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Are you in the bath??

I gasped sitting up and sloshing some of the water over mypropped-up leg. I looked around the bathroom like I would find Cal squeezed behind the toilet tank. I tapped out a rapid response.

Ruth:

Where are u?

Cal:

Living room. ARE U?

“Cal!” I shouted, scowling. “This is incredibly creepy.”

Footsteps sounded, coming from the living room toward the bathroom door. Suddenly, his muffled voice said, “You aren’t supposed to be in the bath.”

“I kept my leg out… alsowhat are you doing?”

A bag rustled. “I brought dinner. I did say I was coming.”

“At night!” I nearly screeched. “It’s four-thirty. And give my key back.”

“No,” he said with obvious amusement in his voice.

“Cal,” I growled. I reached forward to unplug the drain. “Wait in the living room. I’ll be there in a seco—”

“Ruth, let me help you,” he said with a note of censure.

“That’s a ‘hell no.’” I grappled for the towel I’d folded on the floor next to the bath. “Don’t you dare.”

“If you hit your head, I’ll really have to take you to a hospital,” he pointed out. The door creaked like he’d leaned against it. “I’ll close my eyes if you’re that worried.”

I struggled to get out of the bath. It was harder than I’d expected. The swelling in my knee had gone down almostentirely, but the tenderness around the stitches remained, and they tugged painfully as I leveraged myself up to sit on the edge of the tub. I hurried to wrap the towel around my body and then I lifted myself to a half-standing position on one leg.

Cal suddenly added, “I’m just going to get you naked later, anyway.”

I started, and the motion threw me off balance. With a screech, I grabbed the shower curtain. I went down with a loud thunk and then the clatter of the shower curtain hooks as they popped off the shower rod sang through the small bathroom. I landed hard on my ass in the half-full tub. The curtain broke the worst of my fall, and I managed to keep my leg up, but the curtain and rod popped clean off the wall and fell on top of me.

The door flew open, and before I could even gasp in shock at theabsurdityof what had just happened, the curtain was wrenched away from me. Cal dove his hands into the tub, and with one swift move had me out and in his arms. He’d swept one arm under my knees and the other around my torso and had me in a fireman’s carry. We both splashed water all over the floor as he backed away from the tub, and I grabbed his shoulders in mute surprise. “Straighten your leg,” he scowled.

I did, staring up at him in disbelief through a smattering of water that had clouded my glasses. His bright, spring green eyes glanced at my face and then over to my knee. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” I gusted out.

With a sigh, he backed out of the bathroom. Dripping water everywhere, he carried me across the hall to my bedroom, andit was only when the cool A/C air hit my nipples that I realized I’d lost my towel. I rotated a horrified look down.

Yep. Naked.

I slapped my right arm around my breasts and kept my left hooked around the back of Cal’s neck as he carried me across my small bedroom. It had the same beige carpet as the rest of the house, and it was barely big enough for my full bed that had been wedged against the far wall. I had one window to the left and another above my headboard, and with the blinds pulled up, bright summer sunlight bathed the tiny space in a gold wash. My closet to the right had been left open, and clothing spilled out from it, falling off the open shelves. I didn’t have room for a dresser in the eight-foot by eight-foot bedroom, so I kind of lived in a state of near-constant clothing disaster. The wooden chair I had butted up against the wall usually served as another clothing hanger, and my pants dangled from its back.

Cal set me down on my wheat-colored comforter, and I immediately reached for the disheveled knit throw at its foot so I could wrap it around my wet body. Cal’s sleeves were soaked, and as he stood, he peered at them before raising his eyebrows at me. “I told you it wasn’t safe.”

I spluttered, trying to simultaneously keep the blanket in place and wipe my glasses with it so I could see again. “This was your fault! I was fine until you said you were going to get me naked.”

Cal looked like some sort of bronze statue with his hair burnished copper in the warm sunlight and his freckles illuminatedover his summer-kissed skin. He had on the same green, linen button-down he’d worn when we’d first met, and although he must have come from work, he had that slightly disheveled look that signaled he was ready for the weekend. His eyes skipped down my body and back to my eyes. “I fucked your mouth with my tongue yesterday. That surprises you?”

My face flamed. “You can’t justsay thingslike that.”

“I can if I mean it,” he replied with a twitch of one eyebrow. He peered at his sleeves again, and then with a shrug, he undid the top button of his shirt.