She thought back to that ride to the hospital. She recalled thinking he had dozed off, that he must not be in much pain for him to be so quiet. In pain, men were usually quite vocal, while women were the more stoic.
When she had turned back from talking to the driver, she had glanced down at him. He had been staring at her with an odd expression. She had asked him if he was in pain, which had led to the jerk going into graphic detail of which part of his anatomy had been in pain. It hadn’t been her first time being propositioned in the back of the ambulance, but those patients—both male and female—had been several decades older and suffering from dementia.
She had gotten angry yet had strived to control her temper and professionalism.
“Are you on any medications?”
“Just the pleasure of seeing you bent over me.” His eyes had been glued to her breasts as she leaned over to take his blood pressure.
She had ignored his comment, rolling her eyes. Like I haven’t heard that line before, she’d thought.
She had carefully stabilized his arm while feeling his gaze watch every movement she made.
“So you’ve never seen me fight?”
“No. I usually work another run, but the EMT for this one called in tonight.” She had then picked up her clipboard, beginning her paperwork that she would hand over in the ER.
“You’ll have to come to my next fight. I’ll make sure you have a front row seat.”
Ria had looked up from her paperwork. “No, thanks. I have better things to do with my time than watch two men deliberately hurt each other. Besides, it’s going to be a while before you’ll be fighting again.”
“I guess I’ll have to find another way to stay in shape. Want to meet me after I get released from the ER?”
“Seriously?” Ria batted her eyes and pretended to swoon before straightening and bursting into laughter. “Dude, not only are you not my type, but if I was going to date a fighter, it would be the winner, not the loser.”
His demeanor had changed in an instant. Ria hadn’t needed to imagine him as an opponent, his fierce expression causing her to slide down the bench seat, farther away from him.
When they’d pulled up to the ER, she had stepped out of the ambulance, turning to offer her assistance.
“I’m fine,” he’d snapped, taking the step down.
As he had stepped out of the ambulance, she had seen the head of the hospital come out to greet him personally, solicitously ushering him inside the ER.
She followed closely behind, turning her paperwork over to the chart nurse behind the desk. Her eyes had then followed the man as he was taken into a room, and the ER doctor promptly went in to check on him. In the time she had been an EMT, she had never witnessed someone receiving such preferential treatment.
They’d received another call not long after; therefore, she had returned to the ambulance where Chase was waiting. It was over an hour before she had to return to the ER with another patient. An elderly woman had fallen in the shower, injuring her hip and hitting her head. It had taken them a while to maneuver her out of the tiny bathroom.
As she turned her paperwork in, out of the corner of her eye, she had seen the man being escorted out of the ER room with a brand new cast. His eyes avoided hers, which hadn’t concerned her, but the stern gaze of the administrator had.
The administrator had escorted him to the door, only leaving the man when he had pointedly said he needed to make a phone call as he went out the sliding doors. When the administrator had passed her again, ignoring her greeting, Ria had begun to get nervous. However, another call coming in had redirected her concern, sending her back outside.
The man was just outside the door. As she passed him, his back was to her.
“It’s Nicholas. Come and get me.” His voice had been cold and clipped. Ria had felt sorry for whoever was on the other end of the conversation.
He had then disconnected his call, and as she’d passed him, their eyes had briefly met. The cocky, flirtatious man that had entered her ambulance was gone. Ria had almost stopped to do damage control and apologize for her remark, but she truly had felt he deserved the set-down for his behavior.
“Let’s go, Ria!” Chase had yelled, turning on the siren and lights. She’d jumped in the ambulance, forgetting about apologizing in the rush to get to the emergency.
It was a mistake she would regret.
The next morning, she had been called into her office and was fired, citing her unprofessionalism. She had been dumbfounded that a man of Nicholas’s fame had resorted to having her fired because of being rejected.
She had desperately tried to explain, but her boss had been unmoved.
“I thank you for your service to our company, but we will not allow that type of behavior from any of our employees,” her boss had replied.
Ria had looked at her boss, begging for another chance. “Mr. Lyon, I’m sorry for my outburst; it was completely inappropriate.”