Sarah Morgan - Christmas Ever After

He smiled. “Scalps are extremely vascular. They always produce more blood than they should and it looks worse than it is.”

It was rare to see him smile and she found it hard to look away. It was like catching a glimpse of the sun on a dark, stormy day.

“You should smile more. You look less intimidating when you smile.”

The smile vanished. “You have dried blood in your hair, but I can’t do anything about that. If we wash it, it will open the wound.”

The awkwardness was back.

She wanted a shower, but she wasn’t sure she could manage that without help and there was no way she was stripping naked in front of Alec Hunter. She’d suffered all the humiliation she could handle for one day. “Do you have my purse? I’ll call a cab and get out of your way.”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to my fancy hotel room. There’s a bottle of champagne waiting for me. Shame to waste it.”

“Champagne?” His voice sharpened. “He’s staying with you?”

“That was the plan, but I’m guessing I’ll be drinking it alone.” She thought about her plan to make the most of London at Christmas. Ice-skating alone. The London Eye alone. Yay. Fun times ahead.

“You can’t go back to your room. There’s a chance he might show up, and if he doesn’t it would mean you being on your own and you can’t be on your own. Not after a head injury. Someone needs to be with you.” He removed his tie and loosened a few buttons of his shirt.

She noticed the hint of dark chest hair through the gap in his buttons and averted her eyes quickly.

She didn’t need to know more about Alec Hunter than she already did.

“Relax. That ‘someone’ isn’t going to be you so don’t change your plans for me.”

“I don’t have plans.”

“You’re wearing a tie. I assume you had a date.”

“I gave a lecture earlier today.”

The reminder of his standing in the academic world did nothing to rescue her flagging spirits.

Here was someone else with a “proper job.”

She was the joker in the pack.

Feeling truly horrible, she flopped back on the bed and covered her eyes with her forearm. The pain in her head and the tiredness threatened to overwhelm her. She knew she should leave, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. “As soon as these painkillers have worked, I’m going back to my hotel.”

Somewhere in the distance she heard a phone ring and then the sound of a deep, male voice—Alec.

Whatever his faults, there was no denying his voice was almost hypnotically sexy.

She lay there, eyes closed, thinking she could happily listen to his British accent forever.

“Yes, I made it … No, not really. There were complications.” And then a pause. “Yes. Well, you were right.” Another pause. “She’s here with me now … My hotel room … No, she’s sleeping.” Another pause. “No, don’t do that … I know how close you are but you don’t need to come. I’ve got this … Yes, I promise I won’t leave her on her own. I’ll call you, Brittany.” His voice grew distant and she realized that he’d moved into the bathroom so that he didn’t disturb her.

And now she knew who he was talking to.

Brittany and Emily, no doubt calling to see how her exhibition had gone. Judging from the half conversation she’d overheard, they now wanted to fly over, which is what she would have done if it had been one of them in trouble. Only this time it wasn’t necessary.

I’ve got this.

Funny how people could surprise you.

The last person she would have expected to bail her out of a mess was Alec Hunter.

With that thought in her head, she drifted off to sleep and woke to the sound of heavy rain.

It took her a few seconds to realize it was the shower, not rain, and a few seconds more to realize her stomach was churning. She was going to be sick.

Hoping Alec hadn’t locked the door, she staggered off the bed, groggy and dizzy.

Shrugging off the coat he’d draped around her, she swayed into the bathroom just as he stepped out of the shower, gloriously naked.

“Holy crap.” For a moment she stared, distracted by his tough, muscular build and the shadow of hair on his chest. Through the haze of pain she registered that Alec Hunter might be a hardened cynic, but he had a seriously hot body. Her eyes followed the dusky trail lower and her eyes widened. He was fully, impressively erect. She heard him swear under his breath and then he reached for a towel just as her own body reminded her who was in charge.

She made it to the toilet and threw up, her humiliation complete.

If she’d lived through a worse day in her life, she couldn’t remember it.

EXASPERATED AND CONCERNED, Alec knotted the towel firmly round his waist and hunkered down next to her. He tried to forget those few pulsing seconds when her bleary gaze had fastened on his face and then drifted lower to other, more intimate parts of his anatomy. Parts that seemed keen to independently express just how attractive he found her.

“Sky?” Keeping his voice and his hands gentle, he drew her hair back from her face and muttered what he hoped were reassuring words. “I’m going to call a doctor.”

She shook her head and then moaned as she retched again. “Go away. Please go away. Just leave me.”

He’d never seen a more pitiful sight in his life.

It didn’t take a genius to guess how much she hated being ill in front of him.

But what alternative was there? He couldn’t leave her on her own in this state.

He rubbed her back, held her, and then when it finally seemed there was nothing left in her stomach, he stood up and left the bathroom long enough to fetch the water from the bedside table.

In those few seconds she had eased herself back against the tiled wall of the bathroom. Now she sat, eyes closed, knees bent, her silver hair flowing over her bloodstained silver dress.

Alec wetted a washcloth and crouched down next to her.

“Here.” He handed her the water and put the cool cloth against her forehead.

She sipped slowly and then lifted her hand and took the cloth from him.

“Stop being nice. I hate you and it’s hard to remember I hate you when you’re nice.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep reminding you. You need to go back to bed. You’ll feel better.” He rose to his feet and held out his hand but she ignored it.

“I can manage.” She straightened those long legs and staggered unsteadily to her feet, like a newborn foal trying to work out how to stand. “I bet this is the best date you’ve had in a long time. Taking care of a semiconscious, vomiting woman must be right at the top of your list of favorite ways to spend a Friday night.” Despite her light tone, she kept her head dipped and Alec slid his fingers under her chin and forced her to look at him.

“I know you don’t want to go to hospital, but I’m going to call a friend of mine. He’s a doctor. He works in the emergency department near here.”

“I don’t need a doctor.”

“That’s the choice, Sky. Either you see my friend, or I take you to hospital.”

“Bully.”

Alec looked at her, now dressed only in the tight silver dress. Her feet were bare, her hair loose around her shoulders.

With a bruise already turning all colors of the rainbow and her hair streaked with dried blood, she shouldn’t have looked good but she did.

She intercepted his gaze. “Bet I don’t look like a fairy princess now, hey, Shipwreck Hunter?”

“You look like one of the seven dwarfs.”

A tiny spark lit her eyes. “Which one?”

“The really ugly one.”

She gave a weak laugh. “Can I take a shower before I go back to my hotel? I don’t want to draw attention to myself.”