Here I Am

Brandt smiled. “I’m resting my eyelids.”

Ciara rose from the chair. “You rest your eyelids while I go and get some shampoo.” Maintaining his personal hygiene was essential to his emotional well-being. She didn’t want to give herself kudos, but she was making progress with her patient; she’d gotten Brandt to take his pain medication and he’d agreed to wash his hair. He’d also admitted to being hungry, and that meant he didn’t intend to starve himself to death.

“You should find shampoo on a shelf in the pantry, and there’re steaks in the freezer.” He opened his eyes. “You do know how to broil a steak?”

She’d just discovered who Brandt Wainwright was. He was a big dog with a big bark but with little or no bite. “I’ve broiled a few. How do you like yours cooked?”

“Medium-well.”

“Your mother gave me a tour of your place and I think it would be nice if you eat upstairs. It would do you good to get some fresh air.”

Propping himself up on one elbow, Brandt gave his nurse a long, penetrating stare. “Are you going to eat with me?”

“What?”

“‘What?’” he mimicked. “I asked if you were going to eat with me, Ciara Dennison, or is that not allowed in your book—sharing meals with your patients?”

“I don’t have any hard-and-fast rules, just what is and isn’t appropriate between a nurse and a patient. We’re not in a hospital setting, so there’s nothing wrong with me sharing a meal with my patient.”

Lying back down onto the mound of pillows cradling his shoulders, Brandt closed his eyes again. “Thank you.”

The seconds ticked as Ciara stared at the bearded man whose very size was intimidating enough without him raising his voice. If he’d thought he’d frighten her into leaving then he didn’t know how stubborn she could be. Push and she would push back—harder. Yell and she would yell even louder. Her only focus was making certain her patient received the best possible care.

“You’re welcome.” The two words were barely off her tongue when soft snoring filled the room. He’d fallen asleep again. Ciara was glad. It would give her time to prepare dinner.

Chapter 5

Ciara positioned the retractable nozzle so Brandt could reach it when sitting on the shower chair. She’d placed a towel around his waist before removing his underwear to provide him with a modicum of privacy. It didn’t matter to her whether he was nude or fully clothed. She’d lost count of the number of naked bodies she’d seen in more than a decade of nursing. Some male patients were uncomfortable with female nurses. But even with more men going into the field, there were still too few nurses. She rechecked the Velcro fastenings on the plastic sheath covering his feet and casts, then handed Brandt a plastic squeeze bottle filled with shampoo.

She rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll be in the bedroom. Call me when you’re finished.”

Brandt covered her hand with his, increasing the pressure on her fingers when she tried pulling away. “Aren’t you going to help me wash my back?” There was a glint of amusement in his eyes.

Ciara wrinkled her nose. “No. That’s why I gave you a back brush.”

“Ah, come on.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “You must really be feeling better.”

Attractive lines fanned out around Brandt’s eyes when he returned her smile. “You think?”

“I think. Please let go of my hand. I have work to do.”

For reasons he could not fathom, Brandt didn’t want to let her go. There was something about Ciara that intrigued him. Why, he pondered, did she wear clothes that definitely didn’t flatter her figure? And what was up with the bun? The glasses were all right—at least they were stylish. But the rest of her was dowdy. It was as if his nurse had gone out of her way to make herself look frumpy.

He’d seen her smile a few times and the gesture made her look like an entirely different person. It softened her sensually curved, full lips and scrunched up her very cute little nose. Even without makeup her skin was flawless, giving the appearance of whipped chocolate cream. Brandt released her hand and shook his head. What difference did it make to him that his nurse looked as if she were auditioning for a role on Little House on the Prairie?

“I’ll call you when I’m finished.” Ciara had asked him whether he was feeling better. His head was better, but physically he wasn’t. Every time he’d tried moving his legs he was reminded of his limited mobility. And he’d decided after dispatching two nurses that he was going to try and cooperate with the third. He wanted to feel better, regain full use of his legs, and he wanted to play football again. Playing football was not only what he did, it had become his obsession.

Ciara changed the linen on Brandt’s bed and adjusted the temperature level on the thermostat while she waited for him to finish in the bathroom. The temperature in the bedroom was sixty-two degrees. She’d positioned the ultra-thin, flat-screen television resting on a stand in the sitting area so that Brandt would be able to view it from the bed. Underwear, a pair of shorts and a T-shirt lay across the foot of the bed.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Brandt shouted from the bathroom.

She smiled. Under the mass of muscle was a grown-up boy whose only objective in life was to play ball. “Ready or not, here I come!”

Ciara entered the bathroom, reaching for two towels from the stack she’d left on the bench next to the bathtub. He sat on the shower chair; droplets of water had beaded up on his naked body. Water had turned his palomino-gold hair to a burnished shade.

Brandt tunneled his fingers through his hair, pushing it off his forehead. He went completely still when Ciara came up behind him and towel-dried his hair. The warmth from her body, the subtle fragrance of her perfume swept over him like a cool breeze. But instead of cooling him it generated a swath of heat that settled between his thighs, stirring his flaccid sex like a roused cat.

“Give me a towel!” The demand had come out harsher than he’d intended.

“Whatever happened to please,” she hissed in his ear. Ciara nearly slapped Brandt with the towel as she shoved it at him. Taking the other towel slung over her shoulder, she blotted the moisture from his neck and back.

He gritted his teeth as he covered his thighs in an attempt to conceal his growing erection. It hadn’t been that long since he’d slept with a woman, so what was it about this woman that had him aroused?

“Please and thank you very much,” he drawled sarcastically.

“That’s better.”

Brandt hoisted himself from the shower chair to the wheelchair after Ciara removed the plastic covering the casts. He suffered her light touch as she drew a damp cloth over and through his toes, dried them and followed with a light dusting of talc.

He met her eyes behind the lenses of her glasses, his gaze lingering on her delicate features. Her face was doll-like: round, wide-eyed, with delicate features. Brandt had overheard men talk about being attracted to the schoolteacher type. Even with her glasses and hair pulled back, Ciara didn’t quite fit the category. Twenty-four hours ago he hadn’t known Ciara Dennison existed. But he didn’t have to have to be a rocket scientist to know that her dowdy style was a feeble attempt to minimize her femininity.

He smiled. “Thank you. I can take it from here.”

Ciara gave him a skeptical look. “Are you certain you don’t need help getting dressed?”

Brandt nodded. “I’m certain.”

She plucked the wet towels off the floor, hanging them up to dry and prayed that Brandt hadn’t noticed that her hands were shaking. What she had noticed was his erection, wondering whether it was spontaneous or if she had in some way aroused him.

When she’d worked at the hospital her colleagues would tease her relentlessly about wearing too-large tops. An incident with a male patient early in her nursing career had traumatized her to the point where she refused to wear anything that would reveal the outline of her upper body.

“I’m going to the kitchen to start dinner.” She’d marinated the steaks, prepared a salad. All that remained was microwaving the potatoes.

“Are we eating on the rooftop terrace?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “Or would you prefer eating in the kitchen or dining room?”

“No. The rooftop will be nice.”

Brandt stared at Ciara’s retreating figure. When it came to the opposite sex his radar never failed him. If he met a woman for the first time he was able to conclude after the first five minutes whether he’d wanted to see her again. If not, he knew right away. Ciara was in the former category rather than the latter. But his mother had hired her as his private nurse. She looked nothing like the women he usually dated, yet there was something about her that tugged at him. He wondered if she hadn’t been his nurse if he would want to date her.

Releasing the brakes on the chair, he rolled it out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

Brandt sat across the table from Ciara in an area of the terrace where lengthening shadows offset the lingering heat of the summer sun. She’d prepared skirt steaks, baked potatoes and a summer salad of melon and feta with balsamic vinaigrette. Freshly squeezed lemonade made with sparkling lemon-lime-infused water was a refreshing alternative to water.

He pointed to the salad. “I can’t believe you found all of this in the refrigerator.”