Tempting Mr. Perfect

by Rebecca Rose

  “Isn’t he the best?”

  “He’s probably intimidating the heck out of that poor woman.”

  “Naw. He’s all bark.” Sophie eyed Kathy, as if searching for something she hadn’t yet told her.

  “What?”

  “Are you okay? I know if I saw something like that happen to Jake, I’d freak out.”

  “I’m all right. Just shaken, is all.” That’s an understatement. Kathy looked down at her unsteady hands. She hadn’t been this scared, this upset, since the night she left her ex-husband. His temper was something to be feared, and when he found Kathy packing… she wasn’t going to think about it. The past is where it should be and that’s where she was going to keep it.

  Jolting from the soft touch on her shoulder, Kathy went from examining her hands to looking helplessly into her friend’s concerned eyes. “Yeah?”

  “You sure?” Sophie asked.

  “Yeah. It’s just that he’s such a nice guy—”

  “And you’re not used to that,” Sophie interjected.

  “He brings me coffee every morning.” A small smile lifted one corner of Kathy’s lips. “He’s really sweet.”

  “He likes you Kathy.” Covering one of Kathy’s hands with her own, Sophie said, “Dave’s not Todd.”

  “No, he’s not.” Exhaustion forced Kathy’s eyes closed as she tried to block out not just the world happening around her but also the one that never seemed to allow her to move on. “I hope he’s okay, Soph. He’s a good guy.”

  “Me too, Kathy. Me too.”

  They sat quietly for what seemed like forever. People rushed in, people rushed out. Every time a doctor would poke his or her head in, every waiting body would jolt to attention. The purgatory became nerve-racking—to get so hopeful and then find the physician was there for someone else.

  Jake finally returned to the waiting room. “Bad concussion. Whiplash, sprained arm, dislocated shoulder and lucky to have been wearing his seat belt,” Jake informed them.

  Both women let out a long breath.

  “He’s staying the night and we’ll be able to see him in a few.” Jake’s lips twisted in disgust. “In hospital time I think that means about an hour.”

  “Probably,” Sophie said.

  Two hours later Dave appeared doped up on pain meds. His heavy, black-ringed eyes, pale coloring, and slurred speech made it impossible to think otherwise. The heart monitor beside his hospital bed beeped with a consistent lulling rhythm.

  “Hey, guys,” he said with a lopsided grin.

  “Hey, yourself.” Jake sat on the bed next to his brother. “You scared the hell out of Kathy.”

  He turned his cocoa eyes on her. “Sorry. Wasss only trying to get your attention.”

  She laughed a little at his impaired speech. “You’re slurring, Dave.”

  “Done worrrse.”

  Jake snapped his fingers in Dave’s face. “Yes, you have. How many fingers?”

  “Leave him alone, Jake.” Sophie laid a kiss on Dave’s forehead. “You’re a lucky man.”

  “I know.” Dave gave a little smile and moved his eyes back on Kathy. “Thanks.”

  “For what?”

  “Being there.”

  Kathy swallowed the lump that attempted to choke her. “You scared me.”

  “And me… myself.”

  “Okay, everyone out.” Dave’s nurse announced. “Time for the patient to get poked. You can come back later.”

  “Tomorrow,” Dave told them. “I’m taking the day offff.”

  Unable to resist the temptation to touch him, Kathy brushed some of his wild hair away from his face. “No problem. But I’m docking your pay.”

  “I’ll tell the boss.”

  Why did her heart always beat just a little faster whenever he teased her? “Well, good luck with that. I hear he’s not gonna be available for a few.”

  As Kathy walked out of the room with Sophie and Jake, her stomach churned and the sensation to curl him up in her arms then cry thankful tears he was alive almost overcame her. She wanted to stay with him no matter what the nurse said. The emotional pull was as unfamiliar to her as her parents’ hippie lifestyle—something she would never understand. When she was married to Todd, she wouldn’t have given a second thought about leaving him in the hands of another. Yet concern over Dave’s well-being consumed her with the need to stay.

  “Kathy? Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “What? Why?”

  Sophie stopped walking and examined her friend. “Because you don’t look so good.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Her short defensive answer brought an apology right away. “I’m sorry, Sophie. I guess I’m still a little upset. I really just want to go home and climb back in bed but I have to get to the Lion.”

  “If you’re sure. You know Sue is more than capable of handling things there.”

  Uneasy confusion brought Kathy’s hand to her head to ease the spinning. “I know.”

  “I’m here if you need to talk. Anytime is never too late or early. I know you care about Dave, and this was—”

  “I’m fine, Sophie. Really I am. And Dave and I are just friends. That’s it. Nothing more.”

  “Whatever you say, Kathy.”

  Kathy’s breath whooshed out of her lips. “It’s already been a long morning and—” Sophie’s surveying eyes caused Kathy to pause. “I’m sorry I don’t mean to be snippy. I’ll talk to you later. Okay?”

  “Okay. But you have to promise you’ll call me if you need me.”

  She hugged her longtime friend. “I promise I’m good, Sophie.”

  But she really wasn’t. Her stomach wouldn’t stop turning and her mind’s eye kept reenacting the moment of impact. She had a hard time concentrating on the road, that is, once she was finally able to get her car unlocked and the engine started. It wasn’t long before Kathy gave up and pulled over to the side of the road just as tears of relief overcame her. She cared for Dave. Kathy realized the enormity of admitting it to herself and the fact that she had been trying to stop it from happening right from the moment they met.

  Finding a rough napkin in her glove compartment, Kathy wiped at her tears and the mascara running down her face. Damaged, used goods. That’s what she was and Dave deserved much better than that. He was a good man who gave back to everyone he cared about. Not like her who had only caused heartache and uncertainty in her own life and others’. Oh, why can’t I be one of those strong women who go after what they want instead of cowering away? Why can’t I just say, “Damn it all!” and…” And what? What would she do?

  “I’d kiss him,” she told the empty car knowing her secret would be safe. “I’d kiss him and make love to him,” she repeated after a long defeated sigh.

  Chapter Two

  Dave shifted position in his office chair at the Hungry Lion. The sling wasn’t just uncomfortable, it was downright irritating—which matched his mood. Twice he tried to take it off, and both times Kathy’s inner radar sounded and he got scolded. Really? All I want is to be left alone. But Jake insisted on Dave staying with him and Sophie for the duration of his recovery and everyone at the bar kept insisting he should be home healing instead of at work. A perturbed snort escaped Dave’s nose. Sophie wouldn’t let him be. The first night home from the hospital she woke him every two hours “because of the concussion” when all he wanted to do was sleep. In the weeks following his release, she also drove him to all his doctor’s appointments and checked on him constantly and without warning. He wanted to scream; however that would only bring more unwanted attention.

  Dave shifted the sling again and as if on cue, Kathy sauntered in. “Time for pain meds,” she announced with cheer.

  “I’m not in pain.” Despite his words emphasizing the fact he was tired of being coddled, Dave’s mood lightened from her mere presence. “I like you playing private nurse with me and all but when will you stop shoving these pills down my throat?”

  Kathy fluttered her long, thick lashes. “As soo
n as you don’t need them anymore.”

  Dave gazed in her uncertain eyes and realized she was the only person he truly didn’t mind being pampered by. It meant that Kathy would be close to him and he could joke and tease her at will. She always lifted his spirits, even when she wasn’t meaning to. Hurting her feelings was the last thing he would ever want to do but… an agitated breath escaped his lips. “I understand you’re all trying to help but I’m not an invalid.”

  “I never suggested you were, did I?”

  She looked crestfallen so Dave backpedaled to make it right. “No, no. That’s not what I meant. It’s just forcing me to take pain medicine that I don’t think I need. And everyone forcing me to go ‘home’ when all I want to do is get my mind off the accident by working. I don’t want to go ‘home,’ ” he signaled with air quotes, “a.k.a. my brother’s house. I don’t want to sleep anymore,” he grumbled with what he hoped was a very pitiful look on his face.

  “Well…” Kathy huffed with a small lift to the sides of her mouth. “So much for me playing the nice nurse. Guess I’m going to have to change tactics.” She leaned forward, trapping Dave in his chair by putting a hand on each armrest. “Take the damn pills or I’ll call Jake in.”

  “HA! I’m not scared of him.” She’s teasing me Dave realized to his surprise. And her face was so close to his, another wonder with how aloof she had been toward him only a few weeks prior. The fruity bath wash she used every morning was still lingering on her skin and playing with his libido. Those full, luscious lips that beckoned him every time he looked at her were merely inches away and lightly painted pink. God, all I have to do is lean in a little more and they’ll be mine. Dave’s eyes flicked from her slightly parted lips to her ever seducing eyes. An abyss of concern showed in them along with the potent attraction swirling between them.

  “Fine, then I’ll call your parents,” she told him, breathless.

  “Now, Kathy. That’s not very nice,” he purred. “Gosh, you’re the sweetest-sounding woman I’ve ever met, Kathy Mae.”

  “That’s what all the boys say,” she flirted, triggering immediate color to creep into her cheeks. Then her cell phone chimed, breaking the playful banter. After making an agitated grunt she hit a button and the jingle silenced.

  Oh, he liked it when she got feisty. It turned him into mush and made that night’s dream of her so much more erotic. “I bet under all that sweetness there’s a wild woman waiting to be released.”

  “First of all who says I’ve never let her out?” she asked while caging him back in on the chair. “And, second this isn’t about me. It’s about you taking your medicine.”

  “I’m fine, Kathy,” he told her while leaning in closer. “You, on the other hand, look as if you’re needing a massage.”

  “Mmm. That may be but—”

  He couldn’t count the times he wanted to touch her in those soft denim jeans that her legs were currently filling out so well. Gliding his good hand up her thigh, over her hip, to rest on her tiny waist, Dave could honestly say he just crossed something off his bucket list.

  “Dave,” she said in a winded voice, “this is—” She pulled back and sat on the edge of his desk. A weak smile formed on her lips while her eyes filled with unshed tears.

  “I’m sorry, did I do something wrong? I thought we were… you know, connecting.” He pulled a hand through his hair. Kathy said nothing, only looked down at her hands while a line of worry crossed her brows. “Kathy?”

  “I thought you were going to die, Dave. When that car slammed into your truck I… was so scared,” she whispered. When a tear rolled down her sharp cheekbone, he stood and wiped it away with his thumb.

  “No, no. Don’t do that. Please, Kathy. I’ll take the pills. I’ll go home. I’ll sleep.” Nothing had him fall to his knees faster than a woman weeping. And right now he’d give her anything to make it stop.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m trying to help take care of you but you seem so miserable most of the time and I don’t know what to do.”

  “I know and I appreciate it. But I need my own bed. Kathy, please help me. My brother and Sophie are driving me nuts and I’m going to lose it on them.”

  “Sophie likes to take care of people.”

  “So do you.” He gave her red locks a tussle with his good hand. Soft as silk.

  “Thank you.”

  Dave covered her hand with his and in a leap of courage leaned forward and kissed her lips.

  Kathy jumped back and stood quickly. “Dave, you need to take your pills. Here.” She placed them on the desk next to his coffee. “I’ll see what I can do about Jake and Sophie.” With that said she bolted out the door and left him wondering if maybe he should have let her make the first move and if he had just destroyed his only shot at being with her.

  * * *

  With intense concentration Kathy stared at the Lion’s office wall as she talked to Sophie on the phone. “Did you know Dave serves the homeless every Thanksgiving? Isn’t that so sweet? And a couple years ago he and Jake sent their parents to the Caribbean on a cruise.”

  “I heard their mother drank too much and ended up on the captain’s lap.” Sophie laughed.

  “I can’t even imagine liking my parents enough to send them on a cruise. Of course that wouldn’t stop them from trying to get me to pay for one.”

  “That sucks, Kathy. Have you heard from them?”

  Kathy twirled the phone cord around her finger. “No. Hey, did you see the story on those elderly people who were scammed by that couple down in Connecticut? They took those poor folks for twenty thousand.”

  “I saw that! Not to mention the break-in down the street from me yesterday. It got Jake so worried he put extra locks on our doors.”

  “Dave offered to have Jake come over and do the same for me but I don’t want him to get the wrong idea. Like I can’t take care of myself or something.”

  “I doubt he’ll get that out of extra door locks, Kathy.” On the other end of the phone Sophie took a long breath. “I don’t understand. I thought you liked Dave.”

  Their kiss bloomed in her mind awakening her body with subtle warmth. She had truly wanted that intimate touch, longed for it, but couldn’t risk leading him into thinking they might have some kind of future together. “I do, I did, but now… I don’t know.”

  Longtime childhood friends, Kathy could always rely on Sophie to get right to the point. “What aren’t you telling me, Kathy?”

  Sophie’s tone was as irritated as Kathy felt but what could she do? She grew up with neglectful, free-spirited parents who thought nothing of swapping sexual partners, giving their children marijuana contact highs, and letting their only daughter get involved with a man who took her tender innocence, leaving her leery of trusting anyone—including herself. All her life she avoided getting too intimate with men because even her father had never been a source of trustworthiness. Sophie, on the other hand, may not have had the most supportive parents but they were there when she needed them—they were there when Kathy needed them, too, when at the age of fourteen she tried running away.

  “Dave kissed me this afternoon,” Kathy confessed.

  “What? When! I want all the details.”

  Kathy brooded. “You’re not supposed to be excited. You’re supposed to see how confused I am.”

  “What’s to be confused over?” Sophie asked. “He kissed you.”

  “Believing he doesn’t only want sex from me is so important. I don’t want casual sex. I want trust, heart-wrenching passion, a connection soul mates feel.”

  “How did he kiss you?”

  “I don’t know. He just kissed me.” What did that have to do with anything? A kiss is a kiss, right?

  “Was it slow and sweet? Fast and passionate? What led up to it? Come on, Kathy, don’t make me drag this out of you.”

  One hand holding the phone, Kathy covered her face with the other. “He did take a bad bump to the head. Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing
. Just forget it. I’m having a lousy day, that’s all.” Kathy started to wonder if maybe she had been the one who got a good clonk on the head. Dave was her charming boss, nothing more, and yet… every time he brought her coffee with a smile and a wink, she melted a bit more. The way his shirtsleeves hugged those muscular arms and broad chest always made her body tingle. And his voice—tough, rugged, deep.

  “Kathy?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What else happened? I know you too well. When you begin a conversation like this and then start thinking a way out of it, something’s really bothering you.”

  “Is that what I’m trying to do? Shoot.” Kathy picked at her favorite sweater. “I’m trying to get out of that habit.”

  “And have been doing a pretty damn good job. Kathy, don’t let past baggage get in the way of happiness.”

  “I’m not, Soph.” With a cleansing breath, Kathy confessed to what she hadn’t realized was actually bothering her. “He told the EMT that I’m his future girlfriend.”

  “Whoo. Umm, well… how do you feel about that?”

  Never one to jump into anything without thinking it through first, Kathy spoke carefully. “He’s seeing something that isn’t going to happen. Or he’s hoping for it. I’m terrible at relationships. Heck, I ran when he kissed me and that was only a peck. There’s seriously something wrong with me. ” Kathy argued with herself. “I’m dysfunctional when it comes to connecting with people and opening up to anyone besides you. You know what? Forget it. I’m doomed to a life alone. I should get twenty cats, learn to knit, and let my hair grow in gray.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re a beautiful woman who’s had a tough life. He’s a good guy. Trust me, I wouldn’t lie to you.”

  “I know you wouldn’t. Maybe him being too good is the problem. What if it’s more of the mind-numbing relationships I’ve had in the past? I want a normal relationship with an ordinary guy but I don’t want it to be so ‘safe’ he becomes boring. I also don’t want a criminal who brings cops, lying, and cheating right along with him. Is that too much to ask for?”

  Sophie’s hesitation to answer was loud and deafening to Kathy’s troubled mind. “Is there something you want to tell me, Sophie?”