she wasn’t even going to dwell on her reasoning either.
It was only that he’d looked extra good when he’d come to see her and she’d felt and looked like crapola, and now she wanted him to...well, to think she looked like a fresh piece of sunshine.
“Garrett?” She called his name softly down the hall, her stomach turning leaden at each tentative footstep she took toward his bedroom. She didn’t know what she’d do if she found him in bed with someone. Nothing, probably, but she would definitely cry about it later.
She knew he slept with women. A man like him had his choice of girls all the time. But Garrett had always been discreet about it and he’d never really paraded a lot of women in front of Kate. She couldn’t begin to imagine how much it would hurt if she saw him kissing someone, or lying in bed with someone, or putting his arm around someone....
She paused at his open bedroom door, holding her breath. The drapes were wide open, letting the sun inside. His bedroom was done in different shades of gray and black, the nightstands made of ebony wood with chrome accessories. It was all so manly, she couldn’t imagine any design more fitting to Garrett’s dark good looks.
Something warm flitted through her when she spotted his prone figure on the bed. Her heart almost stopped when she realized he was only wearing a pair of black boxer briefs, the rest of his body covered in his natural golden tan and nothing else. Suddenly he looked very large, very dark and very powerful.
“Garrett?”
He stiffened almost imperceptibly, but Kate couldn’t miss the tensing of the muscles in his back. “I’m going to kill my mother,” he growled into his folded arm.
“She didn’t tell me. Molly did.”
“Then I’m going to kill Julian.”
He rolled to his side and pulled the satiny gray bedspread up to his waist.
It was hard not to notice how beautiful his muscled torso was, and how sexy he looked with his dark hair all rumpled.
It was also hard not to notice his scowl.
Kate bit back a smile and stepped in with her arms up in feigned innocence. “Me. Come. In. Peace. Bring food. For. Grumpy. Man. May I pass?”
“Freckles, get away or you will get strep again.”
“I will not.”
“Get out of here, Katie.”
She shook her head. “Katie. No. Understand. What. Grumpy. Man. Says.”
“Grumpy man says leave,” Garrett said, but all of Kate’s maternal instincts had flared to life with just one look at him, and she couldn’t suppress the need to coddle this man like she had when they were younger and she’d helped Eleanor take care of him.
She kicked off her shoes, and before thinking about it, jumped onto the bed next to him, taking care not to touch any part of his body. “You’re not the only bed crasher, you know. I have full authority to crash your bed now that you’ve crashed mine twice.”
He sighed and closed his eyes, banging his head on the headboard. “Get out of my bed.”
“Not until you let me feed you. Starve the virus, feed the fever? Sound familiar? My part-time doc told it to me.”
“Docs are renowned for failing to take their own advice.”
“This one is special. Hey, have they medicated you?”
“I’m already drugged as hell. I don’t want to eat, Freckles. Just get out of here.”
Now Kate scowled, too.
“Garrett, why won’t you look at me? Are you in pain? You look like you are.”
“Yeah, I’m in pain.”
“What is it? Is it your head?” She felt his forehead and he was definitely hot. And she noticed he’d stiffened.
“Don’t,” he murmured, seizing her wrist and returning her hand to her lap.
Eyes widening at the lines of agony carved in his face, she curled her fingers into her palm because they tingled after his touch.
He inhaled long and deep before his lids finally lifted open, and her heart melted when he looked at her with that dark, tired gaze. His glassy look killed her, but something there, something she couldn’t decipher, made her stomach constrict. His pupils were fully dilated and his eyes held a strange awareness.
“Please just leave,” he said, and there was something very desperate in his voice that almost made her hesitate.
“Come here, Garrett.” She slid closer until her back was against the gray suede headboard, and she urged his dark head to rest against her chest and ran her fingers through his hair. “If you don’t want to eat, just let me keep you company.”
He groaned on contact, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Kate, I don’t have the energy to do this with you today.”
“This what? I’m not planning to fight you.”
“This... Damn.” He made another deep noise when she lightly massaged his scalp. As her fingers twined in his hair and he pressed closer and tightened his hold around her, her body experienced all sorts of chemical reactions. He was adorable. She wanted to hug him. To tuck him into her suitcase and take him with her.
Crazy girl. The point was to get away from him, wasn’t it?
She continued caressing his hair until he relaxed against her, and her body also turned mushy. When his voice reached her ears minutes later, she started, for she’d almost been falling asleep with him.
“You used to bring me soup when I was sick.” He spoke in a murmur against her chest, and his warm breath slipped seductively into her cleavage. “I liked getting sick because of you.”
She laughed. “You’re a very troubled man, Garrett.”
“I was a very troubled young boy.”
He angled his face so he could peer up at her, then raised his hand and absently ran his thumb down the bridge of her nose. “And you? You weren’t Little Miss Perfect. When you heard the thunder and lightning and that huge storm one night, you lost your marbles completely. Do you remember?”
She dropped her hands as he sat up.
“I’m not sure, since I lose my marbles with all the storms.”
“The one that made both you girls run into the boys’ room. Before we knew it, Molly had jumped into Julian’s bed and you were in mine. But Jules tried to hide her under the covers, and you and I immediately went all around the house looking for Molly, thinking she was somewhere else.”
“Okay. Now I remember.”
He sat back with his temple propped against the headboard, his eyes suddenly warm with the memory. “You and I ended up splitting up to find Molly, and I found you asleep in the living room after I found
