physically try to take it from her now. Even though he ached to. Very much.
‘Cute,’ he growled, his frustration coming over loud and clear.
She smiled serenely. ‘Someone has to save you from yourself.’
‘I don’t need saving,’ he ground out, folding his arms.
‘I beg to differ. I know you, Caleb; you’ll work all night tonight to make up for the time you lost in the hospital.’
He frowned. ‘How would you know that?’
‘Because you regularly worked through the night when we were at university to make up for any time you lost.’
‘That sounds like me,’ he said slowly, as the unsettling feeling of not remembering his university days bit at his nerves again.
‘So I’m staging an intervention. Again.’
‘Again? What else have you kept so close to your chest from me?’ he asked, raising a suggestive eyebrow.
Her jaw appeared to tighten and she frowned. ‘I mean it’s not the only time I’ve had to point out that you work too hard, that’s all,’ she said, looking a little uncomfortable now.
Despite the fact he could probably have held both of her wrists in one hand and easily retrieved his phone, he could tell from the steely look in her eyes that she wouldn’t tolerate such behaviour.
Frustration pinched at him. He was going to have to let her win this one.
‘Right, well, now that’s settled I’ll leave you to get dressed,’ Elena said, her mouth twitching at the corner with what looked like suppressed amusement.
She was enjoying ordering him around. Damn her.
As soon as she’d walked away he strode to the door and swung it shut with a little more force than was entirely necessary.
Okay, so he was grateful to her for helping him get out of the hospital, but he had the unsettling feeling he would have been better off staying there if this was the kind of treatment he was going to have to put up with for the next couple of days.
* * *
Elena walked out of the room with blood rushing loudly in her ears. She couldn’t quite believe she’d just hidden his phone down her top, but it had been obvious he wasn’t going to allow himself to rest if she didn’t force him to. After an accident like this he needed time to recover and heal. Especially as it appeared his memory still hadn’t fully returned—even though he was clearly trying to brush that tiny detail under the carpet.
She was painfully aware that she’d know the moment it all came back to him because she’d probably find herself out on her ear.
Though hopefully that wouldn’t happen any time soon.
The phone pressed uncomfortably against her breastbone as she walked away from him and as soon as she reached one of the spare bedrooms she removed it and stuffed it under the mattress at the side of the bed she always slept on. If he came into the room to look for it while she was asleep—just the thought of that gave her the jitters—he’d have to lift both her and the mattress up in order to get to it.
Not that she believed for a second he’d actually do that. He was too proud. She had wondered for one panicked moment earlier though whether he’d ignore her insistence that he took the evening off work and stuff his hand down her blouse to grab his phone, but luckily decorum had prevailed. She gave a little shiver. That would have been altogether too much to handle. She’d already been struggling to hold it together in his half-dressed, badly bruised presence, and his touching her like that would have tipped her right over the edge. Into what, she wasn’t quite sure. But it was definitely better not to find out.
Flopping back onto the bed, she ran her hand over her eyes, which felt gritty and sore with tiredness. She was exhausted now after all the stress of the day, not to mention the tension she was carrying around with her, worrying about her staff and the fate of her business.
There was a loud rap at the door and she sat up quickly, smoothing her hair away from her face, not wanting Caleb to see any kind of chink in her armour.
He strode into the room, thankfully dressed now in a pair of faded jeans and a casual shirt, which fitted him so well she suspected they must have cost a fortune, despite their lived-in appearance.
‘Will you be okay sleeping in here?’ he asked, his eyes scanning the room as if checking for anything that might be wrong with it.
‘Yes, thanks, I’ll be fine.’
‘Okay, well, if you’re not going to give me my phone back I’m going to watch TV in the living room for a few minutes, then go to bed. You’re welcome to join me—’ he shot her a wicked grin ‘—watching television, I mean.’
‘Er...no, thank you. I have a bit of work to catch up on, so I’ll stay in here so I don’t disturb you,’ she said, giving him a strained smile back and trying to ignore the warmth blooming between her thighs at the mere suggestion of sharing his bed. The most disconcerting thing was that she wasn’t entirely sure whether he was genuinely flirting with her, or just teasing her to get his own back for her phone-hiding stunt.
She guessed the latter, knowing from experience how much he struggled with not being fully in control of every situation.
‘How’s your head now?’ she asked, keeping her hands folded in her lap so he wouldn’t see how nervous she was having him loom over her while she sat on the bed.
‘It’s fine. I have a low-level headache but pieces of my memory seem to be coming back now.’ He looked away from her as a strained expression flitted over his face, proving to her that she’d been right about him trying to hide how unsettled he really felt about it.
She wanted to reach out to him, to somehow soothe away his worry with her touch, but she was acutely aware that it would be entirely inappropriate considering their former relationship.
‘I’m sure it’ll all come back soon, perhaps after a good rest.’
He nodded, his expression now coolly nonchalant. ‘I hope you’ll be comfortable in here,’ he said brusquely. ‘There are some T-shirts in there if you want something to sleep in,’ he added, waving towards a wardrobe on the other side of the room.
‘Thank you,’ she said, touched that he was concerned about her comfort. ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’ she blurted as he began to turn away from her.
His slow, loaded grin made her insides swoop but she ignored the feeling, continuing to look at him steadily until he shook his head.
‘Nothing, Elena. I’m fine. I’ll see you in the morning.’ And, with that, he turned on the spot and exited the room, leaving his tantalising, clean scent hanging in the air behind him.
Flopping back onto the bed again, she took a deep calming breath, willing her heartbeat to slow down. It was so unnerving, being here in Caleb’s house as a guest. She almost didn’t want to go to sleep in case she woke up to find him back to the beast of a man she’d encountered this morning in his meeting room.
She’d enjoyed seeing the small flashes
