Authors: Samantha Chase
“My ankle,” she said through clenched teeth.
Lucas mildly cursed. It was when he had touched her ankle earlier that Emma had first responded to him. How could he have not paid more attention to that fact? “Okay, let’s get your sock off and take a look at it.” His tone was soothing and as much as Emma appreciated his kindness, she was beyond frustrated with the situation.
It didn’t take long for both of them to notice the swelling. Without a word, Lucas rose and went to the kitchen for another ice pack. “For crying out loud,” Emma mumbled under her breath. “Can I seriously not get a break here?” She flopped back onto the sofa and threw and arm over her eyes. This is what you get for taking some time for yourself, she thought. Maybe this was the universe’s way of telling her that she didn’t deserve to take a vacation.
She sensed Lucas more than she heard him and nearly jumped when the ice pack was gently placed on her ankle. What a sight she must be; large bump on her head, enormous ankle, looking like a drowned rat, no doubt, after coming in from a blizzard. Nope; no chance of this forced time together leading to any kind of seduction. Of that Emma was certain.
Where did that thought
even come from? She wondered.
“I was planning on making some dinner when I first saw your car pulling in. Are you hungry?” he asked.
The truth was that Emma was starving and then realized that there was going to be the final nail in her coffin; eating like she’d been fasting for a month was a sure-fire way to kill any hope of Lucas finding her attractive. Just the image of her eating a steak with her hands almost made her giggle. “Um…sure. I could eat.”
Wasn’t that the understatement of the year? She could eat? Luckily she hadn’t added phrases like
“A whole cow”
or
“Everything in sight!”
If you were going to fail, might as well fail epically, right?
She could hear Lucas moving around in the kitchen and forced herself to sit upright again. Thankfully he wasn’t trying to keep up the small talk and seemed focused on his task. Emma allowed herself to finally look around at Lucas’s home. It was sleek yet rustic. The walls were
made of solid logs, the floors were natural hardwood and the fireplace was massive and made of stone. It was an open floor plan; the living room, dining room and kitchen were one giant space. There looked to be a small hallway off of the kitchen but she couldn’t see what was down there and then there was a doorway next to the fireplace that piqued her curiosity.
Part of that curiosity was fed by the fact that she really had to use the bathroom. “Um, Lucas?” she finally asked. When he simply stopped what he was doing and looked at her expectantly, she cringed with the question she had to ask. “Could you point me in the direction of the bathroom?” Her face was probably twenty-seven shades of red. Ugh…
Rather than telling her, Lucas walked over and helped Emma to her feet. Wrapping an arm around her waist again, he murmured, “Lean into me; try not to put too much weight on that foot.”
Emma was more than willing to lean into Lucas; hell, that had been a long-running fantasy for her for years! Doing exactly as he instructed, they slowly made their way through the doorway next to the fireplace and Emma gasped at the sight.
Lucas’s bedroom.
It was magnificently done in earth tones and the fireplace was open to this room as well. His king sized bed took up one wall and he had a massive overstuffed chair next to it with a matching ottoman. The windows ran floor to ceiling and were separated by French doors that led out to what looked to be an enormous deck.
“You okay?” he asked.
“What? Oh, yes,” she stammered. “I just stepped the wrong way.”
Liar, liar, liar!
There was no way she was going to tell him how much his bedroom suited him or that she was now imagining him sprawled out in that massive bed.
If Lucas had suspected anything else, he kept it to himself and continued moving Emma toward the master bath. This time Emma forced herself to not react. The bathroom was a wonder of stone tile and marble and had many spa-like features. The shower could easily fit four people and the
sunken jetted tub was like a small swimming pool. When she didn’t make to move from his arms, Lucas cleared his throat.
“Oh, thank you. I think I can manage from here,” she said and didn’t dare look at Lucas.
Emma wanted to smack herself in the head.
Manage it from here?
It wouldn’t matter if the floor was covered in broken glass, there was no way she was asking Lucas to help her! As soon as he removed his arm from around her waist she missed it. Taking a small step forward, she was thankful when she heard the door close. Immediately she sank against the double vanity.
And almost let out a scream.
Whatever she was picturing in her mind about her appearance had been far too generous. The bump on her head was a hideous shade of purple and all of her makeup was gone. Her skin was pale and her normally sleek and styled hair was now completely out of control. The curls that she took painful care to straighten were all a riotous mess around her face.
Fabulous.
Just abso-freakin-lutely fabulous.
“I am never taking a vacation again,” she chanted as she hopped across the bathroom to take care of business. By the time she was back in front of the vanity, Emma wished she had her overnight bag with her. At least then she would have been able to fix her face and put her hair up in a ponytail or something.
“Well, it’s not like he ever found you attractive before,” she reminded herself. Doing her best to stay off of her foot, Emma carefully hopped out of the bathroom and was almost back in the living room when Lucas spotted her.
“What the hell?” he said as he stormed toward her. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“It wasn’t necessary.”
“Really?” he asked sarcastically.
“Yes, really.” Her tone was defiant and as if trying to prove her point, Emma put her sore foot firmly on the ground and bit back a curse at the pain that shot up her leg. “I told you before that I don’t need you waiting on me. I’ll be fine.”
Lucas’s face was a portrait of barely concealed rage. He towered over her five foot four frame and he glared down into her now wide blue eyes. “I am not going to keep having this same argument with you tonight, Emma,” he said in a tone so low that it was nearly a growl. “You cannot possibly be this stubborn.”
“Really? You want to lecture me on being stubborn?” she snapped back. “Because let me tell you something, Lucas, you wrote the book on being stubborn!”
He wanted to argue, he really did, but he was too taken aback at her words. Honestly, Lucas couldn’t remember the last time anyone had talked back to him or dared to challenge him. Since his injury people took pity on him or tried to be upbeat and encouraging; this was the first time anyone told him to his face that he had any kind of a problem.
He kind of liked it.
“Well it’s a good thing we’re not talking about me then, isn’t it?”
Now it was Emma’s turn to growl. “Look, I don’t know how it is that I ended up here at your place rather than your folks but I am certainly not an invalid.” Lucas arched one dark eyebrow at her and then pointedly looked at first her head and then her foot. “I’m not intimidated by you, Lucas. I know that right now it all looks bad and I’m not going to lie to you, I feel like I ran into a brick wall.”
“You basically did.”
“But,” she interrupted, “I am a grown woman and can take care of myself. I don’t need you to carry me around or treat me like I’m going to break.”
“Your ankle could be broken,” he reminded.
“Still bringing that sunshine, huh?” she asked and relaxed when Lucas finally smiled again. “I don’t think it’s broken. It hurts but I can put some weight on it.” They were silent for a moment and then Emma looked around or rather, toward the door.
“What’s the matter?”
“Is the snow still coming down?”
“Fraid so. Why?”
Emma chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before answering. “Well, it’s just that, after I got a look at myself in the bathroom mirror, I was just sort of wishing for my overnight bag. My clothes are dry but a little stiff and I would love to be able to change.”
“I hate to disappoint you but right now there is no way that I would venture out there and down that hill to your car
again. That will have to wait until morning.” Lucas knew he was one hundred percent justified in what he was saying but hated the look of utter dejection on Emma’s face. Without another word he walked back into the bedroom and in less than a minute he was back.
“I don’t have anything in your size, obviously,” he began, “but I put o
ut some stuff you can change into and if you want, you can take a shower while I finish making dinner. How does that sound?”
“Heavenly,” she replied with a sigh. “Thank you.”
Lucas stood back and let Emma hop back toward the master suite. It killed him to do it but he wanted her to feel comfortable and to trust in him. If she wanted his help, he would gladly provide it but as of right now, he was smart enough to realize that she was trying very hard to remain independent.
Lucas was a reasonable man. He just wasn’t sure how long he would let her.
As soon as he heard the bathroom door close, he reached for his phone and called his father.
“Lucas! This is a surprise. Twice in one day!” his father’s voice boomed over the phone.
“Well,” Lucas began, “I had a bit of a surprise myself.”
“Really? What’s that?”
“Don’t even try to play innocent here, Dad. I think you know perfectly well what surprise I had.”
William stayed silent because he wasn’t sure what to say. He knew Lucas was not going to be happy about anyone showing up at his place so he waited his son out to see what was coming next.
“What is the matter with you?” Lucas snapped, stepping into the office he kept off of the kitchen just in case Emma stepped out and heard him. “How could you make Emma drive up here in a storm?”
“We didn’t know there was going to be a storm, son,” William began calmly.
“Oh, really? Because thanks to your inconsiderateness, Emma got hurt!”
“What? What happened? Is she okay?”
“No she’s not okay,” Lucas snapped. “She has a damn concussion, I think, and a sprained ankle and her car is in a damn ditch! What is wrong with you? How could you do that to her? What was so damn important that you had to risk her safety?”
Your life,
William wanted to respond but held his tongue. Now was not the time for that argument. For now, he’d have to play the bad guy. “I have no excuse, Lucas. I forgot some paperwork that I wanted to look over and I thought I was helping Emma.”
“How was inconveniencing her helping her, dad?”
“She never takes any time off; I thought if I could at least get her away from the office, I could make sure that she actually did something for herself.”
“Did it ever occur to you that she doesn’t take any time for herself because you don’t let her?”
“Excuse me?” William said, his tone indignant. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you work her too hard. You don’t let her delegate and you treat her as if she is the only one you can trust to do anything.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about! You come in what, once a month? And you think that gives you the right to judge?”
“I call it as I see it,” Lucas said simply.
“You’re crazy.”
“I don’t think so. And all of that is completely not the point. I want to know why it is that she showed up here at my place rather than yours. We don’t live that close to one another that she could have made a wrong turn and miraculously showed up here. Now what gives?”
“I don’t often give out the address to our house; I’m used to sending stuff to you. I guess I just answered automatically with your address when she asked.”
It was a plausible excuse, Lucas knew, but right now the whole situation still seemed bizarre. He was about to say that again to his father when he was interrupted.
“Is she okay? Where’s Emma right now?”
“She’s taking a shower.”
Thank goodness Lucas couldn’t see him because William was grinning from ear to ear. “She must not be too hurt then if she’s off by herself in the shower.”
“I can’t get to her stuff because her car’s down in a ditch and believe me, it wasn’t easy getting both of us up out of the damn ditch with her being unconscious. She just needed to freshen up.”
William hummed his approval. “It’s too dangerous to try and get her to a hospital.”
“I know that, Dad,” Lucas said wearily. “I’ll keep an eye on her overnight. It’s not good to let someone with a concussion sleep too much. Believe me; I know that part well enough.” And right then and there they were both thinking of all of the times Lucas had taken a hard hit while playing football. Lucas had to force himself to not go down that road. “I’ll take care of her, Dad, but this discussion is not over.”