An Irresistible Bachelor (An Unforgettable Lady #2)(68)

“I know.”

“You’re too aggressive.”

“I know.”

“You could have killed yourself,” she repeated, irritated by his laconic responses. “And don’t say ‘I know.’ ”

“Okay.”

She shot a glare across the seat. In the glow from the dash, she saw that his eyes were closed. He looked beat and the urge to yell at him faded. Focusing on the road, she figured she would get him home and put him right to bed.

Assuming he didn’t fall asleep in the car.

When she pulled into Buona Fortuna’s drive, she thought she was going to have to wake him up, but he lifted his head and let out a long sigh. Carefully parking the Jag in the garage, she wondered if she was going to have to help him get out, but he stood up on his own and slowly limped out into the night air. Closing the garage door, she noted that Mrs. Walker’s car was back and wondered what the woman’s response was going to be. Here was her perfect son, all banged up. She was probably going to throw a fit.

As Callie came to his side, Jack was staring up at the stars with a thoughtful expression, his good arm cradling his broken one in spite of the sling around his neck.

She reached out and put her hand gently on his shoulder. She needed to touch him and not through his clothes. She had to know the warmth of his skin, to have his body against hers, to feel that he was all right, not just assume it from afar.

“Thank you,” he murmured softly. “For picking me up.”

“Good Lord, of course.”

He started for the house and she followed, measuring the way he favored his right foot and the rigid way he held himself. As she opened the door for him, she thought he looked visibly relieved to be home.

“Do you want anything to eat?” she asked.

“Can you bring me something upstairs? I want to change and lie down.”

When she came up to his bedroom, the confident, elegant man she knew was standing by his bed, completely tangled up in his clothes. The sling was hanging cockeyed from his shoulder, his shirt stuck around his neck, and his belt was half undone.

“You need some help?” She put down the plate and glass, swallowing a smile.

One eye glared out of the mess. “Yes. Please.”

She quickly freed the buttons, stripped off the shirt, and removed the sling.

She held her breath as she eyed a bruise on his collarbone.

“That must have hurt.” She put her hand out and touched him, running her fingers gently around the red mark.

When he didn’t say anything, she looked up. His eyes were closed and his face was showing intense concentration as if he were drinking in her touch.

Jack’s voice was rough. “When the car stopped spinning around, I was so damn dizzy and bashed up, I couldn’t tell what kind of shape I was in.”

She winced, trying not to imagine his broken body being pulled out of the car by paramedics.

His eyes opened slowly. “The first thing I thought of was you. The idea of not seeing you again was . . . unbearable.”

Callie reached up to his face, feeling the rasp of his beard growth, the hollow above his jawline, the pulse that beat at his throat.

When she dropped her hand, he took it and put it back.

“Touch me,” he said. “You make the numbness go away.”

She let her hand move down over his shoulder and onto his biceps. Lightly tracing his pecs, she paused on his beating heart and went down onto the ridges of his stomach. She could felt his body tighten under her fingertips and heard his breath as it rushed out of him. When she brushed the backs of her knuckles across his belly button, he hissed, taking his lower lip between his sharp teeth.

She paused, worried that she was hurting him.

“Don’t stop,” he said thickly. His eyes were wild, on the edge of violence. “Christ, please don’t stop.”

She reached for his belt buckle, feeling supple leather as she finished undoing it. His pants hit the floor in a rush and she looked up. A fine sheen of sweat had broken out across his chest.

Jack grabbed her with his good arm, crushing her to him, burying his head in her hair. Feeling the solid wall of his chest, hearing the beat of his heart, she shuddered and opened her mouth.

Knowing that she was taking the biggest risk of her life, that it was too early, that it was not the right time, that maybe she was just speaking out of passion and relief, she whispered, “I love you.”

Jack fell still and she immediately wished she could take the words back.

What was she thinking? Sure, he cared for her. Yes, he had passion for her. But love?

Callie stepped back, trying to cover up what she’d said, but his eyes pegged her with an intensity she’d never seen in them before.

He brought her back against him. “I can’t believe it. I didn’t think it would ever happen. But . . . I love you, too.”

He pulled her close and she felt like crying. It was more than the blessing that he was home safely. That he felt the same way she did. That his words were not a promise, but a statement of fact. No, the feeling came from a sense that maybe the world wasn’t quite the hard, cold place she’d always known it to be.

After so many years of being alone, she had someone of her own.





18


THE FOLLOWING evening, Jack let Gray Bennett into the front hall. His friend was obviously not happy.