Again his gaze travelled the distance between apartments. ‘No. Might be. Haven’t got a clue. After a good night’s sleep I’ll probably have changed my mind again.’
This is all new to me, and takes some getting my head around.
His eyes were still fixed over the fence.
‘Go have that sleep and let me know about the ED job.’
Harry stuffed the phone into his back pocket. That meal needed delivering before it got too cold to eat. Sienna should be up and about by now. Her sleeps were short, followed by aimless wandering around the apartment. Not so aimless that she hadn’t been writing a note on what to do once she was properly back on her feet. A grin lifted his mouth, and his spirits. Bet she was spitting tacks at him over that. His grin widened. Then there was that fling idea. Did he want to take up the challenge? Hell, yes. But would he? Watch this space, he mused.
‘Hello? It’s your pain-in-the-butt neighbour, bringing dinner,’ he called softly from the doorway.
No reply. Placing the plates on the table, he contemplated the merits of going to check on her for all of two seconds. He was a doctor and had promised Amy Roberts he’d keep an eye on Sienna for a few days.
Stepping out of the kitchen, he hesitated. On the floor by the lounge wall was a screwed-up piece of paper. It would have been no big deal in anyone else’s home, but here, where nothing was out of order, it stood out. Recognising the blue page, he picked it up, opened it. And roared with laughter.
‘Tell Harrison to stick his head where the sun don’t shine.’
So he’d got to her. For some reason that made him feel damned good. Sienna Burch had got under his skin, so it was only fair he’d returned the provocation. They could continue brushing each other up the wrong way for as long as he was here. Apparently rubbing sticks together produced sparks, followed by flames. Would they do the same with each other? Finding out was going to be fun. There was a fling on offer. Maybe not to him—yet—but he wouldn’t be himself if he wasn’t at least open to the idea.
It couldn’t hurt. Come Christmas he’d pack his bag and leave. For Melbourne? His grin died. Was this what he wanted? To finally return home? No. But if he stayed here he ran the risk of getting too involved with Sienna. He wasn’t ready for that—and never would be.
Shaking away those irritating thoughts, he headed down the hall to Sienna’s bedroom.
* * *
‘Sienna?’
She stared up at the apparition filling her doorway. From where she sat on the edge of her bed Harrison looked impossibly big. She rubbed at her eyes to remove the sleep grit and looked again. Still large, and gorgeous. ‘Hello?’
‘How’re you doing?’
‘Could be better,’ she admitted, feeling a little overwhelmed with his presence and the way her body ached from all the bruises while also coming awake in places that had been dormant for so long. This man did the strangest things to her, no matter how hard she fought him.
‘Never thought I’d hear you say that.’ His smart-alec grin undermined her further.
‘What are you doing here?’ she snapped.
‘Dropping in on the lady next door, seeing as how her heart’s working. I can already guess her head’s not so flash.’
‘Nothing wrong with my head.’
Nothing you need to know about. As for my heart, that’s strictly out of bounds.
‘Good, then I’ll take your pulse and BP reading before we have dinner. Together,’ he added with a certain satisfaction.
‘In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t spent the past hour in my kitchen cooking up a storm.’ But she might’ve if she’d known he was dropping in.
That grin only increased. ‘Ahh, but I have.’
‘Damn it, you cook as well?’
‘As well as what?’ Harry slid the BP cuff he’d brought with him around her arm, those long fingers warm where they touched her skin. ‘Sienna?’
‘Sienna what?’ Had she said something? Oh. ‘You’re good at swinging down to rescue people, and even better at taking charge and bossing someone around when they’re not up to speed.’
The cuff was in place and yet his hand remained on it, his fingers still touching her as he pumped the bulb with his other. ‘You don’t like me helping out?’
‘Liking and needing are two different things.’ Locking her eyes onto his, she saw the black lighten as if she’d made him happy, which sent her stomach into a tailspin. There was no air in the room. Making Harrison happy was not a good idea. He’d get the wrong idea and she’d never be rid of him. Now there was a plan. Put that on the list.
He appeared to have to drag his gaze away so he could focus on taking the BP reading. ‘I think I can make you like what you need.’
Sienna gulped, stared around the room. Her bedroom. Harrison was in her bedroom, supposedly taking obs and yet he was also flirting with her. Inappropriate? If it was she wasn’t about to tell him off. It had been so long since a man had paid her attention. Make that, since she’d allowed one to. ‘You probably think you know what I need as well.’
Harrison read the BP result, let the air out of the cuff, and pulled it off. When his eyes met hers again he was smiling in a teasing kind of way. ‘I read your list, remember?’
Far out. He didn’t hold back any punches. Or was he teasing? ‘So you want to go shopping for a tea mug with me?’
‘If we’re starting at the top of the page then I guess I’ll have to. Or I could drive you to the mall and wait in the car while you find what you’re after.’
She’d already found what she was after—for the fifth thing on her list, that was. ‘I’m not up to wandering around a crowded mall just yet.’ Not up to energetic sex either, but that one she was more than willing to try.
The cuff was being mangled in his hands. ‘We can always come back to that one later. Flying’s out too, so you’re making your way down the page without doing anything.’
But soon she’d reach the one thing she could act on—now. No. Too soon. But what was she waiting for? Here was a hot man, in her bedroom, available as far as she knew, apparently open to suggestions, and she was stalling. She needed air, space to think. Thinking, that was what she always did. Overthought things until the fun had gone out of them. Sienna shot to her feet. ‘I don’t...’ The room spun. Strong hands caught her shoulders, held her steady. Everything around her was moving in circles. Everything except Harry. He was rock-solid, reliable, dangerous, exciti
ng. Go for it. Lifting her head, she found Harrison watching her with resignation flattening that smile and darkening his eyes again.
‘When you’re ready, sit down again so I can take your pulse. Then we’ll have dinner.’
Reluctantly Sienna withdrew from his hold and stepped around him to leave the room. The moment was gone. They were back to Harry helping her out as a neighbour who’d had an accident, not as a woman he might want to bed. ‘My pulse is fine.’ He was not going to find out it was off the wall. ‘It’s my stomach that needs attention now.’
CHAPTER SIX
‘WHERE ARE YOU GOING?’
Harrison’s question interrupted Sienna’s concentration. He was standing in her garage looking cross.
‘Or should that be, where have you been? You’re not meant to drive yet, Doctor.’
She leaned out the window of her SUV. ‘I’ve been nowhere.’ More’s the pity. ‘And I’m going nowhere, Doctor.’
‘You felt like hanging out in your car for a bit?’
Sarcastic so-and-so. ‘You should mind your own business.’ He was always interfering. Shoving her door wide, Sienna placed her feet carefully on the ground, not prepared to show him how much she still hurt in most muscles. Nor was she saying what she’d done. Being laughed at would crank her temper up something shocking, though that would be the perfect outlet for all the frustration brought on by a long, tedious day at home.
Those hands that fascinated her beyond reason were now on his hips. Narrow hips on the vee from his wide chest to his—She jerked her head high and clashed with his gleaming eyes.
‘You’ve re-parked the SUV.’ There was a lot of amused twitching going on around his mouth.
Too damned shrewd for her good, he was. ‘And what if I have?’ Wait for it. He was going to burst out laughing any second.