Dream Man by Judy Griffith Gill Read Free Book Online Page A

Jeanie!” He took his hands off her, felt sticky blood on one, saw it matting her hair and took a clean handkerchief from his breast pocket, pressing it to her wound. “I’m sorry! Oh, hell, that should never have happened. Forgive me!” He pounded his fist on the steering wheel as the sound of sirens grew louder. “Of all the things to do to you after what you’ve been through. Please believe me, I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
    Jeanie found it difficult to speak, even more difficult to think. She ran a hand through her hair, felt a large, painful lump on her scalp above and behind her left ear. Her hand came away smeared with blood. She winced. It was a bitter reminder of what had gone before and how she had come to be in Max McKenzie’s arms.
    â€œIt’s okay. Okay. I know you didn’t mean it. It’s all right.” She was trembling again, but unsure what caused it; the fear or the unexpected passion. “It was as much my fault as it was yours. Maybe it was an excess of adrenaline in both of us.” Drawing in a ragged breath, she fumbled in her purse for a tissue and tried in vain to wipe some of the dirt from her face and hands, then attempted, with about as much success, to put her hair back in order. All the while Max kept pressure on the compress.
    One of her combs was missing. Biting her lip, she looked over at the dim corner where her attacker had dragged her. He still lay there, a mere shape at the edge of the light. Her comb would be there, she knew. And there it would stay. Nothing would make her go back into that corner, not even once the police had come.
    She shuddered convulsively again until Max turned her face away from the sight of her attacker, tucking her head back down against his shoulder. She didn’t try to escape his embrace. It felt too good. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m keeping an eye on him. He hasn’t moved. Don’t look at him. Don’t think about him.”
    â€œNo,” she said, lifting her head again, but not looking into the dark corner by that van. “Thank you. And I’m sorry for falling apart.”
    â€œYou had every right to fall apart,” he said reassuringly, stroking her cheek with the side of a curved finger. That, too, felt good. “Most women I know would have been having screaming hysterics complete with gallons of tears.”
    â€œI seldom cry,” she said. “And just as seldom let myself get caught in a situation as dangerous as that one. The rain made parking the street anywhere near the restaurant impossible.”
    â€œSo I discovered too. I’m only glad I had to park up here as well and came along when I did. But when I realized it was you that creep had dragged into the corner, I came close to killing him.” Now, he was the one to shudder.
    Putting her hand on his shoulder, she said, “No, Max, don’t you think about it either. It’s all over. You came in time. Remember that.”
    â€œI’m trying to. But when I think—” He broke off as sirens echoed in the parking garage. “The police. And the paramedics. You stay in the car. I’ll send the medics to you.” He got out, only to lean back in the window a moment later. “The police will want to talk to you, you know, Jeanie. You’ll have to press charges.” He sounded almost apologetic. Jeanie nodded, steeling herself, and then a uniformed woman half lifted her from the car and onto a gurney.
    â€œI’m going to drive you home,” Max said after her head had been cleaned up and sprayed with liquid bandage, which stung like crazy. But at least she hadn’t required stitches. The police had called an ambulance on general principles, they’d said, when Max used the word “mugging.” The paramedics had insisted on taking her into the ER.
    â€œBut my car—” she argued, only he hushed her, not touching her now but