Cursive - By Phoebe Lane Page 0,50

examining room. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and reached for it.

"It's Ellie. I'm not supposed to use this in here. Let me go fill her in on what's going on. I'll be right back." Aislynn nodded and shivered. Jace pulled off his jacket and put it over her shoulders. "Do you need anything else?"

"No, I'm okay now," she said with a tremulous smile on her face.

The doctor stepped into the exam room a few minutes after Jace left. He asked her a few questions about what had happened and about her medical history, and then started working on stitching up her hand.

"You'll need to keep this dry. I'll give you a prescription for some pain medication. The cut was pretty deep but it didn't get any tendons. If there is any redness—"

"Signs of infection. I know all this, thanks," Aislynn said, trying to be polite but failing at it.

"Are you a nurse?"

"Doctor," Aislynn said flatly.

"Really?" he asked, surprised. She nodded and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "What's your specialty?"

"Psychiatry."

"That's great," he said with a playful smile, and made casual conversation about the school he had gone to and his work in the clinic. "We need one of your kind around here. We get a lot of patients that could use your help. Any chance you're looking for a job?"

"Not really," Aislynn answered, noticing that Jace had walked into the room at some point during their conversation.

Why does he look so irritated?

"And she's not looking for a boyfriend either. She's got one already," Jace said rudely.

A tense silence took over the room. "Sorry, man. I didn't mean anything by it," the doctor said, embarrassment clear in his voice.

Aislynn glared at Jace, feeling annoyed and, admittedly, somewhat flattered and turned on.

The doctor finished bandaging Aislynn's hand and continued, "Dr. Currington, if you have any signs of infection, please come back so that I can take a look at it. The nurse will be back in to give you your prescription and your discharge papers."

"Thanks, Dr. Walsh," Aislynn said and waited for the doctor to leave the room. She immediately turned to Jace, a deadly stare on her face. "I didn't know you had gone to caveman school. What the hell was that?" Aislynn demanded.

"He was flirting with you and I didn't like it," he said, clearly not feeling the need to apologize for his behavior.

"Do you plan to hit me over the head and drag me out of here by my hair just to show him you're my…boyfriend?" Aislynn hesitated on saying the last word. They hadn't officially categorized their relationship until that moment.

Jace approached her cautiously and brought her injured hand to his lips. "You've got to admit your hair is the perfect length for that," he said with a mischievous smile, which made Aislynn melt. "And for the record, I want you to be my girlfriend."

Aislynn took a deep breath while she waited for her brain to connect back with her mouth. She was all for a man being protective, but this possessive streak had to be kept in check, even if it made her girly parts tingle.

In any case, his smile quickly made all her annoyance disappear. "I've never dated a caveman. You're gonna have to teach me how to hunt."

"Don't worry, babydoc. I'll take care of you. Let's go home."

Jace took Aislynn to the apartment to get some of her things, convincing her to stay at his place for the night. In the midst of her breakdown, she hadn't noticed how much damage she had done to the place. She started cleaning up, grabbing the broom and dustpan to pick up the glass on the kitchen floor.

"Aislynn, just leave it. Ellie is on her way; she'll take care of it."

"But, I should—"

"Come on. You're tired and in pain. You'll just end up hurting yourself again. Let me take you home, please."

Aislynn agreed, realizing she was only trying to stall the inevitable. Jace was going to ask lots of questions she wasn't ready to answer, and it was going to be an incredibly hard conversation to get through.

She was visibly tense on the ride to his house. He often had to bring her attention to how hard she was squeezing his hand. She was grinding her teeth and the pressure was triggering a headache. Her foot was constantly moving, and waves of nausea kept assaulting her.

"It's fine, babydoc. Tonight we rest. Tomorrow we talk," he said.

Once they were at the beach house, Aislynn took