A Love Beyond Words

Allie waited, and eventually he met her gaze.

“What will you do?” he asked.

“Stay here a day or two longer, I imagine. Then the insurance company will no doubt insist the hospital kick me out no matter what. Or I suppose they could send me to an intermediate treatment center of some kind for rehab if the insurance would cover it.”

“A nursing home? At your age?”

“There aren’t a lot of options,” Allie said. “Besides, I don’t think it will come to that. I’m getting stronger every minute.”

“I saw you limping when I came in here. You’re probably not even supposed to be on your feet, are you?”

The doctors had insisted on a few days of bed rest for her ankle and knee, but she didn’t have the luxury of waiting. She had to prove she was capable of managing on her own. “It’s nothing,” she insisted.

“I could ask your doctors about that,” he challenged. “Would they agree?”

She frowned at him. “Really, you don’t need to worry about it. You did your job. I’ll manage.”

“Allie—”

“Really,” she said, cutting off his protest. “It’s not your concern. The social worker is looking into some possibilities.”

“I can just imagine,” he said dryly. He stood up, then moved to the window to stare outside as if something out there fascinated him.

Allie used the time to study him. Even if he hadn’t been the one to rescue her and carry her out of the rubble, she would have recognized his strength. He was slender, but the muscles in his arms, legs and shoulders were unmistakable in the snug-fitting jeans and T-shirt he wore.

More important, there was strength of character in that handsome face.

As she watched, it was evident that he was mentally struggling with himself over something. She didn’t doubt that it had to do with her. He seemed to be feeling some misplaced sense of responsibility for her predicament and nothing she’d said thus far seemed to have lessened it.

Finally he faced her and spoke very deliberately. “I have a solution.”

“To what?”

“Your situation,” he said with a touch of impatience.

“Which is?”

“You need a place to stay.”

She told him the same thing she’d said to Jane earlier and to him repeatedly. “It’s not your problem. I’ll work it out.”

“I’m sure you will, eventually, but you’d like to get out of here now, right?”

She couldn’t deny it. “Of course.”

“Okay, then. You could come home with me.”

She wasn’t sure which of them was more startled by the invitation. He looked as if he wanted to retract it the instant the words left his mouth. If she wouldn’t impose on her friends, she surely wasn’t about to impose on this man whose duty to her had ended when he saved her life.

“That’s very kind of you, but—” she began, intending to reassure him.

“It’s not like I’m there a lot,” he said hurriedly, cutting off her automatic protest. “But I’d be there enough to satisfy the doctors, and it would be a roof over your head till you figure out what you want to do.”

Before she could follow her first instinct and turn him down, he seemed to reach some sort of decision. His chin set stubbornly.

“I’m not taking no for an answer,” he said, then headed for the door. “I’ll speak to your doctors.”

She launched herself off the bed and managed to get between him and the door. Her ankle throbbed with the effort. “You will not,” she declared, trying not to wince at the pain. “I have no intention of being a burden on anybody, much less on someone I barely know.”

“I don’t think you have a choice,” he said, his gaze unwavering.

“Of course there are choices,” she insisted, even if most of them were impractical or unpalatable to someone who treasured her independence and didn’t want to lose it even temporarily.

“Give me one.”

“I’ll go to a motel and hire a nurse,” she said at once, grabbing at the first idea that came to her.

“Why waste that kind of money, when you can come with me? Do you have money to burn?”

“My homeowner’s insurance will pay for the motel, and my medical coverage will pay for the nurse,” she said triumphantly, praying it was true.

“And where will you find this motel room?” he asked.

“Miami’s a tourist destination. There are hundreds of hotel rooms.”

“And most of them are either packed with tourists willing to pay two or three hundred dollars a night or are filled up with insurance adjusters, fly-by-night contractors who’ve swarmed down here hoping to make a quick killing doing repairs or people just like you who’ve been displaced by the hurricane and who got there first.”

Allie sighed. He was probably right. “Then I’ll go into a treatment center. How bad can it be? I’ll only be there a few days.”

Ricky shrugged. “If that’s what you want,” he said mildly. “Institutional food. Antiseptic smells. A hard hospital bed. If you prefer that to my comfortable guest room and my mother’s home-cooked meals, which I’m sure she’ll insist on bringing over, then go for it.”

He wasn’t playing fair. This room was already closing in on her. She doubted a change to another medical facility would be an improvement. And she’d definitely had her fill of bland, tasteless meals. Cuban food was her very favorite. Her mouth watered just thinking about sweet, fried plantains.

But could she move in with a man who was virtually a stranger? Especially one who stirred her hormones in an extremely disconcerting way?

As if he sensed that she was wavering, he gave her an irrepressible grin. “I won’t even try to seduce you, if that’s what’s on your mind.”

“Of course that’s not on my mind,” she protested a little too vehemently, even as a guilty flush crept up her cheeks. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

His grin spread. “If you say so, mi amiga.”

Friend? she translated derisively. That’s all she was to him? For a man she’d barely met forty-eight hours ago, it was actually quite a lot, but for reasons she probably shouldn’t explore too closely, she found it vaguely insulting.

As if to contradict his own words, he lifted his hand and caressed her cheek, allowing his thumb to skim lightly, but all too sensually across her lips.

“Come on, Allie. A few days. It’s a way out of here. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

She swallowed hard. More than anything, she thought. More than anything, she wanted not just out of the hospital, but to go home with Enrique Wilder. The powerful yearning terrified her.