Still the One Read online

  of hug that suggested familiarity.

  Whatever. So AJ and Ariana had had a thing. Everyone knew that. They were well suited, what with AJ’s calm, stoic attitude and Ariana’s calm inner spirit. Hell, maybe they were still having a thing. Truth was, AJ had lots of things, with lots of women. That’s what happened when you had that whole badass thing going on. Women tended to be stupid when it pertained to big and badass.

  Herself included.

  No matter that she told herself she preferred sweet and gentle, the truth was that she wouldn’t mind being a little stupid with someone big and badass and sexy as hell. Problem was, she wasn’t exactly at her sexiest, and hadn’t been for a while. She walked like Lurch from The Addams Family, she was mean as a snake from not sleeping more than a few hours at a time due to the pain, and though she liked the thought of having wild monkey sex, the actual mechanics of it were undoubtedly beyond her now.

  Bending, she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder before starting to rise carefully back up. This was always the tricky part because when she didn’t pay attention, her right leg tended to buckle and she often ended up face-planting.

  She’d done so just last week at the grocery store checkout in front of the really cute checker, going down like a sack of potatoes. Even more mortifying, the cute checker had crouched at her side and said, “Ma’am, I’ve called the ambulance, stay real still.”

  Ma’am.

  He’d thought her old enough to be called ma’am, and hell, she’d certainly felt old. It had been a blow to her ego because there’d been a time when she could’ve batted her lashes, flashed a smile, and caught any guy she wanted, young or old.

  Now? She didn’t even have the energy for a self-serve in her own shower.

  So yeah, she’d fall in front of an audience again over her own dead body, especially an audience that included the guy who’d probably give her a new list of strengthening exercises to do every day and then watch over her like a drill sergeant.

  But before she could make the careful struggle, a large hand appeared in front of her face. Reaching out, she gripped AJ’s hand, using it as a lifeline.

  He didn’t let go right away, either, just squeezed his fingers in hers, setting his other hand on the curve of her waist to help her gain her balance, silently reminding her to put equal weight on both feet. She concentrated hard, her gaze up as he’d taught her. Feel the equilibrium.

  The directives had been drilled into her by AJ himself, who stood there quietly, respectfully letting her get to it by herself on her own timetable.

  The opposite tactic of Xander. While he had a lot of really great qualities, patience wasn’t one of them. He’d been known to pick her up, toss her in a fireman’s hold, and carry her where he wanted to go rather than wait for her to get there herself.

  It never failed to piss her off.

  At least Ariana had moved off and no one was staring at her struggling. She hated that most of all—the sympathetic gazes. Hated. That was one thing AJ had never done: pity her.

  Piss her off? Oh yeah. But not pity her. She supposed he got Brownie points for that. “I’m good,” she said.

  “I know.”

  He could be such an annoying alpha pain in her ass, but it was in moments like these that she realized just how important his steady, imperturbable disposition was, and had been, to her recovery.

  He’d given her back her life.

  And her dignity.

  Damn him all to hell. “Well,” she said, blowing out a breath and relaxing a bit. “This has been fun.”

  “Liar.”

  She choked out a laugh. “You know, I’m always a little bit disappointed when someone calls someone a liar and their pants don’t catch on fire.”

  His eyes smiled. “You want my pants to catch on fire?”

  Not going there … “Any special reason why you were intimidating Xander back there?” she asked. “Or was it just for sport?”

  AJ’s gaze slid away to take in the retreating man in question, who’d been stopped by Ariana to talk. “You think I intimidated him?”

  “Like you, he’s hard to intimidate,” she said. “But unlike you, he’s afraid of me and my wrath so he backed off.”

  “And you don’t think I’m afraid of you?” he asked.

  Valid question. As far as she knew, just about everyone was afraid of her. Crazy Darcy. Bitchy Darcy. Wild Darcy. But she slowly shook her head. “I don’t think you’re afraid of anything,” she said.

  The corners of his mouth curved as if her statement amused him, but also maybe wasn’t quite accurate. But she sincerely couldn’t imagine the big, built, ex-military man standing in front of her being afraid of a damn thing.

  And anyway, why was he here talking to her? He rarely did unless he had to. “Did you need to talk to me about work?” she asked.

  “No. Well, yes, kind of,” he said. “I’m going to Boise this weekend.”

  “To meet up with your potential grant sponsor. I e-mailed you all the hotel and registration info, for both you and Seth. It’s a retreat weekend, did you know that? It’s some big team-building thing for all the guy’s employees. Be prepared for Seth to freak out when he sees how many people will be there.”

  “Yeah, about that …” AJ rubbed a hand over the sexy scruff on his jaw and it made a sound that reminded her how it felt to have a man kiss her. All over.

  Damn, she missed sex.

  “Seth already freaked out,” AJ said.

  “Uh-oh.” She tried to read him but he could be military stoic and impenetrable when he wanted, giving nothing away. “What happened?”

  “He said that he can’t be on display.”

  Ah. Now she knew why he was still standing there talking to her. “Sounds like a problem for you,” she said slowly.

  “Yes. It is.”

  She stared at him some more, thinking, Oh hell no. Then she said it out loud just in case her expression wasn’t clear enough. “Oh hell no, AJ.”

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “You were thinking it,” she said, pointing at him. “You want me to go instead.”

  “I do,” he said calmly.

  She didn’t realize she was shaking her head in the negative until he spoke.

  “You’ve got an amazing comeback story,” he said. “And since I was your PT, I can personally attest to your recovery and exactly how amazing it was.”

  “You want to profit from that?”

  “No,” he said, his voice still perfectly even, but something flashed in his eyes.

  Disappointment?

  Hurt?

  “I want others like you to profit from it,” he said. “With donations for grants, I can help more people when their insurance cuts them off before they’re ready to stop PT.”

  Emotion swamped her, unexpected and hot. Shame. A man like AJ would never try to profit off another. Never. “I’m sorry,” she managed. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have said—”

  “It’s just one night,” he said, clearly not wanting or needing her apology. “Just a dinner. I’ll help you through it.”

  “But—”

  “You don’t want to be on display, either,” he said. “I get it.”

  No, she didn’t want to be on display. So badly she didn’t. She still felt self-conscious when her sister and brother watched her walk, much less other people. And talking about her accident and the recovery? Her biggest nightmare.

  And yet he wanted her to do exactly that, where so many strange sets of eyes would be on her.

  Horror. “No—”

  “I’ll pay you,” he said, still quiet, still calm in the face of her panic.

  She just stared at him.

  “Cash. A thousand bucks. That’s enough for what, three dogs?”

  Her mouth fell open. “Yeah, but … why? Why would you pay me?”

  “Because you have a cause, and I’m a sucker for a cause that involves anything with four legs.”

  Oh, damn. Damn, that