Bad Company (Avery's Crossing: Gage and Nova Book 1) Read online

  I bent over him and gently lifted an eyelid. Beautiful, beautiful eyelid fringed with lashes so long and thick they didn’t even look real. His gorgeousness was a dangerous distraction.

  The pupil of that eye looked normal and so did the other one. He could still have a concussion, but at least he didn’t seem to have any severe symptoms. The confusion and wobbliness could be due to hypothermia.

  I just wished I’d had the common sense to keep my phone from getting wet and ruined. A helicopter flight to the emergency room in Eugene would make me feel a lot better about his chances.

  For now, I had to get him as warm and dry as possible. In the master bedroom, I found some extra blankets. I took them to the kitchen and placed them on the table. His eyes were still closed. His lips looked less blue, though, so he seemed to be improving.

  I tugged at the sleeping bag, damp from the water all over his body. He lifted his lids and gazed dully at me.

  “Let’s get this wet thing off you,” I said. “Stand up for a sec.”

  After another moment of dull staring, he seemed to comprehend what I’d said enough to get onto his feet. I whipped the sleeping bag off him, keeping my gaze away from his nakedness.

  That took all the mental strength I had, because the temptation to stare at all that male gorgeousness was overwhelming. But it was also kinda creepy, given that he was so out of it he didn’t seem to really know what I was doing.

  I threw one of the extra blankets around him before he sank back into the chair. Then I wrapped a second one around his back and over his head. He looked like a disaster survivor, which I suppose he was, in a way. His own personal disaster.

  I leaned down and smiled at him. “I’m Nova, by the way. What’s your name?”

  His eyes narrowed, like he was struggling to remember. “Gay.”

  His name was Gay? That seemed unlikely, but okay, I was going with it.

  “Um...well, it’s nice to meet you, Gay,” I said, on my best polite behavior. “I’m going to get you warmed up, okay?”

  He just blinked a few times and closed his eyes again.

  My water was boiling. I poured some over a couple bags of decaf tea, one in each giant mug. I needed heat, too. But when I turned around, “Gay” was pulling off the blankets and dropping them on the floor, leaving his delectable body utterly bare.

  “Hey,” I said, trying not to look too closely. “Don’t do that. You need them.”

  “Hot,” he said.

  “You’re not hot. You need the blankets.” I bent down and scooped them into my arms.

  “Too hot.”

  “No,” I said, draping one of the blankets around him again. Still not looking. “Your core body temperature is dangerously low. You need this.”

  He batted at my hand. “Too hot. Leave.”

  “You only think you’re too hot. The hypothermia is confusing you.”

  He certainly looked confused, his gaze muddled. He was too big for me to successfully fight, if it came down to that. But I wrapped the second blanket around him anyway.

  “It would make me really happy if you kept those on,” I said. “I don’t want you to die on me. Okay, Gay? Can you do that for me?”

  “Gay?” He looked even more confused than before.

  “Yeah. You told me your name is Gay.”

  “No. Gage.” He drew out the second word, as if to make sure I understood.

  “Gage?” I repeated.

  He nodded, then winced and closed his eyes. “Fuck.”

  “You have a headache?”

  “Yeah,” he said, his voice so low it was hard to hear.

  “Are you dizzy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s because you got so cold. You need to warm up. I know you feel hot right now, but your brain is playing a trick on you. We still need to get you warmer.”

  I wasn’t sure if he understood me or if he was even listening. But he settled down and quit trying to undress himself, so I went back to making tea. I stirred in a lot of sugar before bringing his mug to him.

  “Gage, you’ve got to drink this.”

  He made an incoherent noise in his throat.

  “I know you don’t want to, but you have to.” I held the mug to his beautiful lips. “Come on. Just one sip.”

  Finally he relented and I got a few drops into him. I took a swallow of my own tea before returning to coaxing him. We continued that way until I’d gotten the whole mug of tea down his throat.

  As I made second mugs of tea, it occurred to me that I was now alone in my cabin with a large, unknown male. At the moment, he wasn’t in any shape to hurt me. But what about when he felt better? I had no idea who this guy was, and his amazing good looks didn’t mean he wasn’t some kind of psycho.

  Plus, what about the other guy, the blond who’d disappeared on me? That whole episode was so weird it still gave me the creeps. And Blondie was somehow connected to the man sitting in my kitchen.

  But what was I going to do? I couldn’t in good conscience toss him out into the snow to die. He hadn’t done anything...yet...to deserve that.

  I still had the pistol. Wait. No, I didn’t. It was out in the snow, along with my now-frozen clothes. Well, I’d go get it soon, right before I brought in more firewood.

  I set the new mugs of tea on the table. Gage opened his eyes and stared at me.

  “Where am I?” he said, his voice slurred.

  “You’re in my cabin.”

  “Who are you?”

  I frowned. He didn’t remember my name? “I’m Nova. Nova Pennyman.”

  “Nova,” he said slowly. “I’m Gage.”

  “Yeah, I know. You already told me.”

  Straight, dark brows lowered. “I did?”

  “Uh huh.” I tried to cover my worry with a friendly smile. “Have some more tea. You’re still cold inside.”

  His frown deepened. “I feel hot.”

  His hand came up to shove at the blankets. I reached out and grabbed his wrist and a jolt of arousal shot through me. For crying out loud, I was getting turned on by him and he couldn’t even remember my name.

  “Leave them on,” I said. “You feel hot, but inside you’re cold. You need to keep on warming up.”

  He muttered something under his breath.

  I gave him his tea. “Drink this. Can you hold the mug?”

  He glared at me. “Of course I can.”

  This time I hid my smile. Maybe he was starting to feel better. At least he was well enough to argue with me.

  On the other hand, he’d been uncooperative in the tent. Maybe he was like this all the time.

  He reached with shaky hands for the tea mug and lifted it slowly to his mouth. Some of it sloshed over the side, but I kept my hands to myself despite my urge to rescue him. I wouldn’t want to insult his masculine pride by babying him.

  “How did I get here?” he said, his words still slurred.

  “You fell in the river. I pulled you out.” I didn’t think it was a good time to tell him about his disappearing friend who’d come to me for help.

  “River?” he said blankly.

  “Yeah. The McKenzie River. You were floating in it. You probably would have died if you’d been in any longer.”

  He just stared at his mug of tea as if it would reveal the answers to him, solve the puzzle of how he’d ended up in the water.

  I didn’t want to baby Gage and yet I wanted to take care of him—mainly because I felt like I’d be responsible for his death if I didn’t. I’ve always been kind of over-responsible that way. If someone is in trouble and I don’t help and something bad happens to that person, it’s partly my fault because I didn’t do everything I could. It was that kind of thinking that kept me dribbling tea and later hot soup into Gage’s mouth. It was that kind of thinking that had me supporting him as he wobbled his way into the master bedroom to lay down. It was that kind of thinking that got me up twice during the night to check on him and make sure he was still breathing.

 
Chapter 9

  Celebrity

  Nova:

  When the sun rose, I was cranky from lack of sleep and sore from all the extra physical work I’d done the day before. And now I had another day of heavy work ahead of me, making sure Gage not only didn’t die but recovered fully. I crawled out of my loft and went to build up the fire. The cabin had gotten pretty cold during the night, and that wasn’t good for Gage.

  Once I had the stove going and some water heating on top, I went back to the master bedroom to check on him. He was on his side, one arm pillowing his head, the covers down around his hips. He had the finest body I’d ever seen, at least in real life. It was the kind of body that a girl like me normally only saw on TV or the movies. Or maybe in an underwear ad.

  It was wrong of me to stare. Especially when he was asleep and couldn’t defend himself. But that didn’t stop me from doing it. I stood in the doorway and gaped at him, admiring the heavy curves of his delts and biceps, the tightness of his waist, the narrow line of dark brown hair that trailed from his chest and down his belly to disappear under the blankets. I really wanted to know what the rest of him looked like.

  Then he opened his eyes and looked at me and I felt like my body was catching fire. Not from lust. From complete mortification. He’d caught me.

  Sleepy blue eyes gazed at me in obvious confusion. He rubbed his face and frowned. “Uh ... good morning.”

  I smiled at him. “Good morning. Feeling any better?”

  The frown deepened. “Better than what?”

  I cocked my head. It seemed he’d forgotten everything I’d told him yesterday. “Do you know who I am?”

  His tongue emerged to moisten his lips. Oh, God. He really shouldn’t do that. It wasn’t fair to me.

  “I ... don’t know,” he said slowly. “Did we —”

  “No!” My denial came out so quickly that I felt mortified all over again. “No, we didn’t. You’ve been sick, that’s all.”

  “But...” He squinted up at me. “Where am I? Who are you? Why am I here?”

  Oh, boy. “I’m Nova Pennyman.” How many times would I have to repeat this?

  “Nova Pennyman,” he said after me, looking utterly mystified.

  “Yeah. This is my cabin. I found you floating in the river yesterday afternoon. I pulled you out and brought you here. You were pretty far gone. I’ve been worried about you.”

  “River?”

  I bit back a sigh of frustration. This was getting old. “The McKenzie River. Cascade Mountains? Oregon?”

  Gage merely stared at me as if I were speaking a foreign language. A really obscure one, from some wild corner of the Himalayas, perhaps.

  “So you and me—we don’t know each other,” he said slowly.

  “Nope. I never saw you before yesterday.”

  He sat up in the bed without bothering to cover himself. The blankets pooled around his waist. I fought without success to avoid ogling his naked torso. Curly dark hair covered his broad chest—a very well-developed chest. I had the most idiotic urge to rub my face in it, to lick his skin.

  He was easily the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, in pictures or real life, and I could hardly believe I had him in my cabin.

  “You’re staring at me,” he said with a faint smirk.

  Damn. He’d caught me, and that look on his face said he knew exactly what I’d been thinking.

  Could I just die now? Please? It didn’t seem like too much to ask.

  I straightened my back and tried to look cool, like I didn’t care I’d been caught with my tongue hanging out. “Just— you know—wondering who you are.”

  The smirk deepened. “Seriously?”

  “Um ... yeah. Why? Should I know you?” Maybe we’d been introduced once and I’d forgotten him, although I could not imagine how or why I would forget someone who looked like that.

  One muscular shoulder lifted, then dropped. “Lots of people do.”

  That was a weird answer. “Oookay. Well, I don’t. So, um, who are you?”

  He wasn’t making a whole lot of sense, if you asked me. Was he trying to say he was some kind of celebrity? Yeah, right. Nobody famous ever came around here. We had ski slopes nearby, but our little village wasn’t some kind of well-known, glamorous resort. We mostly got people from other parts of Oregon.

  He sounded more coherent this morning, or at least his voice was no longer slurred. But he was behaving really strangely. Maybe there’d been some long-term damage?

  “Gage Dalton,” he said, raising his brows at me.

  I blinked. Then I laughed. “No way.”

  Gage Dalton was a famous actor. I wasn’t really into TV and movies, not because I disliked them but because I’d never had time. My whole adolescence and college life had been dedicated to study, to getting stellar grades so I could get into a prestigious medical school. I’d enrolled in a highly regarded private college in Avery’s Crossing, rather than going to Central Willamette State or University of Oregon like so many of my classmates. Everything in my life had been dedicated to the single goal of becoming a doctor like my parents, so I was a bit clueless when it came to popular actors.

  But even I had heard of Gage Dalton.

  “Come on,” I said. “You’re not Gage Dalton.”

  “Yeah. I am.” He sounded a little irritated.

  “No, you’re not. If you’re a famous actor, then how come you were floating in the river? Where’s your entourage, or whatever you call it?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t remember anything from yesterday.”

  “Uh huh. Right.” That was sure convenient.

  He scowled at me. “Just because I don’t remember being in the river doesn’t mean I’ve got total amnesia. I’m telling you that I’m Gage Dalton.”

  “Okay.” I raised my hand in mock surrender. “Whatever you say.”

  He growled. “Where are my jeans?”

  That brought the blush back into my cheeks. “They’re in the kitchen. But you can’t wear them. I had to cut them off you.”

  “Bring them here.”

  At his bossy tone, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Excuse me?”

  “Bring them here. I’ll show you my I.D.”

  Well, he sure had the attitude of a spoiled brat movie star, whether he was one or not. And I wasn’t in the mood to play along.

  “I didn’t hear the magic word,” I said.

  His mouth fell open. “The what?”

  “The magic word. You know the one.”

  His mouth closed with a snap as he glared at me. “You are some piece of work.”

  “I am?” I glared right back. “Listen, Bud, I’m the one who pulled you out of a freezing river. I’m the only reason you’re still alive.”

  We stared at each other. His jaw looked tight enough to crack walnuts. I just looked back, like I wasn’t the least bit intimidated by large naked men sitting around in my private space.

  His gaze wavered and he sighed. “Okay, you’re right. Please bring my jeans in here.”

  I smiled victoriously. “Sure. I’ll be right back.”

  As I left the room, I heard him groan behind me. He’d been nothing but a pain in the ass since I’d first seen him in the water, but whether it was a side-effect of the hypothermia or his normal state of being I couldn’t tell.

  The scraps of his jeans were laying where I’d left them on one of the kitchen chairs. They were mostly dry. I fetched them back to him and threw them on the bed.

  “There you go.”

  He gave me a jerky nod as he gathered the pieces onto his lap. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  Gage—or whoever he really was—reached in the back pocket of the ruined pants and took out a wallet. He threw it at me. “Have a look.”

  Okay, sure. I could play this game. I opened the wallet and there was his driver’s license. A California license.

  Um ... oops. It really did say Gage Dalton, and the address was someplace in Santa Monica. Wasn’t that wher
e a lot of rich and famous show business people lived? I had a hazy idea that it might be. And this guy ... this guy just might be the real Gage Dalton after all.

  My whole body flushed with embarrassed heat. Now I had a large naked movie star sitting in my space. A gorgeous, muscular, super-famous movie star. Yeah, he’d been a movie star before I’d seen his license, but I hadn’t believed it and my skepticism had protected me from any kind of star-struck self-consciousness.

  I peeked at him. That cocky smirk was back.

  “Now do you believe me?” he said.

  I tossed the wallet at him. “Yeah. I believe you.”

  “All right.” He shook his head, then winced. “Can’t believe you thought I was lying about that.”

  Whatever. How was I to know he’d been telling the truth?

  His eyes were tense, his brows drawn together. He touched his temple with his fingertips, gingerly. Clearly, he still felt terrible. I didn’t want to pester him; I was pretty sure he got pestered on almost an hourly basis. I should leave him alone and let him rest.

  On the other hand, he might need something. Considering his recent confusion, he might not even know he needed help.

  “You still have a headache?” I said. He might be a famous actor, but he was still hurt and I was responsible for him. I wasn’t going to let nervousness get in the way of taking care of him.

  His gaze turned wary. Slightly puzzled. “Yes. I do.”

  “I can give you some Tylenol. Do you drink coffee?”

  “Yeah.” He still looked puzzled, like I wasn’t making sense to him.

  Did he expect me to fall down and worship at his feet? If so, he was going to be sadly disappointed.

  “Are you okay now?” I came a few steps into the room to get a better look at him. “Do you remember who I am?”

  Now his brows both raised and pinched together at the same time. “You just told me your name. Nova Pennyman.”

  “Right.” I smiled. At least he was retaining information for a few minutes at a time, which was a major improvement. And he was aware enough to stare at me like I was either an idiot or crazy and he couldn’t make up his mind which one it was. “Good. There are some clothes in the dresser if you want to put something on. I’ll have breakfast ready in the kitchen in a little while.”