Free Western Man by Janet Dailey Page A

like these clothes off,” he acknowledged, still watching her with a challenging gleam in his eyes.
    Sharon didn’t falter for a second. “Then TU take these.” She picked up the ashtray she’d just set on the bed and removed the partially smoked cigarette from his hand. “Can you sit up by yourself, or do you need some help?”
    “I can manage.”
    His stiff and stilted movements were such a marked contrast to his usual effortless and fluid motion that Sharon couldn’t help noticing it. But she stood back and let Ridge take as much time as he needed to sit up and swing his legs over the side of the bed.
    “The boots first,” she said and knelt down to tug them off.
    Without socks to ease the friction, it wasn’t easy. She closed her ears to the half-smothered, grunting sounds of pain that came from him. When both boots had been removed, she set them next to the dresser. Ridge already had his shirt half unbuttoned, so she unfastened the last few and eased one arm out of the shirt sleeve. After that, it was a simple matter of slipping it off the other.
    As he edged off the bed to stand up so his pants could be taken off, Sharon avoided meeting his gaze. She was very careful when she unfastened his pants so her hands wouldn’t touch the badlydiscolored flesh of his stomach. Her hands were steady and sure as they inched the pants over his hips and slid them quickly down his legs. The white material of his jockey shorts filled her peripheral vision, but she concentrated on her task.
    Ridge lowered himself onto the edge of the bed and the pants slid onto the floor. His bare legs were in front of her. For an instant, she let her gaze linger on the silken-fine hair covering them. She had never found hairy men very attractive, but Ridge wasn’t covered with a furry, dark mat.
    As she straightened to hang up his clothes, she caught his eye. Amusement danced openly in the blue irises. It instantly made her conscious of the warmth in her cheeks. She had been so positive she had been a model of indifference at the sight of his lean and muscled body that she hadn’t been aware of the building heat in her cheeks.
    “Don’t look now, nurse, but you’re blushing,” Ridge informed her in a deeply resonant voice as he tried very hard not to laugh because it would hurt too much.
    Denying it would be foolish. She picked up the burning cigarette from the ashtray and passed it to him. “Smoke your cigarette.”
    “—and shut up?” An arching brow queried whether that was the rest of her suggestion.
    “And shut up,” Sharon agreed with a sweetly angry look and walked to the closet to put away his clothes.
    “Sorry,” Ridge said. “I guess it wasn’t fair to tease you.”
    No suitable reply occurred to her, but she swallowed her anger. It served no purpose except to give him more fuel. Her expression was calm when she turned back to the bed.
    “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” she said and exited the room.
    In the sunny yellow kitchen with its shiny white cabinets and windows facing to the east to catch the light from a rising sun, Sharon halted her hasty retreat from Ridge’s bedroom and paused to calm her shaky nerves. There were bound to be more intimate moments like this last one during the next few days. She was going to be in constant contact with him—figuratively and literally—so she might as well come to grips with it and stop turning it into a sexual encounter every time. She was here to take care of him—as a family friend and neighbor—and that was all!
    Her breathing returned to a more normal rate. A corner of her mouth lifted in a wry semblance of a smile turned inward. With considerable more aplomb, Sharon was remembering Ridge’s testy behavior. It was amazing how one man could be so infuriatingly difficult—and so damned sexy at the same time!
    A telephone extension was mounted on the kitchen wall. Sharon crossed the room and lifted the receiver to dial her parents’ number so she