Fight for Her by Kelly Favor Read Free Book Online Page B

sized dinner table with three chairs, a couch with an afghan thrown across it, and what looked like a bedroom, with the door partially open. She could just make out a bed inside the room as they walked to the couch.
    “Go on and sit down,” he said, turning on a lamp. Then he walked to the refrigerator. The kitchen was almost nonexistent—just the small fridge next to a tiny stove and a sink. Above the sink were some cabinets with a few dishes and glasses.
    “It’s a very simple life here, isn’t it?” she said, sinking into the couch. It was warm and cozy.
    “Yeah.” He began rustling around in the freezer’s icebox, and she could hear him scraping her ice pack together. “You know, I could’ve bought the five million dollar house with acres of farmland and the enormous state-of-the-art kitchen. But I already had that life back in Vegas…minus the farmland. It’s not for me,” he said.
    “Did you sell your home in Vegas already?”
    “Not yet, but I plan to,” he replied.
    She noticed that he seemed more at ease now, and she wondered if it was because he was caretaking. It was almost as though he preferred this role—helping her, taking care of her, and he was less guarded, more willing to discuss his life.
    He brought the bag of ice over and set it on her neck. “Hold that in place.”
    She flinched. “It’s so cold!”
    “That’s kind of the point, Krista. We need to make sure to get the swelling down now. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.”
    “I trust you.”
    “Good. Now just give me a minute. I’m going to call my buddy, Ryder—he’s the town mechanic.”
    “Do you know everyone around here?”
    “It’s a small town, so everyone knows everyone. Just a second,” he said.
    He walked into the bedroom and shut the door. She wondered why he needed privacy to call his friend to tow her car. Was he going to badmouth her or something?
    Krista supposed she couldn’t blame him if he did just that. She’d shown up unannounced and unwanted for the second day in a row and now she’d crashed her car and become stuck at his house.
    It was mortifying, just thinking about it.
    However nice Gunner was acting to her face, it was probably because he’d decided that she was truly off her rocker and that he needed to handle her with kid gloves until he got her out of his home.
    She was humiliated. This had to be the low point of her relatively short life. At least, she hoped it was the low point, because Krista didn’t intend on sinking lower anytime soon.
    A short while later, Gunner came out of his room again. He was wearing a long sleeve shirt that clung tightly to his chiseled torso. The sleeves were pushed up to his elbows, revealing well-muscled forearms.
    He looked at her curiously. “How’s your neck? Is the ice helping yet?”
    “It’s pretty much numb,” she told him, which was true.
    He walked around the couch and sat down beside her, his leg touching hers, as he adjusted the ice pack on her neck. “Let me just have a look at what’s going on,” he said, and she could actually feel his warm breath against the side of her face. If she turned her head, she’d be inches from his lips. But she didn’t turn her head—she just kept looking forward.
    Meanwhile, Gunner brushed her hair to the side, and his fingertips caressed the back of her neck. “No bruising or obvious contusions,” he said.
    “Are you a doctor?” she asked.
    “I know more about neck injuries than most of them.”
    “I’m sure I’m fine, and I don’t want to put you out anymore than I already have,”
    she insisted, even though the shivers she got as his hands touched her bare skin had nothing to do with the ice pack on her neck.
    “You’re not putting me out, Krista.” He sighed, turning his body toward her.
    “I’m so sorry I came here again today. It was a big mistake. I apologize, Gunner.”
    “Look at me,” he said.
    She couldn’t look at him, though. To meet his gaze when they were so