Free Closer To You (Tales of the Sweet Magnolia Book 1) by Amanda McIntyre

him as she poured water from a pitcher into a large bowl. “Your head wound was worse. Seemed that you clipped your head on a table in the process of coming to my aid, but to answer your question, the bullet sailed clean through one of your butt cheeks. Doc said you were lucky. At that range, it could have shattered the bone.” She smiled. “And lucky for you, I took a first-aid class on emergency disaster training. Doc didn’t get here until late last night. Paddy didn’t want to send anyone to town alone in case that asshole was still out there.
    So we waited until Angel finally showed up with Mr. Greensboro.”
    Emergency Disaster training? “So that was last night?”
    “Oh, no, that was two days ago,” Lil remarked casual as you please.
    “Did you undress me?” He stared at his toes peeking out of the end of her bed.
    She busied with tearing an old sheet into rags, laying them by the water basin.
    “With Paddy and cook’s help. You haven’t got anything that I haven’t seen before. Still, you should count your lucky stars that gunman’s aim was so bad. I could be as easily preparing you for your funeral, instead of your bath.”
    “A bath?” Jake was still wrestling with the idea that he’d been undressed by Lil and in her bed for two straight days and hadn’t even enjoyed it. “Wait a minute.
    Are you saying that I should have handled the situation differently?” She shrugged, keeping her eyes from meeting his.
    “Well now, ain’t that gratitude for you,” Jake stated with a sour taste in his mouth. What he’d give for a shot of whiskey about now.
    “I didn’t say I wasn’t grateful,” she replied dipping the cloth once more. He watched rivulets of water skitter down her arm, tempting him to learn the scent of her skin, its taste. It was almost enough to make him forget how if she’d gone along with him that he might not be in this particular predicament.
    “You took an awful risk. You might have been hurt,” she continued quietly.
    “Much worse than you are.”
    That was enough for him to turn the corner on his anger. Truth was, he made the decision to jump the guy. That wasn’t Lil’s choice. “I’m sorry. It’s me who ought to thank you for putting up with me. The notion both roused and frightened him and if his guess was right, the way she was playing with those rags, she was every bit as nervous as he was. That cinched up his arousal another notch and slapping himself mentally, he decided the best thing to do was to get out of there, the sooner, the better. He eyed the bowl of water teetering on the bed by his elbow. Yep, a mighty bad idea . He lifted a curious gaze to her. “You think you could hand me my clothes?”
    “I thought you might need a bath first.”
    “Well now, no, I don’t think so.” He shook his head albeit gently, as he still felt dizzy. “I don’t think that’s necessary.” He was grateful of course that she’d allowed him to convalesce in her bed, but a bath? He shifted away from her as best he could and shook his head. “No. Thank you kindly, just the same.”
    “If you’re worried that I might take unfair advantage of you, I promise to be on my best clinical behavior.”
    Clinical? The woman had some mighty fancy words in her vocabulary. She placed a delicate hand on one hip and pinned him with a wicked smile. “Unless, of course, you ask me…politely.”
    Heat flared in his belly rendering him speechless.
    “Besides, I was only going to do the top half. The doctor suggested that it might help after your fever broke.”
    “I had a fever?” For the life of him, Jake couldn’t remember the past two days.
    “I’m afraid so. There was so much flailing around and moaning and groaning, it made even some of my girls blush.” Lil grinned.
    She was teasing him. Jake looked away and smiled.
    “They assumed it was the fever, of course—that’s Doc Bennett’s explanation.” She flicked him a grin and when she shrugged, the frilly strap of her