Page 18 of Two Risks I'd Never Take Again

“It’ll probably be easier to get pants on once I’m back on the bed.”

“All right. We’ve done this once already. We can do it again. We’ll just try to skip the part where I fall over and end up with you on top of me.” I tried to remember how I’d gotten him up the last time.

“Is there a raincheck available for that?”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay. Now that I know your ribs are hurt, grabbing you around the chest doesn’t seem like such a great idea.”

He bent his knees. “If I can get on all fours, I can use the bed to get up.” After rolling onto his side, he shifted a leg.

I hovered over him, not sure where to touch to help him. “What do you need me to do?”

“If you could shove my hips up, that would help. With my abs sore and limited use of my hands, getting into position is difficult.”

With my hands on his hips, I helped him onto his knees. “What now?”

Braced on his elbows, he looked up at the bed. “I just need to reach the edge of the bed.”

“And I would love to have a gourmet kitchen.” I needed something for him to use to push up a little. “Okay. I have a plan. I dropped to my knees and crawled between Garrett and the bed. “Use my back to get up.”

“I owe you, Tessa. Seriously.” He managed to get upright enough to get his feet underneath him. Then he sat down on the bed. “After this week, will you even speak to me?”

“Not sure yet. But don’t be surprised if I always look near you and not directly at you.” I helped him get his feet onto the bed.

“If you can get the waistband up to at least my knees, I can do the rest.”

“Without falling off the bed?”

His blue eyes twinkled. “Maybe.”

He wriggled into his pants without much of a problem.

Putting on his shirt should’ve been the easiest part. But it wasn’t, because the temptation to press soft kisses to each of his bruises pounded on the inside of my skull. Kissing him was the opposite of not risking my heart.

I recognized it for what it was. Physical attraction. Nothing more.

Chapter 5

Following the directions on my map app, I drove through a very upscale neighborhood. “What kind of place did you get?”

“Someplace where we wouldn’t be bothered.” He grinned as the voice on my phone instructed me to turn into a driveway. “And I wanted it to be worth closing your shop. I’ll hide out, and you can enjoy a mini vacation.”

The driveway wound through trees before circling in front of a massive two-story house. Just before the house, the driveway branched off toward a garage.

I stopped and gazed up at the house through the windshield. “Garrett, this is huge.”

“It looks nice.”

“Wow. Yeah. Nice. We’ll go with that. I’ll get you unloaded here, then park in the garage, I guess.” After unbuckling my seat belt, I leaned over and clicked the button on his. “This definitely qualifies as a getaway.”

He climbed out of the car on his own as I yanked bags out of the backseat. “Sorry I can’t help you with those. I feel like a heel, letting you do all the work.”

“Not a big deal. They aren’t heavy.”

“I ordered some stuff earlier. It should be delivered sometime in the next hour.” Garrett stepped onto the porch, then dictated the code for me to punch into the key box.

I unlocked the door and pushed it open. Momentarily forgetting the bags, I walked inside in awe. On the other side of a large living room was a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows and a set of double doors that led out to a huge deck. I stepped outside. The house had been built onto a hill, and the view from here was breathtaking. Lights twinkled on the horizon. Down the hill and to the left and right, windows of large houses glowed. But even the view of those houses was obscured by trees. How could a house in the city feel so private?

Further down the deck was another set of double doors and close to them was a hot tub. Lounge chairs dotted the deck near there and on the other side was a table with a fire pit in the middle. Beside it was an outdoor sofa and chairs.

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