Sleeping With Beauty

“Not tonight anyway. Maybe another time.”

Her words snaked through him. Innocent enough, but they were sulfur to a match that had been stripped for a long time.

His hand tightened on the neck of the beer bottle as he watched her brush a strand of long curly hair away from her face, hair that reflected several shades of red and blond and brown in the blaze of firelight.

Aside from the bruise on her forehead, she really did have the look of an angel about her.

The kind of look a devil like him steered clear of.

He took a pull on his beer, dropped back against the couch and asked, “Are you feeling any better?”

“A little tired. My body aches. But otherwise, not too bad.”

“How about your head? That fall you took was pretty serious.”

She inhaled sharply. “I fell? Where? In the mountains? Why?”

“Take it easy, lady. Look, all I know is that you and my horse scared the bejesus out of each other this morning, that you both ended up injured and that as soon as it’s possible, we’ll get you back to who and where you belong.” He took another swallow of beer. “Now, are you going to tell me how that head of yours is doing?”

“All right,” she said, a soft smile twitching her lips. “The pain’s gone and the head’s still attached.”

“And the memory?”

That smile wavered. “I still don’t remember anything.”

“You will.”

“Well, if you say so, then I’ll believe it.”

It was as though someone had wrapped a tire iron around the stone he used for a heart and squeezed. “Why is that?”

“I don’t know, I just…I feel like I can trust you.”

He shot her a cynical twist of a smile. “You shouldn’t trust anyone.”

Confusion lit her eyes. And right then Dan knew exactly where she’d come from: Innocent Avenue, round the corner from Sheltered Street, in the never-polluted city of Naive. Those kind of people made him crazy. You had to see the world for what it was if you wanted to survive. Didn’t she know that?

Of course she didn’t.

“You hungry?” he asked, hoping to redirect both their attentions.

She nodded eagerly. “But I’d like to wash up first if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind at all. How about a shower?”

Her eyes went wide. “A shower?”

Dan wanted to laugh. Really he did, that is, if he could remember how. “That was just a gentlemanly offer, not a come-on.”

“A come-on?”

“A line. A play to get you naked, wet and soapy.”

Her pretty face glowed with pink embarrassment. “Oh.”

This was getting out of control. This prim-and-proper thing she had going was really getting under his skin, making his body ache like hell. On an irritated grumble, Dan seized her hand, helped her to her feet and led her into the bedroom and over to his closet. After grabbing a few extra-large items that wouldn’t tempt him, he handed them to her. “Here.”

“What are these?”

“Clean clothes.”

“I know that,” she said. “I was just wondering if these were your clothes?”

“Yeah. Gotta problem with that?”

For a moment she just stared at him, then shook her head and said, “Not in the least.”

“Good.” He led her to the bathroom door, beckoned for her to walk past him. And as soon as she did, he followed.

It took her about three seconds to notice him. And when she did, when she turned to look at him, that stubborn chin of hers was tilted up. “Where do you think you’re going, Dan?”

He pointed past her. “In there.”

She blinked. “With me?”

“That’s right.”

“Absolutely not!”

“Listen, lady, as I said before, this isn’t a come-on.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Then what is it exactly?”

He growled irritably and stalked past her, jerked open the navy-blue shower curtain and turned on the hot water. “You have a head injury. I need to be here in case something happens.”

“Something like what?”

“Like you could get dizzy, faint, keel over—”

She shook her head. “I’m feeling much better now. Nothing like that is going to happen.”

He shoved a white towel at her. “That’s what I’m here to make sure of.”

She didn’t move, just stared at him. “Perhaps I’ll take the shower another time.”

Leaning against the wall, he expelled a breath and said, “Oh, for chrissakes, I’m doing you a favor here. Do you really think this is how I want to spend my night? Standing guard outside a shower curtain?”

She shrugged, gripped the towel and clothing closer to her body. Honestly, she had good reason to be suspicious. She didn’t know who he was. Didn’t know who she was.