Dangerously Close

by Dee J. Adams

  “The kitchen looks fine,” he told her as they passed through.

  The aftershock had happened hours ago, but Mel had convinced her to stay. She’d finally argued that if something broke and Roamer got hurt because they hadn’t checked her place she’d feel guilty so he’d finally let her out of bed.

  A nice big comfortable bed where they’d made love last night and most of today. No. Not made love, they’d had sex. She needed to keep that straight. She’d had lots of sex over the years, but she’d only made love a couple of times.

  Although, if she had to define what they did in his bed today—the slow, easy way he’d taken her, the gentle caresses and soft deep kisses—that was as close to making love as she remembered it. God, she got hot just thinking about it. She hadn’t gotten much sleep, but who cared?

  “Why are you turning red?” Mel asked. He stopped in the den and faced her. “You feeling okay?” The clear concern in his tone made her heart roll over. The fact that he’d been looking at her made her more self-conscious.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Is it stuffy in here?” she asked. No reason to let on how much she was thinking about being with him. They may have crossed a line last night, but she was determined to keep their friendship solid. No clinging vines or girlfriend vibes would he get from her. Not if it killed her.

  “I can open a window,” he said and she heard him doing it before returning to her side. “After we check here, how about you come back over to my place?”

  “I thought you had to be somewhere tonight?”

  “So, you can hang around until I get home. I’ll only be a few hours.”

  “Hot date?” She grinned, hoping to keep their light banter alive despite the new turn of their relationship.

  “No!” he scoffed. “Jeez, like I’d do that.” He sounded highly offended as he squeezed her arm and continued through the house. “I got some studio time tonight and I wanted to lay down the new track I’ve got stuck in my head.”

  Ashley’s heart soared and she stopped. “That’s great! Oh my god, that is so great!” She wrapped him in a big hug. “Good for you for finally doing it.” She was so proud that he’d taken the steps to foster his own career instead of someone else’s.

  Something changed as they faced each other. Ashley felt his scrutiny as she had so much since he’d rescued her. His lips moved over hers gently as his warm palms caressed her arms.

  “I really like…” His mouth moved against her lips, but he paused as if he couldn’t come up with the right words. “I really like your support. You make me feel like I can do anything.”

  “You can do anything,” she breathed, still close to his mouth, but throwing all her conviction behind the words. “You just have to put your mind to it.”

  He gave her ass a playful smack. “So put your mind to being at my place the rest of the day.”

  Ashley didn’t want too much of a good thing too fast. “Think of me like one of your boss’s concerts. I want to leave the crowd wanting more.”

  Mel laughed and gave her a quick kiss on the lips before wrapping her hand over his arm and continuing through the house. Ashley was just beginning to feel that she’d escaped the aftershock with no damage when Mel said, “Shit.”

  That didn’t sound good. “What? Something broke?”

  “Yeah. There’s a big mess here in the hall. The mirror over the entry table shattered. You lost the glass sconce on the wall across from it too.”

  “Well, shit,” Ashley muttered. It was too much to hope for no damage. She turned back for the laundry room. “I’ll get a broom and the vacuum. I need to clean this up.”

  “I’ve got it,” he told her. “I don’t want you to miss a piece.” In an instant, he scooped her in his arms.

  Ashley gasped. “What are you doing?”

  “Taking you to your bedroom. I don’t want you stepping on glass and I know you’re still tired. Take a nap and I’ll clean up.” He nuzzled her ear and sent goose bumps across her skin. “I’ll join you when I’m done.”

  “You sure about that?” She tried to sound hard to get, but didn’t really accomplish it since she barely had any air behind the words.

  “You’ll want to thank me for my help,” he whispered. She felt his smile curve near her ear.

  “Oh, right. That.”

  His lips brushed over hers as he laid her down on the bed. There was nothing she wanted more than to spend more time with him. Especially naked time, but she liked her leave them wanting more line even if it was an ad-lib.

  She set the plastic pill container that Mel brought to her earlier on the night table before leaning back on her pillow. He’d commented on all the medications, and she’d explained how the half-dozen pills were a fraction of the amount she’d taken when she’d originally been discharged from the hospital.

  “I have an idea,” she said. “What if I make some chicken tonight and I’ll meet you on the beach tomorrow at lunch for a chicken sandwich extravaganza?”

  “What if you skip the cooking, come to my place and I’ll cover lunch tomorrow?”

  “My sandwiches getting boring?”

  “Hell no. I just want you to take it easy a few more days.” His touch eased down her cheek and Ashley leaned into the caress. Her lids got heavy, whether from desire or being tired, she wasn’t sure. She did love his touch though. Wherever he touched her. He made her feel whole. Beautiful. He made her feel special.

  “Okay, lunch is on you tomorrow,” she said.

  “You’ll come over tonight?”

  “Maybe.” She could tell he didn’t like that answer. She ran her fingers over the stubble on his head. “Don’t pout. I’m really sore. I just want to crash tonight.” Compartmentalize what exactly happened in the last eighteen hours. It was very important to classify what happened between them and she needed space to do that.

  Mel didn’t answer immediately. “Okay. I hear you.” He didn’t move and it seemed as if he might say something else, but he kissed her softly instead. A sigh whispered past her lips. Damn the man was a good kisser. Getting too comfortable with that could be very dangerous. So could getting comfortable with all these strange feelings blossoming inside her.

  She gently shoved his chest. “Go clean the glass, slave, or I’ll have to sic my mad dog on you.” She felt him smile as he hovered over her and with one last hard kiss he disappeared out of her room.

  Wowie, zowie. What the hell was going on?

  It seemed only a few minutes later when Ashley woke next. She hit a button on her talking clock to hear it was late afternoon. Mel must have gone home after cleaning the hall. After taking her evening meds with a small dinner, she took her sore body back to bed and slept the night away too.

  * * *

  “Hey, sleepy head.” Paula’s voice cut through the jackhammer pounding in her head. It was almost as bad as one of her migraines. “You never sleep this late. You feeling okay?”

  Roamer’s collar jangled nearby.

  Ashley regretted giving the woman a key to the front door. She felt Paula’s hand on her forehead and shied away as she opened her eyes and tried to blink away the fuzziness. It was morning? Already? “I’m okay. I’ve got a headache. What time is it?” She edged toward the other side of the bed closest to her bathroom.

  “It’s ten. I got here a few minutes early.” More like an hour…and didn’t she always? “Really, Ashley, you look like hell. What happened to you?”

  Ashley eased from the bed and hobbled toward the bathroom, every muscle screaming. “I took a fall…the other night.” Was it only two nights ago? It felt like light years had passed. So much had happened since that night.

  “What kind of fall? Should we take you to a doctor?” Paula came toward her.

  The last thing Ashley wanted was another doctor. “No!” She heard the edge to her voice and took a deep breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. No,” she repeated more calmly. “I just need to take it easy.” She went on to explain the night before last and how Roamer
somehow got out. “You’re sure the back door was closed when you left, right?” Ashley asked. Paula was the last one in the kitchen, but Ashley dared not accuse her. She wasn’t ready to deal with the fallout today.

  “Of course,” Paula assured her. “I never would’ve left the door open. The wind was so strong that night and that doorframe is rotting. Maybe the door just wasn’t shut tight enough and it blew open.”

  Whatever. Ashley didn’t want to go over it. No way to change the past. “It’s over, let’s just forget it.” Now if she could forget the headache from hell, everything would be fine. After a few minutes in the bathroom she came out to find Paula exactly where she’d left her…standing at the foot of her bed.

  “You should take something,” Paula said. “Grab a few of those Bayer aspirin on your nightstand and I’ll get you a glass of water. Don’t forget to take your other meds too. I’ll bring you some toast, while I’m at it.” She left the room and left Ashley seething.

  How long had Ashley been taking her damn medication in the morning without having to be told to do it? Maybe it was time to let Paula go and deal with being alone for a few days. Maybe Mel could help her out until she got someone else.

  Ashley’s headache pounded harder as she reached for the aspirin bottle. She usually didn’t take more than two, but even her toenails hurt, so she tapped out three small pills into her palm.

  “Here you go.” Paula came back into the room and handed her a glass of iced cranberry juice along with some toast. Ashley pounded down her quick breakfast and all her pills. Paula pulled the covers back over her. “You’ll feel better in no time. Just go back to sleep.”

  “Wake me up in an hour and a half, okay? I can’t stay in bed all day.”

  “Got a hot date?”

  “Actually, I’m meeting Mel at the beach.” The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like the right thing to do. “You know what, Paula…I can just set my alarm. You don’t need to stay. I can’t do what I’d planned to do in the garden today because I can’t move, and I don’t expect you to do it. I’ll pay for the day anyway, but you can take off.” She’d have to let her go for real soon, but she didn’t have the heart to do it right now.

  “Oh. Well…I feel weird leaving you when you seem so…”

  So? Ashley couldn’t wait to hear what Paula couldn’t seem able to say. “Yes? So…”

  “You know…hurt. I feel like I should take care of you. Isn’t that why you’re paying me?”

  No, actually, she was paying Paula to help make her more independent, but that hadn’t been happening. Because that’s not what Paula did for a living. Why hadn’t she seen this sooner? Done something more about it? “Paula, I appreciate everything you’ve done, but…” God, she couldn’t do this now. She wasn’t in the position, flat on her back to deal with this now. She was so tired she didn’t want to think.

  “But what?” Paula asked.

  “I think I just need to sleep a little more and you don’t need to stay for that. Just take off. I’ll feel better knowing I’m not keeping you from something.” She leaned over her night table to set her alarm for 11:30. Regardless of her aches and pains, she wanted to meet Mel. The aspirin had to help and she didn’t plan to sleep the day away.

  “I’ll get that,” Paula said as she took the clock out of Ashley’s hand.

  Ashley was too tired to argue. She felt weird. Maybe she hadn’t had enough to eat with her meds? Or maybe it was the aspirin mixed so closely with her meds. Hard to say. Ashley didn’t feel her head hit the pillow before light edging in her peripheral vision faded to black.

  * * *

  Paula set the clock on the night table and sat next to Ashley. She traced the scar on her cheek softly, fighting the urge to dig her fingers in Ashley’s eyes or stuff a pillow over her mouth and nose. The latter would accomplish what she wanted, but not without throwing suspicion directly onto herself. So that wouldn’t do.

  Clearly, rigging the stair rails had done its job. Paula just hadn’t counted on Mel being around to save Ashley. Of all the bad timing…

  Paula took the aspirin bottle and the bottle of Ativan next to it. She dumped the contents of the Ativan bottle into her palm before emptying the contents of the Bayer bottle into it. Then she took the pills in her palm and filled the Bayer bottle.

  Poor stupid Ashley, she must have accidentally taken three Ativan instead of three aspirin. She was so tired, she must have mixed up the bottles and taken the wrong thing. At least that’s what Paula would tell everyone. She smiled to herself. No one had to know that she’d switched the medications while Ashley had been in the bathroom.

  Paula smiled at her handiwork. She hadn’t thought it out too far ahead, but she liked how it all came together. This would keep Ashley away from Mel. At least for today. Really, all she could do was take this one day at a time. Every day Ashley wasn’t with Mel was a good day. Every day she managed to undermine Ashley’s independence was a good day.

  As far as Paula knew, Ashley hadn’t taken any of the Ativan. According to the date on the bottle, they’d been prescribed after the fall down the stairs. It was nice to see the sedatives take such immediate effect. Glad she’d taken the time to learn about all of Ashley’s meds, Paula smiled and watched Ashley sleep for a few minutes.

  Unable to resist a little dig, Paula slapped Ashley across her face. Not too hard, not enough to leave a mark, but enough to make her hand sting just a little. Ashley’s head snapped to the side, but she didn’t wake up. Even Roamer’s head snapped up from his spot at the foot of the bed. God, this was too fun. She fought the urge to do it again and instead stood up and walked out of the bedroom.

  When Ashley didn’t meet Mel, he’d call or come over and Paula would be here to talk to him. Tell him how despite Ashley’s hoping to someday be independent, she really needed round-the-clock help. Three Ativan probably weren’t enough for Ashley to have her stomach pumped, but it was enough to keep her out most of the day.

  Paula sighed as she walked down the hall. She had a refrigerator to clear out and a new issue of People magazine that she was dying to go through. It would keep her occupied until Mel called. A smile curved her lips as she caught site of the empty wall where there used to be a mirror. Poor Ashley would have seven years of bad luck losing a mirror like that. Actually, it wouldn’t be seven long years.

  Paula would make sure of it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Mel checked his watch for the third time, then surveyed the railing again. After leaving Ashley yesterday afternoon, he’d made some calls and found a crew of guys to fix the railing. They’d done a great job. He felt safe and he felt better about Ashley’s safety. But she should’ve been down fifteen minutes ago. He had his cell phone… He could call her… Hell, he should probably just walk up to the house.

  He got to the back door and knocked, peeking through the window trying to see inside. Roamer bolted out the doggie door and jumped around him, his tail going a mile a minute, as Paula came into view in the kitchen. Damn.

  She opened the door, a smile on her face. “Hi, Mel. How are you? Come in.” She backed up and gave him room to enter. Roamer chose to romp around the yard.

  For some reason he felt like a bug about to be trapped in the spider’s web, but he went in anyway. “Thanks,” he said, walking past her. “I was looking for Ashley. She around?”

  “She’s sleeping.” Paula waved toward the other end of the house. “She had a headache and took some aspirin a while ago. She’s been out ever since.”

  Mel understood Ashley having a headache. She’d been through a lot the other night and she’d told him she suffered the occasional migraine. “Was she okay other than a headache?” he asked.

  “Seemed to be. She was still sore. She told me about the other night. Scary. Good thing you got home in time.” She smiled warmly and Mel shook off the indescribable fear of talking to her.

  “Yeah.” He looked around, still uncomfortable in her presence. “You don’t mind
if I talk to her real quick, do you?” Why the hell was he asking her permission anyway? He started forward.

  “No, go ahead. I tried to wake her up a while ago, but I couldn’t get her to budge. I figured she needed the sleep.”

  A truckload of guilt swamped Mel. She’d needed sleep because he’d kept her awake most of yesterday making love to her. Sure they’d dozed, but she hadn’t gotten anywhere near eight hours of sleep. Or six. Probably not even four. Nice going, Summers…

  He walked into her room quietly with Paula right on his heels. He couldn’t really tell her to buzz off since she had more reason to be here than he did. Ashley looked so still, lying on her back, her head turned to the side. Mel sat next to her and rubbed her arm.

  “Hey, Ash,” he said quietly. When she didn’t move, he spoke a little louder and squeezed her shoulder. “Ashley.” His heart rate picked up as he studied her lack of response. “Ash, ba—” He nearly said, babe, but caught himself. He didn’t want Paula knowing anything about them—or him—much less his relationship with Ashley. “Ash, wake up.” He shook her shoulder this time and her head lolled on the pillow. He didn’t like the look of this at all.

  “What did you say she took?” he asked Paula.

  Paula pointed to the night table. “Just some aspirin.”

  Mel grabbed the prescription bottle next to the aspirin and read the label. Ativan. Ativan was a downer. An anxiety medication. Could she have taken the wrong medication? The bottle looked mostly full, as if she hadn’t taken too many, if any. He’d commented only yesterday how many pills she took and had wondered how she kept everything straight. She’d adamantly assured him that she could tell everything apart and gone on to explain she was taking half as much medication as she had been when she’d first gotten out of the hospital two years ago. She’d informed him that most everything was a supplement, and not detrimental to her health.