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9
Cass would never, ever tell Harrison how she’d fallen.Even when he dropped into a crouch and asked, “What happened?”He looked at her with concern in those dark green eyes that played like a chameleon sometimes and made someone think they were brown.Thankfully, he also asked, “What hurts?”
She focused on that question instead of the other one.“My wrist.”She indicated it.“My ankle.My hip a little.”
What Harrison could do about it, she didn’t know.He took her injured wrist in his hands, and while he worked construction, he had the soft, gentle touch of a man who could heal anything.
Cass pulled in a breath, hoping she could play it off as a sharp intake from pain and not from the electricity flowing from him and into her.
“It doesn’t feel broken,” he said.“I’ve got a splint at my place.”He looked at her, and she nodded.
He moved down and took her foot into his hands.She hissed at him, and Harrison lifted his head to look at her.“It’s not bent oddly.”
“I think I just twisted it.”She’d been standing on a chair just outside the back door, changing a light bulb, and she’d looked out at the water.She’d lost her balance and her bearings, but she’d managed to find them before she’d fallen.
Then she’d seen him walking on the beach.Shirtless.
That had caused the world to sway again, and she’d toppled from the chair.She’d tried to grab onto it, but she’d failed.Her left leg hit the ground first, and instead of holding her, it had buckled.She’d landed on her hip and then her hand had smashed into the ground.
All around, her ego had—and still was—taken a real beating.
He looked down again, and Cass let her eyes sweep past his dark hair, noting the strands of silver in it, and along the strong muscles in his back.Her mouth turned dry, and the world wobbled again.
He probed her leg, getting closer and closer to ankle.“Tell me when it hurts,” he said.He pressed every second, and Cass felt sure she’d run out of leg soon.
Just then, he touched her ankle, and fire shot up to her hip.“There,” she gasped.
“I don’t think it’s broken,” he said.“But it’s swelling.”He looked up at her again.“Let’s get you up and onto the couch.We need to ice it.”
He stayed low and put his hands under her arms.She’d never be able to tell him that after she’d cried out, she’d tried to get up and hadn’t been able to, causing a crash of epic proportions.
Foolishly, she’d thought she could hide in the kitchen and he wouldn’t find her.Of course not.A man like Harrison wouldn’t just go by a house when he’d heard someone scream.
“Put your weight on me and your right leg,” he said, and he lifted her without her having to do much of anything.She grabbed onto the lip of the cabinets, because her luxury bartop hadn’t arrived yet, and took a big breath.
Her left leg didn’t want to straighten, and she didn’t dare put weight on it.
“All right,” he said.“You’re up.That’s half the battle.”
She half-laughed and half-scoffed.“I don’t know about that.”
He stayed close to her, his hands having burned into her upper arms.One still lingered on the small of her back, as if she might fall backward.And who knew?She might.
“Okay?”he asked.“Your couches aren’t uncovered.I’m going to put you at the table.”
“I have a couch in the foyer,” she said.“I just got here today, and I was getting some things unwrapped.”
“The foyer?”he asked.“All the way by the front door?”
She nodded, pain smarting through her hip.She leaned further into the cabinets.“I can make it.”
“Mm hm, I’m sure you can.”Harrison moved to her side, and the heat and comfort of him behind her dissipated.“Cass.”He spoke softly.“I’m going to pick you up.”
He didn’t wait for her permission.He didn’t count down.He simply bent and swept her into his arms.
She cried out again, quieter this time, thankfully.She grasped onto his shoulders and as she settled into the strength of his arms, her adrenaline softened too.Their eyes met, and if Cass had had any doubt about the chemistry and electricity between them, it would’ve dried right up at the desire swimming in the dark depths of his eyes.
“To the foyer,” he said, and it almost sounded like a growl.He moved, and Cass said nothing.
