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He wished they could go back. Try again. If they could, he'd find the right things to say to convince her he'd never get in her way.
He couldn't make her leave but he could be the best damn patient on the planet and not ask her for anything. Let her be a safety net and nothing more. And maybe, if he was successful, she’d see there was enough time for them to be together and for her to work.
"Gladly," he said, at last, stripping his shirt before collapsing into bed.
???
Katie lingered in the doorway as Isaac stripped his shirt. Then she bolted before he caught her staring. And damn had she wanted to stare. As tight as his shirt had been the other night and as much of him as she'd felt through it, she thought she had a pretty good idea what he looked like underneath.
Wrong.
With his shirt on, the mystery—wanting to know what treasure lay within brought to mind more provocative descriptions like hot, sexy. With it off, she knew exactly how to describe him; beautiful.
Other men, as muscled as Isaac, looked awkward. Disproportioned. Like they were wearing some kind of muscle suit making their hands, feet, and heads look tiny. And though Isaac's movements were clunky at times, he carried his muscle well.
Katie stood hunched over the bathroom sink trying to clear the images of what the rest of him might look like without clothes that were creeping into her head.
Pointless thoughts.
Any chance she'd had of being with him intimately had vanished the second she told him there was no room for him in her schedule.
She had to face it. She fucked up.
Even if she backtracked and claimed she had time after all, she couldn't follow through. She'd cancel any date that got in the way of her work, which would be all of them, and they'd never see each other.
The entire idea of dating was laughable.
Pointless.
Katie turned on the tap filling her hands with cold water then bent down splashing it on her face.
The water didn't do much to sway her thoughts but it did make her need for visiting the bathroom in the first place more palpable.
As Katie sat with her knees together resting her forearms on her bare thighs, she thought about the week ahead. She tried to predict the amount of work she could get done. Taking into account what she'd already finished and Isaac's current condition. Then she wondered when he would be well enough and she could leave him without worry in order to maximize the time she'd have left. Alone.
By the time she stood pulling her undies and jeans around her waist, she had formulated a plan.
When she got back to Isaac's bedroom and found him passed out, buried under the covers, she decided to take advantage of the quiet and get a head start on tomorrow.
Chapter 16
Katie woke, stretched between the chair and footrest big enough for two clutching her laptop against her chest and Isaac hacking up a lung across the room. It took her a second to find her way out of the chair. When both feet found the floor, she stumbled through the dark, unfamiliar space toward the man barking like a St. Bernard.
Her knees found the bed first, right before her hands found Isaac when she instinctively put them down to stop herself from falling. The second she realized what she'd done she took her hands back, though she’d have been content to linger, and stepped away from the bed.
"Are you okay?" Isaac asked breathlessly turning on the light before snapping his fist back to his mouth to cover the cough bursting from his lungs.
"You're asking me? You're the one dying."
Katie read the time on the digital clock on his bedside table and did the math. He was way overdue for a dose of his cough medicine.
"We left your meds downstairs. I'll—"
"I'll get them."
"What? No." She pushed on his muscled chest. The last time she'd done this her intentions had been entirely different.
Stop it, Katie.
