Free Wilde Forever (Wilde Women Book 1) by Suzanne Halliday

ice.”
    Seeming less than happy, Brynn rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. “Fine,” she fumed. “The den, I suppose. There’s a sofa in there with a bunch of pillows that should do.”
    She started to sit forward like she was going to try and stand but Jax was having none of that shit. Knowing she’d object if he gave her a choice, he simply scooped her up into his arms and headed in the direction of the kitchen and den.
    Every ingrained male impulse inside him sat up and took notice as she squealed in alarm when she felt herself being lifted, followed by her arms swiftly wrapping around his neck and shoulders as he stomped off.
    A tense silence followed them as Jax made her comfortable by elevating her swollen foot and placing some reusable ice packs he’d found in the freezer on her ankle.
    He made her swallow two pain relievers too, telling her it would help with the discomfort and the swelling. She was clearly displeased with being in a vulnerable position and made some pithy comment under her breath about calling him Doctor Merrill.
    Dr. Merrill. Fuck my life , he groaned.
    She sighed. “Did I say something wrong?”
    Knowing he had a dark scowl on his face, he shook it off and answered her the best way he knew how.
    “No, Brynn. You didn’t say anything wrong. I was just thinking that the Dr. Merrill ship sailed a long time ago.”
    At her puzzled look he added, “I’d done pre-med at NYU and headed for my first year of med school when a surge of patriotism after a drunken night with some buddies ended with all of us enlisting in the Army.”
    She gasped at his admission, and he shot her an, ’I know, right?’ look.
    “Four years and one fucked-up war later, I’d seen enough blood and trauma to last a lifetime. That’s a polite way of saying my time in the Medical Corps more or less stuck a fork in the Dr. Merrill fantasy.”
    “ What!? Um, I mean, you were in the Army?” she stammered.
    “Indeed I was,” he snorted.
    She stared at him for a long time then grumbled, “Jax Merrill. You are not at all what you seem.”

B RYNN WAS STUNNED BY JAX’S admission. So, he wanted to be a doctor at one point in his life? Wow. She had in no way seen that coming. Any more than she imagined he’d been in the Army. He didn’t seem the type although the second that lame observation flitted through her brain, she ruthlessly squashed it because serving our country was something that wasn’t a ‘type’.
    “The ankle is fine—but it’s going to be sore. You’re lucky, but I suggest staying off it for the rest of the evening just to be safe.”
    “Oh. Uh, thanks,” she replied softly.
    He was watching her with an unrelenting stare, rocking back and forth on his feet. A stealth attack of heat and sexual awareness crept into her senses. Her initial impression of the man in black as one seriously good-looking specimen of male hotness, the kind you turned to in a scary moment, had only been reinforced when she’d kissed him like a sex-starved maniac.
    She hated where her mind went where he was concerned. It made her feel weak. Not so much out of control but more like powerless. There was nothing like marrying a king-size example of bad judgment to make her forever question what the hell she was thinking. Being the one in charge, leaning on nobody and taking responsibility for her emotional needs was what had kept her from losing her shit the last four years. At the moment though, she was having a good deal of trouble hanging on to that thread. Jax Merrill was unraveling her carefully controlled world so fast she couldn’t keep up.
    “Did you have a dinner plan?” he questioned, interrupting her wayward thoughts.
    “You mean besides a cannoli and a cup of tea?”
    He smirked at her and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re joking, right?”
    Leveling her with a look that made her feel like a naughty child, she squirmed and fiddled with her hair. How the hell did he do that? she wondered.
    “Um,