“You could have just let me lean on you,” she hissed.
“Faster this way. Bear, stay outside.”
Hailey tried to relax enough to enjoy the sensation of being carried by a man for the first time. It would have been even more enjoyable if he wasn’t wearing a shirt and they were heading to her bedroom, but she’d settle for being cradled by hard muscles.
Matt managed to climb the back steps of her deck without hitting either her head or her feet on the railings, and then he paused while she reached out and opened the door. After successfully navigating the door frame, he kicked it closed behind them and carried her into the living room.
Now didn’t seem like a good time to point out she preferred shoes be left on the mat by the door, so she kept her mouth shut while he lowered her onto the couch. When he stood back up, she was strangely flattered to see he didn’t grimace or rub the small of his back. What a gentleman.
“Wow, you have a lot of throw pillows,” he said. “Shove some of them under your leg while I get some ice.”
It was strange seeing a man in her house, and she tried to remember the last time a guy had crossed her threshold. When she did go on a date, she took her own car and met him at their destination. She’d dated one man a few times, so he’d eventually picked her up at home and even kissed her goodnight on her front step. But inviting him in hadn’t felt right and that had been the end of him.
The last man to stand in her living room was probably the guy who’d repaired her phone line. The phone guy had been taller than Matt and definitely more round, but it still seemed as if Matt took up more space in the room, as though he were somehow larger than life.
Naturally, he took the easy way out and grabbed a bag of frozen vegetables rather than making a real icepack, which he then plopped on her knee. “How bad is the pain?”
“It’s honestly not that bad. I think I just tweaked it a bit and, if you didn’t have a hero complex, I probably would have walked it off by now.”
“Hero complex?” He walked behind her and adjusted the big pillow behind her back so she was more comfortable. “Hardly.”
When he palmed the back of her head and gently pushed it forward, Hailey’s breath caught in her throat. And when his other hand brushed the hair away from her neck, it released in a long, shaky exhale.
“What is this?” His voice was low and she felt the cushion shift as he leaned on the back of the couch.
What was that? That was a soft and lonely stretch of skin that loved to be kissed and had gone without for far too long. “What is what?”
His fingertip traced a gentle circle at the nape of her neck and all she could do was hope the low-grade tremor she felt on the inside didn’t show on the outside. “This is a bad bite and you’ve been scratching it. A lot.”
“I didn’t realize I had a bite there until I was at work yesterday. The tag on my shirt rubbed against it all day and drove me nuts.”
“You should put something on it.”
His touch was working just fine, replacing the annoying itch with a rather pleasant tingling sensation. “I will.”
“Do you have any hydrocortisone cream? I don’t want to leave it like this.”
“I think I have some in the junk drawer next to the stove.” If her friendly neighborhood game warden wanted to give the back of her neck some tender loving care, who was she to stand in the way of him doing his duty?
When he pushed himself up off the back of the couch, a gust of Matt’s breath blew across her exposed skin and she closed her eyes.
“Who keeps hydrocortisone cream in the kitchen junk drawer?”
“People who tend to cut themselves making salads keep antibiotic cream there, so it all goes in. And it qualifies. Batteries and first aid creams and junk. In the junk drawer.”
“Or aspirin and first aid creams and medicine. In the medicine cabinet.”
Hailey could tell he was walking away from her, so she opened her eyes to watch him go. Even if she tried to put aside being under the influence of his touch on her neck, she had to admit he had a nice ass. Exceptional, even. It was probably all that walking he did in the woods, rescuing lost women.
She was in so much trouble.
IF MATT NEEDED a reminder that making a move on Hailey would be like turning down a pothole-riddled dead-end dirt road, the inside of her house was more than enough. Light colors, white wood and no clutter implied this was a woman who wouldn’t like her man coming home with mud—or worse—on his boots.
He found her meager first aid supplies in the junk drawer with a flashlight that—knowing her—would need batteries, a screwdriver, half a dozen bottles of nail polish and enough other debris so it took him two tries to close it. No wonder there was no clutter in her house. It was all shoved into one drawer.
When he walked back into the living room, she had the bag of frozen vegetables in her hand and was flexing her knee. It seemed to bend with no trouble, though she winced a little. When she saw him, she dropped the improvised ice pack back on her knee and smiled.
“I don’t think the damage is too bad.”
“Good. Now let’s take care of that bite. Do I need to give you the lecture on the dangers of mosquito bites and how to properly protect against them?”
“No, Warden Barnett,” she responded in a snippy voice. “I’ve learned my lesson. And I can do that myself. Honest.”
“I’ve got it.” If him touching her neck made her squirm, he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. She wasn’t the only one who could be contrary. “Tip your head forward.”
With an exasperated sigh, she lowered her head to give him access to her neck.
“This might sting a little,” he warned.
He took an antiseptic wipe out of its package and cleaned the inflamed bug bite thoroughly. Between her tag rubbing on it and her scratching it, she’d made it pretty raw and there were some dried blood flakes at the center of the bite. When he’d cleaned it to his satisfaction, the wipe leaving the area wet with antiseptic, he leaned close and blew gently on her skin.
Her body jerked and he watched as her fingers tightened around a throw pillow so tightly he was surprised her nails didn’t pop through the fabric. She sucked in a breath, but didn’t say anything.
“Did that sting?” he asked, knowing damn well that wasn’t the problem.
“No. Are you almost done?”
“Almost.”
He squeezed a dab of hydrocortisone cream on the tip of his finger and took his time applying it to the bite. Even though it only took one fingertip to apply the medicine, he let the others trail over her skin, enjoying her battle not to react to his touch.
Until his own body started reacting, too. Skimming his fingertips over her neck, feeling her respond to him, affected him more than he’d thought it would. If he didn’t put some distance between them, he might be tempted to do something really stupid.
“That should do it.” He put the cap on the tube and gathered the wipe and package to throw away. “Stop scratching it.”
After tossing the garbage and wrestling with her junk drawer again, Matt washed his hands. Then he went back for a final check on his patient. “Do you want anything before I go? A drink? The TV remote?”
“No, thank you.”
He tilted his head and grinned. “A neck rub?”
She growled and chucked a throw pillow at him. “Out!”
He was still laughing when he let himself out through her kitchen. Bear had been waiting for him, staring at the door, and Matt gave him a good scratch behind the ears. “Let’s go, bud. We’ve got to make my bed and get yours upstairs. And I have to find the coffee filters or we’ll have a rough morning.”
Bear ran ahead of him, then stopped at the back door, looking utterly confused. Matt laughed at him and opened the door so the dog could go in.
“Tomorrow we’ll install your door, okay? I have to dig my tools out of the garage and all that. But right now, beds and coffee are number one on the list, so we’ve got some work ahead of us.”
Bear walked into the living room and jumped onto his end of the couch. After giving the cushion a good sniff to make sure nothing about it had changed, he curled up and closed his eyes.
Matt shook his head. “It’s a good thing I didn’t try to make you into a K-9. You’d give up the farm for a belly rub and a nap.”
When his dog ignored him, Matt went out to the garage and looked at the stack of boxes. The coffee filters hadn’t been in any of the boxes marked kitchen. So where would he have put them?
If push came to shove, he could probably borrow a few filters from his neighbor. She had a coffee machine similar to his on her counter. But he’d gotten her all wound up and he figured there was a good chance if he asked for a coffee filter, she’d probably go so far as to brew a pot and drink the whole thing in front of him out of spite.
Matt chuckled and dug into a box stupidly marked miscellaneous. He was probably going to enjoy living next to Hailey. She had a great laugh and it was easy to push her buttons. It was a great combination as long he remembered not to let her figure out how to wind him up.
That wouldn’t be good at all.
SIX
HAILEY SAT AT her table, sipping her Sunday morning coffee and wondering if assaulting a law enforcement officer didn’t count if the officer in question wasn’t in uniform at the time.