Читать книгу Tamed By The Renegade - Emily Forbes, Emily Forbes - Страница 9

‘HELLO,’ SHE MANAGED in reply, before her words disappeared and she stood in front of him completely speechless. She wasn’t normally tongue-tied and she knew she’d had a whole conversation planned for when she next saw him but that had been based on the expectation that he would still be in the ICU. Not sitting in the middle of a busy kiosk looking a picture of health.

Someone had washed his hair and Ruby could see now that it was more blond than brown. It swept back from his forehead in a widow’s peak, exposing his strong brow and allowing his blue eyes to shine, and hung to his jaw line, framing and accentuating the oval shape of his face. Despite the length of his hair and the fullness of his lips his was a masculine face, and as if to reinforce the fact his jaw was darkened by the growth of a new beard. In contrast to his hair his three-day designer stubble was more brown than blond. His face was pleasant and friendly and his smile was brilliant.

Ruby’s eyes dropped from his lips to his body. His right arm was tucked inside his T-shirt and she could see the tell-tale bumps and lumps from the sling, but his left arm was tanned and muscly, really muscly, and lightly dusted with fair hair.

He was wearing shorts and a hinged knee brace was fitted over his right leg. She remembered the list of injuries the nurse had rattled off. A fractured clavicle, ribs, elbow and femur. He’d certainly done a good job on himself. From the neck down he didn’t really look in a fit state to be out of the ward, let alone left abandoned in the kiosk.

‘Would you do me a favour?’ he asked, as Ruby finished her inspection and lifted her eyes back up to his face. She blushed slightly. She’d been caught blatantly checking him out.

Anything, she thought, but she just nodded in reply, still unable to find her voice.

At least he seemed willing and able to carry on a conversation. ‘Would you mind pushing me outside? I’d really love to get into the sunshine but I can’t move this damn thing without help,’ he said, as he used his head to gesture towards his chest and his arm where it lay trapped in the sling. ‘Actually, that’s not quite true,’ he clarified. ‘I can move but only if I’m happy to go round in circles.’

He smiled at her and Ruby’s heart skipped another beat. His smile was full of cheek and made his blue eyes sparkle. She could feel herself being taken in by his charm. He was handsome and charismatic and in her experience that was a dangerous combination. And she’d always been a sucker for danger.

She tilted her head to one side as she studied him. ‘How did you get down here?’ she asked. Her voice was husky. That wasn’t unusual but even to her ears it sounded huskier than normal, as if it had been days, not minutes, since she’d used it.

‘I bribed a nurse,’ he said with a wink.

Ruby felt the heat from his gaze course through her and she could just imagine the nurses falling over themselves to help him. She knew they’d normally be too busy to lend a hand—if a patient wanted to get outside they’d have to do so under their own steam—but seeing his smile and his automatic wink she knew just how that scene would have played out.

She raised one eyebrow. ‘I bet it was a young nurse.’

He laughed, or rather he began to laugh before he stopped short and winced, and Ruby realised his broken ribs must have been protesting, but even so the brief sound of his laugh reverberated through her and made her smile along with him.

‘It was,’ he admitted. ‘So, will you help me? I’ve had enough of being cooped up inside.’

She couldn’t blame the nurse who’d fallen for his charms, she could see he’d be difficult to resist and she could well imagine how restless he was feeling. Despite the fact he was wheelchair-bound with a rather cumber-some-looking brace on his leg, he still looked too vital, too energetic to tolerate being stuck inside.

‘Sure, but you’ll have to hold this for me,’ she said, as she handed him her lunch.

He took her food, balancing it in his lap along with his own cup and stabilising it all with his left hand and forearm.

Ruby bent down to release the wheelchair brakes, a co-conspirator to his escape. She could smell the coffee in his cup as she flicked off the right brake. As she leaned behind him and flicked off the left one her hair brushed over his shoulder—she was close enough now to smell him too. His hair smelt faintly of limes. He smelt fresh and far better than he should considering he’d spent the past couple of days in a hospital bed. Ruby knew from looking at his leg that he wouldn’t have been able to shower himself and she wondered which nurse had volunteered to wash his hair and give him a sponge bath.

She felt her temperature rise as the thought of sponging him down took hold. She ran her eyes over the muscles in his left leg as her mind wandered. She forced herself to straighten up before she was tempted to reach out and run a hand down his thigh, only to find herself, once again, under the scrutiny of his blue-eyed gaze. She wondered if he could guess what she was thinking. She hoped not.

She stood behind him and gripped the handles of the wheelchair, glad of a reason to break eye contact. She gathered her errant thoughts together and pushed him out through the kiosk doors.

Outside several picnic tables and benches were scattered around a paved courtyard and shaded by a couple of large elm trees. It was late in the morning, well before a regular lunchtime, and the courtyard was virtually deserted. Ruby pushed the wheelchair towards a picnic bench.