Free Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich Page A

nothing she could coherently explain when he was kissing her hair. Warm waves of desire were washing away sensible thought. She concluded that if she stayed in his arms for another thirty seconds she would lose all control and attack him, and they’d probably be arrested for doing X-rated things in a hospital parking lot. She took a deep breath and pushed herself from his lap. “I suppose I do like you, a little,” Chris admitted. “And I’m sorry about your toe, but I think we should keep this living arrangement strictly business.”
    â€œWhy?”
    Chris squeezed her finely arched eyebrows together into a frown. “Because I’m not too happy about having a man in my house. And I definitely don’t want one in my life. I like my life just the way it is…was…before yesterday.”
    He regarded her with open amusement. “What a load of baloney.”
    â€œUnh!” she grunted. “You are the most exasperating man.” She threw her hands into the air in frustration. “Go get your blasted toe fixed.”
    Ken looked at the stretch of cold macadam between the truck and the reception room. He looked down at his blue-and-purple bare foot partially wrapped in an apricot hand towel.
    â€œSorry,” she whispered. “I wasn’t thinking.” She started the truck and drove to the emergency entrance where he got out and hobbled inside.
    Chris parked and joined him at the front desk, where he was filling out a form. An inquisitive nurse leaned over the desk and looked at his toe. “Weren’t you folks in here yesterday?”
    Ken raised his bright green cast. “Yesterday she broke my arm,” he announced merrily.
    A second nurse appeared. Chris felt her face flame as the two nurses studied her suspiciously.
    Ken completed the form. He raised his foot. “Today she broke my toe.”
    â€œIt was an accident,” Chris gasped.
    The nurses looked at each other knowingly and studiously returned to their work.
    â€œHow could you embarrass me like that?” Chris looked around furtively to see if anyone else had heard.
    â€œIt’s okay.” He grinned. “She probably thought it was part of some bizarre sexual ritual.”
    â€œGood heavens.”
    â€œYou should probably call the rink now and tell them you’ll be late, again.”
    Chris stared at Ken, struck by the unpleasant reality that she’d sent this man to the hospital two days in a row—and that if positions had been reversed, she doubted she could be so good-natured. “I suppose I should be happy you have a sense of humor,” she ventured.
    â€œHoney, my good mood has little to do with my sense of humor.”
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    Aunt Edna’s eyes opened wide as she stood back from the door. “What the devil happened?”
    Ken carefully swung his foot over the doorjamb and eased himself into the room with the help of a single crutch. “It’s nothing serious, Aunt Edna. I stubbed my toe in the dark this morning and broke it.”
    Chris slammed the door behind them. “He did not. He got fresh with me, and I stomped on it.”
    Ken rested on his crutch, and looked at her quizzically. “I thought you found that story embarrassing.”
    â€œOh, what the hell,” she exclaimed in an offhand huff. “So I broke it. What’s the big deal?”
    Ken smiled at Aunt Edna. “She’s sorry she broke it.”
    Edna looked at the swollen toe taped to the one next to it. “He got fresh with you, huh?”
    â€œYes. Well, no. He sort of got me…disturbed.”
    â€œHmmm,” Edna said. “Disturbed?”
    Ken slouched into the wingback chair and stretched his long legs in front of him, watching Chris with unguarded affection. “Disturbed?” he asked, the twitching corners of his mouth the only evidence of strangled laughter.
    â€œI’d love to stay and explain all of this,” Chris told