and get a smile from her. It worked. She smiled. Nick churned.
    With that, Dr. Surfer Dude patted Shannon on the shoulder, assured her that she was going to be fine and then left in search of the nurse, giving directions the whole way as he walked out the door.
    Needing something to do and not being able to just stand idly by while someone else took care of his woman ….. wait a minute. Did he just think that? Yes, yes he did. Nick sprang into action and went to the array of light switches by the door of the exam room. Testing all of them, he ended up clicking off two which still left the whole space illuminated but got rid of the high intense glare right over Shannon’s head.
    “Maybe a little less light would help.” he said quietly as he moved closer to where she lay on the white sheeted bed looking pale as death and in an awful lot of pain.
    Before even so much as another minute went by a very well-organized and matter-of-fact nurse bustled into their room pushing a cart of first aid supplies and immediately set about tending to the bruised knee, the scraped hands and of course the gash on her shoulder. The gash required Shannon to unbutton her blouse, her adorable cowgirl blouse, and slip one arm out as she protectively clutched the rest of the shirt to her front in defensive modesty.
    Wishing to give her a little sense of privacy and also not wanting to get caught out staring at what he could suddenly see of her voluptuous breasts barely held in by a white lace bra, Nick placed himself at the head of the examining bed and watched while the nurse very, very carefully cleaned what ended up being a superficial gash on her shoulder which luckily did not require sutures.
    The nurse, assuming he must be a boyfriend or husband, was talking to him in very matter-of-fact terms describing in specific detail how to manage the wound since there was no way she would be able to do it herself as it was on her shoulder and in a place she wouldn’t have been able to reach.
    Shannon wanted to be angry that he was suddenly completely involved in even the smallest details of her care until she remembered that it was she who had reached for him when the Doctor questioned who he was.
    Somehow he managed to cut right through all the red tape of caution which surrounded her life these last eight years. If her head didn’t hurt so much she’d certainly want to give that thought a bit more breathing room but right now all she cared about was where the loopy medication was that she’d been promised.
    Less than a minute later a pair of orderlies appeared in the doorway with a wheelchair to take Shannon to the x-ray room. Having already discovered there was no way Shannon could sit in a wheelchair because it caused her too much pain , Nick stepped in and spoke quietly to the medical staff to ascertain if there was another way to get her down to the x-ray room.
    In a heartbeat a special orthopedic wheelchair materialized and the two orderlies had her out of bed and into that wheelchair completely pain free, down to the x-ray department for a series of scans and then back in her private