Free Taming Tess (The St. John Sibling Series) by Barbara Raffin

chance to sniff for hospital antiseptic. "Get out of bed before noon tomorrow and I'll drive you to The Castle. You can pick up your car and shop all you want then."
    She trailed after him. "I didn't sleep till noon. And I refuse to wait until tomorrow for a change of clothes. I've been in this shirt of yours twenty-four hours straight."
    He opened the fridge, bent, and peered inside. "Looks like you cleaned out at least one thing today, Princess."
    "Don't call me Princess," she muttered, distracted by his backside as he pushed condiment jars around on the refrigerator shelves. She'd admired that narrow hipped butt countless times during the renovation…and daydreamed even more often about cupping those buns--
    He straightened and caught her staring. "What are you looking at?"
    She blinked at him, feeling every bit the petty thief caught with her fingers in the cookie jar. If he didn't stop staring at her, the heat blossoming in her cheeks would turn into a full-blown blush; and, hell, she never blushed.
    But she would now , if he kept looking at her the way he did…if she didn't answer him. Damned thing was, she couldn't think of anything to tell him but the truth.
    "When you weren't home by dark, I called your fire-starting cousin's house looking for you. His son said you were at the hospital. I was looking you over for injuries," she said.
    A smile ghosted across Roman's lips. "Why Princess, I wouldn't have figured you for the maternal type."
    She let the Princess reference slide, this time. But, maternal? Her? Never in a million years, especially not where a contractor with a butt you could bounce a quarter off of was concerned.
    Tess folded her arms across her chest and lifted her chin . "Don't get a swelled head over it, St. John. My only concern was that you might not have told anybody you'd left me here and I'd be stranded until Penetti's Cab Company repaired its fleet ."
    His smile faded and he turned back to the sink for a damp rag. "Naturally it's all about you."
    She frowned. "So why were you at the ER?"
    He squatted over the crumbs that had evaded being swept up and wiped them up. "Raymond cut himself."
    "Not bad, I hope."
    He glanced up at her. "Careful there, Princess. You almost sound like you care."
    " I do care," she said. "I don't wish injury on anyone."
    He rose and went to the sink. "He cut his thumb bad enough to need stitches."
    " And you took him to the ER," she said, relief replacing worry. "That's why you were there."
    " Yeah," he said, rinsing off the cloth and draping it over the faucet.
    " I'm sorry about Raymond but glad you're okay," she said.
    He faced her. "You are, huh?"
    There was something in his eyes, a probing look that made her feel like he was peering inside her. No man had ever looked at her like that before and she wasn’t ready for any man, especially this one, to see too deeply into her. She blinked.
    " Did you leave anything for me to eat?" he asked, moving to the cupboard beside the fridge.
    Peering over his shoulder, she saw a smattering of canned and boxed goods on the shelves. She pointed at a rectangular box. "You've got macaroni and cheese there."
    " For when my nephew visits," he said.
    " You can't replace it if you eat it?"
    " Come on," he said, heading for the door. "You want clothes and I want food."
    #
    "It's this or nothing, Princess," Roman said, the giant letters of The Bargain Mart glowing through the truck windshield and washing Tess' face in a hue blue as her funk. "I'm not driving across town to The Castle."
    "Pine Mountain isn 't Chicago," Tess said, sounding every bit as annoyed as she'd been when she found out his truck didn't have air conditioning. "Across town here can't be more than ten minutes."
    " Get up earlier tomorrow and I'll take you to your car then. I'm too tired tonight."
    " You weren't too tired to go through that drive-through for burgers and fries," she said.
    " You weren't complaining when you were wolfing down that mega meal and malt you