Montana Cowboy Daddy (Wyatt Brothers of Montana #3) - Jane Porter Page 0,42

helping him with his shirt, ensuring he was partially dressed before they left. “What will you need me to do for before bed? Any bandages need to be changed?”

“Can you not say it like they’re diapers?”

She snorted, and then giggled at her own inelegant snort.

Billy lifted an eyebrow which only made her laugh all over again. Erika didn’t know why she was laughing, only that it felt good, and for the first time in a long time, she felt happy. And it was an amazing way to feel.

Chapter Seven

The next morning, Erika had only just finished making coffee and dressing when Billy appeared in the kitchen in nothing but baggy black sweatpants that hung off his lean hips, revealing a torso of chiseled abs and sinewy muscle. He had bruises across his chest, as well as scars, fresh scars from the recent surgery, and then older ones.

She tried to drag her gaze up to his face, but his body was fascinating. It was an athlete’s body, a mature man’s body, the embodiment of strength with so much muscle. She found herself wanting to study each hollow and shape, shadow and scar, tracing the lines and planes.

It took every ounce of her discipline to raise her gaze and look him in the eye. “Morning,” she said.

“Morning. Hoping you can give me a hand,” he said, holding a big Ziploc bag filled with gauze and tape, while stretchy bandages and the blue sling dangled from his fingers.

“Of course. How do you want to do this? What first?”

He set everything on the kitchen island and pulled out a stool and sat down. “Gauze and tape on the surgery wound, and then we’ll wrap my chest with the first bandage, and finally the sling.”

“Aren’t you supposed to have another stretchy bandage on top of the sling, to hold it all in place?”

“I’m not going to worry about it. Keeping the surgical wound clean is key, and then the rib compression thing helps a lot, and so does the sling.”

He walked her through covering up the dark red and purple wound on his shoulder. She could still see all the stitches and was glad when it was covered by the gauze, and securely taped.

“Now the ribs,” he said, rising. “Just wrap the compression belt around my chest and smooth the Velcro closed.”

She’d seen Tommy do this yesterday and had a general idea of what she’d need to do, but somehow it was different when she was the one standing in front of him. “You can’t lift your arms, can you?”

“Not the left one. You’ll need to get close, slide it up under my elbow and pull tight.”

She was facing him, almost hip to hip, torso to torso and she could feel his warmth, heat radiating off of him. Admittedly, the cabin was warm. Billy liked setting the thermostat at a comfortable temperature, to keep him from aching from cold when he wasn’t moving. But confronting Billy’s bare chest, and broad shoulders, and narrow waist made her throat dry, and her heart do weird little skips.

“I probably have coffee breath,” she warned.

“I like coffee.”

Her face grew hot, and butterflies filled her middle as she took the wide stretchy compression belt from the counter. She slid it around his waist and then lifted it up his torso until she could pull it tightly closed. Her nose was almost pressed to his chest and he smelled amazing, skin and a hint of soap, or body wash, but whatever it was, it was delicious. He smelled delicious. It’d be so easy to put a little tiny kiss there, right between his pecs, but she stopped herself from going down that path.

“Sling next?” she asked huskily.

He sat back down on the stool, and she had to step between his legs to slip the strap around his neck. “I don’t want to hurt you,” she said.

“You won’t,” he answered, “at least not more than I already hurt.”

She looked up into his blue eyes. They were exactly the same shade as Beck’s. “You’re in pain now?”

“I tried to do too much in the shower—” He broke off as she arched an eyebrow. “Do you have a dirty mind?”

“No.” Erika blushed and vigorously shook her head, and yet they were so close, and he was so warm and there was something powerful in the close proximity, something intoxicating. “I—” She broke off, and bit into her lower lip. “Nothing. Let’s just get you dressed.”

She helped ease his left elbow into the blue sling,