by Jo Barrett
She parked her car and went inside the law firm. Dropping her purse on her desk, a rueful chuckle burbled from her throat.
“Like anyone would want to stalk me. Get real.” Still, being cautious wasn’t a bad thing.
“And look where that’s got me,” she muttered, glancing around the room at the other data entry operators.
Her life wasn’t going anywhere, not that she could blame anyone but herself. She’d always let others take care of her, tell her what to do, how to live.
She’d been a late life child and painfully shy. She supposed she would’ve grown out of it eventually, but when her parents were killed, she pulled even further into herself. She’d been lucky her brother hadn’t let her end up in foster care. He’d barely graduated from college at the time, and yet he took it upon himself to take over the care and feeding of a ten year old girl.
She was thankful for him, and for all that he’d done for her, but somewhere along the line, she’d lost herself.
“Or maybe I was too scared,” she muttered.
Shaking her head as she put her purse in her desk drawer, she made a promise to herself. No more jumping at shadows, no more letting her brother tell her what she should and shouldn’t do. It was time to live her life, instead of just wandering through it with blinders on.
The next day the motorcycle man made eye contact again. All Eleanor could do was cast him a shaky smile. She’d spent the previous day and half the night kicking herself for being such a chicken. This morning, she hoped, and yet feared, he’d ask again.
A grin tilted up the edge of his lips and once again, he pointed to the coffee shop across the street.
She bit her lip with a glance at her watch. plagued with doubt, and the idea of being late for work for the first time in her life.
No, she just couldn’t do it, and looked at him, ready to shake her head, when he held up five fingers, then pointed at the shop again.
Meet him at five o’clock?
With a broad grin, he patted his chest with leather clad hands, tilted back his head as if he were in pain, then held them out in a pleading gesture.
With a smile, she found the courage to nod. She would meet him at the coffee shop at five o’clock after work. It wasn’t exactly a walk on the wild side, but it was a start, something that was long overdue.
He raised his leather covered hands in triumph, and Eleanor couldn’t help but laugh.
A horn tooted, and he gave her that sexy wink before flipping down his visor and starting out into traffic.
As she pressed her foot to the pedal to move along side, her smile still wide and her heart beating at a giddy pace, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.
In less than a heartbeat, she made a decision that would change her life forever.
****
Dustin felt on top of the world and was about to give the blushing woman, his date, a small wave as he approached the center of the intersection, where they would go their separate ways until five o’clock. But just as he reached the midway point, squealing tires and blaring horns erupted around him.
He immediately ditched the bike in the grassy median as screaming metal echoed in his ears. Shaken, he crawled to his feet, ripped off his helmet, and turned to survey the scene. The sight that met him nearly sent him to his knees.
The little blue sedan with the woman he had just made a date with had nearly been crushed by a large pickup truck.
People surged to the accident, some wanting to gawk, others wanting to help. Dustin managed to finally get his feet moving and ran straight for the sedan.
Her head rested against the side window, the air bag having deployed, lay partially deflated in her lap. He hesitated when his hand touched the handle, then swallowed hard and opened the door. He pulled off one of his gloves, then gently felt her neck for a pulse. After breathing a sigh of relief at finding a steady beat, he gave a quick glance over the rest of her, looking for injuries.
Blood ran down her face from a small gash near her temple, but it didn’t seem bad, and yet he couldn’t be sure. It could be serious or just a simple cut. Head wounds tended to bleed a lot. He knew that from experience. He wasn’t exactly accident free himself.
She moaned and lifted her head.
“Don’t move,” he said. “You need to be still until the paramedics arrive.”
“The man,” she muttered, trying to sit up as her lids fluttered open, but he doubted her vision was in any way clear.
“You need to lie still,” he said.
“No, the man on the motorcycle. Is he okay? Please, tell me. Was I in time?”
In time? Dustin rose to his feet, his gaze zeroing in on the intersection.
Oh God, she’d plowed into that truck to keep it from hitting him.
“Please,” she said, her voice faint and yet desperate.
He crouched back down beside her and brushed his fingers over her cheek. A tingling warmth spread up his arm.
“He’s fine. You and the truck driver are the only injuries. Now lie still until help gets here.”
With that she rested back against the seat and closed her eyes. “Thank goodness.”
He pulled a bandana from his coat pocket, then applied slight pressure to the wound on her head.
“You’re going to be okay,” he said.
She sighed and seemed to relax a little, but he wanted to keep her lucid. “Stay with me, all right? Tell me your name.”
She groaned low, then said, “Eleanor Freemont.”
“Nice to meet you, Eleanor.”
A wisp of a smile teased her lips, before it turned down into a pained frown. “My head hurts.” Lifting her hand she brushed her fingers over his where he continued to apply pressure. “Am I bleeding?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t look too bad. You’ll be fine. Just lie still.”
He gently took her hand and placed it in her lap, but didn’t let go, wondering why he felt an undeniable attachment to her. Could he actually have developed something real for this woman who was practically a stranger?
He knew nothing about her except for the basics; height, coloring, the sound of her voice, and yet he felt compelled to be with her, to touch her. Perhaps her sacrifice for him was what drew him to her.
He squeezed her hand. “Still with me?”
“Mmm.”
It didn’t matter why he felt this connection, this need, he decided. He wasn’t leaving her side until the paramedics arrived, and after that, he was determined to get to know her better.
“So are you married, Eleanor?”
He grimaced at his own stupidity. How could he ask her that at a time like this? He felt pretty certain that she wouldn’t have said yes to their date if she were, and he saw no rings on her fingers, but still, he felt like a jerk. Wanting to keep her lucid was no excuse.
“No, not married,” she said.
A breath of relief slipped past his lips, as the sirens closed in. “And what do you do for a living?”
“Um.” She wet her lips, and he felt a jolt in his gut. She had such a beautiful mouth.
“I do data entry—for a, um, law firm,” she said, jerking him back to why he was crouched down beside her beneath a traffic light, instead of imagining what those gorgeous lips would feel like.
Clearing his throat, and cursing himself six different ways, he said, “Sounds interesting.”
She chuckled then winced. “Not even on my best day.”
He grinned, glad to see that even at a time like this, she had a sense of humor, and her voice was growing stronger.
“The paramedics are here,” he said, with a squeeze to her hand before he let go.
He heard her soft thank you, as he stepped back so they could do their job.
“Do you know her name?” one of the men asked.
He nodded. “Eleanor Freemont.”
They checked her vitals and got her loaded into the ambulance within moments.
Dustin hurried home and traded his bike for his
truck. The close call left him a little shaken. But he had to go to the hospital to see her and thank her…then begin to explore the possibilities of where a relationship with her might go. Sure it was crazy, but he couldn’t help himself, and he didn’t want to.
He just wanted to be with Eleanor.
Chapter Three
Eleanor listened with only half an ear to her brother’s tirade. After he’d gotten past the shock and fear about her being in a car accident, he began his favorite speech.
“This is just the sort of thing I’ve been saying for months now,” he said, pacing the small area at the foot of the bed. “You don’t need a car. The bus was fine.”
Oh, the bus was fine all right. But it didn’t allow her any freedom, leaving her at home more often than not, which invariably left her babysitting his kids.
Not that she didn’t appreciate everything her brother had done for her, and she knew that he loved her, but she had to get out on her own. She made herself a promise after meeting—almost—meeting the man on the motorcycle. She had to live her life. She was twenty-eight years old. It was past time for her to grow up.
“Ellie, you’ve never been any good at taking care of yourself or making decisions. This is just one more example. So get the idea of moving into your own apartment out of your head. I didn’t stop you from getting a car, but moving out is just not going to happen.”
“But—”
“No. We’re not discussing this anymore,” he said. “Now, get your things, so we can get out of here. I’ve got to get back to work.”
Eleanor bit her tongue, letting him ramble on and on. This was not the place to have it out with him, then again, she rarely won an argument against her brother. He’d been fathering her for so many years; he didn’t know how to be any different. But it was past time, she knew that now without a doubt. No more just thinking about making a change. It was time for him to let her go. It was time for them both to move on with their lives.
She could only hope that her motorcycle man knew she wouldn’t be able to make their date tonight. He was there, in the intersection, so he had to know about the accident. He just had to.
“Ellie, you’re not listening,” her brother said.
“No, I’m listening. You want to get back to work.”
A voice cleared, and both she and her brother turned their heads to see a man standing at the foot of the bed, his long tan fingers holding back the curtain.
It was him. And she looked like crud!
Dustin grinned as shock fell over Eleanor’s features. Although a little pale, and with a bandage on the side of her forehead, she seemed okay, and that lifted the weight from chest. If she’d been irreparably harmed saving his life, he’d never forgive himself.
“I hope I’m not interrupting, but I wanted to bring you these and see how you were doing,” he said, moving to stand beside the bed, the small bunch of flowers he’d grabbed in the gift shop clutched in his hand.
“I-I’m fine,” she said, with a shy smile.
He handed her the flowers, and their fingers brushed. A zing flew up his arm, and he was certain she felt it, too, as her gaze leapt to his.
The man opposite the bed let out an impatient sigh, breaking the pulsating connection they seemed to share.
Dustin stuck out his hand. “I’m Dustin Bass, a friend of Eleanor’s.”
He shook his hand and said, “Darren Freemont. I’m Ellie’s brother.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“How long have you known each other? I don’t recall Ellie ever mentioning you,” Darren said.
Dustin looked at her and grinned. “We’ve only known each other for a few weeks, even though it seems like more.” He relished the way her eyes widened. She apparently hadn’t said anything about him, but then he couldn’t blame her, it was pretty unusual to start a relationship—of a sort—at a stoplight.
“Why more?” her brother asked.
“Oh, I guess it’s because I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Eleanor’s beautiful smile almost every morning before I go to work.”
He gave her a wink and her mouth fell open, then snapped shut as she fought a smile. Her brother, however, wasn’t laughing. Which made her grin all the more enjoyable.
“That’s not possible,” Darren said, his tone cold. “Ellie happens to live in my house.”
Dustin couldn’t stop the devil inside him. “Yep, and she heads to work every morning around seven,” he said, keeping his gaze on her. Eleanor was all he was interested in. Even with a bandage on her forehead and a bruise on her cheek, she was beautiful. And with that smile and humor dancing in her eyes, she was about as close to a pixy as a girl could get.
But her brother, who obviously had done his best to rule over her for most, if not all of her life, wasn’t taking her disobedience lightly.
“It’s time to go, Ellie,” her brother snapped. He jerked out his arm to look at his watch. “I’ve got a meeting in an hour, so hurry it up.”
Her grin fell, and she cut her eyes at her brother, then looked back at Dustin with an apologetic smile.
“They’re releasing you already?” he asked.
“The doctor is over-reacting,” her brother said. “She doesn’t need to stay for something as stupid as a bump on her head.”
Dustin bit back a retort and looked at Eleanor. “I’d be happy to take you home. That way your brother could get to his meeting. As long as that’s what you should be doing.”
She opened her mouth, hopefully to agree, when Darren interrupted. “She’s not going home with you.”
He turned his gaze to the little tyrant, itching to put him in his place, but figured that was the last thing Eleanor needed. After all, they didn’t know each other, and punching her brother, no matter how much he deserved it, probably wasn’t the way to the woman’s heart.
“I meant that I would give her a lift to your house, since you seem to be in such a hurry, as long as the doctor says it’s okay.”
Darren sputtered, but Eleanor smiled. “The doctor said I could go home if I felt up to it, but are you sure you don’t mind driving me?”
“It’d be my pleasure.”
“Fine! Do what you want,” her brother said. “I’m going back to the office.” And with that, he stormed away.
She sighed and granted him a small smile. “I’m sorry. He isn’t always like that. He was just worried about me. He’s taken care of me for most of my life. Um, but are you sure this isn’t a bother for you?”
“Eleanor, I owe you my life.”
“Oh.” She dropped her gaze to her lap and picked at the edge of a flower petal.
He sat on the edge of the bed and tipped up her chin so he could see her solemn face. “But that isn’t why I’m doing this. I’ve been trying to get a date with you for some time. You’re one hard lady to convince.”
She shook her head. “But, you only asked the two times.”
“Ah, but you’re not counting the days you hid behind me. You were avoiding me.”
“I—uh, well…”
He chuckled. “You were.”
She nodded with a grin. “But not today.”
“No, not today.” His stomach sank as the morning events flashed through his mind again.
“And about that, about what happened today, if you ever do anything like that again…” His throat tightened. “You could’ve been killed.”
Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I was the one with you when the paramedics came. You asked if you’d been in time, and you asked about the man on the motorcycle. You pulled out into the line of that truck on purpose so it wouldn’t hit me first, didn’t you?”
She bit her bottom lip and nodded.
He shook his head with a grimace, still stunned at what she’d done. “How could you have done something so dangerous? And for a stranger?”
She reached out and clasped his arm. “You would have been killed.”
“You don’t know that.”
“But—”
“Shh,” he said, cupping her cheek moving close enough for a kiss, but didn’t give in to the desire to touch his lips to hers.
Although he felt as if they’d known each other for a long time, it wasn’t true, and he didn’t want to take advantage of her. She was vulnerable at the moment, what with the accident and her irritating brother coming down on her so hard.
He brushed the pad of his thumb across her trembling lips. “Just promise me you won’t ever do anything like that again.”
She gently clasped his wrist as he continued to caress her face. “Will you promise to give up riding a motorcycle?”
He took her hand in his before he gave into the desire to kiss her. “You know that’s not going to happen.”
She smiled, and his heart sped up. There she was, the woman he couldn’t get out of his head since he first saw her smile.
“Then I can’t very well promise not to do it again,” she said, her tone firm with a faint bit of teasing on the side.
“Okay,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s a draw. For now,” he said, and rose from the bed. “Now let’s see about getting you home, if you’re sure that’s what you want to do. You still look a little pale.”
“I’m fine, really. My head hurts, and I’m a little dizzy, but the doctor left the decision up to me. As long as I have someone to keep an eye on me, wake me every couple of hours, he said I could go.”
“All right. I’ll go get a nurse to help you dress.” He disappeared around the curtain.
A smile slipped over Eleanor’s lips. Dustin Bass. She liked his name, and she liked him. Odd how she felt instantly comfortable with him. Well, almost. When he touched her, she felt a zing shoot through her body, setting all her senses on full alert. But it was a good zing, a really good zing.
The nurse appeared and retrieved her clothes from the plastic bag they’d stored them in. Eleanor really did need help getting into the outfit she’d worn that day for work. Darren hadn’t thought to bring her anything suitable and simple to change into, and with bruised ribs from the airbag and the lingering dizziness, she could never have accomplished it.
