Lindsay McKenna - High Country Rebel

“You okay?” she asked, meeting his eyes. There was clarity now in them. Huge gray eyes with large black pupils staring intently at her. For a second, Cat’s imagination took off. He was the hunter. She was the prey. Oddly, she didn’t feel threatened. Instead, she felt her womb contract. Felt the heat of his intense stare, the utter masculinity of him, the power of him as a man. It excited her and simultaneously scared her.

No man had ever made her feel hot, needy and achy in her lower body. But Talon did. In spades. Gulping, Cat stood up and quickly moved to the dresser to rinse out the bloody washcloth. What the hell was going on with her? Licking her lip nervously, Cat cast a glance over her shoulder. Talon had lain back down, drawing the blankets haphazardly across his lower body. His eyes were closed.

Zeke lay down by his bed.

Watching the dog helped Cat understand what was going on with Talon Holt. He’d also ripped off the cannula that had given him extra oxygen and it lay on the floor next to the broken IV line. She picked them both up and shut off the IV. Did she dare sit down beside him as she had before? No, she couldn’t. Her throat went tight and she found it hard to breathe for a moment.

As she worked near the bed, she felt his eyes open and focus on her again. Looking up, he was watching her. Cat muttered, “I’m cleaning up.”

He barely nodded his head.

Her hands were shaky. Cat removed the IV and placed it in her medical bag. She wrapped up other equipment.

“I remember you.”

Cat froze for moment. Talon’s voice was deep and hoarse. But he was awake and alert. Considering his medical condition, she was stunned by the strength of his tone and the clarity in his eyes. “What do you remember?” she asked.

“How beautiful your eyes were after you stopped to help me and Zeke.”

CHAPTER FOUR

CAT WAS BRINGING Zeke back from a potty break an hour later. She pushed open the bedroom door. Talon jerked and suddenly sat up, tense, breathing harshly. His hands were curled into fists, raised as if ready to strike. Surprised, Cat anchored just inside the entrance. The man’s narrowed eyes went black. Instantly, her heart started to pound. What was going on?

“Talon? It’s me, Cat. It’s all right,” she managed, her fingers tightening around Zeke’s leather collar. The dog whined, his gaze riveted upon his master.

Talon stared hard at her. His breath came in gasps, his chest heaving with sudden exertion. Slowly, he lowered his hands and unfisted them. “What the hell are you doing?” he snarled.

Stung and shocked, Cat kept her anger closeted. “I just took your dog out.”

Talon wiped his face and uttered a curse under his breath. It was a bad idea to wake him suddenly, as if he were still in the middle of a nightmare. “Yeah...okay...thanks,” he muttered and lay down on the bed, throwing his arm across his closed eyes.

What had just happened?

Shaken, Cat released Zeke. The dog instantly trotted over to the bed, wagging his tail. She quietly closed the door, her heart banging away in her tightened throat. The expression on Talon’s face scared the hell out of her. He looked savage. Lethal.

As she moved closer to his bedside, she could see that Talon’s color was better. He dragged his arm off his face, opened his eyes and stared grumpily up at her.

“I need to listen to your lungs and take your temperature,” she offered by way of explanation.

“Do it,” he rasped, closing his eyes again, his mouth a single line.

Zeke whined and then sat down next to the bed. Cat gathered the equipment from her medical bag at the end of the bed. She hesitantly sat down, her hip brushing against his. His eyes snapped open, a fierce look in them. She recognized an adrenaline surge when she saw one. Cat felt badly. The man didn’t need any more shock or trauma than he presently had.

“I’m sorry I startled you,” she murmured, holding his dark, turbulent-looking gaze. Even his nostrils were flared, and he was still dragging in and releasing short, sharp breaths. Yeah, she was no stranger to adrenaline, understood its effects from her firefighting duties.

“Whatever you do from now on,” Talon growled, “don’t ever come over and touch me while I’m sleeping.” He dug into her gaze. “I could hurt you very badly, Cat, and that’s the last thing I want to do.”

She chewed on her lower lip, regarding his warning, searching his eyes. “Is this because you were a SEAL?”

“Yes,” he said. Talon held up his hands. “I know how to kill a person fourteen different ways with these. They are considered lethal weapons here by U.S. law enforcement. Please—” and his voice lowered with emotion “—no surprises. If you need me awake, stay at the door and call my name. I’ll come up in a hurry, like I did just now.”

Her heart contracted with pain. “Got it.” As she pulled the blanket down to expose his chest, she saw more than anxiety in his narrowed eyes. Maybe fear? She wasn’t sure. Talon was still breathing hard. Labored. Cat warmed the stethoscope between her palms so it wouldn’t feel so startlingly cold to his flesh. Gently, she placed the stethoscope against his chest, listening. She tried not to be influenced by his warm, hard flesh. As she grazed him, his skin tightened, the muscles leaping beneath. The man’s chest was powerful.

“Can you move your head to one side? I need to put my ThermoScan into your ear for a moment and take your temperature,” she said.

He nodded and turned his head slightly so she had easy access.

Cat felt shaky inside. Talon was a sensual, dark, dangerous and exciting man. She wasn’t used to feeling this way.

She looked at the ThermoScan. “Thanks. Your temperature is really going down. It’s a hundred degrees now. That’s good news.”

“How about my lungs?” he asked. “I feel like an elephant’s sitting on my chest.”

Cat gave him a sympathetic look. “I know. There’s still crackling in them. That means a lot of fluid remains in them. I’m going to give you another shot of antibiotics.” She got up.

Talon watched her move. Cat was medium boned, had flesh on her, but she was clearly athletically fit. Her red flannel shirt barely outlined her breasts. They were full breasts, the kind a man could hold in the palms of his hands. She was long in the torso and her hips flared. His gaze roamed the longest pair of legs he’d ever seen on a woman. He liked a woman’s legs and fantasized just how taut and curved her thighs were beneath the material of her jeans. He could feel himself hardening. Cursing mentally, Talon forced his body to not react to her. When Cat turned around, he feasted on her oval face, those so-soft lips of hers, wondering how she would taste beneath his exploration.

Cat sat down and rubbed an area of his upper arm with an alcohol swab. “This is going to hurt,” she warned him. His biceps was huge.

“That’s nothing,” Talon said. Her eyes focused and he barely felt the sting of the needle into his arm. She was good as a paramedic, no question. As she leaned forward, her slightly curled black hair slid off her shoulders and swung forward, bracketing her face. Talon itched to lift and sift the ebony strands through his fingers. He’d probably startle the hell out of Cat if he gave in to the desire, and he didn’t want to scare her. Sometimes, Talon saw fear banked in her eyes. Fear of him? Well, after he came up swinging, yeah, she’d be scared. But there was more to it. At some point, he’d find out the truth because he wanted to know her a helluva lot better.

Cat placed a small piece of gauze over the shot area and quickly wrapped it in some latex. Just getting to slide her fingers around his arm gave her secret pleasure. Talon’s muscles tensed automatically wherever her fingertips brushed against his flesh. Worse, she felt turned-on, a dampness between her thighs. No man had ever elicited that kind of response from her. Ever. Cat had no reasonable explanation for her body’s reaction, as if it acted independently from her mind. And her contact with Talon created dark, intense and unreadable emotions in his eyes. Cat impulsively reached out, touching his wrinkled brow. His skin was warm and drier than before. His eyes instantly narrowed upon her. Her womb contracted. Pulling her hand away, Cat quickly stood and put her equipment into the medical bag. She wiped her damp palms against her jeans and turned.