Free Hold Me by Betsy Horvath Page A

She hauled herself to her feet and frowned down at him. “Ice, I think. We need to bring down the swelling.” She should probably get some for herself while she was at it; she was kind of overheated.
    He sighed and tilted his head against the high back of the chair. “Freezer.”
    When they’d first come into the kitchen, Spot had spent some time slurping from a huge water dish on the other side of the room. But now she was a large black mountain sprawled right in front of the refrigerator, which meant that Katie had to stand on her tiptoes and stretch over her to see inside the freezer.
    Not that there was too much to see. Just two frozen pizzas and about thirty ice packs. Sheesh. The man sure must get hurt a lot.
    When she’d snagged a couple of the ice packs and turned around, Luc was watching her, his expression strangely shuttered.
    “What? What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing.” His voice was clipped and as frigid as the air in the freezer. But then again, Katie couldn’t blame him for being in a bad mood. He must be in a lot of pain, even if he was too macho to admit it.
    Grabbing a dishtowel she’d spotted hanging next to the sink, she wrapped the ice packs up in it, and knelt down again next to his chair, applying the bundle to his ankle.
    Luc stifled a groan and closed his eyes.
    “Do you have any aspirin?” she asked while she held the pack in place.
    “I’m out down here, but there’s some in the medicine cabinet in my bathroom upstairs.”
    “And an elastic bandage?”
    “Yeah, there’s a couple of them up there too.”
    “Well, that’s something anyway. Why don’t you hold this, and I’ll go get them for you.”
    Luc leaned forward to do as she asked. For a moment their hands touched. She looked up and he was much closer than she’d expected. His hair fell over his forehead, just begging her to push it back. His scent teased her, subtle and male.
    Katie swallowed. She must be more tired than she’d thought. “Where?” Her voice was a choked whisper.
    “Where what?” His beautiful eyes were dark and intense.
    She stood abruptly and backed up. “Where is the medicine cabinet?”
    “Oh. It’s in the master bath attached to my bedroom. Go down the hall to the end, take the first stairwell to the second floor and it’s the third door on the right. The bathroom is through the bedroom.”
    Katie frowned. “That’s pretty complicated.”
    “It’s practically a straight line.”
    “The second stairwell and the first door to the right?”
    “No, the first stairwell to the second floor to the third door on the right.” He sounded exasperated.
    Katie shrugged. “Hey, you know I have a bad sense of direction.”
    “Wonderful. Maybe I should—”
    She pushed him back into the chair when it looked like he was going to try to get up. “You, my friend, are going nowhere and doing nothing. I’ll be back before you know it.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Positive. But maybe I should take my cell phone just in case…” Katie shook her head when she saw him stare at her. “Nah. Um, just kidding. I’ll be right back.”
     
    Luc watched her leave, then settled back in the chair with a heavy sigh. He took the dishtowel full of ice packs off his ankle and put it on his forehead.
    “Shit,” he muttered.
    Shit, shit, shit, he was in trouble. He thought about how she’d looked leaning into the freezer, her light summer pants stretched over her truly lovely ass, and pressed the ice harder against his head. Maybe he should put it on his crotch instead.
    “Get yourself under control, Vasco, and I mean now.”
    Wild auburn curls, blue eyes that could look so sad they broke his heart. A mouth he couldn’t stop thinking about. He was supposed to be guarding her. And she couldn’t leave.
    Oh, yeah. He had a big problem.
    He sat for a few more minutes until his ankle started to throb. His leg was falling asleep, and he knew he should probably move to the sofa in the family room where he could stretch