Page 8 of Elf-ish

“A Christmas party. My board expects me to bring someone, but I need someone . . . respectable.”

He eyes me up and down, taking in my slightly inappropriate sweatshirt.

“Someone without ties to me,” he adds.

“Like no strings attached.” I smile at my own joke, but Jude’s face hardens, like I’ve hit a nerve.

“I recall a certain dark-haired woman cooing over you beside your hospital bed.” I hitch a brow, suggesting it’s his turn for more details. “She’d look pretty on your arm, all wrapped up with a bow.”

Jude digs his teeth into his lower lip and slowly rolls his gaze down my body again. “You would look pretty in ribbon.”

With my curves and flatter chest, there isn’t a spot on my body a ribbon could cover.

I’m not the buxom bombshell he had draped over him in the hospital. The same woman whom I’m certain was doing nefarious things to his body before he went into cardiac upheaval. A woman who apparently came with strings.

On that note, I’ve lost my desire to be standing in Ashford’s. I’ll find another store to shop in. State Street is full of them.

“You should be home in bed, and I have gifts to purchase.” I hold up my phone, which contains my list.

“Would you come be my nurse?” The corner of his mouth twitches again, reminding me that a dimple exists, but this isn’t a smile. He isn’t being playful, even if he sounds flirtatious.

If anything, his question almost hurts my feelings.

“Now you’re just being rude. I’m not a nurse. I’m an emergency medical technician.” And he’s a casualty my heart cannot handle. I don’t need some prissy, pretty man thumbing his nose at me while tossing out flirty comments and suggesting I accompany him to a Christmas party.

He tilts his head, practically admitting he doesn’t know the difference between medical positions. As for me, I’m just done with this conversation.

“Have a nice life, Mr. Ashford. It was my pleasure to save it for you.” I brush past him, preparing to exit Ashford’s, hoping this interaction doesn’t tarnish all the golden memories I have of being here as a kid.

However, Jude catches my wrist, causing me to spin and face him again.

“Wait.” One singular word and I’m stalled, because his voice has reached a new pitch. Desperate.

He swallows thickly. “Please.”

I doubt that word has ever graced his vocabulary. Not when his eyes pinch closed, and his chin tips upward. A pained expression etches into his chiseled cheeks.

“Why?” I whisper, my gaze flitting around his face, equally desperate to understand him. Just a sliver of a bit.

He lowers his head and opens his eyes, shocking me again with their coldness. “Because you saved my life.”

I chuckle, acidic and rough, tugging at my wrist, which only ends with me being pulled closer to him. His breath mingles with mine. My gaze falls to his lips, parted and too close. I lick my own and notice him watching the motion.

“It doesn’t work like that.” My voice hardly sounds like mine. “I save your life, and now I owe you a favor?”

“You saved my life.” He pauses, glancing back at my mouth a second before meeting my eyes. “And now I need your help to live it.”

With those icy eyes and the divot to one side of his mouth, he has me stunned, like a snake in summer grass.

Because my Rikki-Tikki heart wants to help him somehow, and protect his fragile, broken one.

chapter 4

[Jude]

There was something about her I couldn’t place. It was more than just her being the EMT who saved my life. Something deeper. I could feel it in my cold, hollow heart, but I could not recognize the sensation. Or her.

Still, I wasn’t ready for her to depart.