Chapter 1 #3
Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. “Nothing.” After a long pause, she said, “Your leg has to be hurting. Why don’t you put me down?
I can walk.” He surprised her when he did as she asked.
The sudden weight on her injured knee sent pain shooting through her, and she cried out from the shock of it.
“Have we proven that you could use a lift?”
A surge of nausea took her breath away. “Yes,” she whispered. “Please.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, surprising her again with the tender gesture. “I’m really sorry this happened.”
Maddie ventured a glance up at him and swallowed hard, taken aback by his intense gaze. “I know you are.”
“I’ll make it up to you.”
“You don’t have to. It was an accident.”
“An accident that was my fault.” He lifted her carefully and once again gave her a minute to settle her injured limbs before continuing on.
Maddie directed him to her apartment over Tiffany’s studio.
“Isn’t this the Sturgil place?” Mac asked.
She nodded. “My sister Tiffany is married to Jim Sturgil.” As they reached the foot of her stairs, Maddie realized her purse was still attached to the wrecked bike. “My bag! I never got it off the bike. My wallet, keys—”
“Take it easy.” He carried her up the stairs to her door. “I’ll track it down for you.”
Maddie tried to remember how much cash she’d had in her wallet. Twenty, maybe thirty dollars, but she needed every one of them. “The door isn’t locked,” she told him.
Somehow, he managed to carry her, open the door and get her inside without causing her any additional pain.
She watched him take a quick survey of the small space and felt her defenses rise.
No doubt he was used to much better, but she refused to be ashamed of the home she’d put together for herself and her son.
His eyes landed and settled on the baby toys stacked in the corner. “You’re a mom?”
“My son Thomas is nine months old.”
He lowered her to the tattered sofa she’d bought at a yard sale. “Where is he?”
“My sister watches him during the day. Oh God. The kids.”
“Excuse me?”
“I take over for my sister at the daycare at three so she can teach her dance classes. She watches Thomas for me, and that’s how I pay her back.”
“I’ll do it.”
“What?”
“I’ll watch the kids for you. How hard can it be?”
“Have you ever even changed a diaper?”
“I’m sure I have. Some time.”
“Right. Look, I know you’re probably some sort of Boy Scout—”
“Actually, I’m an Eagle Scout,” he said with a proud smile.
“Of course you are, but you’ve really got to go now. Your family is expecting you—”
“They didn’t know I was coming today.”
Maddie wanted to shriek in frustration. Why can’t he get the message and leave me alone? And then it hit her in a wave of sickening despair. “It’s not going to happen,” she spat at him.
“What are you talking about now?”
“Get out of my cabinets! What’re you doing?”
“Looking for some painkillers and a glass.” He produced a bottle of medicine and a glass of water and brought both to her.
“Thank you,” she muttered after she swallowed the pills. “Now, please, just go, will you?”
But of course he sat on the coffee table, and Maddie prayed the flimsy table would hold his two-hundred-pounds-of-pure-muscle frame. “So, what’s not going to happen?”
“I know what you’re after.” She wanted to smack the amused expression off his face.
“And what’s that?”
“You think if you’re nice to me that you’ll get something in return.”
Amusement faded to bafflement. “Like what?”
“Don’t be obtuse. I know you got a good look out there on the street, so you’re hanging around hoping to get your hands—among other things—on Maddie Chester’s famous breasts.”
He stared at her for a long, breathless moment. “That is so not true.”
“And how are you different from every other man alive?”
“When I look at you, the first thing I see are gorgeous eyes that remind me of the way melted caramel looks over vanilla ice cream. They’re a rather interesting combination of brown and gold.
Your mouth, when it’s not twisted with cynicism and bitterness, is so lush and pretty that my personal fantasies—if I had them about you, that is—would definitely be focused there, not on what’s under your T-shirt.
As spectacular as they may be, I’m more of an ass-and-leg man myself. ”
Maddie had never been more shocked in her life—or more seduced by words alone.
“Now that we’ve got that subject covered, let’s talk money.”
That brought her right back to reality. “What about it?”
“I want to pay for your lost wages.”
“Absolutely not.” She might be short on cash, but she still had her pride, and no one—especially someone named McCarthy—was going to take that from her.
“You have to let me help you, Maddie. I know you can’t afford to miss work.”
“That’s the least of it! If I miss more than one shift, they’ll replace me. They need the job done. They don’t care who does it.”
“I believe we’ve established that I have some sway with the owners of the hotel and can prevent that from happening.”
“Good for you. That still doesn’t get my job done, and it won’t help me when they decide who they’re keeping for the winter and who gets laid off.”
“Then I’ll do the job for you until you’re back on your feet.”
Maddie cracked up. “Sure you will.”
“You don’t think I can do it?”
She realized he was serious. “You have no idea what it even entails. How can you be so sure you can do it?”
“I’m capable of building a thirty-story structure. I think I can handle cleaning a few hotel rooms.”
Maddie studied his supremely handsome face. “All right.” What else could she do? She couldn’t afford to lose her job, so she had no choice but to let him help her. “Since you seem determined to make it up to me, I accept.”
He flashed a victorious smile. “Excellent. Now what about the kids? Could I be your arms and legs there, too?”
“Have you ever changed a diaper? Seriously?”
“No,” he confessed, quickly adding, “but I’m a fast learner. If you tell me what to do, I’ll do it.”
He’d be saving her life if he stepped in for her, but wait until he saw what the summer people were capable of doing to a hotel room.
Just the idea of a mighty McCarthy stooping to the level of manual laborer at the hotel his family owned brought a smile to her face. She offered her uninjured hand. “Deal.”
He shocked her again when he took her hand and brushed a soft kiss over the back of it. “Excellent. Now, let me go find your purse and see about getting you some lunch.”