style="font-size:15px;"> He shook his head, then winced and touched the bandage. “You don’t have to stick around for me. Besides, I’m not flying home.”
“Why not?”
He pointed to his bandaged ear. “Until the swelling goes down, I’m not allowed in the air. Something about pressure and elevation.”
She glanced at his injured leg. “So how will you get there?”
“Drive.”
“How?”
“I’ll wait until I’m well enough.”
Haley didn’t know that much about gunshot wounds, but she didn’t think they healed all that quickly. Not when the bullet had gone all the way through his leg.
A thought occurred to her. It wasn’t as if she had an appointment or anything. Driving was driving. So what if she got to California a few days late? She could offer to take him home.
She glanced at him, then away. Maybe that wasn’t a good idea. Kevin had been really nice and everything, but he obviously didn’t find her attractive. Would he want to spend that much time in her company? Still, she owed him. She should at least offer. It was the right thing to do.
What she refused to acknowledge, even to herself, was the sense that she didn’t want to say goodbye. There was something about being around him that made her feel good about herself.
“I’ve taken several first-aid classes,” she said cautiously. “We offer them at the church and in the past couple of years, I’ve been teaching them. So I have some basic first-aid knowledge.”
He watched her without speaking. Haley cleared her throat.
“My point is, I could probably change your bandage.”
“Thanks, but if I can’t do it myself, I’ll just make my way to the hospital.”
“I didn’t mean I would stay here. I was offering to drive you home.”
It seemed that he was still inviting trouble into his life, Kevin thought as Haley spoke. She detailed all the reasons it made sense for her to help him, concluding with, “I owe you for last night. For not, um, well, taking advantage of me.”
The last couple of words came out as a mumble. She ducked her head and he could barely make out what she was saying. Still, it was enough for him to remember helping her back to her room. Even drunk and practically incoherent, she’d been appealing. Too appealing.
There was no way he could spend that much time with her. Shot or not, even with his head pounding, even with her in another hideous floral-print dress that looked more like a tent than a fashion statement, he wanted her. Yup, right here under the scratchy sheet, with the painkiller coursing through his veins, his groin throbbed with an ache that had nothing to do with recent injuries.
Spending time with Haley, even the day or two it would take to get to Possum Landing, would be a level of torture he didn’t deserve.
She was too sweet, too innocent, too…everything. She deserved way more than the likes of him.
“I don’t want to hold you up,” he said, trying to sound gentle instead of horny. “Don’t you have an island to drive to?”
She smiled slightly. “I already told you, I know I can’t drive to Hawaii.”
She looked at him. Despite being a grown woman, she obviously didn’t know how to conceal what she was thinking. He could see every thought flashing through her big eyes. Hope, fear, excitement. He made her nervous, but he could see she still wanted him to say yes. For reasons that weren’t clear to him, she wanted to spend time in his company.
Why? Did she see him as some knight who had come to her rescue?
“I’m not one of the good guys,” he told her, angry at her for thinking the best of him and angry at himself for caring.
She frowned. “Of course you are. You’re a U.S. Marshal. And last night—”
“Just forget about that. It doesn’t count.”
“It does to me.”
Trouble, he thought again. She was trouble, he was in trouble and damn if it wasn’t going to get worse.
He shouldn’t say yes, but he couldn’t say no. Somehow he’d been trapped.
Last night, she’d wanted him to kiss her. If she hadn’t been drunk, he would have obliged. Then what would have happened? Stupid question. He already knew the answer.
If he wasn’t strong enough to turn down her offer to drive him home, how was he going to resist anything else she might choose to throw his way?
“Be careful what you wish for,” he told her. “You just might get it. And then where will you be?”
Haley blinked at him. “Was that a yes?”
He was slime. Actually, he was the single-celled creatures that aspired to be slime. He was going to hell for sure.
“Yes.”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
