Fever (3 page)

Carefully putting one foot in front of the other, she headed to her bedroom. She opened the top drawer of her dresser and grabbed a pair of panties. She put them on slowly, making sure not to lose her balance. Opening the second drawer, she looked for a nightgown. She pulled a lightweight, summer chemise out from the bottom of the stack, but could barely stand the satin as it slithered down her body.

“This medicine better work,” she said, wincing. The doctor had warned her that the antibiotics were strong, but right now, the fever seemed to be winning the battle. She raked her hands through her damp hair. Even the red strands felt warm.

Gingerly, she walked to the bed. It took her last bit of strength to pull back the covers and lie down. Sunlight streamed in the windows. It was still early afternoon, but her heavy eyelids drooped. She couldn’t ever remember being so tired in her life.

Still, that wavering spreadsheet pulled at her.

“I hope you’re up looking for that error all night, Jackson,” she whispered as she snuggled into her pillow. It would only serve him right. She was the best bookkeeper that company was going to find. If he couldn’t see what he’d be missing without her, it wasn’t her fault.

She’d done everything she could.

“Delia?”

A low voice seeped through the darkness. It nudged at Delia’s senses, urging her to wake. To listen. She fought the intrusion. She was so tired. Oh, so very tired and uncomfortable.

“Delia, are you okay?”

The voice was insistent. Smoky and intimate. The timbre was familiar, yet out of place. She pushed through the thick layers of drowsiness and tried to think.

It was just so hot. She kicked at the sheets tangled around her legs. Her pillow lay on the floor, and the comforter sat in a lump on the mattress beside her. Even the brush of the heavy fabric against her skin was too much. She pushed it away, trying to find some relief.

“Hey. Come on. Look at me.”

“Hot.” So hot. The heat was consuming her.

The mattress shifted, and the back of a hand gently touched her forehead. “Ah hell. You’re burning up.”

Delia squirmed restlessly and looked up at the man who’d appeared so suddenly in her bedroom. He hovered over her, big and dark. Shadows hid his features, but moonlight lit the hand that still brushed against her face. In the recesses of her mind, she knew she should be frightened—or at least surprised—but his presence comforted her. She didn’t want to be alone. Not while the fires of hell were ravaging her from the inside out.

But why was he here?

He shouldn’t be here. Or should he? She vaguely remembered a promise to check on her.

It took too much energy to think. She pushed her hair away from her face and off her shoulder. Even it felt too oppressive. Her arm dropped to her side, and her hand bumped against a hard thigh.

The man. He was sitting close.

How had he gotten in again? Hadn’t she locked the door?

She couldn’t remember. Didn’t care.

She closed her eyes and started to drift away.

Callused fingertips patted her cheek. “No, no. Stay with me. Open those pretty green eyes.”

The firm tone made her obey. She rolled her head toward the voice and forced her eyelids open a slit. A light from the hallway shimmered around the silhouette of the man’s body. He moved so the light no longer glared in her eyes, and she could see him better.

Dark hair. Dark eyes. Concern knotting his brow.

He’d come.

Relief made her sag against the mattress. He’d know how to fight this. He always knew how to take charge.

“Make it better,” she begged.

His hand cupped her cheek, and a distinct curse passed through his lips. Quickly, he reached out and clicked on her bedside lamp. The glare of the light made her close her eyes tightly. “No,” she winced. “Too bright.”

“Sorry.” He turned the lamp down to its lowest setting. “Look at me, Delia. Please.”

She didn’t want to, but he asked so nicely.

“There you go.” His thumb swept across her cheekbone. “Ah, damn. Your eyes are glazed. Your pupils are dilated, and you’re way too warm. Why didn’t you call someone?”

“Sleeping...the medicine.”

“Medicine?” He nudged her when she began to nod off. “What did you take? Delia, this is important.”

“Mm.” She liked having him close, but the heat of their bodies was mingling. She wriggled away and covered her eyes with her hand. Too hot. Too bright.

He refused to let her be. “Where’s your medicine, Delia?”

She tried to roll away.

He caught her shoulder and pressed her flat on her back. “Tell me, and I’ll let you sleep.”

Even through her daze, she heard the lie in his voice. She was too tempted to heed the warning. Sleep. She wanted to sleep. “Kitchen.”

He was gone before she could say any more. The light was still too bright, but she didn’t have the energy to lift her arm to turn it off. Instead she rolled away and curled into a ball.

That was a mistake. The heat only intensified as she folded into herself. With a whimper, she kicked the comforter onto the floor and stretched her legs out. She heard a rattling sound as he came back into her room.

“When was the last time you took a pill?”

She groaned. She’d known he was lying. He wasn’t going to let her rest.

The mattress bowed as he sat next to her again. He brushed her hair away from her temple. “How long ago since you took anything?” he asked.

Her forehead scrunched. Why was he asking so many hard questions? She couldn’t focus. Couldn’t concentrate. Oh, yes. The pills… She remembered them spilling onto the counter. “When I got home from work.”

He turned his wrist to look at his watch. “Five—no six hours ago.”

The bottle rattled again as he searched for the directions. “No wonder. It’s worn off. You’re supposed to take two every four hours. Stay here. I’ll get you a glass of water.”

Delia rolled onto her back when he left. Water. The idea was so appealing, she nearly crawled after him. Nearly. Just thinking about crawling was too much of an effort. Instead, she stayed still, trying to be patient, but the heat…

Oh, God. The heat. The mattress beneath her was absorbing her warmth and reflecting it back upon her, doubling her discomfort. She squirmed on the wrinkled sheets, but the fervor built until her back felt like it was on fire.

“Ahhh!” she hissed. She couldn’t stand it anymore!

Lurching upright, she tugged off her chemise and threw it across the room. She lay back down, but even her panties felt too stifling. She grabbed the waistband and nearly rent the fabric in two as she shimmied her hips and pushed the material down. The silk clung to her legs until she managed to kick it off.

“You shouldn’t have been here by yourself. You—“ Footsteps from the bathroom came to an abrupt halt near the bed. “Hel-lo.”

Water. He’d promised her water. She reached for it, swinging her arm wide.

She heard him inhale sharply, but then he was sitting down beside her and passing her the glass. “Here you go. Easy now.”

Water sloshed over the side, wetting the bed as she swallowed almost convulsively. The moisture felt so good as it rolled down her dry throat.

“Wait. Don’t forget to take the pills.”

He shoved two into her hand and held the water away from her until she put them in her mouth. She groped for the glass and took a big gulp. The medicine stuck in her throat, but she forced it down. Anything to abate this damned heat. Anything! She settled back on the bed, and he picked her pillow off of the floor. Carefully, he tucked it under her head.

She murmured, but kicked at the sheet when he tried to pull it over her nakedness. “No. I’m baking.”

“All right. Relax and let the medicine go to work.”

“It didn’t help before,” she said miserably.

He went quiet—almost dangerously so. She looked up at him, her vision blurring around the edges. Time seemed to slow, and the air in the room thickened. “You’ve been like this all day?” he finally asked.

“The fever,” she said weakly. “It won’t stop.”

His jaw went tight. A muscle near his cheekbone ticked once, then twice, before an all-too-familiar look of determination settled onto his face. “Yes, it will. You just leave it to me.”

Suddenly, he was gone. Delia started to call after him, but hesitated when she saw him moving back to the bathroom. She sighed when she heard water splashing in the sink again. Water. Yes. More water was good. The faucet shut off, and she licked her lips. His shadow cast over when he came back to her bedside. She reached up for the glass, but he didn’t give it to her.

“How does this feel?” he asked.

Instead of giving her something to drink, he lay something cool and wonderful against her forehead. It wasn’t what she’d expected. It was
better
. Her tight muscles released, and for the first time in hours, her anxiety lessened. Oh, that felt heavenly.

“Good?”

“Mm.” She reached up for the compress. She pressed it lightly and water ran into her hair, cooling the roots. She sighed with pleasure.

“Want more?”

Her eyes fluttered open. Their gazes connected, and that heavy feeling came into the air again. He held another dripping washrag in his hand.

Her pulse skipped a beat. She stared at the cloth, lost in a dreamlike haze. She wanted its cooling effects.

She wanted his touch even more.

She always had.

“Lie back,” he said softly.

Arousal suddenly swirled through her veins, riding along with the tide of heat. As delirious as she was, she knew what he intended to do—and she knew what line of intimacy it crossed. It was a line she’d shied away from. She’d been afraid to even approach it, but now, with him standing over her, it didn’t even occur to her to say “no”.

He’d promised to make it better.

Wide-eyed, she settled back against the pillow, willfully putting herself in his hands. The never-ending heat looped around her. It spiraled out to him, and something fierce and hungry flashed in his eyes. The emotion was quickly subdued, but not before she’d seen it.

Determinedly, he took a step forward.

Delia shuddered when he touched her. The cloth brushed against her jaw line, impersonal and businesslike. It didn’t matter. The flame inside her retreated.

Only to gather and regroup deep in her very core.

The intensity of it made her clench her thighs together. Oh, God. It had been playing with her before. Toying with her.

“Too cold?” he asked, hesitating.

She fought back a groan. “Too hot,” she whispered.

In so many ways.

His breath whistled out between his lips, but that was the only reaction he allowed her to see. Like an automaton, he slid the soothing cloth down her neck. She tilted her head, already a slave to the pleasure. He was being so careful. So attentive. The cooling moisture swept over her shoulder and down her arm. He pressed the damp ball of material into her palm, and her fingers curled around it. Rivulets of water slid down her forearm.

“Ohhh,” she gasped.

“Are you always this sensitive?” he asked, his voice rough.

“No…yes.” She didn’t know.

She was today. Despite his efforts to comfort her, the unexpected heat in her belly was blooming. Its power was concentrated, double that of anything she’d fought all day.

And it was growing.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

Pleasure. Pain. It was getting harder to tell one from the other. “Good. It feels good.”

“Then we’ll try this for a while and see if we can knock that fever down.”

For a while?

Heaven help her. She knew what he was like when he put his focus on something.

He set about his mission, and Delia was lost. Sensation buffeted her. Touch dominated, but all her senses were heightened. She could feel the damp terrycloth as it slid, rough and wet, against her skin. She could hear his deep breaths. Feel his undivided attention. Taste her own need.

Her vision narrowed until it was just the two of them.

But the fever fought back.

Deep inside her, a white-hot battle blazed. She began to squirm on the mattress, silently begging him as he stroked her. He was avoiding those parts of her that needed his ministrations the most. Time and again, he sponged down her arms, her belly, and her legs. Always careful in his touch. Always avoiding where the heat was burning brightest.

“More,” she whispered.

“I know, hot stuff, I know,” he crooned. Her toes curled as he wiped the arch of her foot. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

He didn’t know. He couldn’t know. If he knew, he wouldn’t be tormenting her like this.

Any self-consciousness that Delia had left slipped away. Her nipples peaked, and her hips tilted. Her core was on fire. She let her thighs drop open. The air in the room felt cool as it puffed against her tender flesh.

He stopped momentarily and cleared his throat. Hard. “I know you’re warm, but maybe we should cover you up.”

She lashed out at the sheet. She couldn’t bear it. Her fingers wrapped around his wrist and pulled his hand until it lay nestled between her aching breasts. His fist tightened, and water rolled across her abdomen. It crept along the crease of her leg and down to the vee between her thighs. Ah, that was what she needed. “There,” she whispered.

Silence. “You’re killing me here, babe.”

“Please.” She opened her eyelids enough to see his dark eyes glittering at her. He stared at her for a long moment before his gaze shifted to her breasts. The ache in them intensified as he studied her. She was ready to ask him again—to
beg
him—when she felt his first touch.

“Ahhh,” she sighed.

“So perfect,” he murmured.

His hand moved in small circles, carefully avoiding her nipple. Her demanding flesh refused to be ignored. She could feel her nipple tightening, stiffening. It looked almost tawdry as it stood straight up in the air, itching for the terrycloth that lurked so nearby. As she watched, his thumb snaked out and rubbed the rough material firmly against the red areola. She arched on the bed and let out a cry.