Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 38466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
“Are you hungry? Thirsty?” He pulled his hand away as if she burned him, curling his fingers into his palm and glancing away.
He cleared his throat and then stood, walking away from her and into the kitchen.
“I’m surprised you’re awake. I gave you pain meds that should have had you sleeping until morning.” She turned on the couch and watched as he went about making her a sandwich from the ingredients he pulled out of the fridge. “Your discomfort probably woke you. That’s not uncommon.” He looked at her and offered her a smile. “Do you remember anything that happened?”
She shook her head even though he didn’t look at her. “All I remember is my car skidding out of control and then slamming into a tree. Then I woke up here.” He lifted his blue eyes. “Are you a doctor?”
“No, but I have training as a paramedic. Living out here makes it almost imperative that you have some sort of medical background.” He brought his thumb to his mouth, sucking off a dollop of mayo.
She wasn’t even a fan of mayo like that, but watching his lips wrap around his big thumb sent tingles throughout her whole body. Holy hell. What is happening to me? As if he sensed where her thoughts were going, the corner of his mouth quirked up.
“Yeah, you were out of it. Deacon was out … running when he found your car. You were out cold, so he brought you back here. I gave you five sutures to the laceration on your head and watched your vitals. You’re very lucky you didn’t have any other serious injuries and that Deacon found you when he did. If you had been out there much longer hypothermia would have set in, and any number of wild animals would have scented out the blood from your cut.” He brought the sandwich over to her along with a glass of milk.
“I’m lucky he found me when he did.” She wasn’t particularly hungry, but she couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten anything. Picking up the sandwich, she took a bite, acutely aware that Thayer watched her.
When she had eaten half of it and couldn’t stomach any more, she set it on the plate and sat back. Thayer handed her the milk, and she thanked him before she drank half of that as well. When she lifted her gaze to his and saw him still watching her with that knowing look, she felt the walls caving in.
“I—” Swallowing roughly, she kept his stare as she licked her lips. He focused his eyes on her mouth, and something started humming inside of her. “I think I’d like to go back to bed, if that’s okay?”
“Of course.” His voice was low. It held a sexy bedroom quality that had her thinking up all kinds of naughty things. She quickly got up and made her way back to the room.
Her body still screamed at her to take it easy, but she needed to escape from the sensations and emotions that were heavy and thick back in that living room.
When the safety of those four walls surrounded her, she leaned against the door and closed her eyes. The sight of blood, bruises, and screaming flashed behind her eyes and rang in her ears.
Paul’s face took the forefront in her mind, and she snapped her eyes open. She was free from him, free from the verbal, emotional, and physical abuse she suffered at his hands on a daily basis.
He would not continue to dictate her life, to control the very air she breathed. She would accept the generosity of these men and then leave. Was she that fucked up in the head that she sought some kind of connection between the first men she came across after leaving Paul?
She was a damaged woman who needed to disappear from the world. What she didn’t need was to be attracted to the men who were helping a ruined woman.
She sat on the edge of the bed and breathed out roughly. She could leave right now, but how in the hell could she do that with no car?
She couldn’t even walk without limping and tightening her hands into fists because of the pain. She doubted Deacon even grabbed any of her belongings. She had no money, no clothes, and no transportation. Spearing her hands in her hair, she tugged lightly and groaned.
Her life just went from bad to really fucked up.
Chapter
Five
Thayer heard her bedroom door shut and sagged against the couch. “Shit.”
He rubbed his hand over his jaw, his eyes trained on the darkened hallway she just disappeared down. He didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but he had never felt the kind of connection with a woman as he did with her.
Hell, she was hurt and scared, and here he was thinking all kinds of inappropriate things.