Laid Bear by Eve Vaughn (e books for reading .TXT) 📕

certainly didn’t feel like she’d been hurt unless his definition of ‘serious injury’ was different from hers. “I feel just fine. If you’d allow me the use of a phone, I’ll call someone and arrange to be out of your hair as soon as possible.”

“If we had a phone here, I’d be happy to let you call whomever you’d like. However, we don’t. And cell phone reception in this area is nonexistent.”

“No phone? How do you communicate with the outside world?”

“We don’t. That would ruin the point of vacationing. But if we really need to get in contact with someone, we go into town about a half hour away.”

“Well, could you take me into town? And where exactly is here?”

“Back Swamp, Tennessee. Not too far from the mountains.

You’re not in any shape to go anywhere until you’re completely healed. You should probably hop back into bed and rest before you wear yourself out.”

“I don’t need to lie down. What I need is to get out of here.

I have someplace to be.”

Though the slight smile that still curved his lips remained, an unfathomable expression flickered in his eyes. “The only place you need to be is back in bed, so we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your decision.”

Zora placed her hands on her hips and pursed her lips.

“Look, I appreciate you taking me in, but I’d very much like to get dressed and get out of here. I’ve already told you, I’m fine.”

“The hard way it is.” He spoke as if she hadn’t said anything. Before she realized what he was up to, Gavin advanced and scooped her up in his arms. He carried her the short distance to the bed and gently laid her down on its center.

Once Zora got over the initial shock of her wishes being ignored, she tried to scramble off the bed, her blood boiling with fury. “I said I didn’t want to lie down!”

He placed a hand on her thigh to keep her still. “I’d hate to restrain you, but I will if I have to.”

She tried to squirm from the grip he had on her but to no avail. “Isn’t that what you’re doing to me already? Look, just because you allowed me to stay here for the night doesn’t give you the right to dictate to me.”

He chuckled in seeming amusement, which further served to piss her off. Her fists balled at her sides. If she were a violent person, she would have smacked the smug look off his face. “What’s so damn funny?”

“A night? Try five.”

“Look buddy, I don’t know what the—”she broke off when his words finally sunk in. “Five? That’s not possible.”

“Believe it. You’ve been here for a total of five nights, not one.”

She placed her hand over her forehead to feel for knots or any other trauma. Everything felt normal. “I couldn’t have been here for that long. I would have woken up at some point.

And if I was out so long, why didn’t you take me to a hospital? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do after an accident?”

“Look, Zora… May I call you Zora?”

She nodded absently, the wind having been knocked out of her sails.

He sat down next to her, relaxing the grip he had on her thigh, but not removing it completely. “Zora, in most circumstances we would have taken you to the hospital like you said. But when I saw you—when we saw you, we couldn’t do it. Let me preface what I have to say next by mentioning, I’m a medical doctor and I’ve handled the majority of your care while you were unconscious. If at any point in time I thought your injuries were beyond anything I was capable of healing, you’d be at the hospital as we speak.

Fortunately, you responded well to the medicine I administered as well as to the treatment I provided.”

Zora raised a brow, waiting for him to finish because there was obviously a but in there. “And the reason you decided to keep me here was why?”

His warm green gaze locked with hers. “Do I need to say?

Can’t you feel it too?”

Zora wanted to argue that she had no clue what he