by Desiree Holt
At the bathroom door, she stepped back and frowned at him. “You don’t need me to come in with you, do you?” She was sure that wasn’t included in her list of duties, although with Ivy pulling this stunt she supposed anything was possible.
“Fuck, no,” he growled. “I can’t do much for myself but I can still do this.” Cursing under his breath, he edged himself into the bathroom and slammed the door.
Okay, Erin, deep breath.
She knew football season had opened the day after she left on her trip. It was impossible to live in Austin and not be aware of it as every television and radio station pumped it and newspapers shouted it. At the time, she’d been grateful she’d have two weeks away from that insanity. And now—
Erin took a moment to look around the room. This, too, was well done, in pale orange, tan, and ivory, with solid furniture. Masculine without being overbearing. She wondered idly whose taste this was—Jake’s, Ivy’s, or some anonymous decorator. Or maybe not so anonymous. Maybe one of his many playmates, of which she was sure he had many.
What did she care, anyway? That zippy little tingle she’d felt when their bodies connected was probably just some kind of static in the air. Right? She’d prove it to herself when she helped him back to bed. Because no way could she allow herself to be attracted to this man.
While she waited, she might as well do something useful. She turned back to the bed, smoothing the sheets and plumping the pillows, even as she cursed Ivy under her breath for getting her a job as a damned maid. She had just finished folding back the covers when she heard the sound of the toilet flushing, then water running. She didn’t figure he was doing much more than brushing his teeth. The home care person Ivy had arranged for—at least she’d said she had—would take care of his shower and shave, thank the Lord. The door flew open and there was Jake, gripping the walker with one hand. His forehead was creased with a scowl as he stood there, glaring at her.
“Well?” he snarled. “Are you through staring?”
She sighed and swallowed her immediate retort. “Sorry. I’m very happy to assist you back to bed.”
“Ha!” He spat the word out and ungraciously accepted her assistance. “I’ll just fucking bet.”
“Listen, sport.” She had to bite back what she really wanted to say. “This wasn’t my idea any more than it was yours, so can you clean up the language and at least act halfway decent?”
“You’re right. It wasn’t my idea, either,” he told her, resentment sparking from him like electrical current. “So can I just ask you to help me back to bed, and then you can go on your merry way?”
Erin knew that wasn’t going to happen, at least not in the next couple of hours. Not until she got hold of Ivy, read her the riot act, and had her get someone else to take her place. So she just walked over to where he waited and moved into place beside him. The damn tingle zapped her again, but she clenched her teeth against it and helped him back to the bed with the same awkward, halting progress as before. He was obviously in distress, so she took pity on him and helped him get his legs up onto the mattress and tucked the sheet over him. She couldn’t ignore the fact that his face was white with pain, and there were deep grooves bracketing his mouth.
Yet even with all that, when her hands touched his bare skin, she saw something like hunger flare in his eyes. Their gazes locked and for a moment time stood absolutely still. She broke away first, looking for a distraction. Glancing at his nightstand, she spotted an array of pharmacy prescription containers and a bottle of water that had probably been there all night.
“Let me replace this drink with a cold one,” she told him, determined at least for the time she was here, to do what she was supposed to. “I know some of those pills are for pain. You look like you could use a couple of them.”
When he didn’t object, she hurried into the kitchen and grabbed fresh water from the fridge. Taking a few extra seconds, she filled a mug and carried both of them back to the bedroom.
“Here.” She twisted off the cap on the water and handed him the bottle, then picked up the prescription containers. The directions on the label said one or two caplets as needed and he sure looked like he could use two right now. She shook them out into her palm and held them out to him, surprised when he only took one.
“One will do. I need to wean myself off these as soon as I can. I’ve seen too many guys get addicted to them.”
“You should take them if you’re in pain,” she pointed out.
“They won’t help me heal or rehab,” he snapped, “and that’s what I need to focus on. In fact, why don’t you just take these out of here?” He practically threw the little bottle at her. “Stick them in the bathroom. I can do without them.”
“Are you sure?”
“I said I don’t need them.”
“But—”
“They only gave them to me in case of an emergency,” he told her, a muscle twitching in his cheek. “Getting to the bathroom and back was worse than I expected, but now I’ll be prepared for it. There’s some acetaminophen in the bathroom. I’ll take that from now on.”
Erin just shrugged, silently took the bottle, and stuck it in her pocket. She waited while he swallowed the pill, then pointed to the mug. “I didn’t know how you take it so I just guessed at black.”
“Good. Fine. That’s how I take it, but anything will do. I’d hate to put you out any.” His voice was tight. “Just leave it there. I’ll get it in a minute.” Then, as if making a supreme effort to call up some vestige of courtesy, he ground out, “Thanks.”
He lay back against the pillows and closed his eyes. Erin wasn’t sure exactly what to do, so she busied herself reading the prescription labels, the name and the dosage. Antibiotics to prevent infection, pills for pain and sleep if needed, although she got the feeling Jake wouldn’t take the last one, either. She made a mental note to double check what was written on the sheet Ivy had handed her.
The sheet. The instructions. Elevate his leg.
Well, hell. That meant she’d have to touch him. Bend over him. Telling herself it was just a job and she really needed the money, she dragged some of his many extra pillows—how many did he need to sleep with, anyway?—and worked them as gently as possible under the cast from ankle to thigh. She was acutely aware of Jake watching her, even though she couldn’t see his face. She felt as if two hot pokers were boring into her and when she straightened up and looked at him, sure enough, his gaze was fixed on her.
“You’re supposed to keep it elevated,” she said, aware she was just stating the obvious.
“I got the memo.” He closed his eyes, obviously waiting for the pain meds to kick in.
Erin got the bottle of acetaminophen and stuck it on his nightstand. Then she stood there, analyzing this impossible situation and cursing Ivy under her breath. She hated to leave him until the meds kicked in, in case she needed to do something else, although she didn’t know what. Finally, after what seemed an interminable amount of time, he opened his eyes and looked at her.
“You’re still here.”
“Well, I didn’t evaporate.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her slacks. “This is probably not the best time to bring this up again, but I can’t stay here. You have to know that. The situation is just impossible. I don’t know what Ivy was thinking.”
He let his gaze roam over her from head to toe, faint heat blooming in his eyes despite his obvious pain. Erin shivered under the impact of his stare and closed her hands into fists, digging her fingernails into her palms. Shit, shit, shit. That unwanted thread of sexual attraction was still pulling her toward him, no matter how bad he was for her. Her nipples tightened, her pulse ratcheted up, and between her thighs the throb in her pussy ramped up in force. Yes, she definitely had to get out of here.
“Jake?” she prompted. “Did you hear me?”
“I heard you.” He scowled. “So you’re gonna run scared the first time I tell you to scram? You’re reall
y planning to leave me here like this? Helpless?”
“What’s the matter with you?” she demanded, her anger boiling over. “First you tell me to go away, and then you get mad because I said fine. You know as well as I do this is an impossible situation. Damn it.” She clenched her fists tighter. “Your home care person will be here in two hours. I’ll stay until I get hold of Ivy and get her back here. She’s just going to have to make other arrangements. I’ll tell her that and make sure she understands.”
“Yes, tell her.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “What the fuck was she thinking, anyway? Do you think I want a woman taking care of me who practically threw me out of her place? Or maybe you just can’t put your personal feelings aside to do the job you were hired for.”
“I was hired to take care of Russ Jacobs.” She did her best to keep her tone even. “That’s not you, so I’m out of here. Ivy can just get you someone else.”
She turned to walk out of the room, fighting to keep herself under control.
“Chicken,” he called after her.
Erin stopped. Chicken?
“What did you just say?”
“I called you chicken,” he repeated. “Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!”
She turned around, anger seething through her. “I am a lot of things, but chicken is not one of them. How dare you?”
“How dare I?” He made a sound that was part laugh, part grunt of pain. “What else would you call a woman who’s so afraid of a relationship she pushes the other person away before it even gets started?”
“Pushes away? Relationship? Are you referring to the little sexual fandango we engaged it?”
“Wow! Sexual fandango? Fancy words for someone who’s a chicken.”
“Stop saying that.” She had the irrational urge to stamp her foot. “I just let you out of a situation you would have walked away from anyway.”
“Is that right?” The pain meds were obviously kicking in, because his face had color to it and the lines around his mouth had softened. “How did you ever get such a low opinion of me, anyway? You hardly even know me.”
“I know your type, though. I’ve seen how men like you behave.”
I’ve had experience up close and personal, too.
Anger flashed in his eyes. “Men like me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Erin bit down on her lip, forcing back the immediate retort. This man was injured and in pain. This was no time to pick a fight with him, even though she was itching to, as obnoxious as he was behaving.
“I’m going to try to reach Ivy. Would you like something besides coffee first? Your sister did say you like juice in the morning.” She managed to ask the question in her most politely impersonal voice. “Or would you prefer to wait until after you’ve had your shower?”
“That’s it?” Each word was underscored with irritation. “You’re not going to answer my question?”
“I’ll take that as a no.” She turned and headed out of the room. “I guess that’s a no on the juice, too. I’m going to call Ivy and tell her she needs to make other arrangements.”
“Yeah. Fine. Okay. You do that.” When she didn’t say anything he shouted, “I agree with you. This was a huge mistake. I can call a million women who’d maybe even pay me to do this. You hear me?”
“Go ahead. Pick one. Any one. Find one who’d put up with your sweet personality.”
“Talk about sweet personalities. Have you looked at yours lately?”
Erin kept on walking, even as Jake continued to shout from his bed. Once she reached the kitchen, she sat down in one of the breakfast room chairs. The first thing she needed to do was pull herself together. She wanted to fix another mug of coffee, but at the moment her hands were trembling too much. She was going to kill Ivy the minute she got her hands on her.
When she had herself under control, she pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her slacks and speed-dialed Ivy. Not surprisingly, the call went directly to voicemail. The little rat was hiding from her, no doubt about it. She left a message.
“Call me at once. Damn it, Ivy. You got me a job with your brother? You gave me a fake name! What’s going on here? I can’t do this. Call me right now.”
Feeling slightly calmer, she got up and fixed another mug of coffee for herself. While she sipped it, she did a search on her phone to find out what happened to Jake. What she read shocked her. This was no simple broken leg. She knew enough about football to be aware that his injury was devastating and could very well be career-ending.
What the hell was she going to do? Ivy had put her in an impossible situation, counting on Erin’s sense of responsibility to override everything else. But living in the same house with Jake, who rang all her bells including the warning ones, was a recipe for disaster.
Okay, there’s the money. Don’t forget the money.
Oh, yeah, the money. How could she overlook that? She was nearly down to the last of her severance pay, and her savings weren’t even worth mentioning. She had her check from the last two weeks but not even the barest prospect of a job.
So what were her choices? Working for Jake and getting a fat salary or being unemployed. She was still mulling that when she heard another crash from the master suite. She raced down the short hallway to the open door, stopping short at the sight. Jake had apparently tried to get out of bed again using his walker. Whether he was just off balance or woozy from the meds, he’d fallen sideways against the nightstand and knocked over the lamp. Now he was leaning one hand on the nightstand and trying to fish the walker around with the other.
Great. Just great.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” She managed to leverage him into a semi upright position, then onto the bed, no easy task when his body was both large and unwieldy.
He flopped back onto the pile of pillows behind his head, the leg in the cast straight out on the mattress, the other one hanging over the edge, his foot on the floor. In that position it was impossible not to notice the fact his cock was swollen and thick and pressing hard against the soft material of his shorts. Her eyes were drawn to it automatically, despite her best intentions.
“Excuse me.” The words were polite, his tone not so much. “Do you think you could give me a hand again here?”
His raspy voice startled her and heat crawled up her face. Well, crap.
“What exactly were you trying to do?” she asked as she hefted the other leg onto the mattress and pulled the sheet up to his waist.
“I wanted something, and I figured I’d used up all my favors with you today.”
Crap. “It’s obvious you can’t manage anything by yourself.”
“Thanks so much for telling me.” Bitterness edged his words. “I guess you’ll just have to hang around to make sure I don’t get myself into trouble again.” The deep grooves in his face and the faint sheen of perspiration on his face were obvious indications of the pain he was in. And yet there was no denying the sarcastically teasing tone to his voice. And damn! Was that a tiny sexual overtone she heard?
Stop that, Erin.
She righted the lamp, thanking fortune that it wasn’t broken, and straightened the two books that had also been knocked off. “Tell me what you needed so badly. I’m afraid if you try to do this again you’ll kill yourself, and how will I explain away your dead body?”
“You’re all heart, right?” His sarcasm was somewhat dimmed by the fact that he was breathing harder than normal and his face sported a sheen of perspiration.
“Maybe I just don’t have one. So. What can I get for you, now that I’m here?”
“I wanted another cup of coffee.” He shot her a look of irritation and held out the mug that, miraculously, had not been brushed to the floor. “I was afraid you’d be pissed off at me if I asked for room service.”
She had to resist the urge to smack him. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a jackass, Russell?”
He managed a grin. “Some of
the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. But then they got to see my winning personality.”
Erin blew out a breath of exasperation. She took a minute to remind herself that this was not fun for him. His season was over, although hopefully not his career. He was out of action and out of the loop, in pain and filled with frustration. Okay, she’d spare him one minute of sympathy, but that was all. Surely she could be a big enough person to do that.
“I’m curious,” he said. “How is it you were even available for this charade? I thought you were running the spa at that fancy resort outside of Austin.”
Erin looked away from him. “It’s been sold and the new owners closed it while they do extensive renovations.”
“Well that sucks canal water. But I’d think in a city like this there would be other places who’d snap you up in a heartbeat.”
“Yeah, you’d think. It’s not like I haven’t been looking either. I keep getting the same line. ‘It’s the economy. People aren’t spending as much on extras these days.’ As if keeping in shape was an extra.” She turned her gaze back on him again, making sure her face was composed. “I’m examining my options.”
“Which is how you got roped into this?”
She nodded. “Ivy knew I lost my job, and she thought this would be a win/win situation. Your sister can be very persuasive.”
“You got that right.” The muscles in his jaw tightened. “Sometimes too much so.”
Erin planted her hands on her hips, indignant. “No kidding.”
Jake grimaced. “Yeah, I would have been more suspicious if I was hitting on all cylinders. I’m completely aware of how persuasive and sneaky my sister can be. She gets an idea and she’s like a dog with a bone.”
Erin nodded. “Tell me about it. Meanwhile, we need to get her over here to face the music and see how we can resolve this. Having me stay is not a good idea, and you know it.”
“I guess.” He picked up his cell from the nightstand. “I’ve left a bunch of messages for her, but it’s plain she’s avoiding both of us.”
