Just Add Heat

Table of Contents

Just
Add Heat

A
Peek
Into
the Mind of

Carter Ross

Chapter One

“Juss, wake up.” I
stiffened as I tried to pry my eyes open, a difficult task since they felt like
they were glued together. A moment later something touched my face and it
didn’t feel like a
Chihuahua
tongue.

“Baby, come on.” Crap.
There was a man beside me. Or maybe I was still dreaming?

I managed to open my
eyelids a crack. Green eyes were peering down at me.
This can’t be good.

“What are you doing?” I
managed to croak. I couldn’t believe how dry my mouth was.

“It’s been two hours. How
are you feeling?” He started to stroke my arm. Holy crap. What did I
do
last night?

“Two hours? What’s going
on?” I was able to open my eyes a bit more to see my best friend Cheryl’s
brother leaning over me. Her very hot, younger brother. Unfortunately, his
hotness didn’t make it any less icky.

“Don’t you remember what
happened?” His face creased into a frown.

“Uh, not really. Did we
go out drinking?” Drinking seemed like the only reasonable answer.

“No. You slipped getting
out of the shower and hit your head on the toilet. You wouldn’t go to the
hospital so Dad told me to keep an eye on you.”

“Where is Cheryl?” And
why wasn’t
she
with me right now?

“At home. Do you want me
to call her?”

What the heck was Carter
doing here alone? Why would I be showering while he was here? My stomach
started a slow roll. Something wasn’t adding up.

“Do you want some water?”
He reached over me to the night table and grabbed a glass half filled with
water and some mostly melted ice cubes.

“Thanks.” I took the
glass and gulped a huge swallow. My mouth now felt better but I was still
confused.

“Does your head hurt at
all?”

“Um, I don’t mean to be
rude, but why are you here?”

“Where else am I supposed
to be?”

I looked around the room
and recognized the furniture, my furniture. We weren’t at Carter’s apartment,
this was my room.

“Carter, this is
my
house. I think it’s time you left.”

He stared at me and then
his eyes widened. “Do you know your name?”

“Justine, duh. What’s
your problem?” I was getting a little uncomfortable now; something might be
wrong with Carter. “How did you get in here?”

“I’m going to call Dad,
just hang on a sec.” He rolled over to the other side of the bed and picked up
a phone.

“What do you think you’re
doing?” I hissed as I grabbed for it. “Don’t call your dad. How do you think
you’re going to explain being here?”

He held the phone out of
my reach and scooted to the edge of the bed. “Just calm down, don’t get
overexcited, my dad will know what to do.” He sounded freaked out, and I was
starting to feel the same way.

“Hey Dad, sorry to call
so late, but something’s wrong with Juss. She doesn’t remember hitting her head
and she asked me what I was doing in her house. No, she hasn’t mentioned that,
hold on.” He turned back to me. “Are you having any trouble with your vision?”

I shook my head feeling
mortified. Carter was telling Cheryl’s dad he was at my house at…I looked at
the bedside clock, 3:34! What was he doing here in the middle of the night? My
heart started pounding. Something wasn’t right. That wasn’t my bedside clock.
My clock had bright blue illumination so I could easily see it. This clock was
round and old timey looking. Like the ones my mom used to have. What the hell
was going on?

“Okay, yeah, I’m going to
bring her right now. Thanks.” He looked serious.

“Dad said we should go
down to the hospital. It sounds like you might have a concussion.”

“I don’t have a
concussion. My head doesn’t even hurt.” I put my hand up to my head and felt
around. “See? I’m fine.” Right about then I hit a tender spot on my right
temple. “Ahhg.” A searing pain shot through my head followed by a low throb. I
slouched back down onto my pillows.

“Come on, sweetie; let’s
get you down there so they can check you out.”

I noticed he’d called me
sweetie, but I let that slide since I had a bigger issue on my hands. “I am not
going to the hospital, I just need some Tylenol and I’ll be just fine,” I
panted. My ears started buzzing, a sure sign that a panic attack was coming on.
I couldn’t think. Suddenly I felt hands on my upper arms and then Carter’s face
was directly in front of me.

“Just breathe. It’s okay,
everything will be all right. Calm down.” I knew I was about to lose it and
right at this moment I was glad Carter was with me. The only problem was that
he was the reason I was panicking. “I’m going to get you a cold towel. Hang
on.” He got up off of the bed and bolted out of the room. Seconds later he was
back, holding the towel to the back of my neck.

“Okay, I’m cool.” I
wasn’t, but it felt better to tell him I had control of myself.

“I’m serious; we have to
get to the hospital.” He reached down then held out a pair of grubby runners.

“Those aren’t mine.”

He looked down at them
and then at me. “Yes they are. You don’t remember your shoes?”

I stared at them. I had
never seen these shoes in my life. Had someone gotten in and somehow traded out
my shoes? And my clock? That didn’t even make sense.

“Come on, we have to go.”
He bent down and scooped me up bridal style. “You can put them on while I drive.”
He carried me out to the living room and grabbed some keys off of the table in
the entryway. He managed to open the door, walk out, and lock up while never
putting me down. The beep of a car alarm made me jump as Carter stalked over to
a black truck. He popped open the door and set me in the passenger seat while I
sat there like a dead fish, too freaked out to even fight what was happening. A
moment later he sat down in the driver’s seat before leaning over to fasten my
seatbelt.

“It’ll be okay, Juss.” He
gave my hand a squeeze and I fought the urge to pull away. It hurt if I tried
to think too hard, so I just stared out the front window and tried to stay
calm. In no time we were pulling up to the hospital. I’d never been to a
hospital in the middle of the night before. It was lit up and shadowed, with
hardly any cars in the parking lot. Surreal.

Carter pulled into a spot
close to the entrance of the ER, picked me up again and closed the door with
his hip. Before I realized it, we were in the building and facing a
mean-looking nurse in a room half-filled with dejected looking people.
"Excuse me; I have a head injury here.”

“Okay, fill these out and
I’ll we’ll be right with you.” She handed Carter a clipboard with a pen on a
chain. “I’ll go get a chair.” She turned and walked away as I sat there with my
hands wrapped around Carter’s neck. It was almost like all of this was
happening to someone else.

He found a seat in the middle
of the room, leaving me on his lap. He moved the clipboard to his left hand and
started filling out the forms while I watched idly. He had beautiful hands. And
beautiful fingers. Hmm. This was the shiniest floor ever.
I wonder what they use on it?
Suddenly, the nurse was in front of
me with a wheelchair.

“Let’s get you in here
and see what’s what.” The nurse had a kind voice that didn’t match her face.

As he set me in the chair
I heard a familiar voice. “Justine, how are you feeling?” I looked over to see
Cheryl’s dad, Robert. I felt a strange sense of calm mixed with dread because
he had a concerned look on his face. Luckily, Cheryl’s dad was an Ob/Gyn, and I
knew he was often at the hospital at odd hours. It made me feel a lot better to
have someone I knew here. “Well, okay I guess. Carter woke me up, then he
called you.” I was too embarrassed to tell Robert that Carter was in my bed. He
might think we had sex or something. “I’m sorry he dragged you down here. I
really don’t know what’s going on with him.”

“Don’t worry about that.
I had a delivery to attend to a couple of hours ago. I’m glad Carter caught me
before I left. Let’s go into the exam room so we can check things out.” He
turned and walked to a room right off of the lobby. I started rolling that way
and turned to see Carter was pushing me. Strangely, I had gotten over my
earlier panic and now I was freakishly accepting of Carter being with me.

“Justine, why don’t you
sit up here on the table and let me get a look at you until an ER doctor is
free.”

Carter helped me up onto
a table covered with crinkly paper. I scooted up so that my legs were dangling
off the side. Robert picked something up and pointed it at my face. A second
later a blinding light pierced my eyeball.

“Ow. That’s too bright.”
He moved to the other eye with similar results. After that, everything was a
blur. I know I was x-rayed and prodded, but I really wasn’t paying much
attention. I was so drowsy. All I wanted was to go back to sleep.

The next thing I knew, I
was opening my eyes to a hospital room. I felt a whole lot better than I had
when I had fallen asleep. To my right, Carter was slumped on a chair. Why was
he still here? I needed to call Cheryl. Why wasn’t she here with me? I sat up
looking for my purse. I needed my phone but it wasn’t anywhere I could see.

“Can I get you
something?” Carter’s voice made me jerk my head in his direction.

“I really need my phone.
I want to call Cheryl.”

“I’m sorry; I left your
bag at home. I already called Cheryl, though. She’ll be here a little later. Do
you want to use mine?”

“Carter, why are you
here? Why were you at my house in the middle of the night? God, I don’t even
remember last night.” Thinking about that stirred my feelings of anxiety and I
realized something was very wrong.

“I love you, where else
would I be? Obviously, I’ll stay until we find out you’re all right.”

He loves me?
Okay, now I was sure something was wrong. Cheryl’s brother
was telling me he loved me. We didn’t have that kind of relationship. Cheryl
was more like a sister to me than a friend, and I guess you could call the
feelings I had for Carter brotherly, but this was just weird.

“Carter, you’re freaking
me out. Don’t tell me you love me. That’s just weird. Why were you at my house
last night?” Maybe something was wrong with
Carter
.
Yeah, that would make more sense.

“What are you talking about?
Of course I love you. We live together.” He had gotten up to stand by me and
took my hand off of the bed. I couldn’t help it, I jerked it away.

I could see the shock and
hurt in Carter’s eyes but I didn’t care. “Don’t say that. We don’t live
together. Are you crazy? You. Don’t. Live. With. Me.” I enunciated each word
clearly so that he could understand.