“Is it night?” he croaked. When she didn’t answer fast enough he reached for her and slammed her up against the wall with a bone-jarring thud. After working in a city ER for years she had seen this a hundred times, a patient waking up disoriented and aggressive. Just the same, there were no orderlies or security guards there to bring him down. It was just her. Little ol’ her. “Answer!”

“No! It’s daylight and you need to be back in bed before you rip those stitches!” Everything about him screamed of a superhuman man. His temperament was still up in the air, but everything about him reeked of dangerous power.

Not to mention nudity. A state he didn’t seem to notice at all. And being a former trauma nurse, she shouldn’t be noticing, either, but it was kind of the elephant in the room. Elephant meant in more ways than one. There was nothing at all small about the man. His wife, if he had one, had to be an equally big girl. Kat couldn’t begin to imagine being on the other end of someone so big in so many ways. It was one time where she was happy to admit she was way too small to even consider tackling that particular mountain.

She turned her voice soft and coaxing. “Come,” she said gently, her hand running soothingly down one of the forearms trapping her against the wall. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

He scoffed. “There’s very li’le that can hurt me.”

But she could tell he was struggling to remain upright, his brawny body shaking in fine tremors at first then expanding into harder ones. “Please come lay down in bed for me and rest. It’s not like you can go anywhere with a storm closing in.”

He growled and gave her a shake. “Offer me bed one more time, wench, and I’ll be taking you with me.” He leaned in close, his nose touching her temple as he snuffled against her rather like her bear of a dog might do. “You smell very tempting, but as li’le as you are I wouldna risk it if I were you. I’ll no’ be an easy lover.” His voice dropped an octave. “I like to grab at my lass, dragging her tight again’ me, and devouring her smells and tastes before I even think about fucking her to within an inch of her life … but maybe, even as small as you are, you’re wanting to be devoured like that?”

Oh yes, please! part of her cried suddenly. Wait. No! her saner thoughts prevailed. She shook off the momentary melting craving his sensual threats caused, the bold words having jump-started her brain into illicit musings. There will be none of that, she told herself sternly.

Right before he ran a hand up her ribs and completely embraced her breast with palm and fingers.

She yelped, grabbed his hand, and smacked it away.

He growled impatiently. “First you offer me bed, then you push me away. Quit your teasing, woman.”

“I am not teasing! I only meant—” She huffed out a breath, realizing she was trembling just as powerfully as he was, and she told herself it was from fear and not because he’d just weakened every bone in her primitive body.

“There will be n-no wenching tonight,” she stammered as firmly as she could, pushing at the massive wall of man with an ineffectual palm against his chest. There was some sort of raised burn on his chest, something long healed but purposeful in shape … as though he’d been branded. Two snakes, wrapped around a dagger in an infinite figure eight, each snake seemingly devouring the tail of the snake before it in what seemed to be a never-ending cycle. The heavily defined and branded pectoral muscle jumped, ostensibly at her touch. Like a kid seeing something fascinating and new, she wanted to repeat her action just so she could see the reaction once more. Truth be told, there was a wave of virility pounding off him, catching her in the surf of it, dragging her around like a helpless child at the beach. But there was nothing at all childlike about the heat his words sent snaking through her.

Kat worked her mouth into a harsh line and looked him dead in the eye. Who the hell used the term wench anymore anyway? she thought, trying to bolster her sternness. “You are going back to bed, alone, to rest! Doctor’s orders! You’ve lost a lot of blood and—”

And right on cue he listed dangerously forward, nearly squashing her up against the wall like a bug as all his weight pushed into her. But he recovered quickly and drew away from her, taking a moment to dust her off and check her for signs of life. It was little things like that, little thoughtful kindnesses, that kept her thinking he was not a bad man, whatever his treatment of her thus far.

“Perhaps you are correct,” he said, still sounding as though he’d lurched out of the Middle Ages. But for all she knew he had. “I’ll be taking a rest, in spite of the insufficiency of your bed.”

In spite of what now?

Instantly she became pissed off. “Hey, my bed is just fine. It’s not its fault that you’re abnormally gigantic! Just be glad I didn’t leave you in the brush to die!”

He frowned then and suddenly there was clarity in his eyes. “Yes.” His hand went to his wounded side, his fingers running over her stitching. “I’ll be thanking you for that,” he said. “I think I’ll be requiring your help further,” he said politely, indicating his unsteadiness. Mollified, she stepped under his arm and, again, despite their disparate heights she managed to help him back into bed. But man, was she going to feel it tomorrow when her muscles began to complain about the serious heavy lifting she’d done in such a short amount of time. And without a sufficient warm-up!

After she got him in bed, she finally pulled out her phone and called her mother.

And got her voicemail. Lovely.

Beep! “Hey Mom. It’s me. It’s really—” Crackle. Crackle. Click. “Important that you call me,” she finished with a sigh even though it was very clear the line had gone dead. “Oh crap!” she exclaimed suddenly, running to the window and, sure enough, there was the reason her cell service sucked. A heavy fall of snow was whooshing around outside. She noticed the creaking of the house for the first time and the wailing of the sudden winds. It had blown up fast and hard, but no one could blame her for not noticing under the circumstances. “Oh crap!” she said again suddenly.

It was obvious her guest had a fever. His gaping wound had been exposed to God knows what and he could easily go septic if he didn’t get some strong antibiotics.

Kat ran to the master suite bathroom and started tearing through her medicine cabinet and the under cabinets, even though she knew she was a good girl who always took all her medication right down to the very last pill. But who knew? Maybe she’d been a rebel just once. Of course her rebel days had ended quite abruptly years ago, and any medication from back then would be expired, but it was better than nothing.