Chapter Six
He took herto his apartment, over her protests, which he ignored. “Why are you so bent out of shape?”
“Because I’m embarrassed. I feel like a fool.”
“Why? You tripped. It’s not a big deal.”
“You aren’t the one who fell flat on your face. I’m not usually so clumsy.”
“Would it make you feel better if I tell you about some of my accidents?”
She shot him a sideways glance. “Maybe.”
He actually had several things he could talk about. But he chose to tell her about the first time he met Wanda, the flight nurse he’d worked with before her. “The new flight nurse was supposed to be at the hospital late one afternoon. I’d heard she was a stickler. A no-nonsense hard-ass. I was playing catch with a friend out in the parking lot. I went back for a long pass and didn’t see the woman standing in my way. I creamed her. Both of us went down, but luckily I managed to grab her so she landed on top of me. Thank God she wasn’t badly hurt. Pissed, but not hurt. She bawled me out for not watching where I was going, playing ball in a parking lot, and being a general ass. I couldn’t do anything except hang my head and apologize. I wasn’t too worried. Figured I’d never see her again.”
“Let me guess. It was your flight nurse.”
“You got it. Wanda Palmer. I had to work my ass off to convince her I was a decent paramedic and not her worst nightmare. Eventually she forgave me. And she was great to work with, after we got used to each other.”
“Okay, that does make me feel a little better.”
“Let me see your hands.”
She grimaced but did it. She didn’t need the help, but he helped her wash her hands with soap anyway. They were scraped but nothing too bad. Then he washed the blood off her face. He saw that although she had a nasty scrape along her cheek and another on her temple, neither was too bad. He covered the injuries with Band-Aids. “There. All good. You didn’t even need Steri-Strips.”
“I could have done it myself, you know.”
“The proper response is thank you. Besides, if you did it yourself, I wouldn’t have gotten to be so close to you.”
She blinked at him. “What?”
He smiled and cupped her cheek. “I like it. Being with you like this makes me think of Las Vegas.”
“Well…stop.”
She looked flustered. It made him smile. “Stop what? Thinking about Vegas?” He shook his head. “Can’t do it.”
“Stop looking at me like you—”
“Like I want to kiss you? Can’t do that either. Because I really want to kiss you. But don’t worry.” God she was tempting. He’d nearly said to hell with it and kissed her. He dropped his hand and stepped away from her, though it was the last thing he wanted. “We made a deal.”
“A deal? What deal?”
“The one where you promised to give me a chance if I stay celibate for another month. Which has now been a little over a week ago. I know we didn’t cover kissing in our agreement, but I thought it was understood.”
“You’re not going to kiss a woman until that time is up.”
“Right. And unfortunately, that includes you. You’re the only woman I want to kiss anyway.”
She didn’t look like she believed him, but it was absolutely true. He had zero interest in anyone but Sierra.
*
Several days afterSierra’s fall, Connor was over at Logan and Cici’s having a beer and trying to work up the courage to ask Cici for a favor. A stupid favor.
Are you really going to ask Cici for help discouraging women?
Yep, he really was. But he wasn’t sure how to go about it. He wished Logan wasn’t there and he could just talk to Cici. He had a feeling his brother was going to be a pain in the ass.
