Blue Maneuver (3 page)

His arm fell away from my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Phone.” I brushed the grass near my bottom. Please God, don’t let it have gotten far. I opened my eyes, glanced down and tasted again the onion bagel I’d eaten two weeks ago. Note to self: stop moving head. And just how was I supposed to search for my phone?

“Is it purple?”

My hero. Relief tumbled through me. How many purple cell phones could there be near me? I caught myself before I nodded. “Yes.”

“Here.” Warm fingers curled around mine.

“Thank you.” Seconds later the sleek casing slipped against my palm. Flipping it open, I raised it to eye level. The screen remained dark. My thumb pressed the volume button. Nothing. “Son of a—”

“You can say it.” Soft chuckles drifted on the pearly dawn. “I’m a big boy. I’ve heard lots of words.”

I resisted the urge to look at him. Barely. He’d have to be damn good looking for me to weather another skullquake. “Monkey’s butt!”

He choked mid-laugh. “Monkey’s butt? Is that even possible?”

Maybe not. But it was better than dropping a dollar I didn’t have into the swear jar. It wasn’t even as satisfying as swearing, but it was part of my new self-improvement regime. I snapped my cell phone closed and groped my leg before shoving the thing into a pocket. “You’d be surprised at the advances made in medical science.”

Or not. I would though. I hated science, medical or otherwise. Still, he didn’t need to know that my language could turn a sailor’s ears red. Just one of the many things I learned, when my parent’s moved to that commune near the oil fields in Oklahoma.

“I’ll take your word for it.” He cupped my chin. Gently but firmly, he turned my face to the pink sunrise. With his features still in shadow, he leaned closer. “Aside from a few cuts and bruises, I don’t think you have any other injures.”

Cuts. Bruises. That sounded quite manageable. It was the gremlins playing bass and drums in my head that complicated things. Like walking. Moving.

“Can you open your eyes for me?”

“My eyes?” I thought they were open. I could see him. Well, the shadows filling him at least.

“Widen your eyes, I mean. I need to check your pupils. See if you have a concussion.” A butterfly touch landed on my eyebrow. He exerted a little pressure and light flooded in.

Bile rose up my throat. The light hurt but at least this time my brain didn’t try to squeeze out the back of my head. Focus on something else. Like him. Thoughts of him calmed me more than a roomful of lavender. “Are you a doctor?”

With a voice like that, I wouldn’t mind playing doctor with him.

“Once upon a time I was a medic.”

Close enough. I had an impression of a strong jaw, before white light shone from his hand. I tried to blink but he held my eye open. The brightness seemed to brand the inside of my skull. My stomach cramped. After a calming breath, it eased. I switched my attention back to him. “You were a soldier?”

“Yes.” The light slid out of my eyes then rushed back.

Again, I tried to wince. He held my eye open and drew closer. His breath washed over my face. Minty fresh breath. I could get used to this. Even the pain seemed to have dulled.

“You have a beautiful soul.” He released one eye to focus on the other.

“Soul?” Had I blacked out and missed part of the conversation? Another alarm thrilled low inside me. Was it possible to hit my head so hard, my brain had to rewire itself?

“The eyes tell me.” Amusement lightened the serious tone of his words. “They’re the windows to the soul, you know.”

Ahh. That sounded familiar. “I’ve heard that before.”

“I’ll bet lots of males will say anything to peer into those beautiful brown eyes of yours.” He clicked the light off and released my eyelid but his fingers skimmed my cheek to trace my jaw before falling away.

Pleasure warmed me like summer sunshine. I closed my eyes, giving my vision time to adjust to the new light level. “You think I have beautiful eyes?”

“More than beautiful.” Sowing goosebumps in their wake, his hands skimmed down my arms to toy with my ring finger. “But obviously no one has convinced you, yet.”

Wow! I shivered and the brain bands cranked up the volume. I could deal with that. My special order hero was actually flirting with me. Should I flirt back? Did I even remember how?

He shifted, moving between me and the eyeball skewering light of the dawn.

Good heavens. Where had this guy been all my life?

“Can you stand?” His hand eased back up my forearm to cup my elbow.

Stand. Walk. I raised my chin. If he kept flirting with me, I could samba. The world shimmied and shook to the bass pulsing inside my head. Okay, maybe the dancing was a bit optimistic. Still, I’d have to move if I wanted to get home. “I think so.”

“Good. I’m going to shift to your side, wrap my arm around your waist then we’ll see if we can get you on your feet.”

The royal we. I hated when health care workers used it, like they shared a patient’s suffering. Still… There was no way I could stand on my own. And he said it in that yummy voice. “Okay.”

True to his word, he shifted to my right. Fire trailed in his fingers’ wake as they skimmed my waist.

I sucked in my gut. Maybe he wouldn’t notice the pooch I’d acquired since hitting the big three-oh, two months ago.

He paused before cupping my hip. “Sorry if I hurt you.”

“Nuh-uh.” Obviously the bump on my head had affected my ability to multitask. Of course, I’d always been tongue-tied around men. As my hand crept around his narrow waist, I felt the play of muscles under my palm. Lordy, the man was ripped.

“Let me know when you’re ready to stand.”

“Okay.” When he didn’t begin to rise with me, I turned to look at him. Despite the rockets of agony, my heart stilled in my chest. I knew that chiseled jaw, straight nose and jet hair with a single lock hanging over his
cafe-au-lait
brow.

My personal hero was none other than my condominium complex’s own Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Latino.

And he was touching me, holding me. Oh, man. Oh, mama. Air rushed out of my lungs in a gurgle.

He peered down at me. Sunlight glinted off the cobalt blue depths of his eyes and danced over the soft lines radiating from the corners. “Perhaps you should sit a bit longer.”

He caught me against him, thigh to thigh and chest to breasts. Tingles zinged through me and a soft humming joined the banging inside my head. Oh, baby.

With his free hand he tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. “Maybe I should carry you.”

Carry me. Marry me. Rational Rae might stick obsessively to her plans, but Lusting Rae could be flexible. My palm molded the contours of his firm pecs. “Umm.”

Conversation was not my strong suit.

Hash marks appeared over the bridge of his nose. “Are you quite certain you’re okay? You’re alternately pale and flushing.”

“I—” I bit my lip before I confessed my lust. Embarrassment heated my cheeks as he continued to stare down at me. I studied his clean shaven jaw. Great. Not only was the man gorgeous and caring, he actually wanted to hear what I had to say. “I’m just not used to being so…so helpless.”

What a lame excuse. The truth threatened to leap from my tongue. I peeked at him through my lashes.

His eyebrows rose and his jaw went slack for a moment. “You’re not helpless. You’re hurt. There’s a big difference.”

I swallowed my confession. It would be rude to hurl his sympathy back at him. Besides, I was an adult. I could control my lust. As I straightened, my body slid against his. Heat blossomed inside my belly. At least, I hoped I could control my lust. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiled.

Butterflies emerged from the heat building inside me.

“Shall we see about getting you home?”

Home. For a moment, the thought of my bed and condo eclipsed even his allure. I nodded and my body folded over just as cramps wrung my stomach.

Crap! I’d forgotten my mental note.

Vomit splattered his grass-stained running shoes and oozed onto the trampled vegetation. Embarrassment set my cheeks aflame and the burn spread down my chest. This was not how I envisioned meeting my dream man.

“That’s good.” His fingers skimmed my ear as he gathered my hair at my nape. “Let it out.”

I blinked at the tears stinging my eyes. Good heavens, could the guy get any more perfect? Saliva flooded my mouth the moment my stomach stopped trying to turn inside out, and I spit out the bitter taste.

With his free hand, he rubbed the small of my back. “Feel better?”

Not even close and this time it didn’t have anything to do with the bump on my noggin or the cacophony trapped inside my head. “Sorry about your shoes.”

He lifted one and shook off the goo still clinging to it. “I didn’t like them much anyway.”

Swallowing hard, I squeezed my eyes closed, blocking out the stringy mass. Should I offer to replace his shoes or wash them? One might put a dent in my dwindling savings while the other… The other would provide an opportunity to see him again. One where I could show off to a better advantage. Of course, I don’t actually do the laundry in pearls and a cocktail dress but I could make an exception in his case.

“I could wash them for you.”

The hand on my back stilled. “Why don’t we see about getting you home first?”

I wisely refrained from nodding but cleared my throat. The sour taste still coated my tongue. Oh, for a drink of water. Bracing my hands on my knees, I took a deep breath. “I’m going to try to stand on my own now.”

His hand left my back to hold my elbow. “Take it slow.”

At the moment, I seriously doubted I had any other speed. Still, it felt nice to have someone looking out for me. Vertebrae by vertebrae, I straightened until I stood upright. Too bad the rest of the world kept moving. My stomach clenched again. If I kept vomiting, I’d soon be throwing up things I’d eaten as a toddler.

“Try and focus on a point far away.” His arm encircled my waist and held me against his muscled chest.

I would have enjoyed it more without the skullquake.

“It might help with the nausea.”

Yeah, except that would require lifting my chin. Right now, staring at the ground seemed the safest choice for both my stomach and his shoes. “Where’s your car?”

Please be close. I slid my right foot along the matted vegetation and shifted my weight to follow. The motion transmitted up to my skull. Ugh. I had forgotten the ankle bone was connected directly to the skull bone.

“Unfortunately, it’s at my house.”

Okay. I dragged my left foot forward. I raised my head a quarter of an inch. We were about five feet from the yellow concrete poles opening onto my street. Once I cleared them I had maybe two hundred yards before I reached the condos and another fifty feet of twisting paths to my front door.

Maybe I’d make it home before the sunset.

I sighed and swallowed the bile pushing up my throat. And there was still the matter of feeding my neighbor’s cat.

“It’s not far.” His grip tightened. “I live at Oasis Springs Condominiums. Just up the road.”

“I know.” I tripped over a pebble. Geez, now the man would think I was stalking him.

“I thought you looked familiar.”

The words barely penetrated the skull bands’ din before I felt the pressure against the back of my knees. In one swoop, he scooped me up and cradled me against his chest. Looping my arms around his neck, I clung to him. The motion wasn’t too bad.

He hitched me a little higher against him. His forearm cut across my back while his fingers teased the bottom of my sports bra.

My breasts tightened to hard peaks. Oh man, oh mama.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” Maybe. The Fates must be rolling on the floor clutching their sides from laughing so hard. I’d dreamed of being in his arms all week and now that I was, I couldn’t exactly enjoy it.

“I’m going to start walking now. Let me know if I need to go slower.” His steps whispered through the grass and weeds.

The corpuscle cymbals crashed at the same rhythm and decibel level. “I can handle this pace.”

“Wait until we get onto the sidewalk and we’ll see how it goes.”

Cautious, heroic and strong. I wasn’t a stick insect thin yet he didn’t seem to be breathing hard. Of course, we hadn’t gone five feet. “Let me know when I get too heavy.”

“You? Heavy?” He twisted to ease through the concrete pilings. “I doubt that could happen.”

Wow, if he kept talking like that I’d slip right out of lust and into love. Gravel crunched under his sneakers and each step transmitted through him and out the top of my head. Two hundred yards. I could make it.

“How you doing?”

“Good.” I strained the word through my clenched teeth. As long as I don’t move too much. I managed to raise my head enough to keep his shoulder within sight. His freshly-shaven chin appeared in my peripheral vision. He had a nice chin. If it had a cleft, it would be perfect.

He followed the curved road. Cicadas sang in the Palo Verdes drooping along the sidewalk. Their red-brown pods rustled in the breeze. One hundred seventy-five yards to go.

Silence ballooned in the space between me and him. I groped for words to fill the gaps. His muscles trembled against my back. “I’m sorry to be such a burden.”

Literally.

“I’m not sorry.” He cleared his throat and his fingers dug a little into my leg. “I noticed you about a week ago and was working up the nerve to talk to you when I stumbled across you this morning.”

His voice wobbled a bit on the end. Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Latino had to work up the nerve to talk to me? How could someone this good-looking be shy?

“Now I don’t have to worry about asking for your phone number, I get to take you home.”

I blinked. Cool beans! All that positive thinking was paying off. Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Latino was interested in me. I stroked the silky black hair at his neck before I caught myself.

We’d reached the wrought iron fence circling the complex. Card activated gates blocked vehicles from entering the parking strip rimming the units but the pedestrian entrance swung open on silent hinges in the breeze.

A bead of sweat plopped onto my shirt and an occasional gasp swirled past my ear.