Deirdre O'Dare - Randi's Hellacious Adventure Read online

  He nodded. He gave me a light kiss, one not meant to seduce but just a mild caress. Then he gave me a little shove. "Get going, sugar. They're waiting for you. It's time you got back to that body before it misses you too much."

  "Wait, I don't know where--" Even as I spoke, the darkness softened around me, the smoky air went hazy and then brightened. I felt myself falling, or perhaps drifting is a better word. There was a definite pull on me, a magnetic sort of tug drawing me where I needed to go. I relaxed and let it happen, although I was a little worried what I would find when I got there.

  * * * *

  There was brightness, intense and painful, outside my closed eyes. The lids were weighted, too heavy to lift against the pressure of that glow. Vaguely I sensed that I reclined, almost flat on my back, though my head was elevated slightly. As awareness grew, I heard a faint hum of machinery, the whisper of voices talking very quietly, muffled noises from beyond walls and doors. Then I smelled the strong sharp scent of disinfectant. The odor was familiar because I guess there isn't a hospital in the USA that doesn't use it. I knew then where I was.

  I was alive and in some hospital. It really didn't matter which one or where. I was back. Maybe I'd been there all along and only dreamed my strange adventure. I guess I'll never know. I wanted to smile, remembering the sweeping power of my orgasms, not just one but many, so many I'd lost count! Wow, it was amazing.

  Then, for a moment, fear clutched at me. Could I be so badly injured I'd be unable to live a normal life? Would I be disfigured, so marred even Matt's skill or that of the doctors he had studied with could not put me back as I was? Had I made a grave error in choosing to come back to my body and continue with my life? I mumbled a fast prayer in my mind, a fast, silent prayer.

  "Please, God, let me be all right, almost as good as ever, okay? I'll do anything you ask of me if I can have that. I'll work in the children's hospital every day and put money in the offering plate every Sunday and be totally faithful to Matt and...well, anything. Honest, I swear I will."

  Just then, without me really willing it, I blinked. The light hurt a little bit, but I caught a glimpse of bright blue Arizona sky through the window off to my right. I'd never seen anything so beautiful.

  "Randi? Oh, baby, are you waking up?"

  It was Matt's voice, a little bit uncertain, a good bit anxious. I forced my eyes to open again. He sat there beside me, his earnest gaze fixed on my face,

  My voice came out in kind of a croak, but I could speak. "I'm here. I'm alive and back and--"

  "Oh, thank God!" That was Mom, then I heard Dad's voice as well, booming much too loud for a hospital. That was Dad.

  "Of course she is. I told you she was tough. She's an O'Neal. Let me see my girl."

  But Matt didn't budge. He leaned down and kissed me, very softly, on the lips. "I love you, Randi," he whispered. Only then did he edge back to let Dad come to my bedside.

  Dad might be talking tough, but I saw tears in his eyes as he looked down at me. "That stupid yahoo smashed your pretty car all to smithereens, babykins, but I've got another one waiting for you. You get well now and come home, you hear?"

  I think I nodded. As Daddy backed away, Matt moved closer again. I looked up at him, trying to see if there was shock or pity in his face. There didn't seem to be. Finally I had to ask.

  "Am I going to be all right? Is my face okay? Did they have to operate and take anything out?"

  His dear blue eyes were bright as the sky outside. He smiled. "You're going to be fine, darling. It's a miracle, but you came out of that wreck in amazing shape. It was as if there was a bubble of protection around you, almost as if you were not there at all. When they got the remains of the car off you, except for being unconscious, there was hardly a mark on you."

  He touched my arm and then my face, his hand not quite steady. "They ordered a MRI and a CAT scan to be sure, but there was almost nothing in the way of injuries. We couldn't figure out why you hadn't waked up. It's been twenty-four hours, almost to the minute, but now you're back. Everything is going to be fine."

  Thank you, God. I shaped my face into a smile for him. "Can I get out and go home pretty soon, do you think?"

  "Count on it, sweetums. I've asked for two weeks off so I can be with you. Your parents wanted you to come home, but I'm keeping you with me. I almost lost you. I don't want to let you out of reach for a while. We have some catching up to do."

  Picturing some of the things I planned to do with my gorgeous hunky fiancé, I had no problem smiling, really smiling. "I had some wild dreams," I said. "While I was...well, wherever I was when I was unconscious. We do need to do some catching up. I expect I'll need to spend some time in bed, too. If you're there with me, it won't be so bad, though."

  "For the next two weeks at least, I'm your slave," Matt said. "Your every wish is my command. When I think how close I came to losing you forever, it scares me to death! Anything your little heart desires."

  I grinned. "I have all sorts of plans, lover boy. Just you wait! But you've got to promise not to be shocked. Forget about being proper and strait-laced Dr. Conlan for once."

  He arched a brow in an unspoken question but then he winked. "Okay, darling. As I said, your every wish is my command."

  At that, I reached up and pulled him down for another kiss, a real one this time, not just a butterfly brush of lips, but a real lip-lock, tongue-dueling, wet and wild kiss.

  "That's just a start," I whispered as he drew away, a silly besotted grin on his face. "I think we're going to have one hell of a time!"

  * * *

  Deirdre O'Dare

  Deirdre O'Dare, who also writes contemporary romance as Gwynn Morgan, has loved reading and writing since early childhood. She started writing--simple verses and paraphrases of Nancy Drew and Zane Gray--before she was out of grade school and finally settled into romantic fiction in the last decade after leaving her "day job" as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army. She lives in Arizona and frequently sets her stories in the Southwest she knows and loves, but now and then another locale calls to her creativity and she strays, even as far as prehistoric Greece and places that exist only in her imagination.

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