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“I can,” he confirmed, shining a light in her eyes. Her pupils were equal and reactive. Setting the light down, he picked up her wrist and checked her pulse. It was a little fast but nothing drastic, no doubt a result of the shock and trauma of the accident. She’d had her shoulders hunched earlier, so he suspected her ribs had taken a battering but needed to be sure. “Where else are you hurt?”
For a second, it looked like she was debating not telling him, but then she relented. “The airbag didn't deploy. I hit the steering wheel pretty hard. My chest hurts a little bit.”
He raised a skeptical brow. “Alittlebit?”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Okay, more than a little, but I don’t think they’re broken.”
Attempting to keep as much professional detachment in place as he could muster, Fin placed his hands on Chloe’s chest and immediately knew that any chance of professional detachment was out the window. His mind may still be angry at his ex, but his body clearly hadn’t gotten the memo. It responded instantly to the feel of her soft breasts beneath his hands.
“Uh, how does that feel?” he asked, hoping Chloe didn't notice the sudden change in his demeanor.
“It hurts, but really, it’s not so bad.”
“Probably just bruised or cracked then, not broken. What else?”
“My stomach is a little sore from the seat belt,” she admitted.
Easing up the hem of her sweater, he immediately saw a nasty black and blue bruise forming. He probed her stomach, ignoring the now uncomfortable throbbing between his legs. She winced at his touch, but she didn't seem to be in too much pain, and her vitals were stable, so it was likely just bruised.
She’d been lucky.
She could have been killed.
Instead, she had walked away with relatively minor injuries.
“He was coming right at me,” she murmured, her eyes going distant and glazed over. “He wasn’t stopping. I didn’t have a choice. I had to swerve out of his way. The pole was coming too quickly. I couldn’t miss it.”
Tears began to roll slowly down her pale cheeks, mixing with the blood that still covered her face, and she started to tremble.
Don’t do it, he warned himself.
Don’t touch her.
Don’t comfort her.
It’s only going to make everything worse.
Despite what he told himself, his arms curled around Chloe and drew her against his chest. He inhaled her scent, absorbing the feel of her body so close to his, he allowed his heart rate to pick up. Fin knew that he wasn't angry with her anymore.
*****
3:00 P.M.
She couldn’t stop shaking.
Her worst nightmare was coming true.
Hannah Drake jumped out of her car—she may or may not have turned off the engine first—and ran up her drive. She reached into her bag for her keys but couldn’t seem to find them. In a panic, she began tossing things on the ground as she searched through her too big purse for them.
Finally, she located them.
The next problem was her hands were trembling so badly, she couldn’t slide the key into the lock.
After several failed attempts, she was pretty much ready to find a rock, toss it through the nearest window, and climb through it to get inside.
Then somehow, the door opened.
“Hannah?”
