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“It’s a cold.”
“It’s not a cold,” he said with assertive confidence.
I shook my arm, trying to loosen his hold on it. His hands were freezing. “Fine, I’ve been drinking. Let me go.”
“You have a fever, and I can see that your lymph nodes are swollen without touching you,” he said, undeterred. “You need medical attention, Mrs. Brook.”
“Miss,” I said, finally fed up with feeling like a forty-year-old matron. I mean, I was a twenty-four-year-old matron, and the epitome of a frumpy mom in my old college T-shirt, baggy sweats, and ratted brown hair in a messy bun, but Iwassingle, for God’s sake.
Amusement twitched his lips. “Apologies.MissBrook.”
How was I supposed to tell this perfect god of a man that I couldn’t go to the ER to take a strep swab because I was a loser with no money and no prospects?Maybe don’t tell him all of that, my rational voice reasoned. I swiped at his hand, and even to me, it looked silly. He was wearing a tight, white T-shirt made from some kind of athletic, breathable material, and it accentuated how entirely useless it was to enter any kind of physical altercation with this man. He was all ripples and bulges.
Dr. Cade dragged the corner of his mouth through his teeth, looking away as he thought.
Jeeeeeezus, I thought with an internal groan.Does he do those things on purpose? Or does sexuality just come naturally to him?
Finally, he looked at me again. “The health clinic is a block away. I have a key.” I blinked at him stupidly. “And I can give you a quick… once-over,” he said slowly, as if hoping I would catch on to something.
Is he coming onto me right now?I thought with hazy panic.What is this? Like, a code for a hook-up spot? No, that doesn’t make any sense. You look like an undead extra from The Walking Dead.
Seeing my confusion, he sighed heavily. He leaned forward, surrounding me with the smell of his laundry detergent and a light, intoxicating cologne. He pulled me close to him, so his lips were just a whisper from my cheekbone. “I can give you free medical care. If you don’t tell anyone.”
Free healthcare? Sexier words had never been spoken. I pulled back, looking at him with a mix of hope and puzzlement swirling in my chest. And then shame crashed down on it because he obviously saw through me, and there it was again.
The pity card.
You’re kind of broken.
I gasped, pulling away from him completely, but he only let me go so far, stopping me from slamming into the cans again. “I, ah… I don’t nee—” my words literally got stuck in my throat. The world was starting to look prickly, like old-school TVs that fuzzed up when the movie ended. My breath fanned over my face with gusts of lava-hot mugginess that made me want to gag. I wrenched off the mask, dragging in fresh air.
Dr. Cade looked genuinely alarmed. And then his features set into hard granite. “Okay, great, glad you agreed,” he said with sudden, louder volume. “Consent is important. I’ll drive.”
He reached into the cart, grabbed my coat and scarf, and started steering me toward the exit.
I stumbled along as jackhammers attacked my brain from the inside. I wanted to argue, but my throat was so closed up, it didn’t seem possible. And my limbs had turned to Noodle-Os, so I wobbled along with him, not sure what was happening with my life.
The cold smacked me in the face, and I almost curled in on myself like a frightened pill bug, but Dr. Cade draped my flimsy, polyester coat over my shoulders and hugged me close to his side. He had parked his car all the way in the back of the parking lot. Such a fit-dude thing to do.
His arm supported me so well, I barely noticed the wheezing thing my lungs were doing by the time we made it to his sporty-looking SUV. All white and clearly brand new, it reminded me of a Jeep. But like… a rich-guy Jeep.I’ll bet it smells like leather and lemon,I thought drowsily.
Wait. Was I really about to let this stranger pack me into his swanky, white wagon without putting up a fight?
“No one wants to kidnap a random, feverish chick,” he said in my ear, as if reading my thoughts. “Just let me help you.” He pushed a key fob and the car chirped to life. If he promised to keep holding me, I’d let him do anything.
We stopped at the passenger side door, and he leaned me into him, adjusting his hold so he could reach the door handle. I let my forehead press against his solid chest, and I was pretty sure a little sound of contentment slipped out of my throat.
He angled his head down, looking at me. With quiet amusement in his voice, he murmured, “Oh boy.”
Then he opened the door and bundled me into the seat, which was unnecessarily high off the ground. What did he need this crazy thing for? Was he a part-time cartographer?
Another coat had been wrapped around me at some point—his coat, I assumed, and I inhaled deeply. I was wrong. The car smelled like leather andhim.
Dr. Cade walked briskly around the front of the SUV, opened his door, and slid into his seat, pushing the starter button, then zipping his seatbelt over his body. He looked over at me. I stared at him with round, slightly terrified eyes.
What was I doing right now? Maybe the last of the cold medicine I had downed this morning was too much. Maybe it was making me wacky. Or maybe I was just dumb. We single women know better than to just traipse off with men we don’t know. At least, not without getting his full name, phone number, and address and texting them to someone so they’d know where to find my body.
But he was hot. My fevered brain seemed to think that was probably good enough.
