drawn to her? She’d seemed so sweet and docile and submissive? She’d seemed like the type of woman to listen to him and defer to his judgment?
Fuck.
Yes.
He knew that a woman who was too submissive would not be someone he could be with long term, of course. He loved strong, independent women. Hell, he helped women become strong and independent. But for a short-term fling, did he like the idea of a woman who would think he had all the answers and would sweetly say yes to him over and over again?
Yep.
That was not Jocelyn Asher after all.
And now, here he was, up to his eyeballs in caring about her and worrying about her enough to seriously consider throwing her over his shoulder and kidnapping her to the hospital to have her gall bladder taken out.
He shoved a hand through his hair.
“Your boss is your best friend. I’m certain if she knew what was going on she’d insist you get it taken care of as well,” Grant said, trying to keep his voice even.
Jocelyn narrowed her eyes. “You’d better not even think about telling her. I will tell her about what the doctor said.”
“You mean you’ll tell her a version of what the doctor said.”
She didn’t confirm it. But she also didn’t deny it.
“Dammit, Jocelyn.” Grant smacked his hand down on the counter. “Be reasonable.”
“I’m being reasonable!” She frowned at him. “I have a lot to consider here! I told you, I don’t have insurance. I need to figure out to make this work. When I can’t work for a little bit. And when I’ll have big bills to pay! Just leave me alone for a freaking minute!”
Grant blew out a breath. This was not his problem. She was not his concern. She was not his responsibility.
That didn’t seem to matter.
“I’ll give you the money.”
She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. As if counting to ten to gather patience.
Oh, she needed to gather patience to deal with him?
“That’s very nice of you,” she finally said calmly. “But we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars. I couldn’t take that kind of money from you.”
He had it. It would be no problem at all. But he appreciated someone not wanting to take a handout. Pride was important too. “You can pay me back.” There was no way he’d have her pay him back the full amount, but he’d figure something out when the time came.
“I can also pay the hospital back. They’ll have some kind of payment plan, I’m sure.”
Damn stubborn woman. “Mine would be interest free.”
“I wouldn’t be comfortable owing you that much money for the length of time this would take,” she said, lifting her chin.
Grant ground his teeth. “Borrow it from Aiden, then. He’s a friend. Someone you’ve known forever.”
“No fucking way.”
He ground his teeth harder even as he made a note that she evidently swore as she got more determined.
“You’re being ridiculous,” he told her.
“Maybe you should just leave,” she responded.
Yeah, maybe he should. Because he was tempted to call a friend of his who was a computer hacker to get into Jocelyn’s bank account and make a deposit. Or maybe he could just call the hospital and arrange to cover her expenses anonymously. That he could do, surely. He’d ask Cam about legalities and such. Hell, he’d have Cam just handle it, so the hospital wouldn’t even know who it was coming from directly so that Jocelyn couldn’t find out.
She would surely guess, but as stubborn as she could be, he could be so much more so. She had no idea.
“Fine.” He turned on his heel. “I’ll leave. But this isn’t over.” He stalked to the back door.
“I appreciate everything you did to help me tonight, Grant,” she said softly behind him.
He stopped and pulled in a deep breath. See? She was sweet. She was stubborn and feistier than he’d given her credit for, maybe, but she was also sweet and sexy and had a smile that did things to his heart that had never been done to it before.
“You’re very welcome.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Call me if you need anything. Please. I mean it.”
She didn’t reply right away.
“I promise not to yell or nag,” he added.
She snorted softly.
“I’ll try not to,” he corrected with a small smile.
“Okay. Thanks.”
She wouldn’t call him. There was a jab in his chest as he realized it. Dammit. Hopefully she’d call Zoe or Jane. But it wasn’t his place to tell them anything about this.