Hero by Nature

by Wilkins, Gina

  Autumn flushed and looked quickly down at Babs. “That’s okay. I don’t really dislike it all that much. I was just in a bad mood earlier.”

  She sensed his smile, though she could not make herself meet his eyes. “I’ll get your dinner,” Jeff said softly, wisely not commenting on her statement.

  THE FIRST THING AUTUMN SAW when she woke the next morning was Jeff’s smile. Her mind still foggy with the remnants of sleep, she decided that there was nothing she’d rather see first thing in the morning, though she had no intention of telling him that. “Have you been staring at me for very long?” she asked huskily, not sounding nearly as stern as she’d intended.

  Head propped on one elbow, he looked down at her, his smile widening. “Awhile. You’re beautiful when you’re asleep. Did you know that? You’re beautiful when you’re awake, too.”

  She rolled her eyes and smothered a yawn. “I don’t feel beautiful. I feel like—”

  “Watch your mouth,” he said quickly, teasingly. “Beautiful women shouldn’t use such language.”

  “Now that’s a sexist remark.” Autumn tried to frown at him, an admittedly difficult task since he looked young and heart-stoppingly sexy with his dark hair tousled over his forehead, his eyes heavy-lidded, bare chest glistening in the sunlight streaming through the bedroom window. The shadow of his morning beard did not detract from the attractive picture—just the opposite, in fact. Her heart started a crazy tap dance, accompanied by the steadily increasing rhythm of her pulse.

  “Sorry. How’s your arm?” Jeff inquired solicitously.

  She moved it experimentally. “Ouch.”

  “Sore, huh?”

  “Yeah.” She noticed that the sheet had slipped down around his hips, revealing the tops of low-slung blue briefs. She immediately forgot all about her arm.

  “You should take one of your pain pills.”

  Autumn wondered if she’d imagined that his voice had gotten a bit hoarse. She studied him through her lashes. He seemed to be suddenly fascinated with the front of her T-shirt. The thin white T-shirt was stretched tightly across her chest by the position in which she was lying. She inhaled, pleased to note that his eyes immediately glazed.

  She hadn’t protested when he’d informed her the night before that he was going to spend the night, even though she’d known he was staying to take care of her if she needed him. Although she’d firmly believed she was capable of taking care of herself, she’d allowed him to stay quite simply because she hadn’t wanted him to go. Last night she hadn’t felt like doing anything more than sleeping in his arms. This morning she was feeling much better. She smiled slowly at him.

  Jeff cleared his throat forcefully. “Stop looking at me like that, Autumn Reed.”

  She reached out with her good arm and circled a tempting, flat brown nipple with the very tip of one finger. “Like what, Jeff?” she asked with not-very-deceptive innocence.

  “Autumn, you’re injured, remember?”

  Her finger trailed lower, following a thin line of hair to the point where it disappeared beneath the sheet. “I’m not dead, Jeff.”

  He caught her hand just as it was about to burrow beneath the sheet. “You’re not making it easy for me to be noble,” he told her, and his voice was definitely hoarse.

  “What makes you think I want you to be noble?” She stroked his hair-roughened leg with one bare foot.

  Jeff groaned and closed his eyes. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing, honey.”

  “I know exactly what I’m doing, honey,” she murmured wickedly, and leaned forward to kiss him, her hand escaping his to continue its exploration under the sheet.

  “That you do, Autumn,” Jeff muttered with a sharp inhalation, willingly abandoning himself to her hungry caresses. And when she’d pushed him past the point of control, he returned the favor, always careful of her injury but driving her without mercy to the boundaries of sanity. At some point they crossed that line together, and the shared madness was glorious.

  “I wasn’t going to do that,” Jeff accused her when he’d recovered. “You made me lose my chance to show you how strong and considerate and self-sacrificing I can be.”

  Autumn chuckled weakly, still a bit dazed. “You keep forgetting that I like you best when you’re not perfect.”

  Something flickered across his face at the word “like,” but it was carefully disguised. “Want some breakfast?” he asked.

  “Don’t you have to work today?”

  He shook his head. “It’s Thursday, remember? My day off. I’ve got my beeper with me, if they need me.”

  “You don’t have to spend your day off waiting on me, Jeff. Really, I’m fine. As you should know by now.”

  “Yes, I know you’re fine. But I’m still staying. I’m going to spoil you so thoroughly that you’ll never want me to leave,” he informed her smugly, climbing out of the bed and padding toward the bathroom.

  Autumn watched him with a slight frown. That, she thought nervously, was exactly what she was afraid of. That she would never want him to leave.

  Much later she was to realize how strange it was that she could so thoroughly enjoy a day at home with a sore, bruised forehead and a throbbing, stitched-up arm. She’d always hated being at all incapacitated, rarely took a sick day from work unless she was simply too ill to crawl out of bed. But then she’d never had Jeff to entertain her on a sick day before. If she wasn’t careful, she thought sometime during the afternoon, she was in danger of becoming a hypochondriac. As Jeff had promised, he’d thoroughly spoiled her.

  He pampered her, he teased her, he kissed her repeatedly. He lost two games of chess to her, then soundly defeated her at Scrabble.

  “A-n-t-i-c. Antic. Write down my points, Jeff.”

  “Great! I can finally use this X. X-e-r-a-n-t-i-c. Xerantic. That gives me—”

  “Xerantic! There’s no such word!”

  “Of course there is,” Jeff answered, looking insulted. “It means causing dryness.”

  She frowned skeptically at him, but he seemed completely serious. “Okay. I guess I’ll believe you.”

  A moment later she protested again. “Now, come on, Jeff. Surely you’re not going to try to convince me that ‘xanthosis’ is a real word.”

  Again the wounded look. “But it is.”

  “Oh, yeah? What does it mean?”

  “Well, actually, it’s a yellowish discoloration seen in some malignant tumors and degenerating tissues. “Xanthous,’ of course, meaning yellow and—”

  “Never mind,” Autumn sighed, staring glumly down at her own letters—she’d planned to spell “table” next. “I should have known better than to play Scrabble with a doctor.”

  Jeff gave her one of the wicked, piratical grins that always took her by surprise coming from him. “We could put this up and just play ‘doctor.'”

  Autumn glanced up through her lashes and dumped her tiles into the box. “I do like the way your mind works, Dr. Bradford.”

  “JEFF?” AUTUMN POKED at the man resting at her side as a sudden thought occurred to her.

  “Mmm?” he mumbled without opening his eyes.

  Clutching the sheet to her bare breasts, she struggled upright, wincing when her movements jarred her arm. “Wake up. I want to ask you something.”

  He sighed and rolled onto his back, one arm behind his head, his eyes finally open. “What?”

  “What’s the E for?”

  He frowned, puzzled. “What’s what?”

  “The E. In your signature. E. Jefferson Bradford. It just occurred to me that I’m sleeping with a man whose first name I don’t even know.”

  Jeff groaned. “This is the important question you just had to ask?”

  “Yep.” She smiled enticingly down at him. “What’s your first name, Jeff?”

  He rolled onto his side, turning his back to her. “I’m going to take a nap. Wake me in an hour, at six, and I’ll make dinner for us.”

  “Jeff!” She grabbed his shoulder and pul
led him onto his back again. “You haven’t answered my question.”

  “I know. And I’m not going to.”

  “You won’t tell me your first name?” she demanded indignantly. “Why not? You know all my names.”

  He gave her a bland smile and reached up to pat her cheek. “I’ll tell you my first name on the day we get married.”

  “You’ll…what?” Openmouthed, she stared down at him.

  “You see, it’s like this,” he continued calmly. “I hate my first name. I never tell anyone my first name. Only members of my immediate family know what it is. I’ll tell you when you’re part of my immediate family.”

  And then he rolled over.

  Autumn glared at the tanned width of his back, imagining all the painful things she could do to it. This was his idea of a marriage proposal? This from the man who’d courted her with flowers and candy and Valentines? Whatever happened to getting down on one knee and begging?

  Not that she wanted him to propose, she assured herself hastily. She hadn’t even gotten around yet to admitting that she loved him. She certainly wasn’t ready to consider marriage. But he could have asked!

  “I,” she informed him coldly, “am going to take a shower. Enjoy your nap.”

  “Take a bath,” he muttered in response. “And keep that arm dry.”

  She let out her breath in an irritated huff and slipped from the bed, deciding to take a very long bath.

  The water had just stopped running in the bathroom when the telephone rang. “Jeff, would you get that?” Autumn called. “Tell whoever it is I’ll call back later.”

  Jeff reached out for the receiver on the bedside table, propping himself against the pillows. He expected the caller to be Webb, checking on Autumn. “H’lo,” he greeted, stifling a sleepy yawn.

  There was a pause, and then a woman’s voice asked hesitantly, “Is this Autumn Reed’s number?”

  “Yes, it is,” Jeff replied, straightening and pushing a hand through his hair. “She can’t come to the phone right now. Can I give her a message?”

  “This is her sister, Spring. Your name wouldn’t be Jeff, would it?”

  Jeff lifted an eyebrow. “Yes, I’m Jeff Bradford. Has Autumn mentioned me?” he asked, pleased with the idea. He could never be sure with Autumn.

  “Of course. You’re the pediatrician she’s been dating.”

  “That’s right. And you’re the pregnant optometrist,” he said with a grin.

  Spring laughed. “Well, yes, I guess I am. It’s nice to meet you, Jeff. In a manner of speaking, of course.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, too. Maybe we can do this in person someday soon.”

  “I’d like that. So how is my sister?”

  Taking the question literally, Jeff told Spring about the accident, reassuring her that Autumn would be fine in a few days.

  “This sounds so familiar.” Spring sighed. “You wouldn’t believe the number of times my parents had to rush her to the closest emergency room when she was a kid. She was always breaking something or cutting something or spraining something. Lucky for her that she doesn’t scar badly or she’d look like a patchwork quilt.”

  Intrigued, Jeff cradled the receiver more comfortably against his ear. “Accident-prone, was she?”

  “More accurately a daredevil. There wasn’t anything she was afraid to try, especially if someone actually dared her. She’d climb trees, jump off roofs, ride unbroken horses, whatever took her fancy at the time. Daddy threatened to tie her up and keep her in a closet, only letting her out on a leash.”

  Jeff could picture Autumn as a redheaded tomboy, climbing trees and jumping off roofs. He was glad that Spring couldn’t see his undoubtedly besotted grin as he turned his eyes toward the closed bathroom door. “Why does this not surprise me?”

  “Did she tell you about the time she broke her hand?”

  “I know she broke some bones, but she didn’t tell me how she did it.”

  “Oh, well…” And Spring related the story with great relish, making Jeff laugh heartily.

  “You’re kidding!”

  “No. Sure you still want to go out with her?”

  Jeff sobered abruptly. “I want to marry her,” he informed Autumn’s sister, knowing that Autumn would strangle him if she knew he’d announced his intentions to her family. But he figured he needed all the allies he could get.

  “Does she know?” was all Spring asked.

  “She’s getting the message.”

  “Good luck, Jeff. You’ve got your work cut out for you. She’s scared to death of getting tied down like that.”

  “I don’t intend to tie her down. I intend to set her free,” Jeff stated unequivocably. He didn’t explain that he meant to set Autumn free from her fears and insecurities, but Spring seemed to understand, anyway.

  “Now I really can’t wait to meet you. I plan to give you a big hug as soon as I see you,” Spring told him with obvious approval.

  “I’ll look forward to it. I’ll tell Autumn you called, Spring.”

  “Okay, thanks. Bye, Jeff.”

  Score one for his side, Jeff thought with a smile as he replaced the receiver. He’d known he’d like Autumn’s family when she’d first told him about them. He was genuinely eager to meet them. Just as he’d become impatient to introduce Autumn to his own family.

  Climbing out of the bed, he pulled on his briefs and jeans, leaving the button at the waist undone, and strolled into the bathroom.

  Autumn was soaking as comfortably as possible in the hot water, her injured arm propped on the side of the tub. She lifted an eyebrow at him. “You said you were going to take a nap.”

  “I thought you might need help washing your back.” He perched on the edge of the tub and smiled down at her, his eyes taking in every inch of the luscious body exposed to him through the clear water. “You look good wet.”

  She didn’t quite blush, but Jeff sensed with amusement that she’d made an effort not to do so. No sophisticated flirt, his love, and he wouldn’t have her any other way. “Can it,” she muttered with her usual sweet charm.

  Jeff laughed and lifted her right hand to his lips, licking a drop of water from her knuckles before kissing them, delighted when the gesture made her shiver. He caressed the hand, his thumbs tracing the faint ridges of once-broken bones he’d discovered on the day they’d met—almost four months earlier, he realized. “You never told me how you broke your hand.”

  Sternly lifting eyelids that had gone heavy, she straightened in the tub and pulled her hand from his. “I told you, it was an accident.”

  “You know what I’d bet? I’d bet you broke it punching somebody. Maybe you found a football jock twice your size picking on a scrawny kid and you walloped him one.”

  Autumn sighed deeply and reached for a towel. “You’ve been talking to one of my sisters. Which one called?”

  Laughing, Jeff stood and helped her out of the tub. “Spring. Did you really try to break some kid’s jaw?”

  “Yes, I did,” she answered reluctantly. “And I ended up breaking two bones in my hand. But it was worth it. He was an obnoxious bully.”

  “Guess you learned your lesson about taking on someone bigger than you.”

  “Nope. But I did learn how to throw a punch without breaking my hand,” she answered sweetly. “Perhaps you should take that as a warning.”

  “You wouldn’t hit me,” he replied casually, wrapping her snugly in the oversized towel. “You love me.”

  “That doesn’t mean I won’t be inclined to deck you occasionally,” she retorted unhesitatingly. “In fact, I—” She stopped, staring at him. He knew she had seen the hope that had flared to life in him at her words. “Dammit, Jeff!”

  He lifted a hand to her damp, flushed cheek, almost afraid to breathe. “Do you love me, Autumn?”

  “You pick the oddest times to get into these discussions. You could at least let me dry off and put some clothes on,” she stalled.

  “Do…you…love…me…Au
tumn?” he asked again, spacing the words deliberately.

  “Yes!” she all but spat at him, her eyes narrowed furiously. “I love you, all right? Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get dressed.” And she whirled and almost bolted from the bathroom, avoiding any actions or discussions related to her unwilling confession.

  Jeff laughed quietly and ran an unsteady hand through his disheveled hair. He should have known, he thought bemusedly. He should have known Autumn would throw the words at him like a hand grenade, angry with him for forcing them out of her. But she’d said them and she meant them. She loved him.

  His amusement faded abruptly. It still wasn’t enough. There was still something she was holding back. He wished to heaven he knew what it was. And why couldn’t he just settle for what she was willing to give?

  He knew why. He wanted it all. As Spring had said, he had his work cut out for him.

  Though Autumn clearly expected further discussion about the subject of her love for him, and just as clearly dreaded it, Jeff carefully made no reference to the scene in the bathroom. Instead, he cooked dinner and kept the conversation light and amusing as they ate, encouraging her to tell him more about her childhood with her sisters in rural Arkansas. After dinner they watched a television movie, and then he told her he had to go. “Sure you’ll be okay tonight?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she assured him. He wondered if he was imagining her reluctance to see him leave only because he wanted to see it. “Thanks for everything, Jeff.”

  “My pleasure. I’ll always be here when you need me,” he told her softly, dropping a kiss on her forehead.

  He didn’t miss her sudden stiffening. “Well, I could have managed just fine alone,” she told him carefully. “But I enjoyed your company. And your cooking,” she added with a weak smile.

  “You’re not planning to work tomorrow, are you?” Even to him his voice sounded suddenly strained, but she only looked quickly at him and shook her head.

  “No, Webb told me to take off until Monday. Even then he probably won’t let me do anything except serve as general gofer until my stitches are out.”

  “Good. I’ll call you tomorrow, then.”

  “All right. Good night, Jeff.”