Chapter Eleven #2
She must have noticed the look he’d given Smith because she gave him a little smile.
“Not a real pirate. He just looked like one. Olive skin and an eye patch, but dressed in an expensive suit.” She pointed to her bandaged arm.
“He stopped the bleeding. I’d like to thank him, but I don’t know who he was. ”
Michael felt the fine hair along his nape raise. There was only one person who fit that description, that he knew of. “I think you just met Adam Baylor,” he said.
Sophie stared at him. “I thought you said he was evil. He saved my life.”
“Because he needs you to find the Sword.” Pendragon’s arrival must have tipped Balor off. Since he was obviously following her, Balor knew where Sophie worked and probably where she lived.
The search for the Sword had just gotten more dangerous—-and more vital.
****
Sophie rested her crutches against the edge of the sofa and sank down gratefully, easing her leg up on the cushions.
She couldn’t just have broken her leg in one place.
No. She had fractured both the femur and the tibia and now faced a good month of physical therapy before she would be able to travel.
She’d expected Michael to be upset with the delay, but he had stoically accepted it. In fact, he had been practically gallant, like some knight of old, visiting her every day for a week before he’d brought her home from the hospital yesterday.
“Stay right there,” he’d said as he pulled the larger car he had rented into her driveway. “I’ll unlock the door.”
“I can unlock the door, Michael.” Sophie gave him a grin. “I didn’t break my hand.”
“Just sit there, will you?” Taking her keys, he sprang from the seat, had the door open, and was back on her side of the car just as she opened it. “Here, let me.” He eased her legs toward the side, helping her out.
“My crutches—”
“Forget those,” Michael said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and lifting her.
“I can hobble. They made me do it before I could leave the hospital.”
“Yeah, well, just hold on.”
Sophie leaned against him, suddenly aware of how solid his chest was. She felt the corded muscles of his shoulders as she tentatively wrapped an arm around his neck She wasn’t exactly a lightweight, and he was carrying her like she was a bag of feathers.
He kicked the door closed and deposited her on the couch as Pendragon clanked his claws across the tile floor towards them.
The dragon’s cobalt eyes studied her and he came forward to sniff at her leg. Michael batted his snout away. “None of that.”
The dragon snorted small puffs of smoke. “I smelled metal.”
“That would be the steel pins in my leg,” Sophie said with a small smile.
Had the dragon gotten that close to her a week ago before all this happened, she would have run screaming from the room, but oddly enough, those days in the hospital bed had given her time to rethink a lot of things.
Not that she could run anywhere right now.
“I guess we won’t be traveling anytime soon,” he said.
“Afraid not,” Sophie answered. “It’ll be the middle of July, at least.”
“Or longer, if that’s what it takes,” Michael replied.
The dragon gave a little sigh and sat on his haunches. “At least Balor doesn’t know more than we do.” He cocked his head as Michael and Sophie exchanged glances. “What’s wrong?”
“It seems this Mr. Baylor knows who I am,” Sophie replied and told him about the rescue. “I know you both said he was evil, but he helped me.”
Pendragon bared his razor-sharp teeth. “He needs you alive.”
“That’s what I told her,” Michael said. “From now on, Sophie doesn’t leave our sight. Either you or I will be guarding her.”
Pendragon nodded. “Affirmative. Every single minute of the day.”
“Excuse me, guys,” Sophie intervened. “I am certainly not going to have you watching me when I take a shower!”
Michael tilted his head. “You might need someone to scrub your back.”
The idea of Michael being in the shower with her—her treacherous imagination flashed an image of him stark naked—made her stomach flutter as though a hundred butterflies had suddenly taken leave of a roost. She felt her face heat and it didn’t help that Michael was grinning with no dimple showing.
“I think I can manage,” she said. “Thanks for bringing me home though.”
“I hope you’re not dismissing me?”
“Don’t you have a temp agency to run?”
“Nope. Stephanie can handle the office,” Michael had said as he sat down in the recliner across from her. “I’m spending the night.”
Sophie shook her head at the memory. Michael had slept in the recliner and the dragon on the floor near the sofa where she lay.
As much as she hated to admit it, she had felt a little bit special, like some medieval lady in King Arthur’s court.
After all, how many modern females had both a hunky man who was a throwback to chivalry and a dragon guarding her?
She was startled by a persistent knocking on the door. The dragon snarled, on instant alert. Could it be that Adam Baylor had found her? Michael had set wards of protection around her house before he left this morning, but what did she know of magic? Would they hold?
“Come on. Open up, Soph!” Robert called.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s my ex-husband,” she said to the dragon. “You’ll need to hide in the office.”
“I’m supposed to protect you.”
“Robert isn’t going to hurt me,” Sophie replied as she eased herself into a sitting position and reached for her crutches. “He may be annoying, but I can handle that.”
She hobbled toward the door and turned to make sure the dragon was out of sight before she opened it.
He brushed past her before she could speak. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in the hospital?” he asked as he strode to the middle of the room and turned around, glaring at her. “I called the clinic several times and Janie always said you were out.”