Remembering it made her throat ache, so she turned her head away and looked to distract herself.
“How are you liking the apartment?” she blurted for want of anything else to say.
He shrugged slightly. “It’s fine,” he said. “It suits for now.”
“For now?”
“Yeah, I don’t—” He stopped abruptly and glanced at her. “I guess I haven’t really thought about how long I’ll be here.”
Beth felt her stomach drop at his words. “You’re not staying?” she asked, trying and probably failing to sound casual.
Josh sighed, his shoulders tense, his jaw clenched. “I don’t know,” he said. “When I made the decision to come here, I wasn’t really thinking beyond getting out of Chicago. But now…” He shrugged but didn’t expand.
“Now the town is growing on you?” she asked lightly. “You don’t know how you’ll drag yourself away?”
He looked at her again before turning his eyes back to the road. “Yeah, that’s it.” The tone in his voice made her heart slam. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to just walk away and never see — the town — again.”
“Oh,” she said a little awkwardly. “Well, I think you’d be missed… by the town.”
They rode in a silence for a while, Beth lost in her thoughts. She wondered if tonight would even be worth it. If it was going to be a room full of Johns and Geralds, she’d never be able to forget the man beside her. But more than that, she was finding it harder and harder to make herself want to forget him. The idea of him leaving made her feel sick.
“Are you going back to the ranch?” Josh broke the stilted silence. “You’ll have to rest that foot.”
She grimaced at his instructions. “I can think of a hundred things at the ranch that will stop me from resting,” she said. “Besides, I have to get ready for later.”
“Beth, you’ll be going nowhere later if you don’t rest now.”
“Fine,” she said on a long-suffering sigh. “I’ll rest.”
But she wouldn’t, because she had work to do — prep for the bakery and some cooking for her brothers and the ranch hands.
Some of their summer staff had arrived early, and Lord knew those boys could eat! She’d been meaning to hire some extra help for the ranch, but there had never been any urgent reason for it. If nothing else, this minor injury made her realise that she really needed to get started on that.
“After I’ve done my chores,” she said stubbornly.
“Right. That’s it.”
Before she could object, Josh swung his car around and drove back down Main Street.
“What are you doing?” Beth demanded. “Where are we going?”
“I’m making sure you do what your doctor tells you,” he answered smoothly. “And we’re going to my place.”
“Excuse me? We are not going to your place,” she said in her most authoritative tone.
Judging from his expression, he didn’t seem all that impressed or cowed by it. “We’re going to my place where you’re going to rest, or no dates tonight. Doctor’s orders.”
Beth narrowed her eyes at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. The tension that had been surrounding him earlier seemed to have disappeared. In fact, he seemed pretty darned pleased with himself.
“You can’t just kidnap me,” she tried again. “I have things to do.”
“And you’ll do them when you’ve rested,” he answered, his tone annoyingly measured.
There was no use arguing. She could see it in the set of his jaw.
They pulled up outside his apartment building, and she sat there seething while he pulled out his phone and began tapping away on the screen. After a minute or two, he unclipped his seatbelt then leaned across her to do the same to hers.
Beth had to stop herself from sniffing him as the masculine scent he wore flirted with her nostrils.
You can’t be attracted to your kidnapper, she told herself sternly. That’s Stockholm Syndrome. It’s a serious condition.
“Grayson knows you’re out of action, and Jenna is ok to cover the bakery, so you’re all set,” he said as he leaned back, and she was able to inhale before she passed out.
“What?” she demanded, hating herself for enjoying the feeling of being taken care of.
He was out of the car and around at her door before she could blink.
“Come on, invalid.” He smiled that smile that made her toes curl, which was painful with a sprained ankle. “Let’s see if we can keep you out of trouble.”
He bent down and scooped her into his arms as though she were weightless.
Beth could do nothing but hang on to his neck and what was left of her sanity.
Keep her out of trouble? She was in more trouble than she’d ever been in her life.
Chapter Fifteen
“Alright, let’s get you settled.”
Beth didn’t trust herself to speak, so she said nothing.
Being carried injured up a flight of stairs by the world’s most gorgeous man was not a situation she felt well-equipped to deal with, so she kept her mouth shut in case she said something stupid.
Anyway, she was still angry. In all of her many, many fantasies about being carried around by Josh, it had never been with a dodgy ankle after a sweaty three-hour hike.
He sat her on the plush grey couch that dominated the room and pulled a lever so her legs were elevated.
“I’m going to get some ice for the swelling and take another look at it,” he said matter-of-factly, not even winded from lugging her around.
Clearly their proximity had zero effect on him.
While Josh disappeared into what she assumed was the kitchen, Beth looked around, taking in the bright room, searching for clues about his life before Rocky Valley. There were a couple of photos framed on the fireplace, but she was too far away to really make them out. They seemed to be the only personal touch in the room. Decorated in muted greys and whites, with a flat screen TV her brothers would approve of, the space screamed bachelor pad.
She wondered if he’d decorated it himself or if Beck had rented it to him like this.
Remembering what he’d said about possibly leaving Rocky Valley, her stomach flipped. Would he consider staying? He said he’d miss it if he went — and there’d been that edge to his voice. As if he was talking about something other than the town. She couldn’t help hoping that he was talking about her, because apparently, she never learned.
“Here we go.” He walked back into the room with a tray in his hands and a grin on his face. Setting the tray on the coffee table, he sat beside it, facing her. “How’s it feeling?” he asked, lifting her leg by the calf.
She could only pray that he didn’t notice the gooseflesh that broke out at his touch.
“It’s fine,” she croaked. “Honestly, it’s not a big deal. I’ve sprained it a hundred times over the years.”
He didn’t say anything, just reached over for a towel and spread it out before putting her foot gently back down. He grabbed an ice pack, and she winced slightly when he placed it on the ankle. His eyes shot up and locked with hers, trapping her in his ice-blue gaze.
“It’s just cold,” she whispered feeling inexplicably nervous.
He narrowed his eyes, watching her closely. “I’m going to leave that on for about twenty minutes. You hungry?”
“Uh—“
“Good. Me too. I’ll be right back.”
And he was gone before she could even form a coherent thought, let alone a sentence.
Only minutes later, he was back again carrying two beers and the biggest bag of chips she’d ever seen.
Beth took the beer then froze solid when he sat, not on the other end of the couch, but right beside her.
Without speaking a word to her, he picked up the remote and switched on the TV then slung an arm over the back of the couch, completely relaxed, totally at ease.
He was acting for all the world as if they were a couple, completely at ease in each other’s c
ompany. Meanwhile, Beth was afraid to breathe too deeply in case he remembered that they weren’t a couple, and that usually he did his best to push her away.
The tension was coming off her in waves. Josh could feel it, and he couldn’t blame her, but he still ignored it. He had no idea where his head was at right now. All he knew that was seeing her hurt, even a little, had triggered some unexpected caveman reaction in him, and he wanted her close and taken care of.
What that meant, he didn’t want to examine too closely. There was a voice niggling in the back of his mind asking him what the hell he was doing. But he ignored that, too.
He wasn’t some randy teenager. He was an adult in complete control of himself. He was a doctor whose job it was to take care of the sick and injured.
The fact that he could smell her shampoo? Irrelevant.
The heat from her body as he sat so close to her? Didn’t bother him.
The feeling of rightness he got just from sitting next to her watching TV? Ok, that was slightly problematic, but he could handle it.
He sipped his beer and flicked through the channels until he found a comedy that wouldn’t require a lot of attention. For the first few minutes, she sat so still that she could have been a statue. Then he heard the faintest laugh. Twenty minutes later, she was completely relaxed, giggling and chatting, slouching on the cushions as if she belonged there. And the scary thing was that he felt as if she belonged there too. In fact, the longer they sat there, the harder it was for Josh to remember the reasons why he wouldn’t just bite the bullet and see where things went with them.
He was surprised by the end credits rolling up on the screen, so lost in thoughts of the woman by his side that he hadn’t even seen what was going on.
He felt Beth shift beside him, and he turned to see her removing the now-melted icepack.
“This feels a lot better,” she said, looking at her foot while he looked at her. “I might not be able to wear killer heels tonight, but I should be able to walk.”
The reminder of the speed dating thing felt like a punch to his gut, and Josh sat forward to examine the swelling, trying to get his emotions in check before he said or did something stupid.
“We should probably keep you off it for a while longer,” he said.
She laughed, and his gut clenched. What was that he’d been thinking about having control of himself? Well, he’d been wrong.
“It’s fine, Josh. You said twenty minutes — it’s been almost two hours.”
“If you rush it, you’ll be off it for longer,” he insisted. He felt her eyes on him, so he lifted his own to see her frowning.
“Are you usually this dramatic with your patients?” she asked, but her smile took any sting out of her words.
He should be casual and jokey like her, but all of a sudden, he found he couldn’t be. “Only the ones I care this much about,” he said softly.
His words were like a jolt of electricity, igniting the atmosphere.
She looked confused, and he hated that he kept putting both of them into these situations, but just like every other time, he couldn’t help himself. Only now, he couldn’t for the life of him remember all his valid reasons for keeping her at arm’s length.
“Well, thanks for your concern…” He assumed she was striving for nonchalant, but her voice shook, and it was enough to let him know that it was still there for her – that charge between them, that magnetism that he’d never found with another person. “…but I have to get changed. I can’t wear shorts to a date. And I especially can’t wear them to multiple dates.”
“Beth, you could wear a burlap sack, and every man in there would still want you.” He watched, fascinated, as her cheeks turned pink, and he couldn’t resist reaching out to run his knuckles over the soft skin. He was playing with fire, Josh knew. A fire that he understood would burn out of control if he let it.
“Good to know,” she quipped. “But I’d still like to make a good impression.”
“Why?” he scoffed. “None of them are good enough for you.”
“Oh? Then who is?”
Me.
He wanted to say that, and he knew that she wanted him to say it. But it would be a lie. He was so messed up he wasn’t good enough for anyone right now.
“Nobody,” he answered finally. Honestly.
Her eyes flashed with — something. Hurt? Disappointment? He couldn’t tell.
She moved to get off the couch and even though he should let her, Josh found himself reaching out to stop her movements. “I don’t want you to go speed dating,” he said quietly. It wasn’t enough. There was so much that he could say. That he should say. But maybe the truth of what he was feeling was stamped in his expression, because the confusion and frustration slowly left her face until she looked just as she had a year ago when he’d started this thing between them.
“I don’t want to go speed dating.”
Seven simple words, but he felt like they opened the floodgates. He reached out lifted Beth, and planted her in his lap. Then he finally did what he’d been dying to do every second that he’d spent with her.
He kissed her with all he was feeling and everything he was too scared to say.
Chapter Sixteen
Beth had a second to wonder if she’d completely lost her marbles and fallen into one of her fantasies.
But no.
Her imagination was good, but not this good. She couldn’t have imagined how incredible Josh’s arms would feel wrapped around her… She couldn’t have imagined the taste of him as he thrust his tongue inside her mouth, igniting a fire that burned into her very soul…
What is going on? She thought, while she still had the ability to think.
But only seconds later, she decided that she didn’t actually care what had brought this on. The only thing she knew for certain was that she didn’t want it to stop.
Beth reached up and gripped Josh’s hair, pulling herself closer. His groan sent a pulse of desire straight to her core, and she knew that the only way this thing between them was stopping was if Josh pushed her away again. Because she didn’t have the strength to do it. She didn’t want to.
With a muffled curse against her mouth, Josh lifted her again until she was straddling him, her body pressed against his.
He plunged a hand into her hair, angling her head so he could deepen the kiss, while the other ran slowly, torturously over her body.
He found the hemline of her shirt and slipped inside, and Beth gasped at the feel of his hand against the thin lace of her bra. Her ankle twinged a little as she pressed herself into his palm, but she didn’t care.
Someone could be sawing the limb clean off right now, and she’d barely notice.
The sudden sound of a phone ringing jarred her senses, and she pulled her mouth from Josh’s, waiting for him to put up that wall again. Waiting for him to send her away. She watched closely as he tensed, obviously realising that it was his ringtone he was hearing and not hers. And Beth tried to steel herself for the hurt coming her way, which was hard to do, with over six foot of solid muscle underneath her.
He stared at her, and she stared right back.
What she should do is scrape her dignity off the floor and hobble out of there before he could tell her to leave. But she was trapped. Not only by that look blazing in his eyes but by the things he was doing to her insides. She was like a puppet on a string, her body only moving in response to his. Beth had no idea how long they sat there, laboured breathing in perfect sync, their eyes clashing blue on blue.
Finally, the shrill ring of the phone stopped, the silence in its wake deafening.
This is it, Beth thought. The moment he says he’s sorry. The moment I’ll have to pretend he’s not tearing me into shreds.
She watched his face and waited.
But he just blinked… then smiled a slow, deliciously wicked smile, and her heart exploded along with other more intimate parts of her.
Without warning, he surged to his feet, one arm wound t
ightly around her waist to keep her from falling.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and answered his smile with one of her own as he started to move away from the living room and toward what she hoped was a bed.
“You really meant it when you said I should stay off this ankle, huh?” she whispered.
“Doctor’s orders,” he answered with a wink. “And I intend to keep you off it for a very long time.”
The sound of a phone ringing again pierced the silence, causing Beth to stir. It wouldn’t be a medical emergency since Dr. Beech was on call this weekend. Josh held his breath to see if the ringing would wake her, but with a deep sigh, she snuggled back into his side and stilled.
Shocked at how relieved he felt that she stayed sleeping, therefore prolonging the time he could just hold her, he went back to stroking the satiny smooth skin of her back.
He’d had a feeling that sex with Beth would be good. But he never could have imagined how mind-blowing it would be. And he definitely couldn’t have imagined feeling so content, as if everything in his life suddenly made sense because she was in his arms and in his bed.
Damn, he sounded like a character from one of her rom coms.
He lay there watching the afternoon light fade to evening just trying to process all the emotions he was feeling. He knew that sex had complicated everything. That he probably should have sorted his head out before jumping into the sack. All the reasons he’d told himself he couldn’t be with Beth still existed. His head was still messed up. He was still scarred from his experience with Elaine. She still hovered in the background of his life, a part of him that was never fully resolved. And he still wasn’t sure he could do the whole lifelong commitment thing again.
Rocky Valley was never going to be forever for him. And Beth’s whole life was here. She was suited to Rocky Valley. The bakery, her family, the town — they were all part of what made her who she was.
Can’t Hurry Love Page 9
