by Jaci Burton
“I didn’t know a bath was included,” he said, his warm brown eyes studying her the entire time.
Heat sang through her body. Normally, cleaning a patient was an emotionless task. She did it because it was part of her job. But with Rafe it felt . . . different. Intimate. Unnerving.
“I thought we might want to clean off some of this residue from the fire.”
“A nice hot shower would feel really good right about now.” She swept his thick dark hair away from his forehead and finished cleaning his face. Such a gorgeous face, too, with angular lines and a very strong jaw. “Can’t do that for you, but does this feel better?”
He reached up and wrapped his fingers around hers. “You touching me feels good.”
That heat she felt earlier was replaced by an incredible tingling sensation that settled somewhere in the vicinity of her sex.
Whoa, girl, back up.
Which she did. “Okay, I can actually see your face now.”
He smiled, as if he knew exactly the effect he had on her. She needed to remind herself that Rafe Donovan was a patient, and her neighbor, and that nothing was ever going to happen between the two of them.
Ever.
No matter how many times she’d fantasized about him.
CHAPTER 2
RAFE’S HEAD FUCKING HURT.
But the rest of him felt damn fine because Carmen Lewis was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. Black hair wound into a bun at her neck, full lips, beautiful smoky hazel eyes, curvy in all the right places, and the woman was smart. She was the perfect package. Living next door to her was hard enough. But having her leaning over him, washing his face, breathing in her scent—what was that? Hand sanitizer? How could hand sanitizer be so hot? And having her hands on him? Now that was torture. Even gloved up, her hands made him feel better. All he wanted to do was draw her closer and kiss her. He saw the way her incredible eyes went dark with desire when she got near him, the way her breathing stilted and her lips parted when he put his hand over hers.
He knew when a woman was interested, and Carmen was definitely interested. And then she backed away like he was a hot stove and she’d just burned her hand on him.
So she was wary. The question was . . . why? They were in the wrong damn situation for him to ask that question.
“How’s your head?” she asked.
“Huh?” He’d been watching her gorgeous ass as she had her back turned to him and honestly wasn’t paying attention to what she’d been saying.
“Your head, Rafe. How’s your head?”
“Oh. It hurts.”
“Any queasiness?”
He grimaced, trying to quell the nausea that kept rising up like a rocky sea. “No, I’m good.”
She cocked a brow, as if she knew damn well how he felt. “This isn’t tell-a-lie time to get out of here fast, Rafe. I really need to know how you feel. If you hide things from me or from the doctor, it could affect your diagnosis.”
He blew out a breath. “Fine. Kind of queasy.”
“Okay. I want you to lie still, and no getting up without buzzing for help. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I appreciate the cooperation. No going to sleep, either.”
“I’m too wired to sleep.” Though he wasn’t sure if the adrenaline rush was from the fire or from having Carmen so close to him. Both, maybe?
Before she could leave the room, Rafe’s brothers, Jackson and Kal, appeared in the doorway. He was glad to see them, though he wasn’t going to tell them that.
“Hey, Carmen,” Jackson said. “Okay if we come in?”
“Sure. I’d like someone to keep him company anyway while we wait for the CT scan.”
Kal smiled. “We can do that.” He pulled up a chair next to Rafe, grabbed the remote to the television and turned it on, scrolling through until he found a football game.
Jackson stepped out to talk to Carmen for a few minutes. Rafe watched the two of them in conversation. Carmen’s hands moved as she talked. Then she tucked a loose hair behind her ear, nodded and grasped Jackson’s arm as if to soothe his worry before walking away.
Jackson stepped inside.
“Well?” Rafe asked.
“Well, what?” Jackson slid into the other chair.
“Am I dying?”
“How the hell should I know? Do I look like a doctor?”
Rafe rolled his eyes, which only made his head hurt more. “What did Carmen say?”
“She said she thinks you’re a dick.”
“Very funny.”
“She said she thinks it’s a concussion, but they’ll know more after the CT scan. And if you have to get up to go down the hall to take a piss, one of us has to come with you so you don’t faint.”
Rafe frowned. “Fuck that.”
“No, seriously.”
“Don’t worry, bro, I’ll hold your hand,” Kal said, giving him his signature smart-ass smirk.
Rafe stared at the TV. “This whole situation sucks.”
“If you didn’t bang your head against doors, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”
He glared at Jackson. “How’s the house, by the way?”
“Fire’s contained. Finally. You did good in there.”
“Yeah, right up until the backdraft knocked me on my ass.”
“Hey, we’ve all been there.”
“Not me,” Kal said, his face glued to the game.
Rafe glared at his brother. “You’ll get your turn, asshole.”
Kal let out a laugh. “I’m not as dumb as you.”
“Ignore him,” Jackson said. “His time will come.”
Honestly, Rafe hoped his little brother would never have the same experience Rafe had had today.
Because this pretty much sucked.
“WHO’S THE EXTREMELY HOT FIREFIGHTER IN FIVE?” TESS asked when Carmen returned to the desk.
Carmen kept her focus on charting. “My next-door neighbor.”
“Shut the front door.” Tess’s jaw dropped. “He is not.”
“He is.”
“What’s his status?”
“Possible concussion. We won’t know more until after his CT scan.”
“Carmen Lewis, you’ve been holding out on me.”
“About his diagnosis?”
Tess tilted her head to the side. “No. About you and the hot firefighter.”
Carmen finished charting Rafe’s vitals, supplies they’d used on him and details about his status, then looked up at her friend. Tess Blackstone was a beautiful redhead with a killer smile who’d been Carmen’s best friend since nursing school. Carmen had been terrified her first day of nursing school, didn’t know anyone, felt inept and unprepared for what was ahead. It must have shown on her face, because Tess had sat next to her, leveled her signature bright smile on Carmen and told her they were going to be best friends forever.
And they had been ever since, including falling in love with emergency medicine together and ending up getting a job at the same emergency room. Carmen had been matron of honor at Tess’s wedding to her husband, George, and Tess had been there to offer a shoulder to cry on when Carmen’s marriage had ended so badly.
They’d been through it all together, and there was nothing that Carmen wouldn’t tell her.
“I hold nothing back from you, Tess, and you know it.”
“Apparently, you do, because you’ve been living next door to an extremely sexy firefighter for—how long?”
She shrugged. “A few years.”
“What? And I’m just now hearing about it?”
“Those are his two brothers in there with him. They live with him.”
Tess looked at the room, which just so happened to be across from the nurses station. She gaped, then turned to face Carmen. “Dear God in heaven, Carmen. I don’t think we can be friends anymore.”
Carmen laughed. “You’re so dramatic. There’s nothing to tell. We’re neighbors. That’s it.”
“And yet
you never once thought to mention to me that three—count them, three—extremely good-looking firefighters were living right next to you.”
She signed out of her terminal, grabbed her netbook to do some inventory and left the station. “Nope.”
Tess followed. “Hmm.”
Carmen stopped. “What does that mean?”
“That means you’re interested. In which one?”
She shook her head. “None of them. You know I don’t date.”
“Which is weird enough on its own. Your vagina didn’t put up a Closed for business sign after your marriage ended, you know.”
Carmen looked around to make sure no one had heard that. “Tess.”
“What? Just stating the facts. You’re beautiful and vibrant and healthy and you should be having all kinds of sex.”
“Hmph.” She started walking again.
“No hmph. Hump. You should be humping. Everything with a penis.”
She reached the drug room and used a key card and password to enter. Tess followed.
“And you have sex on the brain.”
Tess laughed. “The key to a happy marriage, honey.”
Carmen shook her head and ordered some refills on a few of the drugs they needed.
“So the hurt one. He’s amazingly beautiful, Carmen.”
“Rafe? Yes, he is. He comes over and helps me with Grandpa.”
“Oh, he does? That’s so sweet. And after you get your grandpa to bed, does he help you out with anything else?”
She glanced over at Tess. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Orgasms?”
Carmen laughed. “No.”
“Then you’re using him in all the wrong ways. Does he have a girlfriend?”
“Rafe? I . . . don’t think so. I’ve never asked.”
“For the love of . . . Girl, we need to get you laid.”
“No, we don’t.” She shut the drug cabinet, withdrew her key and walked out of the room, Tess on her heels.
Tess’s pager went off. “I gotta run. This conversation isn’t over.”
Carmen raised her hand to object, but Tess had already disappeared down the hall. She needed to go check on Rafe anyway, as well as general department status.
When she stopped by Rafe’s room, he was gone, but Kal and Jackson were hanging out there watching television.
“The CT people came to get him about five minutes ago,” Jackson said.
She nodded. “Good. It won’t take long, and we should have results soon.”
“You don’t think it’s anything serious, do you?” Kal asked.
“I couldn’t say, since I’m not a doctor.”
“Come on, Carmen,” Jackson said. “You see this kind of stuff all the time. We’re not asking for a diagnosis. We’re asking what you think.”
She liked that they cared so much about their brother. She also didn’t want to give them false hope. There were a lot of things that could show up on a CT scan. Sometimes bad things.
“He seems fine. A little dizzy and nauseated. If I were to guess, I’d say it’s a concussion. But you know as well as I do that we have to wait for the CT scan results to know for sure.”
Jackson nodded. “Thanks.”
She went back out to the desk, looking over at Rafe’s room every few minutes.
She expected—or at least hoped—that his CT scan would be negative, which meant he’d be cleared to go home with concussion protocol. She told herself Rafe would be fine.
He had to be fine.
Then she could get back to doing her job without having Rafe so close. Without needing to worry about him.
Which meant she could stop thinking about him, and stop remembering how he smelled, and what it felt like to touch him.
Because none of that was good for her sense of well-being. She didn’t need or want a man in her life, despite what Tess thought. She’d already had a man in her life once, and that had ended in disaster.
She wasn’t about to go through that again.
CHAPTER 3
STAYING AT HOME SUCKED. RAFE WAS ON A NO-ACTIVITY restriction, which was total bullshit. After a half-assed sleep last night because his brothers had taken turns waking him up every damn hour, he thought maybe he could nap this morning. But his body didn’t work that way. The sun was up, and that meant coffee and awake time.
Jackson and Kal had gone to their mom and dad’s. Becks, Jackson’s live-in girlfriend, had left for her job at her tattoo shop early today, because she needed to stop and buy some ink.
He’d thought about going along with his brothers just to hang out, but his mom would come home at some point, and when she saw him not working on the house she’d ask questions. He’d asked his dad not to say anything to her. He was going to be fine, and his mom had enough on her mind with her job and getting the house ready to sell.
He leaned back in the kitchen chair and finished off the mango juice he’d poured for himself, then stood, wincing as he did.
He lifted his shoulders and turned his head from side to side, feeling the strain in his neck. Then he held on to the chair and bent forward to stretch out his back, taking it slow in case he got dizzy. His muscles felt tight, but when he straightened, he felt okay. That was a good thing, because he’d definitely felt woozy last night in the ER.
At least things were moving in the right direction there. He wished he could go to the gym and do a solid workout, but he’d been banned from doing anything strenuous—including his damn job—for the next five days until he followed up with his doctor and got cleared to return to work.
He looked around, wondering how to occupy himself in a useful way that wasn’t considered strenuous. He’d already made breakfast and done the dishes, which wasn’t much. He’d wiped up the stove and counter along with the table, which also hadn’t been much, since everyone who lived here always cleaned up after themselves.
Becks was even cleaner than him and his brothers. She routinely did a thorough scrubbing of the house, and yesterday was her day off, which meant she’d done a top-to-bottom scouring of the entire place. In fact, Jackson and Becks had gotten into an argument about it, because Jackson was worried she was doing more than her fair share. He’d said they could all pitch in and clean the house, but Becks claimed cleaning was one of the great joys in her life.
That had been a fun argument to watch. Jackson had lost, of course, because Becks was amazing, and who was going to deny her something she enjoyed? Rafe didn’t understand how mopping floors or scrubbing bathrooms could be a life-fulfilling task, but to each their own.
Rafe ventured into the game room and played a few video games, but the flashing lights on the TV gave him a headache, so he quit, disgusted.
Running out of ideas, he slid on his sunglasses and went outside to sit by the pool. Since it was summer and hot as fuck, he slid onto the bottom step of the pool to cool his body down.
He closed his eyes and let the water lap around his chest, content to relax here. It was better than staring up at the ceiling. He’d rather be swimming laps, but he knew that would be considered strenuous activity.
It was going to be a long five days.
He jerked his eyes open when he heard the gate to the backyard swing open, then smiled when he saw Carmen come in. She was holding a baking dish in her hand. She spotted him and waved.
“Hey, Rafe. I rang the bell, but no one answered,” she said. “I’m going to put this in the fridge.”
“Sure.”
He climbed out of the pool and dried off, then put his T-shirt back on and went into the house.
Carmen was just coming to the door. “Oh. You didn’t have to get out of the pool. I’m headed out again. I just stopped by to leave you some food. You shouldn’t have to worry about cooking in the next couple of days.”
She looked amazing in her shorts and skimpy tank top, her hair piled on top of her head. Her skin was glowing like wet sand, and all he wanted to do was lick the drops of perspiration beading between her brea
sts.
Okay, dude. Take a step back.
Which he did. “You don’t have to leave. How about a glass of iced tea? It’s hot out there.”
“Sure is,” she said, following him back inside. “And I made it even hotter by baking in my kitchen this morning.”
She’d done that for him. He appreciated it. He moved around her and went into the kitchen, pulling two glasses from the cabinet. He poured tea, handing one to Carmen, who’d taken a seat at the island.
“You baked? For me?”
“Enchiladas verdes.”
He walked around and pulled up a chair next to her. “That’s my favorite.”
She took a sip of tea and laid the glass on the counter. “I know.”
“Thank you, Carmen. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to. I know you’re stuck at home for several days, so I wanted to make sure you had something to eat.”
Even though he’d just finished breakfast a little while ago, his stomach was already rumbling at the thought of Carmen’s enchiladas. “It’s probably time for lunch.”
She laughed. “It is not. And there’s plenty there for everyone.”
“Yeah, as long as Jackson and Kal don’t see it. I’ll have to bury it somewhere.”
“Seriously. There’s more than enough to share.”
He shook his head. “Not a chance. I’m marking it Rafe’s Recovery Food.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I can make more, you know.” He picked up her hand. “Can you? You’d do that for me?”
“Sure. As long as you don’t milk this injury for weeks. I do have a full-time job, a grandfather to take care of, grocery shopping and housecleaning, bills to pay. You know, an actual life.”
He let her hand drop. “Okay, now I feel guilty.”
She laid her hand on his arm. “Not my intention. I was joking with you. We all have things to do.”
“Not me. Not for the next five days, anyway. I’m not allowed to do a thing. I can’t go to the gym, I can’t swim laps, I can’t go to work. I can’t do anything . . . strenuous.”
She made a sad face. “Aww, you poor baby. Relaxation must be killing you.”
“You have no idea.”
She slid off the barstool. “Come on.”
