Lean on Me (The Mackay Sisters)

by Verdenius, Angela

  Swearing, she jerked her palm up to stare at it. Blood trickled down from several cuts and grabbing her wrist, she bit her lip.

  Tears burned in her eyes. God, she just wanted to scream!

  Maybe she really was having a breakdown.

  Gulping in air, she leaned back against the kitchen bench, reaching out shakily to pick up a tea towel and hold it to her throbbing, bleeding palm.

  Calm down. Just bloody calm down, you dumb sheila. It’s not the end of the freakin’ world. It could be worse, so much worse.

  “Lori, are you okay? What happened?” Matt’s deep voice came from the doorway to the hall.

  It looked like things could get much worse.

  “Just go away, Matt, for God’s sake.” Was that wavering voice really hers? She sound so sickeningly weak and tearful she wanted to kick herself.

  However, it took all she had to keep her gaze down, to blink back the burning tears and whip her hand behind her back in a vain attempt to hide her stupid actions from him.

  She should have known better.

  Dark green pants came into her view, lace-up boots, and then a gloriously bare stomach. That she could notice that mouth-watering six pack while in her humiliated state just showed what a tramp she was inside.

  The uncontrollable desire to laugh hysterically wasn’t far off.

  There was silence for several seconds and she just knew he had spotted the broken glass in the sink. Next instant he reached behind her, his arm grazing her breast as he did so. Was it sick of her to feel that touch through the thin cotton, to feel it all the way down to the soles of her feet? Soles, hell, make that her nipples, because they were pebbling brazenly.

  However, that feeling diminished when he brought her hand between them, his other hand pulling away the tea towel so he could study her palm.

  “Lori,” he said, his voice so deep, so gently admonishing that she had to swallow the lump in her throat.

  Yep, that had certainly gotten rid of any further lustful feelings because shame had just bumped it down low on the list.

  “I’m all right.” She tugged at her hand.

  Refusing to relinquish it, Matt placed one hand at her side, turning her so that she faced the sink. Standing beside her, his bare arm brushing against her, Matt turned on the water and held her hand beneath the light spray.

  It hurt and she instinctively tugged again at her hand, but he had a strong grip on her wrist.

  The silence in the kitchen was almost deafening as the water washed the shards of glass and lines of blood from her palm, though more blood welled up from the cuts. He washed her hand in silence and unless she wanted to make another scene - it seemed that was her calling today - Lori could only stand still and let him attend her.

  Once he had her hand washed to his satisfaction, he opened the drawer and took out a clean tea towel, pressing it firmly to her palm. One hand at her back again, he turned her and propelled her across to the kitchen table, seating her at one of the chairs and placing her other hand on the tea towel in a silent command to keep it there.

  Keeping her eyes on her hands, Lori was nevertheless intensely aware of him moving, retrieving the first aid kit from the pantry and returning to hook his boot around the rungs of one of the chairs and drag it in front of her before dropping into it.

  Sitting before her, his knees each side of her own, he leaned forward and tended to the injuries in silence, pulling several shards of glass from her palm with tweezers, dabbing it with Betadine before applying a dry dressing and a bandage.

  She couldn’t bring herself to break the silence. What was there to say? Instead, she kept her gaze riveted on his hands so sure and strong as he fixed her stupid accident. His clean, masculine scent played havoc with her senses with every breath she took, and the flex of his muscles in his arms and stomach as he reached out to gather what he needed from the first aid kit was a shameful gift.

  No doubt he thought her anything but a gift. More like a curse right now.

  Once he’d finished bandaging her hand, she muttered ‘thanks’ but still couldn’t look up at him. Shame burned her cheeks. One kind word from him would have her curling up into a ball in a corner.

  If she was a weak ninny, that was, so no way. She’d hold her head up proudly and dare him to say anything. Well, she’d hold it up proudly as soon as she could bring herself to look at him.

  It wasn’t happening soon, so she just wished he’d go away and leave her to wallow in her misery and self-pity.

  That wasn’t happening, either, by the looks of it.

  Matt continued to sit in front of her, looking at her.

  For Lori, it was intense. Now that the pain of her hand was a dull throb, there was nothing to distract her from him. Not his perfect body so close to her, the heat from that perfect body, that male scent that was so uniquely his.

  What had happened between them on the floor, that strong body moving over her, in her, taking her to ecstasy.

  Matt loathing what he’d done to her. His anger, his hardness. That was enough to banish any desire she still had, tamping it down under the now familiar burn of shame.

  “I didn’t use a condom,” Matt stated quietly.

  The words slid right through her shame and she jerked her head up, a mild panic clutching at her heart. “What?”

  “Protection.” His eyes held hers steadily. “No protection.”

  Alarm bells started clanging in her mind. “I…”

  “It’s okay.” Reaching out, he took her uninjured hand in his. “Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.”

  Her gaze flew to the table as she tried to think of the possibility of pregnancy, panic almost engulfing her, but then she remembered seeing a packet on the table from Ali once, and then seeing another packet in the bathroom cupboard. Her shoulders relaxed instantly. “It’s okay.”

  “I know.” He squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I should have been more careful. I just…things got out of hand so quickly.”

  Boy, had they ever, but that wasn’t what she’d meant. “No.” She took a deep breath. “There’s a morning after pill in the bathroom.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “Ali had one, and she always kept another in the bathroom just in case. Before she went on birth control.” A flush filled Lori’s cheeks and she looked away. “She always said it was better to be safe than sorry. I can use that one.”

  “Ah.” Matt patted her hand before withdrawing his. “I’m clean.”

  Oh God, shoot her now. Lori bit her lip.

  “I’ve never had sex without protection before. I’ve also kept up health checks.” He paused. “You should know.”

  “Okay.” She swallowed, trying to meet his gaze but unable to do more than look at that very strong jaw. “I am, too. Clean, I mean.”

  “Trust me, Lori, there is no doubt in my mind about that.”

  “Okay.” She stared at her lap, wondering what else to say. What could she say?

  There was silence in the kitchen for several seconds before Matt spoke calmly. “We need to talk about Tommy.”

  Tommy? Dumbfounded, Lori looked up at him.

  “What happened between us…” He thrust a hand back through his thick hair, the dark locks falling haphazardly onto his brow. He didn’t look angry now, he looked unhappy. Troubled.

  But that didn’t explain his weird comment.

  “Tommy?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Your boyfriend, remember?” That gorgeous mouth of Matt’s tightened, the full lips that were saved from being girly because they were so firm.

  Her mouth fell open.

  Matt grimaced. “He needs to know.”

  “Know?” Anger kindling through her, Lori bolted to her feet. “That’s what this is all about? Tommy?”

  “Your boyfriend,” he repeated, refusing to move back which meant she was almost straddling his knees.

  Shoving her chair back, she walked to the kitchen bench, unsure if she should cry or yell. In fact, she wa
sn’t certain if the wind had been taken from her sails or whether she was entering a blowing gale.

  Sure as hell her mind was whirling.

  Spinning around, she stared at Matt.

  Hands braced on his thighs, he looked steadily at her. Bare chested, handsome, and she wanted to hit him.

  Violence, apparently, was also her calling today.

  Anger surged through her. “Tommy has nothing to do with this.”

  “When I take his girlfriend’s virginity, I think it does,” Matt replied calmly.

  So calmly, in fact, considering the subject, that now she wanted to throttle him. “Are you freakin’ kidding me?”

  He looked pointedly at the floor beyond her and she turned her head to see a streak of blood on the floor. A small streak that had nothing to do with her palm and everything to do with her first sexual encounter.

  She’d have been mortified if she wasn’t fast growing furious.

  Angrily, she looked back at him. “I get your drift.”

  When his gaze shifted back to her, there was a definite darkness to them which she was in no mood to decipher. “So are you going to tell him or am I?”

  Livid, she fisted her hands. “Neither of us are telling him anything.”

  “Wrong,” Matt replied. “One of us is.”

  “Let me fill you in on some ground-breaking news, sunshine. First off, you’re saying nothing to Tommy. What happened between us is none of his business.”

  “Oh really?” He didn’t shift an inch, almost as if he was carved from stone, the only thing moving his mouth, his eyes, his flaring nostrils and oh yeah, that muscle at the corner of his mouth. It jumped.

  “Really.”

  “So you have no intention of telling him?”

  “No.”

  “Don’t you think cheating on your boyfriend, however unintentional, is kind of low?”

  She gasped.

  He refused to back down.

  Oh boy, she really wanted to kick arse now, and it was his.

  Furious, she stormed across the room to come to a stop right in front of him. When he simply looked up at her with that damned eyebrow partially raised, she wanted to rip it off.

  “Listen up, Matt Winters,” she hissed. “I don’t know why you think you know everything, but you don’t. Tommy isn’t my boyfriend, he never was and never will be. I told you before there was nothing between us, but apparently you haven’t got a brain in that handsome head of yours because that information never sank in.”

  He continued to hold her gaze.

  “I’m sick of everyone judging me, thinking they know me and what I do, how I think. No one knows me, Matt, least of all you.”

  That muscle ticked beside his mouth again.

  Exasperated, Lori threw her hands in the air. “Fine! You think I’m some slut who would cheat on her boyfriend? Whatever. I’m out of here.” She swung around to leave the kitchen

  “Lori.”

  Ignoring him, she made for the door.

  “Damn it, Lori.” His voice was close. “Stop.”

  Refusing to answer, she kept striding onwards, only to have an arm snake around her waist and jerk her to a halt.

  “Let go,” she demanded angrily. “Let me go, you ignoramus.” When he didn’t, she jabbed backwards with her elbow.

  Give the man credit, he could move fast. Maybe it had something to do with his job, trying to get sometimes aggressive patients onto a stretcher had to be hell. He was also strong. Before she knew it she was spun around and backed up to the kitchen bench, Matt’s arms coming down each side of her, his palms slamming onto the top making an effective cage to keep her in place. Leaning over her, he glared. Her own hands clutching the edge of the counter, she glared right back up at him.

  Fury beat tears any day.

  “Now you listen to me.” A thread of steel ran through his tone. “I don’t take sex with a woman lightly. I certainly never have sex with a woman belonging to another man-”

  “I don’t belong to anyone!”

  “Yet this is the first time you’ve denied being Tommy’s girlfriend.”

  “No it isn’t. I told you before there was nothing between us.”

  Man, he was intimidating, leaning over her like that with his bare chest so tantalizingly close and his eyes dark and stormy.

  Dark and stormy beat the heck out of hard and cold.

  “Yeah, I heard that. You’re right.” Matt took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I was thinking that maybe whatever you had was new and you didn’t want it known yet.”

  “For God’s sake, Matt. What do I have to do to prove it to you? In fact,” she snarled, “why do I have to prove anything to you? I’m speaking the truth and I’m not saying it again.”

  He was silent for so long, the clock on the kitchen ticking out the seconds into a full minute. The whole time he just looked into her eyes, his breathing slow and steady, his gaze intense, searching.

  Refusing to break eye contact, she met his gaze steadily. She had nothing to hide.

  Suddenly he nodded. “Okay.”

  “What?”

  “Okay. I believe you.”

  Lori blinked. “That’s it?”

  “Yes.”

  “You look at me and then it’s all okay?”

  “Yes.”

  She didn’t know whether to be relieved or outraged. Definitely outrage was at the forefront. “You are such a prick.”

  “Lori-”

  “How dare you be so condescending?”

  There went that muscle at the corner of his mouth. “I’m not.”

  “You know what, Matt? I’m so mad right now I could slap you.”

  “You wouldn’t want to try,” he retorted. “You won’t like the consequences.”

  “Is that right?”

  “You bet your sweet arse.” He leaned down a little closer, his gaze suddenly hot. “In fact, your sweet arse is exactly where I’d slap.”

  Her mouth fell open at the same instance a rush of heat filled her face…and elsewhere, which was just kinky. Flustered, she shot back, “You touch me and you’ll be sorry.”

  “Let’s give it a try then, shall we?”

  Good God, he was serious. Deadly serious. Her eyes widened in surprise, his narrowed in threat. There was a definite air of sensual danger about him right now.

  Mild mannered Matt, paramedic and hero of the injured, friend to all, was gone. In his place stood a handsome, strong, and extremely unpredictably carnal man with a suggestion that had her shaking at the knees and her heart pounding erratically.

  Oh, this was so weird. And hot. And scary. She felt out of her depth. Deliciously so.

  “I think you better leave,” she finally whispered.

  His head dipped lower. “Really?” Now he was hovering right above her mouth, his breath a hot puff on her lips.

  Her knees went weak and her grip on the bench tightened. “Um…yes.”

  “Are you afraid of me right now, Lori?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Y-yes.”

  He nipped her bottom lip, drawing a gasp from her. “Maybe you should reconsider.”

  “I don’t need to,” she practically squeaked.

  He didn’t touch her but he kept her caged in by his arms. It felt at once both protective and ominous.

  Eyes open wide, she could only look up into his dark, compelling gaze.

  “I’m thinking you’re lying right now,” Matt said quietly. “I can see your pulse pounding in the side of your neck. Your heart rate is definitely beyond the normal. Fear does that.”

  “I don’t fear you.” Much better, her voice was no longer a squeak.

  “Maybe you should.”

  She swallowed. Oh man, he did look dangerous right then, almost predatory as his eyes seemed to turn to hot liquid, the darkness a pool of heated suggestion with a hint of menace.

  There went that silence again, stretching out between them darkly, almost e
rotically, definitely charged with sensual carnality. How that happened, why it happened, Lori didn’t know, but it was undeniable.

  And then he kissed her. One small lunge and he captured her mouth, lips moulding almost fiercely to hers, his tongue demanding entrance.

  This wasn’t just a sensual kiss, a desperate kiss. This kiss was pure dominance, demanding and taking, his tongue sweeping inside to ruthlessly plunder, licking deep.

  It was also fast. Fast and hard and definitely assertive.

  Her mind was whirling when he lifted his head abruptly and it was all she could do to remain upright.

  Looking down at her, Matt’s eyes held an almost feral light, but he was obviously in total control, his voice deep, even, not a hint of the breathlessness that had her gasping almost raggedly for air.

  “I have to go back to work, Hamish is covering for me. We’re talking tonight when I get back.”

  Talking? Lori blinked, trying to drag in her scattered thoughts. “I don’t think-”

  “Be here.” Pushing back, he swung around and strode across the floor.

  One part of her was shocked at his order, another part was shaking in reaction to everything that had happened, and a sick third part of her was wickedly excited at his masterly attitude - oh yes, and the sight of his half naked body leaving her kitchen.

  He didn’t look back. When the door clicked shut behind him, she almost sank to her knees.

  Heart pounding, she touched her trembling fingers to her lips, feeling the swollen flesh and knowing it was from his kiss. Tantalizing thought.

  This was quickly followed by a myriad of thoughts and feelings, some angry, some bewildered. Things had happened too quickly, too much said, too much unsaid, things hinted at but still obscure. Her emotions had been through a rollercoaster of a ride in a couple of hours and now she was left standing confused in her own kitchen because she couldn’t get one thought straight in her head.

  “Oh Minx.” Automatically, she turned to where the old ginger cat normally sat on a chair. “I don’t know what the…”

  Minx wasn’t there. One more heartache.