He inched himself to the side of the couch and let his gaze roam the room, wondering where his not-so-dearly-departed assailant had found its final resting place. But he saw nothing. It was probably behind the couch, or she’d kicked it underneath. It wasn’t important, as long as it was gone.
Her hands climbed to her hips and rested there, her elbows jutting out at ninety-degree angles. “Do you think you’re strong enough to help me undress you?”
His mouth dropped open and he gaped at her for several moments.
“So I can bathe you,” she said on a long-suffering sigh.
“Help me to the creek and I’ll do the honors.”
She eyed him skeptically, her red brow arched. “I doubt you can stand, much less walk. One little riptide would pull you under.”
“Creeks don’t have riptides.” He struggled to swing his legs over the side of the couch again, determined to prove to her how macho he was; that he could do this with a little willpower and mind-over-matter logic. But his legs felt like gelatin and his feet tingled as if a thousand needles pricked them.
Melissa watched with a maddeningly tolerant solicitude he found irksome. He’d walk to that creek and bathe himself if it killed him. No society princess would mock him or pity him, no matter how angelic she looked. She could play Florence Nightingale on somebody else. Cody Richards wasn’t a guinea pig and he didn’t need her noble largess.
But his legs had other ideas and wouldn’t support his weight. He toppled as he cursed under his breath, and he stumbled against her. Surprisingly strong arms encircled him and helped him to sit back on the couch.
Strumming his fingers through his hair, Cody glared at up her, feeling both grateful for her gentleness and mad-as-hell that she’d witnessed such weakness. Being the man of logic he was, he bit his tongue and decided the less said the better. He wouldn’t let her see how much his condition affected him.
“Take off your shirt.” Without awaiting his response, she turned on her heel and disappeared through the kitchen door. As he grudgingly removed his shirt, he heard water running. Old pipes groaned in protest when she shut off the water valve.
He was struggling to pull his jeans off his feet when she walked through the door and stopped, her eyes wide in surprise.
“What are you doing?” If she’d meant her words to sound commanding, she missed her mark. They sounded shocked, even a bit husky.
His blood warmed and the corners of his lips tilted up. This just might be fun. Definitely interesting. He liked the blush creeping up her neck, making her porcelain cheeks bloom with life. Nor did he miss her fingers clenching and her body stiffening. Very interesting. Even intriguing.
“I usually bathe undressed. Don’t you?” He deliberately let his gaze roam the length of her svelte form, giving it permission to linger on her jutting breasts. Slowly, he lifted his gaze to hers in challenge, allowing appreciation to glow in his eyes.
“How I bathe is none of your concern, Cody Richards.” Water sloshed over the rim of the metallic bowl when Melissa stomped across the room, even more when she slammed it to the floor with too much oomph. He’d gotten under her skin and the knowledge made him feel powerful. He wondered just how far he’d managed to get, and decided to find out. He didn’t really believe there was a husband and he wasn’t going to let a make-believe man deter him.
Clad only in his underwear, Cody stretched out on the couch, propping his feet on the end of the couch
She jumped back as if stung by a wasp, her gaze throwing flame at him. “Don’t get any ideas. I’d do this for anybody in your condition.”
He leaned forward, breathing on the long slender column of her neck. His husky voice surprised even him. “But you wouldn’t jump back like a scared sixteen-year-old virgin for just anybody. Would you?”
Melissa stilled, but he could hear her heart race in her chest as it rose and fell rapidly, just inches from his face. Her musky scent was driving him crazy, almost as if she exuded triple doses of pheromones with his signature on them.
Her fingers closed over the wet washcloth but she didn’t wring it out with much fervor; when she slapped the cold, wet cloth on him, it was if she’d thrown a bucket of ice water in his face.
“I don’t like strangers getting in my face. Any stranger.”
“We saved each other’s lives. We’re hardly strangers.” But Cody lay back and enjoyed the feel of her fingers rubbing across his chest, then up and down his thighs. He wondered if she recognized the effect she was having on him, and then realized it was a little hard to hide in his brief attire. She’d have to be blind not to notice and her eyes looked as clear as the dawn sun.
Still, Melissa was doing a darned good job of ignoring him. Maybe too good. If he affected her even a quarter as much as she was affecting him, she must be on fire.
Too soon, the sponge bath ended and Melissa left him, his clothes bundled under her arm in a ball.
Feeling bereft, not to mention chilled without his clothes, Cody was agitated that she’d left him undressed. “Hey, nurse! Why are you kidnapping my duds?”
Melissa stuck her head around the kitchen door, fooling with her hair. Her fingers worked to twist her long tresses into an inverted ponytail that made her look nineteen at most, and he was fascinated that it stayed without aid of a rubber band. She wrinkled her nose. “I’m washing them.” She ducked back into the kitchen and he heard water running again. She wouldn’t dare....
“Don’t I get my clothes back?”
“When they’re washed and dry. And they don’t smell like a skunk sprayed you.” The running water muted her voice. “Cover up with the blanket.”
That dashed any romantic notions he’d held. That’s how she saw him? Or rather, smelled him? Not that he could exactly bathe when he’d been unconscious for God only knew how long. He eyed the blanket with disdain. It was too hot to pull that heavy thing over him in the climbing heat of the day. She’d just have to deal with him as he was. She was a grown woman. Surely she’d seen a man in less than this. His stomach grumbled and his mouth felt parched. “Can I get some water? And maybe a little food?”
“Coming right up!” Melissa said in a singsong voice, suspiciously cheery all of a sudden.
Cody frowned, wondering why she seemed so congenial, when only moments before, she’d been colder than an iceberg. What was he missing? Or was he merely delirious? Maybe she hadn’t extracted the snake’s venom from his blood and he wasn’t thinking clearly.
She practically bounced to his side with a long tall glass of water. Her other hand held out a plate of smoked meat, something that looked like mush with bits of acorn and black berries rolling around the plate, one of the many dishes Jesse had taught her to make during their countless camp outs. Her Jesse had taught her many things especially survival skills including how to live off nature’s bounty. Her natural curiosity had propelled her to expand upon the newly opened world and take cooking classes, something she’d never learned in prep school.
Cody gulped the water down like a man lost for a week in the desert, then eyed the food hungrily. Without ceremony, he snatched the plate from her, popping a berry in his mouth. Nothing had ever tasted better. The gods on Mount Olympus couldn’t have enjoyed ambrosia and nectar more than he enjoyed this.
Melissa’s hands crept behind her back and distant stars twinkled in her eyes. She watched him closely, her gaze glued to his face.
After Cody devoured the berries, he grabbed a chunk of the meat and bit into it. It tasted tangy if tough and he tried to place the flavor, but couldn’t. With his mouth still full of meat, he asked, “What is this?”
Melissa’s head moved so slightly as to be imperceptible. “Don’t ask.”
“Why not?” Suddenly, the meat stuck in his throat and warning alarms whirred in his ears.
“You don’t want to know, that’s why.”
Cody set the plate on the floor and curled his fingers around her wrist, pulling her gently but inexorably to him, until her
lips were not more than an inch from his. When Melissa’s breath mingled with his, he implored, “Tell me.”
“Rattlesnake.” Her eyes met his steadily, unflinching.
Cody swallowed the lump in his throat with difficulty and closed his eyes on the distasteful image.
She smiled wryly. “I didn’t think you’d want to know.”
He tried to chuckle, to laugh off the incident, but his natural sarcasm flowed from his lips. “Are you trying to poison me? Why bother to save me from the thing in the first place?”
“It’s completely edible. And we’re not exactly rolling in food. You wanted me to try your protein snack, remember? This is only a bit larger version.” Melissa tugged at her arm ineffectually. “Do you mind?”
“On second thought, I can skip protein for a couple days.” Cody flopped back onto his bed, his hunger completely dissipated. He might never hunger again....
“It’ll be here if you change your mind. When in survival mode....” She disappeared into the kitchen, her lush curves sashaying in taunting rhythm.
Cody didn’t know if he wanted to chastise her or kiss her senseless.
Right now, though, he was too tired to do either.
Chapter Six
Cody hadn’t exactly been the ideal patient.
Although he was healing, he was still a shadow of his former self. A shadow covered in a four-day growth of sandy dark blonde beard.
He reminded Melissa of a grumpy koala bear. She didn’t know whether to slap or hug him when he grinned lopsidedly at her. She glanced up from her well-worn journal, into which she was penning her most intimate thoughts.
While Cody slept fitfully, she recorded the way shadows tap-danced over his face, the way the sun made his hair glow like spun gold. How strong, yet vulnerable, he looked in repose. How dare the man intrigue her!
Jesse occupied less and less of her thoughts, and less space in her journal. She chewed the end of her pen and stared the inky words until they swam before her. How could this be? Jesse had been her world.
But the sleeping man on the couch was an enigma. All tough-guy macho on the outside, but sometimes, smooth as melted milk chocolate inside. She stopped scribbling in her journal to study him, and tapped her pen thoughtfully. With sunlight streaming through the now highly polished windows, his lashes gleamed silvery gold. Stray locks of hair dangled over his forehead. His firm lips curved in a smile as if he were having an extraordinary dream. She wondered who he dreamt about. A handsome man like him must have a special woman waiting back home.
She should’ve pegged him for a tough New York cop the moment he opened his mouth. If not then, the moment he ripped into action. Yet he was the epitome of the Midwestern, all-American male, all six foot something of him.
Her foot, curled beneath her as if she were a sleeping cat, tingled so she shifted her weight in the leather lounger. She jotted down a list of what she needed to get done--something she’d meticulously avoided doing since she’d met Jesse. In favor of greeting each moment like a new friend she’d deliberately avoided schedules and routines.
But now she had a responsibility to this man. Cody needed his medicine on time, dressing changes, food and drinks, sponge baths....
Sponge baths....
Naked man. Whew!
Heat leapt into her cheeks at the thought of cleansing that sexy, nude body, feeling his incredible muscles under her fingertips, lathering him with warm, soapy water. Two years was a long time to be celibate.
Yikes!
Incredible guilt strangled her. Hadn’t she sworn to love Jesse forever? Until eternity ended? Until the sun stopped warming the Earth? Until the stars ceased to twinkle in the night sky?
Geesh! Talk about melodrama. She grimaced at the soppy sentiments sprawled before her. With a bang, she closed the book, ticked for letting a man she didn’t even trust get to her.
Uncoiling herself from the chair as lithe as a lioness, she padded to the man on stockinged feet, having discovered it wasn’t prudent to traverse the splintery floors barefoot. Towering over him, she tried to figure him out. Maybe if she stared at him long enough, she could read his mind or his heart.
Crazy crazy crazy! Even awake, when the windows to his soul were wide open, she couldn’t begin to read them. The only man she’d ever been able to read was her Jesse and learning to do that had taken time and practice.
Oops! Time to change Cody’s dressing. Gingerly, she lifted the tape from the still spongy flesh, wincing when he flinched, loath to hurt him when he wasn’t awake to fight back.
Tsk tsk. In this day and age, how could she forget her rubber gloves?
With a shake of her head and an inward scowl, she slid her hands into the plastic sleeves.
Humming a song her mother used to sing to her when she was little, she soothed herself to a gentleness usually reserved for a mother with her child before touching his injury. She didn’t care that she couldn’t carry a tune and didn’t much care if anyone else knew.
Working at the edges of the bandage little by little, she peeled it loose, and lifted it off. She dropped the used dressing on the floor with a tiny plop. His damned sexy heat kept seeping into her, and no matter how hard she tried to ignore the fact that every feminine instinct screamed for closer contact with this man, she quivered anyway.
For self-preservation, she’d have to anesthetize herself. Nurses didn’t allow themselves to think about their patients in that way. It was unprofessional. She was his nurse, ergo, she had to be professional.
Simple.
Thus, honing her focus on the injured triangle of flesh, she cleansed it gently, taking care to cover it with antiseptic. But when the tinge of yellow looked brighter, twinges of alarm spread through her. Cody needed real medical care.
A warm arm encircled her waist and she gasped, partially in surprise, but mainly from the maelstrom of desire that erupted. She tingled all over, down to her toes.
“If I’m dreaming, I don’t ever want to wake up,” he said in a husky, sleep-filled voice. Before she could protest Cody pulled her into his arms.
But desire was short-lived when air-cooled water sluiced them, dousing her lust. Glad for the wake-up call to sanity, she tore away. Mentally, she shook a fist at the leaky ceiling. Stop being so jealous, Jesse. It’s time I move on.
“If you didn’t want to kiss me, why not just say so?” Cody struggled to stand, laughter mingling with the sleep still shadowing his eyes. “I can take a hint.”
Appalled by her reaction, she backed away. She covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smirk. Soaking wet in his T-shirt he was so adorable.
Then he swayed and steadied himself on the back of the couch as he started to crumple.
Not so adorable.
Yikes!
She dashed to his side and wound her steadying arms around his waist. God but there wasn’t an ounce of extra flesh on the man. He was a treasure trove of six-pack abs and hard deltoids. It was all she could do to formulate coherent, normal words. “That does it. You’re going to see the doctor. Are you strong enough to ride into town?”
She pushed the couch out of the path of the leak and willed the heavens to stop raining. Then she helped him change into a dry shirt that she had found in his saddle bags.
“You know how to drive my cycle?” His brow lifted with faint challenge as if he thought a woman couldn’t handle the power. “I don’t trust myself to drive yet.”
“If you can hold on, I can handle it.” She’d have to. She’d driven a motorcycle or two in her time. She just worried that he didn’t have the strength to keep his balance.
“There’s barely enough of you to hold onto.”
“Don’t judge me by my size,” she said in a deathly quiet voice, tired of being underestimated. She hoped he wouldn’t be one of them. If he wanted her respect he had to take her seriously. She wanted desperately to respect this man.
So far, he was the only man since Jesse who might have a chance.
“I’m
game if you are, princess.”
“Daylight’s wasting.” She pulled his keys out of her jeans pocket and jangled them in her hand. She put her arm around his waist and let him lean on her as he ambled to the bike.
“Are you sure you want to go into town?”
“Why not?” When his hot breath rasped down the column of her neck, she shivered. Covering her reaction, she tugged on the black helmet and pulled down the visor with unnecessary force. With shaking fingers, she tightened the chinstrap, and then placed her hands firmly on the handlebars.
“What if one of your friends recognizes you?”
Steeling herself for the feel of his strong arms encircling her waist, she paused. Fortifying her reserves against his allure, she kept up the sham. “I still need to call the hubby. My cell phone’s dead.”
Cody stiffened behind her and the air fell chill between them.
When his arms clasped around her middle, they felt strangely antiseptic, leaving her with an oddly bereft feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was almost sorry she’d brought Jesse’s ghost between them.
Almost....
Words weren’t getting them anywhere. She rode slowly out of the clearing, careful not to get them killed by the many exposed roots and low overhangs.
When they reached the open road, she breathed a sigh of relief. Gritting her teeth, she revved the powerful engines. Riding horses would seem like child’s play after this monster bike.
But soon she caught the hang of it and reveled in the open road. Cool wind kissed her overheated flesh. After days of muggy, unrelieved heat it felt heavenly. When she slowed to pull into the one-road town, she longed for a breeze.
They glided to a stop in front of the local clinic. Dubiously, she eyed the tiny office. It wasn’t exactly the Hollywood-sized mansion she’d grown up in. She doubted the receptionist’s fingers glittered with diamonds, either.
“We’re here,” she said in a deceptively bright voice.
Disconcerting thoughts returned. What excuse would hold Cody when he figured out this was all a mess of lies? When she’d fabricated her web of deception, she’d planned on being long gone. But she hadn’t counted on him almost dying and on her being obligated to stick around.
Deadly Love Page 7