Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 104820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Tessa answered after three rings. “What happened?” she said, not even bothering with a hello.
“I need you,” he replied.
He didn’t have time to explain why. Tessa disconnected, and within seconds, he could hear her feet on the stairs as she raced down to him.
He set his cell on the side table and tried to arrange his features into the most innocent expression he could muster. He probably should have put on a T-shirt before he called—he slept only in his boxers—but it was too late now. Besides, she was used to touching his near-naked body during their workouts.
The door burst open, and there was Tessa, panting in the doorway, a worried expression on her face. But when she saw him sitting up in bed, she frowned. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “What do you need help with?”
Her dark hair flowed down her back, just as he’d seen at his dad’s birthday, the curls still bouncing from her dash downstairs. She was wearing a pair of linen shorts and a loose white tank top. He could just make out the swell of her breasts beneath the fabric, and that alone made him feel like his grasp on his attraction to her was about to slip.
Somehow, he managed to tear his eyes away from her gorgeous figure to give her a sheepish look and then pointed at his crutches, which he realized now weren’t nearly as far from the bed as he’d thought.
“I can’t reach my crutches.” And then, realizing that she was probably going to call him out on that, he changed his tone to sound a little cheeky. “Or maybe I just wanted to see if you would really come downstairs if I called.”
She looked at him, a little incredulous, but then a smile began to play around those luscious lips. Calmly, without rushing, she walked over to his side of the bed, picked up the crutches, and propped them against the table once more. He could tell she was slightly amused, but he could also see that she was irritated too.
“How did your crutches get all the way over there?” she asked, clearly questioning his motives, even though he was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
She was so close now that he could smell the scent of her coconut shampoo. Unable to come up with a believable fib, he decided to admit the truth.
“I tossed them over there, hoping that if you came downstairs, you’d give them to me… and maybe stay a little while.”
At that, Tessa took a step backward. She folded her arms across her chest, and the playful expression instantly disappeared.
Damn it! He’d said too much too soon. He just couldn’t help himself. And now he couldn’t take it back.
The damage was done.
She moved the crutches even closer. “Why do you want me to stay? Are you in pain?”
Phew. She had given him the opportunity to explain his flirtatious comment.
He nodded and then said, “My leg is hurting. A lot.” He paused and looked into her sparkling eyes. Before he could stop himself, he added, “But the truth is, I can’t stop thinking about you.”
She looked both vulnerable and a bit irked. So the last thing he expected her to say was, “You’ve got a broken leg. You can’t possibly have sex.”
Arch chuckled, pleased that she had read his mind. Which also made him wonder, yet again, if she’d already been thinking the same thing.
“I have no doubt that we could find a way to work around that.” He hoped his voice sounded as sexy as he found Tessa right now.
But it was as though she hadn’t heard him. “Also, I’m your caregiver, not your girlfriend. Or your one-night stand. I think you’re forgetting that. Tonight, I’ll excuse it because you’re not used to taking such strong pain pills. But if you pull something like this again, I won’t be so understanding.”
But despite her strong words—damn, she was sexy when she was mad and lecturing him—her cheeks had flushed a charming shade of pink.
Was she going out of her way to act like there was no attraction between them? Yes, she most certainly was. But Arch knew she was just hiding from the truth of the heat between them. He’d never felt anything like it. Not until he’d first laid eyes on Tessa on the beach.
Her arms had dropped to her sides, and her chest rose and fell beneath her thin tank top. Neither of them spoke. And then he saw her lips part, ever so slowly, and for one wild moment he thought she might actually let their magnetic connection pull her toward him. He threw back the bedclothes so that she could climb in, revealing the rest of his torso.
But to his horror, all that did was make her mood palpably shift. He watched, aghast, as she literally shut herself down in front of him.