It Was Only a Kiss - By Joss Wood Page 0,48

feeling so tired.’

‘The adrenalin is wearing off. Take a nap,’ Luke suggested as he stood up. ‘Call me if you need anything.’

‘Thanks.’ He was nearly at the door when he heard Jess’s soft voice calling him back. He walked to the bed and looked down at her, soft and small and sad.

‘I can’t let you go without saying sorry. I was selfish and inconsiderate...I’m so sorry. It was so wrong of me.’

Luke shoved his hand into his hair. ‘And I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have. Around you, stuff seems to float to the surface.’

Jess dropped her eyes. ‘Sorry. Again. I’m just really sad that you regret meeting me again. I never meant to turn your world upside down.’

Luke placed his hands on either side of her and caged her in. ‘Yes, you did. It’s what you do—who you are. And you know that was the one thing I didn’t mean—the one statement that was totally untrue. I don’t for one minute regret anything to do with you.’

Jess looked up at him with enormous eyes. ‘So are we friends again?’

Luke placed a soft but determined kiss on her open mouth before lifting his head. ‘Probably not, but we sure are something. Get some sleep, sweetheart.’

NINE

Jess managed to shower, get dressed and stagger downstairs. Her family were due to arrive in a few hours and she had to sort out the manor house. She wanted to air the rooms, put flowers in them, and she needed to go to town to stock up on food and drink. And morphine, and other Class A, B and C drugs, because her hands and knees throbbed continually and every step she took radiated pain into her cut.

Jess walked into the kitchen, walked around Luke, who was stacking dishes into the dishwasher, and headed for the coffee machine. He’d been wonderful last night—tender, protective, sweet. And when he’d climbed into his bed next to her he’d been careful of her all night. She remembered him forcing more painkillers down her some time during the early hours of the morning, a warm hand patting her hip when she briefly surfaced to protest against the pain.

Hearing her approach Luke turned away from the fridge and sent her a smile. ‘I was just going to bring you some coffee.’

Jess pushed her hair off her face. ‘Thank you for cleaning me up last night.’

‘No problem.’ Luke handed her a cup of coffee. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Like I had a close encounter with a road.’

‘That good, huh?’ Luke jerked out a chair and sat down at the kitchen table. He poured cereal into a bowl and added milk. He gestured to the box with his spoon. ‘Help yourself. You’re probably starving.’

Jess took the seat opposite him. She dashed muesli into her bowl. ‘Not so much. But I need to eat so that I can take some more painkillers.’

‘No more drugs until we get you to the doctor. You have an appointment in forty-five minutes.’

Jess waited for the familiar spurt of anger she always experienced when men told her what to do. It didn’t come and she cocked her head. Strange. Maybe she was accepting his bossiness because he’d been so utterly wonderful last night.

Jess rubbed her forehead. ‘Do you really think it’s necessary?’

‘Yes. If you don’t get stitches it’ll take that much longer to heal and it will scar horribly. Your legs are gorgeous, Blondie, let’s try to keep them that way.’

Jess wrinkled her nose. ‘It’s just that my family are arriving later and I have so much to do.’

‘Like what?’

‘Shopping for food and wine—’

‘Friends of mine own the deli on Main Street. You can phone an order in, they’ll get it ready, and we’ll pick it up after you see the doc. As for wine... Funny, I thought we had a cellar on the premises.’

‘I can’t expect you to fund my family’s wine habit!’ Jess protested.

‘Knock the cost of the wine off my bill,’ Luke suggested, and leaned back in his chair. ‘Next?’

‘I wanted to air the rooms in the manor, check that all the beds have linen on them, put flowers on the nightstands.’

Luke lifted his hips, pulled his mobile from his pocket, pushed buttons and held the mobile to his ear. After a quick conversation he disconnected and dropped the mobile onto the table.

‘Who was that?’ Jess asked.

‘Greta. She used to be housekeeper at the manor. Her granddaughter Angel cleans for me to earn some spending money...she’s at uni. Anyway, Greta’s retired, but she’ll grab