When He Woke (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting ManLove) Read online

  When He Woke

  Matt Caynor's whole world turned upside down two years ago when a car accident left his partner, Aaron Mayburn, in a coma. For months he remained vigil by his bedside, hoping for a miracle the doctors told him would never come.

  Steve Pierce met Matt three months ago and took an instant liking to him. After a whirlwind romance the two find themselves falling in love and planning for a future together until a phone call comes in from the hospital that changes everything.

  When Aaron wakes from his coma, Matt is forced to let go of the man he’s falling in love with to be with the one he thought he’d lost. With each passing day he finds himself walking a tightrope between gratitude and despair, not knowing that he might just be given everything he wants. If only he’s brave enough to take it.

  Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre

  Length: 42,824 words

  WHEN HE WOKE

  Taylor Brooks

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  MANLOVE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting ManLove

  WHEN HE WOKE

  Copyright © 2014 by Taylor Brooks

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-554-5

  First E-book Publication: March 2014

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of When He Woke by Taylor Brooks from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Taylor Brooks’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Brooks’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  When I sat down to write this story I knew I wanted to do something completely different than I have in any of my others. It wasn’t until after writing about these three men that their individual characters and stories came to life for me. Telling their tale truly was a delight for me.

  So please, kick off your shoes and prop up your feet. I hope you all enjoy my latest, When He Woke.

  This book, as with all of my others, wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my friends, my family, and the wonderful staff at Siren Publishing.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  About the Author

  WHEN HE WOKE

  TAYLOR BROOKS

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  Aaron Mayburn woke to the rhythmic sound of continuous beeping and swooshing sounds. His first attempt at opening his eyes had been wrought with a heaviness that came over him. He felt tired, like he hadn’t slept at all. Despite his fatigue, he tried again, pushing aside his weakened state and forcing his eyelids open.

  He’d expected to be greeted by the bright glare of the sun, but instead he found himself in a dark room, immersed in surroundings that weren’t familiar to him. He scanned the large window and the adjacent walls as he tried to place where he ended up last night. None of it looked familiar and his memory of the night before seemed to be even more of a mystery than the room he was in.

  He could still hear the beeping, which was the first thing that roused him from his sleep. As he attempted to turn his head, he felt an odd stiffness in his body. Every part of him ached, as though he’d worked all of his muscles to the point of exhaustion.

  Was that what he had done last night? Had he gone to the gym and overdone it? He usually knew his limits and had learned the hard way to pace himself. Even if he had gotten in a rough workout that didn’t explain how on Earth he wound up in this room, wherever it was.

  Where was Matt? His eyes swept the room, looking for traces of him, but couldn’t see much more than the walls. The beeping was beginning to drive him crazy and he made a second attempt to turn his head once again.

  After using all of his strength, he managed to shift his body a little. He couldn’t understand why he felt so lethargic. Everything in his mind felt hazy and he didn’t feel like he had control over his own body.

  After much strain, he was able to budge his body just a little farther to his left and gain a better angle on where those obnoxious beeping and swooshing sounds were coming from. He turned his head and moved his eyes as far over as he could manage. That was when he saw it and panic struck him.

  A large machine sat beside him. Blue tubes and multi-colored wires came out of it and trailed to the bed where he was lying. There was some sort of control panel with knobs and levers on it and a large pump showing an accordion-like mechanism, which was the cause of the swooshing sound.

  Above the panel was a small monitor. Just like the ones he’d seen on the television and in movies, it showed the pulse and heart rate of a patient.

  It was then that he realized what he was seeing. This wasn’t just any room, and those mac
hines were not just hooked up to any patient. They were hooked up to him. He was the patient.

  Panic raced through his veins and he felt fear creep up through his body. Suddenly his entire body was painfully aware of an intense agony that seemed to cover every inch of his body.

  What the hell was going? What had happened to him?

  The once calm and steady rhythm of beeps suddenly became an erratic and rapid noise. He turned his head and watched his heart rate shoot up to unbelievable numbers. The squiggly lines on the monitor spiked up like sharp points in continuous pattern.

  Matt! Where the hell was Matt? Is he okay? What was happening to him? What the hell happened last night? What did they even do last night? Why can’t he remember?

  He tried to open his mouth to scream Matt’s name, but quickly realized his mouth was already open. Something was wrong. His jaw felt tight and sore. He attempted to close it and swallow some of the fear that was welling up in his throat when he remembered the accordion-like machine to his left. It was beginning to make sense. He couldn’t move his mouth, much less talk, because he had something pushed down his throat.

  Reality sucker punched him in the gut and tears began to creep up in his tired eyes. He could have cried if he wasn’t so afraid that it would hurt.

  Where was Matt?

  As soon as he silently screamed the question inside his mind, he saw the lights flicker on. The harsh brightness pierced his eyes with a stabbing pain. He closed them and moved his head from side to side, trying to shake the hurt away from his body.

  “Oh my God. Get Dr. Prescott! Now!”

  Aaron heard a woman’s voice screaming orders and the next minute he heard the hurried footsteps of what sounded like a dozen people. Voices hummed around him like noise pollution from the inner city. He wanted them all to be quiet. His head hurt so bad he wanted to scream.

  Cold fingers touched his eye and he felt the firm pressure of a hand lifting his eyelid up. “Mr. Mayburn, can you hear me?”

  The man, whoever he was, was shining a pen light in his eye. It caused another stab of pain to his already aching body. Aaron squeezed his eye shut and shook his head free from the man’s hold.

  The persistent son of a bitch went for his head and tried to lift his eye once more when Aaron used all the strength he had to push his hands out from his sides and move the man away from him.

  “Mr. Mayburn, please calm down,” the man said. “We need to assess you. Can you open your eyes?”

  Aaron had no idea who this asshole was, but he had every intention of kicking his ass when he was out of this bed. It was obvious the man wasn’t going to let up, so he did his best to oblige the man’s request.

  His efforts were pointless. As soon as he opened his eyes up only a little, the bright fluorescent lights above his bed nearly blinded him. He shook his head from side to side in protest and clutched the bed sheets by his sides.

  “Doctor, I think the lights may be too bright for him,” a woman said.

  “Jesus, you’re right. You over by the door, just shut off the overheads. Then turn on the backlight behind the bed.”

  “Can you open them now, Mr. Mayburn?”

  Aaron steeled himself against the throbbing in his head and tried to calm down. He slowly opened them, allowing only the slightest amount of light to seep through to his eyes. The piercing pain he had felt moments before was beginning to diminish. Whoever the soft-spoken woman was who had suggested the lights be shut off, she was going to be receiving a bouquet of flowers from Aaron sometime in the near future. When that would be he had no idea, but the woman was a damn genius.

  “Very good, Mr. Mayburn. I’m sorry about that. I’m Dr. Prescott. I’m sure you might be overwhelmed right now, but we need to ask you some questions. Would that be all right?”

  Aaron listened to the doctor, who couldn’t be more than five feet four inches tall at the very most. He appeared to have a pleasant demeanor, but everything the guy said and did was annoying him. Just how in the hell was he going to answer any of this guy’s questions if he couldn’t talk? He glanced down at the tube coming from his mouth and then shot his stare back up to the doctor.

  “I understand that it may be hard for you to communicate, but we’ll make this as simple for you as possible. Just blink your eyes, once for yes and twice for no. Can you do that?”

  Aaron blinked his eyes once in response and the man nodded. “Very good. Now, while I’m asking you a few questions, Nurse Nguyen will be checking your vitals and a few things. Don’t let her distract you, just keep your focus on me, okay?”

  Again he nodded his understanding and was eager to get the questions underway. Though he had a few questions of his own, he’d like some answers, too.

  “Okay, do you know who you are?”

  He blinked once for yes and waited for the next question.

  “Do you know where you are?”

  This time Aaron blinked twice, since he wasn’t really sure. It was obvious he was in a hospital, but which one he had no idea. There were three in his city and he’d never set foot in any of them.

  “That’s okay. It’s totally understandable. You’re at Valley View Medical Center. Now, do you know why you are here?”

  Again, Aaron blinked his eyes two times.

  “That’s all right. It’s perfectly understandable with your type of injury. I’m going to tell you a little bit about your condition, but I need you to remain calm. Do you think you can do that, Mr. Rayburn?”

  Aaron blinked his eyes once, but if he’d had the fortitude, he would have jumped out of this bed and attacked the doctor. It annoyed him that the doctor stood there so calm, dragging things out as he was waiting in fear of what he was about to hear.

  “You suffered from a brain edema, otherwise known as intracranial pressure. Which basically means that you had some swelling around your brain. There was some bleeding caused from the trauma you endured. It’s very common for memory loss to be a symptom of those who have suffered similar injuries. The fact that you remember your name is promising though. We’ll need to monitor you for the next couple of hours and run a few tests on you before we can determine whether or not we’ll be able to remove your intubation tube. You’ll need to try and stay awake for a while. Do you think you can do that?”

  Aaron was tired, but if it meant getting this damn tube out of his mouth, it would be worth it. He blinked once in understanding and reached his hand out to tug on the white jacket the doctor wore.

  Dr. Prescott looked down and then back up at him. “Is there something you want to ask? Just relax, Mr. Mayburn. We understand this is overwhelming. If we get you a piece of paper do you think you could write?”

  He felt weak, but his use of hands seemed to be somewhat within his control. So he blinked once in response, hoping he would ask the right question which would fill in some of the blanks he had flooding his mind.

  The nurse was fumbling around with his IV when the doctor came back in the room holding a pad of paper and a pen.

  “Here, let’s give this a try. Don’t worry about full sentences. Just write whatever keywords pertain to your questions and we’ll do our best to answer them. All right, now I’m going to place the pen in your right hand and put the pad of paper underneath your hand. Now, I’m a doctor, so don’t worry about penmanship. Just do the best that you can do. We know this is going to difficult for you.”

  Aaron listened to him and didn’t like the way he was treating him. He was no invalid. He held down a full-time job, worked out five times a week, and had a very healthy sex life. He was far from being the cripple that Dr. Prescott was making him feel like.

  As soon as he felt the cool cylindrical metal pen being placed into his hand, Aaron gripped onto it tightly and began scrawling onto the pad with as much fluidity as possible. His hands were more tired than he realized as he did his best to make the word “happened” legible.

  Dr. Prescott looked at the word and nodded in understanding. “Of course. I’m sorry. I
should have made that clear. You were in a car accident, Mr. Mayburn. That’s what caused your injuries.”

  Aaron searched his mind for any memory of an accident and couldn’t come up with anything. He couldn’t remember what he did last night, much less where he was driving from.

  Then it hit him. The question he’d neglected to ask and Dr. Prescott hadn’t mentioned. Where on earth was Matt? Aside from work, they went almost everywhere together. Hurriedly, Aaron began scribbling Matt’s name on the pad of paper in search of answers as his pulse rate shot up along with the activity on the small monitor hooked up to him.

  “Oh no. Mr. Mayburn, no one else was hurt in the accident. No other vehicles were involved and Mr. Caynor only suffered minor injuries. He’s just fine.”

  A wave of relief washed over him and he closed his eyes for a moment of thanks. He had never been a very religious type. Lord knew he hadn’t stepped foot in a church in years, but he believed in God and now seemed as good of a time as any to thank him. If anything had happened to Matt, he didn’t know what he’d do. Matt wasn’t just his boyfriend, he was his whole world, and the love of his life.

  Much calmer then he was, Aaron jotted down the two words, “waiting room” on the pad and waited for Dr. Prescott’s answer.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t think I…Oh, is Mr. Caynor in the waiting room?”

  Aaron blinked his eyes once, eager to see Matt. As unsettling as this whole thing was, just being able to see Matt would make him feel so much better. Matt had a way about him that alleviated Aaron’s stress and worries like no one else ever could.