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“Really. But I dropped out of business school. Quit the frat. It’s another way the accident changed me.” He paused, seemed to go back into his memory again. “I have vague memories of the first responders cutting me out of the wreck. Talking to me, giving me hope. Encouraging me to live.”
It sank in.
“And that’s when you decided to go the first responder route? To give back and be a hero to someone else?”
“I wanted to make a difference.” He shrugged. “There’s a lot of my job that’s not very heroic—and pretty damn unglamorous. But then there are the times where I get to be that first responder who helps save someone’s life.” His jaw flexed. “Or be with them when they pass on.”
At the barely hidden grief in his eyes, she was overcome with emotion. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her. Almost clung to her, really.
Relief that he wasn’t pushing her away roared through her.
The rapid thump of his heart became the reminder that he had lived when his friends hadn’t. When the tears slipped from her eyes, she prayed he wouldn’t feel them.
This man who she’d initially written off as a hot-and-shallow sex god was anything but. He was tender and protective. And he embodied the term hero in every sense of the word.
“I usually don’t talk about this,” he muttered against her hair. “Not with family. Not with friends. Never with women I’m involved with. I don’t let people in.”
Her heart quickened, and her chest rose with the deep breath she took. She didn’t want to overthink what he meant by that. A few minutes ago, he’d told her this was still just sex, right?
And that reply had stung, even though it should’ve been exactly what she wanted. It was getting harder to deny this growing bond between them.
Was it possible it meant that he was beginning to care for her?
That should’ve been crazy.
She was leaving on Sunday. She had an interview for a job next week that would keep her living in Nevada. And she’d undoubtedly see Paul soon—the man she’d thought she was in love with. And yet she couldn’t bring herself to reply to his text.
Nothing felt certain any more.
A sharp knock sounded on the door, driving them apart.
Disorientated and startled, Kristen folded her arms across her chest as Blake went to answer.
When he opened it, their dinner delivery was there. Blake closed the door a moment later, holding the paper bag of fragrant Indian food.
Oh God. Food was the last thing on her mind right now.
“You hungry?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
Her cheeks flushed. “I mean, I will be soon, I’m sure.”
“I’m not, either, anymore. Look, this stuff reheats well.” He set it in the fridge and approached her. “You know what sounds good right now?”
Her heart quickened. “What?”
He touched her cheek gently. “Crawling into bed and making love to you.”
Making love. He’d said making love.
“And then just holding you again.” His words weren’t quite steady. “If you’ll let me.”
She would’ve done anything to remove the pain beneath his words.
“Nothing sounds better.” And it was the truth.
