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She deserved better than a lover who couldn’t give his best because his body wasn’t in a good state. He groaned as he moved. What he wouldn’t give for a cold bath! Maybe that would ease the roar of desire in him. He wanted Michelle with a fierceness he’d rarely known.
“In a hundred years I couldn’t explain how much I hate feeling so rough right now because that type of admiration should be rewarded. Instead, I think you should make a straight line to your bedroom and lock the door.”
Michelle gulped and her eyes flew to meet his gaze. Her hand shook as she offered him the rest of the glass of water. He drank it all. Some dribbled down his chin and she wiped it away.
Ty reached up and grabbed her wrist. Taking the cloth napkin out of her hand, he opened her fingers and kissed the center of her palm. “Thanks for taking care of me.”
Michelle drew in a breath then let it out slowly. She nodded, picked up his medicine and left. As his eyelids drifted closed he again enjoyed the sight of the sway of her hips.
* * *
“Wake up.”
Ty’s eyelids flickered upwards. His eyes strained in an effort to focus on Michelle. Once again she was sitting in the chair beside his bed.
“What’s your name?”
“You know my name.”
“Tell me your name. I need to know you don’t have a concussion.”
“Ty Smith. And you are Michelle Ross. And you’re not holding up any fingers.”
“Funny, very funny.”
“I told you to go to bed.”
Her eyes didn’t leave his. “Can’t. I have to see about you.”
“Well, I’m not going back to sleep until you lie down.”
“I need to be close so I can check on you. I’m fine in this chair.”
He shifted closer to the edge of the bed and patted the other side. “If you’re not going to your bed then you have to share mine.”
“I’m not sharing the bed with you!”
“Hey, it hurts like the devil to move. I’m not going to do anything. I’m not even capable of sitting up without a struggle. Who are you more afraid of, me or you?” He grinned at her huff of indignation. “That’s what I thought. Lie down on top of the spread and pull that quilt at the end of the bed up over you. That way we both can get some sleep.” He gave her his best determined look.
She stood. “Okay, if you promise to go back to sleep.”
“Frankly, I’d love to kiss you all over but, much as I hate to admit it, I don’t think I’d be at my best,” he murmured in a gravelly voice. “So as soon as you’re settled I’ll go straight to sleep.”
Michelle walked around the bed. She stood looking down at the space he’d offered for so long he thought she wasn’t going to do as he asked. Finally, she sat down, pulled the quilt up and lay down.
“Hey, don’t move around too much. It rocks the bed. Hurts,” he mumbled as he closed his eyes.
She went so still she gave a new meaning to the saying “as stiff as a board” but at least she’d get some decent sleep. He liked knowing she was near far too much.
CHAPTER FIVE
MICHELLE CARESSED THE smooth, heated silk beneath her hand. Mmm. It felt wonderful. She liked fine sheets and pillow cases but this one was extra special. She rubbed her cheek against it. Perfect.
Her eyes opened, to be captured by green ones that didn’t blink. The pain that had fogged Ty’s eyes the night before had disappeared, to be replaced by desire that was crystal clear.
She tingled with want. Her fingers flexed against the skin of Ty’s waist and her cheek rested on his upper arm. Michelle wanted to groan but clapped her mouth closed. Hadn’t she already embarrassed herself enough?
With a jerk, she sat up. Glancing at Ty, she found his gaze still on her. Why didn’t he say something? Defuse the tension, as thick as ice, between them? He’d always made jokes. Where was one when she needed it?
“I’ll, uh, get your medicine.”
“Michelle?”
She stood and pushed her clothes back into place.
“Yes?”
“I couldn’t think of a nicer way to wake up.”
She shoved her hair back, hoping it was going into some semblance of order. “I bet you say that to all the women.”
His look intensified, bored into hers. “I do not.”
Heat flared in her. It felt good to be considered special by this man. “I’ll get you something to eat.”
“I’d rather have you,” he said softly as she went through the door.
Michelle headed straight to her room and into the bathroom. She looked in the mirror. Her face was flushed as if she were a teenage girl who’d received her first kiss. And Ty hadn’t even tried!
She’d been the one caressing his chest. The one who had rolled towards him. How could her body have betrayed her like that?
But it had been an extremely pleasant feeling to have Ty look at her with desire. What if she took him up on his interest? Would it be so bad to let go for a while? They were both adults…
All those romantic thoughts amounted to nothing. He was only interested because she’d all but thrown herself at him in her sleep. He’d made it clear the other night that he’d only kissed her for the benefit of her mother.
Enough of that. Ty had been injured and still needed care. Starting with something to eat. Heck, she’d been so caught up in her attraction to him she’d not even asked him how he was feeling. He managed to get her to forget everything but how he made her feel.
She washed her face and pulled a brush through her hair.
In the kitchen, she started the coffeemaker and pulled out eggs, bacon, cheese and bread. She was in the process of putting together an omelet when Ty entered the room.
All he wore was the bottoms to a scrub set. He’d been given a new pair in the ER to come home in as a leg had been cut out of his other ones. In fact, that’s all he had to wear. Her hand shook as she picked up the whisk to whip the eggs. She beat them far too vigorously in an effort not to stare.
Had Little Red Riding Hood felt this unsure when she’d faced the wolf? That was a foolish thought. She was a grown woman and a doctor who saw people undressed regularly. For heaven’s sake, she was acting like a silly schoolgirl seeing her first naked chest. The problem was that it wasn’t bare chests that got to her, it was Ty’s in particular and it being in her kitchen. Few she’d seen before were as muscular or well defined as Ty’s.
“How’re you feeling?” she croaked.
He gingerly put a hip on a bar stool. “I’m stiff. I needed to move around a bit.”
“Well, don’t start thinking you’re well enough to do as you please.”
“I promise to be a model patient,” he said with a weak smile.
“You can start being that by taking your meds and eating all your breakfast. I’ll have it ready in a minute.”
She put her back to him. Placing a pan on the eye of the stove, she turned it on to heat. She didn’t have to look at Ty to know that he was watching her. Every fiber in her body was aware of his appraisal. The hair on her arms stood on end.
Minutes later, she placed a plate with a cheese omelet, bacon and toast in front of Ty.
He inhaled deeply. “This smells and looks wonderful.” He cut into the eggs and forked them into his mouth. “Just wish it took less effort to eat.”
“Would you like me to feed you?” Michelle asked.
He twisted his lip up in disgust. “I’m in bad enough shape without having the humiliation of being fed like a baby. Hey, you do know that a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?”
What would it be like to have Ty’s heart? To wake up every morning touching him? Being touched?
She returned to cooking her food in the hope that Ty might think the heat in her cheeks was coming from the stove. “I’ve heard that but I’m only interested in getting you well enough that you can make you own breakfast,” she said over her shoulder.
“Hey, I don’t take up that muc
h room.”
Yes, he did. He filled every room he was in as far as she was concerned.
They ate in silence until Michelle said, “I’ll need to take a look at those stitches as you ran a fever last night.”
“I figured as much. I hate to ask it but I think the bandage on my knee needs some attention as well. It has bled through.”
“As soon as we’re done here I’ll see about getting you cleaned up and then you can get back into bed. You look as if you’re fading fast.”
“I’ll have to admit I’m not feeling as energetic as I’d like to be. Thanks for the food. I’m going to wash before you see about my bandages.”
She put her plate in the sink then picked up Ty’s and did the same. “I’ll straighten up and be there in a few minutes.”
Killing as much time as she could to make sure Ty was out of the bathroom, she knocked lightly on the door to his bedroom fifteen minutes later.
“Michelle, could you help me?” Ty called from the direction of the bathroom.
She didn’t think twice before she hurried towards his voice. “Are you all right? What have you done?”
Ty stood near the tub with the shower curtain pulled back. A towel was wrapped around his waist.
