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‘Thank you.’
She kneels up, and carefully peels the plaster off the weeping cut on his forehead. He takes a bite of the toast, and Scarlett loses another few seconds watching his jaw muscles work as he chews. How can the man make eating toast look sexy? Damn, he even makes sitting in her old threadbare chair look sexy. This is going to be a fun.
‘So,’ she says, forcing herself to stop watching him eat. ‘Do you remember what happened to you?’
‘What sort of bang did you hear?’ he asks, ignoring her question.
‘You’re not a fan of answering questions are you?’
His pale blue eyes shift to look up at her. They remind her of the storm outside. She could even swear there’s white swirling in his irises, continuously moving in a hypnotic way. Then the corner of his mouth lifts a little into a smile. ‘I can’t answer if I don’t know, can I?’
‘I suppose not.’ She takes another plaster from the box and fixes it over the cut, doing her best to hide the shiver that works through her when her fingers touch against his skin.
‘So...’
‘So what?’ she asks, sitting back on her legs.
He licks his lips, then rests his head on his hand, as he peers at her with an amused expression on his face. ‘What sort of bang?’
Scarlett hides her embarrassment by addressing the cut on his side. He smells incredible, the spiced cinnamon seriously addictive. ‘It was kind of like a car backfiring. That’s the best description. Louder though. Then there was a crash. The wreckage was on fire at first, but by the time I got to it, the fire had been extinguished by the heavy snowfall. I found you a few feet away.’
‘And there was no one else around?’
Why does he keep asking her that? Thinking there could be someone else out there wandering around, isn’t entirely settling. Especially if they were somehow involved in what happened to him. As soon as she’s finished patching him up, she’ll check all the doors and windows again. ‘No. Not that I saw. And I did a fairly decent check of the area.’
‘Are you sure you didn’t see any animals near me?’
‘Again with the animals? I only saw that one reindeer print. A really big print beside the bright red... car?’
He takes a long breath as his pale blue eyes turn to her. ‘Why did you say it like that?’
She licks her lips, trying to stifle the smile. ‘Okay, so don’t laugh, but you are dressed sort of like Santa. Only sort of. Like a less cuddly version.’
He narrows his eyes and she wishes she hadn’t said that. That’s one way to make him think she’s nuts.
‘Less cuddly?’
‘That’s a compliment. Honestly.’
His frown eases, so she relaxes. ‘Right. So, did you see any reindeer?’
She decides to play along for the moment. Talking to him is helping to distract her from his mouth-watering smell. ‘No. I promise. Just the print, but I swear I didn’t see any actual reindeer. It was just you in the middle of nowhere.’
‘Damn it!’
He appears to be genuinely upset at that news. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make light of it. I’ve just never had a man drop out of nowhere before. The entire situation is a little bizarre.’
‘Yeah. It’s a first for me too. I’m sorry for being a bit short with you. I’m trying to figure out what happened, and my head fucking hurts,’ he adds with a smile.
‘I’m not surprised it hurts. You were a few feet from the wreckage. It looks like you were thrown clear.’
‘That explains the raging headache then.’
‘I’ll get you some painkillers for that.’ She grabs the box of paracetamol from the kitchen, leaving it on the table beside his chair. She holds out her hand to shake his. ‘By the way. Hi! My name is Scarlett.’
He narrows his eyes as he looks down at her hand, then slowly reaches out to take it, his grip firm and strong. ‘Nick.’
‘Nice to meet you... Nick.’ She smirks as she gets back to cleaning his side.
