Seduction, Cowboy Style

“It’s not that.” She looked up at him earnestly. “I just don’t want her to wake up alone without a friend. That girl looked like she could use a friend.”

With her face tipped up, those wide eyes so serious, she was all but irresistible. His gaze slid down to her mouth, noting the parted lips, the nervous habit she had of nibbling on the bottom one when something was upsetting her as it had been today.

She was Cal McCall’s sister, he told himself. He shouldn’t be talking to her, much less touching her.

Why not? whispered a little voice inside. He took your sister. It would be the perfect revenge.

Right. Like getting cozy with Silver Jenssen could make up for what he’d lost. No one in the world would ever understand. Part of himself had died, too, when Genie had died. A part that could never be regained or replaced.

“Deck?”

He focused on the present again, and there she stood, those beautiful eyes with their dark-rimmed irises looking at him with concern. What the hell—he had to have just one little taste.

“Are you all right?” She spoke again.

He cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Except that I’m holding the prettiest woman in town in my arms and I haven’t kissed her yet.”

Surprise flared in her eyes. Then, before he could lower his head, she stepped backward out from under his hands. “I wish that ambulance would get here.”

The minute she finished the sentence a door banged down the hall and heavy footsteps moved rapidly in their direction. Deck stepped away from Silver and looked out the window.

He hadn’t expected her to rebuff his advance. True, she barely knew him, but he could say without false modesty that he’d kissed a whole lot of women who’d spent even less time with him. He didn’t often make the effort to pursue, because he didn’t need to. He guessed that in this case he might have to make that effort. The primitive hunter within him stirred and woke. Oh, yes, he’d definitely have to make the effort.

Sev Andressen came into the room, a white hospital-style coat over his jeans and shirt. “She’s still unconscious,” he reported. “The ambulance is coming in right now.”

“I’m going along with her,” Silver said. “I won’t be able to give them much, but I’ll explain it.”

“Wait a minute,” said Deck. “You can’t do that.”

Silver raised one eyebrow as she turned to look at him. “Why not?”

“Because…because…” He was floundering and he knew it. “You don’t have transportation.”

“She can ride along,” said Sev. Then he turned as the scream of the approaching ambulance became audible. “We’d better get ready. These guys don’t fool around.”

The next few minutes were a blur of activity. The medical technicians rushed in with a gurney, and the patient was transferred to it. Then Deck and Sev helped the two men carry the gurney back to the ambulance and load it. Silver followed them and when the cot was safely installed, the technicians scrambled in and one extended a hand to her.

Silver stepped forward, but before she could climb in, Deck stopped her with a hand on her arm. “I’ll come to the hospital tonight.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“You need a way home,” he told her. Was he crazy to be pushing this?

She tossed him an impatient glance. “I can rent a car.”

He shook his head, ducking it as a gust of spring wind threatened to unseat his hat. “I’ll be there tonight.”

“Ready?” The driver turned and gestured at Silver to hurry. “Let’s get moving.”

Without giving Deck another glance, Silver pulled herself into the ambulance and the technician slammed the doors. But as the vehicle began to pick up speed, Silver turned to the window. She met his gaze, unsmiling, but she wiggled her fingers at him in farewell.

As hospital furniture went, this wasn’t so bad.

Silver pulled up the footrest on the reclining lounger and propped her feet on its cushion, idly flipping the channels on the wall-mounted television with the remote. In the bed beside her chair Lyn Hamill, her unexpected guest from early this morning, lay quietly. She had yet to move or speak.

It was ten minutes before eight in the evening, and visiting hours would be over shortly. Maybe Deck had had second thoughts about his promise after he thought about the way she’d rejected his flirtation at the clinic.

He’d looked so disappointed when she’d backed away from him. She knew just how he’d felt. A part of her longed to lift herself on tiptoe and press her mouth to his, to trace the stern line of his lips and touch her tongue to the small cleft that divided his squared-off chin. A shiver worked its way down her spine at the notion, coming to rest deep in her abdomen where it throbbed restlessly. She shifted in the chair.

Stop it, girl. You came out here to get away from man trouble, not find it! Amen to that, she thought, giving in to a huge yawn.

And then “man trouble” walked through the door. Hastily she stifled the yawn and lowered the footrest on the chair as Deck hesitated in the entrance.

“Hello,” she said. “I was beginning to think you took me seriously.”

His face seemed pale beneath the artificial light and he was sweating slightly. As he removed his hat, he swiped a hand across his forehead before resettling the hat in its place. “I told you I’d take you home,” he reminded her.

She didn’t know what to say to that, so she focused instead on the huge vase of fresh wildflowers he carried in one big hand. “Those are beautiful. What a thoughtful idea.” He extended the vase and she took it from him, turning to carry it to the single windowsill. “This room needed something to brighten it up.”

“Looks like you beat me to that.” He glanced around at the helium-filled balloons she had tied in two bunches, one to the wardrobe door handle and the other to the foot rail of the sturdy hospital bed.

She shrugged as she dipped a finger in the vase to check the water level. “I figured it might help if she woke up to something cheerful.”

He nodded, then swiped his hand down the side of his face. “Are you ready to go now?”

“I suppose.” She hesitated. “I thought about staying overnight in case she woke up, but the doctors don’t have any idea how long this state might last. Could be hours, could be days.” Could be forever. “And I have animals to feed.”

“Your brother has stock already?” Deck sounded surprised. “And no help?”

“We don’t need help yet,” she said. “All that’s on the ranch right now are two dogs, a mother cat and kittens and one cantankerous she-goat left by the previous owner.”

She moved around the room, straightening the chair and lying the television remote and a pitcher of water beside a full glass on the rolling tray which she parked within reach at the bedside should Lyn awake. She checked to be sure the nurses’ call button was within plain sight and finally took her purse from the wardrobe, empty except for the tattered remnants of clothing the girl had been wearing. She had a list of Lyn’s clothing sizes in her purse now. “I’m ready.”

She took Lyn’s hand again one more time before letting Deck escort her from the room. “I’m going home for the night,” she told the unresponsive girl, “but I’ll come back. You just rest and get well.”

Deck didn’t speak as they took the elevator down and traipsed through the corridors to the main entrance where he’d parked. In the parking lot she recognized his truck immediately.

One thing she could say, she thought as he opened her door and offered her a hand, the man had good manners. She was feminine enough to enjoy and be grateful for the small courtesies that a former generation would have taken for granted.

“Have you eaten?” It was the first thing he said as he drove away from the medical building.

“Um, I had some crackers earlier, and I ate a little of the lunch they brought to Lyn’s room.” She made a face. “I’d forgotten how bad hospital food is.”

He glanced across at her. “You’ve been hospitalized before?”

“No.” She shook her head and laughed. “I’m healthy as a horse. My mother had some minor surgery last year, so I had the chance to enjoy hospital cuisine then.”

He nodded. End of conversation.