She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (23 page)

Amanda felt her heart turn over in her chest.

Ryan was standing up for her to Emma. He knew the things already, somehow, that she hoped and prayed that her sisters would know—she would always be there for them.

And he liked it about her.

Emma looked stunned. “Okay. Yeah. I got it.”

“You sure?” he asked. “No more fucking around?”

Emma raised her hands in surrender. “Not if I have to start answering to you too.”

He nodded. “You do.”

Amanda’s eyes widened.
Wow
was right.

“Can I go now?” Emma asked, the sarcasm clear.

“I guess. But I’m watching you.
I’ll
be the one in the way of the flying elbow next time, not Amanda. And if it happens again, I’m throwing your ass out on the curb too.”

Emma had the audacity to grin. “Thanks for the warning.”

She turned and headed for the booth with her sisters, no doubt to fill them in on every detail of Ryan’s lecture.

Ryan’s lecture. Ryan Kaye had lectured someone.

Wow.

The guy Amanda was hiding behind suddenly moved, nearly stomping on her toes, and she was left standing there staring at Ryan.

He looked surprised to see her for about two seconds, then he moved toward her.

And she moved toward the bathroom.

She needed a minute to collect her thoughts. And to wash the snotty blood from her face.

Of course, her being in the women’s bathroom wasn’t something that would slow Ryan Kaye down. He walked in right behind her.

She bent over the sink and wet a paper towel without a word.

“You okay?”

She nodded. No, she wasn’t okay. He’d just amazed her. And made her want him even more.

“Let me look.”

“It’s blood. You’ve seen gallons of this stuff.” She wiped at her face with towel, surprised that the damage wasn’t worse. The pain in her head had centered in her forehead now and the blood had definitely stopped.

“It’s your blood. That makes it different.”

She looked up at him in the mirror behind her. “I’m okay.”

“Let me be sure.”

She took a deep breath, then swiped at her nose again, removing the rest of the blood, and turned to face him.

He cradled her face in his hands, his gaze on everything but her eyes. His thumbs brushed over her cheekbones, pressing gently. “Pain?”

“Not really. The whole thing is a little sore but nothing bad.”

He rested the pads of his thumbs on either side of her nose and pressed gently. “Okay?”

“Yes.” It was also sore, of course, but she knew he was checking to see if anything was broken. It didn’t hurt that bad.

“You should get some ibuprofen.”

“Okay.”

“It’ll be sore tomorrow too.”

“Probably.”

Finally his eyes focused on hers. “I really wanted to break
his
nose.”

“Me too.”

Ryan smiled slightly. “Not because of Emma. Because of you.”

“You weren’t concerned about Emma?”

“I didn’t see what was going on with Emma. I would have probably shoved him a little bit for that. But I don’t punch people. Typically.”

Yeah, she knew that. Ryan could get physical if needed. She’d heard stories from Conner about them having to break up bar fights and such. Ryan could do it, if motivated, but it took a lot to get him to that point.

“You wouldn’t have punched him because of Emma, but you would have because of me?”

He nodded. His hands were still on her face, but he wasn’t pushing and prodding anymore.

“Well, I guess he did actually hurt me, even if it was an accident.”

“Yeah.” Ryan gritted his teeth for a moment. “But I wanted to punch him even before that. Because he was hassling you.”

“You saw that?”

“Yeah. I was on my way over when you got Emma loose and then stepped between them.”

She opened her mouth, but had no words. No one really ever stood up or protected her. She was the protector. Like he’d said to Emma,
she
was the mama bear.

“Shane kept me from beating that guy’s ass.”

She smiled. “If you punch everyone who hassles me, you’re going to have a sore hand.”

He didn’t look happy about it, but he nodded. “I know. Being the protector is hard work, isn’t it?”

She knew he meant her. “It doesn’t feel like work,” she said softly. “It feels…natural.”

He looked at her for a long time. Then he said, “Take it back.”

“What?”

“
Huckleberry
. Take it back. I know I was pushing in your office, I know I should have gotten out of the way. Give me another chance.”

A lump formed in her throat. God, she liked him. She knew, from what she’d heard and observed since Ryan and Conner had worked together, and from what Emma had said and what Ryan himself had told her, he didn’t go after women, he didn’t say please, and he didn’t ask for another chance.

She wanted to wrap her arms and legs around him and never let go. Especially if she got him out of his clothes first.

But the thing was, lots of women had done that. Lots of women had appreciated his body. Not many had appreciated him.

“I have a proposition for you,” she finally said after swallowing twice and clearing her throat.

“Anything.”

She smiled. That was a nice, immediate, no-questions-asked response.

“Let’s be friends.”

He blinked four times then asked, “What?”

“Let’s be friends.”

“I have enough friends.”

She shook her head. “You have male friends. Good ones. But you don’t have female friends, Ryan.”

“I do. Your sister for one—”

“No, you don’t. You think you do. You like her, you get along, you don’t fight. But I mean a real friendship. Someone who knows you and appreciates you and that you can have fun with that doesn’t include sex.”

“Yeah, see, you lost me on the ‘doesn’t include sex’ part.”

She smiled. “I know. That’s the most important part too.”

“I’ll find a different friend. Olivia and I can be friends,” he said. “Then you and I can still get naked.” He pressed close and she had a hard time taking a deep breath. “Because I still want that one night that we supposedly had. We still haven’t made it overnight, you know.”

She wanted that too. Badly.

But she wanted Ryan to know that someone could want him and like him at the same time.

She assumed that women never got to know him well enough or for long enough to know he had any flaws. So no one had ever shown him that he could be loved in spite of those flaws. As far as he knew, when flaws showed up—or at least when they got to be too much—that was when things were over.

She wasn’t an expert in many things, but sticking with someone even when they showed their flaws, even if it was over and over again, was something she definitely knew a lot about.

She looped her arms around his neck and said sincerely, “I want you. The idea of you being naked with another woman makes me nuts. But, believe it or not, it makes me even more jealous to think of you getting close to and having a true friendship with another woman. That’s what I want.”

He stared at her. His gaze shifted to her lips, then back to her eyes. “I’m not going to stop trying to get you naked.”

“Okay.” She wasn’t worried. There was no one more manipulative and stubborn than Isabelle and Emma. She’d resisted those two for years. She could resist one Ryan Kaye. “And I’m not going to stop being your friend, wanting to hang out with you and wanting to know all about you.”

“How about this.” His hands moved down to her waist, then her hips, then her butt. “I’ll tell you anything you want if you dress up in that pirate slave outfit and let me tie you to my bed like we talked about.”

Her body flooded with heat and she had to take a couple of seconds to calm her pulse. “Um.” She cleared her throat. “Did we talk about me being tied to your bed?”

“Well, what else would a pirate do with a slave girl?”

“Hmm. You might have a point.” And her whole body was now shouting
do it, do it, do it!
“I was thinking more like we’d order food and rent a movie.”

He looked suspicious. “What kind of movie?”

She smiled. He was expecting the words
Sandra Bullock
or
Reese Witherspoon
, no doubt. “Whatever you want.”

“Military action thriller? Lots of shooting and blood and swearing?”

“Okay.”

“Raunchy frat-boy party movie? Lots of beer drinking and jokes about farting?”

“Okay.”

“Girl-on-girl-on-girl porn?”

“Wow, three, huh?”

“The more the merrier.”

“That’s what they say.”

“So, yes? Any of those?” he asked, his smile growing.

Could she sit through blood flying, farts flying and…bras flying? Probably.

“Sure. Any of those. I just want to spend time with you.”

“Uh-huh.” He looked at her again for a long moment. Then he leaned in and kissed her.

For several long, delicious, hot, wet seconds Amanda forgot all about wanting to do anything with Ryan but
that
. She would be content just to kiss him for hours.

Ryan eventually ended the kiss, but kept his lips against hers. “I’m not going to stop doing that either.”

Amanda pressed her lips to his for another few seconds, then said, “Okay.” She could resist doing more. This was for Ryan. Not that it would be easy, she conceded, looking up into his blue eyes.

“I get to pick the movie and order the food,” he said, straightening and stepping back so suddenly that she wobbled forward a bit before catching her balance.

“That’s fair.”

“I’ll see you at my place tomorrow at seven.” He started toward the door to the ladies’ room.

Amanda wondered what he was up to. He’d suddenly given in way too easily.

“I’ll be there.”

“Oh, and I generally sit around without my shirt on. So wear something that comes off easily.”

The door bumped shut behind him and she grinned even as she shook her head. This was going to be interesting.

She wanted to be his friend.

Ryan kept thinking about that over and over the rest of the night and all through the next day at work. His friends—the ones he already had—noticed. He’d left Trudy’s unusually early, right after kissing Amanda in the ladies’ room, and he’d been distracted at work throughout the shift.

He was never distracted. He never had anything to be distracted about.

Being distracted as a paramedic wasn’t a good thing.

Gabrielle Evans pulled the door to the fridge open and grabbed a soda. “What is going on with you?”

Gabby and Sierra were the only female paramedics on the entire team for St. Anthony’s and they both worked on the crew with Ryan and Conner. He wasn’t sure how they’d gotten so lucky, but Gabby and Sierra were some of the best paramedics he’d ever worked with. Sierra was the sweeter of the two. She was amazing at calming people down in the midst of a trauma and was the one they always assigned to any victims under the age of twelve if possible. Gabby was spunkier. She was always right in the thick of things with Conner and Ryan and she never hesitated because something or someone was too big or too tough or too dangerous. Gabby was the most dedicated, driven person he’d ever met, and she’d push him and Conner if she thought they could do more or do it harder or better.

“I’m…distracted.”

Gabby brought the can of cola to her lips, studying him over the top. “You want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Then knock it off.”

He chuckled. “Sorry to bother you.”

Gabby shrugged and took a seat in the armchair across the coffee table from him. “It’s weird to see you so quiet and thoughtful. Makes me nervous.”

They sat without talking for about three minutes. Then Ryan said, “I have a girl question for you.”

Gabby swallowed her mouthful of soda. “A question about girls or a question because I’m a girl?”

“Both.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“If you said you wanted to just be friends with a guy, what would that mean exactly?”

Gabby gave him a funny look. “What makes you think it would mean anything other than what it sounds like it means?”

“Well, that’s what I want to know. Could it mean more?” He felt tight through his gut and he hated it. Gabby’s answer mattered more than he wanted it to.

“Has someone said this to you?”

“Yes.”

“A woman?”

“Yes, a woman.”

“It means she doesn’t want to sleep with you.” Gabby tipped her soda can back again.

Ryan waited for her to swallow so she could add to her statement. When she didn’t he said, “Uh, no, I don’t think that’s what it means.”