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“I was there first, by the way.”
She frowned, not getting what he meant.
He explained. “I was in the hot tub first before she decided to join me whether I liked it or not. I do it to unwind when all the guests are asleep. Does that satisfy your anger?”
Keena flared her nostrils and looked away. “It’s none of my business what you cowboys do.”
Ryan made a small noise in his throat she thought might be a snicker, but then he left the cabin. She settled back and closed her eyes. Sleepiness descended when the concoction she’d drunk earlier began to kick in. Despite her wanting to hold on to it, her anger began to melt away. Ryan could be lying, but then if he and Jade had been planning to meet in the hot tub, she wouldn’t have been in the kitchen asking if anyone had seen him, would she?
Keena sighed. The biggest question she should have asked herself was, if she was cut out to keep things impersonal, should Ryan be interested? From the overconfident, knowing look on his face, he knew who she was talking about when he’d caught her considering an affair, and he hadn’t seemed opposed to it either.
Was she crazy? After all, it hadn’t been that long since she and Steven were to have gotten married. Was she over him that quickly? She opened her eyes a second time and rested her hand over her chest. No, the stupid ache lived, but it had dulled since coming to Colorado. No longer did it feel like her mind would tear loose from her head, grow wings, and fly away. That’s how it had been the first few nights, like she was on the verge of insanity.
“No way will I let a man make me feel that much in love with him, that I think I’m better off dead or that I’m about to lose my mind from losing him.” That’s why I need an affair. Something meaningless with no chance of falling for the guy. Ryan couldn’t make her feel something him. Well, unless he carried her around and treated her like a delicate flower. This situation was special and wouldn’t be repeated.
Becoming uncomfortable in her damp clothes, she shifted on the bed to try to get up, but cried out when the pain brought her slamming back to her current predicament. She glanced around the room for something to slip into before Ryan returned. The dresser that held the rest of her clothing was too far away. On the back of a chair, nearer to the bed, was a short terry cloth robe she sometimes wore when she stepped out of the shower. She thought she had left it in the bathroom.
Rather than reach for the robe, she struggled to undress first. With her things piled in a heap on the floor, she scooted inch by inch to the edge of the bed so she wouldn’t jar her ankle too much. As it was, the pain ricocheted up her leg over and over and forced her to pause and grit her teeth until it eased.
She had just reached her hand out to the robe, with one leg hanging over the side of the bed, when the creak of the front door opening reached her. She froze for a second, taking in her stark nakedness, and then she threw the comforter over herself just as Ryan appeared in the doorway. He stopped there, his blue gaze shifting from her to the clothes on the floor, to the robe, and back to her face.
To his credit, he said nothing but came forward with a small cup in his hand. Embarrassed and pissed off about it, Keena clenched the blanket in her fingers while glaring at him. Ryan set the cup down on the rough wood nightstand at the side of her bed and then walked around to retrieve her robe. He held it out.
“Would you like help getting it on?” he offered.
She snatched it but didn’t move to slide into it. “I’m good. Thanks.” He waited like she was going to give him a show, but she glanced at the cup. “What’s that, and is the doctor coming?”
He seemed stricken in place, just as he had been earlier before he left the room, as if he was coming to a decision. His eyes, when they focused on her, made her remember the cat-vision trick in the darkness. She wondered if he could do more than that. This was real life. People didn’t have X-ray vision. Still, she clutched the blanket tighter to her chest, annoyed that one bare thigh peeked out where she hadn’t had the strength to lift her butt to free the rest of the blanket. Ryan wasn’t acting like he found it enticing, and she figured he preferred Jade’s much paler skin. Whatever.
He sat down beside her, in an instant too close, too big, and too tempting. He put an oversized hand up to her cheek, engulfing the side of her face and making her want to curl on his lap. “The doctor is not coming,” he told her. “He has a twin birth to handle.”
“T-They always happen at the most inopportune times,” she said, trying to distract herself from his touch.
Ryan’s thumb grazed her cheek. He palmed her head higher, forced her to look into his eyes. When she did, a sensation like warm butter being poured over her head came over her. Her eyelids drooped, and she thought that maybe she needed to stop resisting Mirabelle’s tonic and get some rest. The sprain could wait until morning if she tried hard to keep still.
Clear thinking decreased, and although she tried, she couldn’t look away from Ryan’s stormy gaze. Man, she must be tired, or Mirabelle was a little heavy-handed on the liquor this time.
“I will give you some . . . herbs to help you heal faster. It’s a centuries-old recipe passed down to me,” Ryan explained.
Keena blinked up at him, her brain foggy now. “Herbs? Heal me?”
He moved closer, his lips inches from hers. Were the herbs in his mouth? Keena parted her lips in want of his kiss, if not the medicine. A man like him, strong, sexy, confident—not like Steven who had been a scarce inch taller than she and a little on the heavier side—had never been in her scope. Not because she didn’t think she was attractive, or at least that’s what she told herself.
“You’re beautiful,” Ryan assured her.
She uttered a heavy sigh, mesmerized by his nearness. “Can you read my mind?”
“Not always.”
She blinked. “What do you mean?”
He narrowed his eyes, focused on her, and as she tried to hold on to the question she asked him, to analyze his words, they slipped away from her mind as if they had been wiped clean.
“Close your eyes, Keena.”
She obeyed. The cup touched her lips, and soon cool, thick liquid ran into her mouth. The flavor was unlike anything she had tasted before, but it wasn’t disgusting. The drink was a mixture of what seemed like fruit juice and something else, a slight metallic flavor. She assumed that it was the herb he had mentioned. When he finished helping her to drink, Ryan ran a napkin over her lips, and Keena opened her eyes. The sleepiness receded. Her head cleared to the point that she began to feel refreshed.
She glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. The red digital numbers clicked over to two thirty-five in the morning, and she frowned. “Damn it, Ryan, whatever that was you gave me nullified Mirabelle’s sleeping potion. Now I’ll be up all night and useless in the morning.”
