Deadly Proposal (Hardy Brothers Security Book 4) by Lily Harper Hart Page B

looking.”
    “Grady came here because I asked him to,” James countered. “I needed to run a few errands, and I didn’t want you alone. Plus, you needed your bandage changed. Grady said he put saran wrap over top of it to protect it from the water. I wish I had thought of that the first day when I brought you home.” When this whole mess started to unravel, he added silently. “I need to get that off so the wound can breathe.”
    “I can take it off,” Mandy said. “I don’t need you to do it.”
    James ignored the chill in her voice as he got to his feet. “Sit in the chair and face sideways,” he ordered, stepping toward her.
    “You’re not the boss of me,” Mandy said. “I don’t have to do what you tell me to do.”
    “Sit down,” James repeated, pointing for emphasis.
    Mandy chuffed out an exasperated sigh, but ultimately did as instructed. James knelt behind her, lifting the tank top she was wearing so he could get a better look at his task. He gently loosened the tape from her skin and pulled off the clear, plastic wrap with exaggerated tenderness. He then brushed a light kiss on her back next to the gauze.
    Mandy shivered involuntarily as James balled up the wrap and pulled her tank top back down. James slid into the open chair at the table and fixed his dark eyes on her. “You and I need to have a talk.”
    “I don’t want to talk,” Mandy argued. “I’m so sick of talking.”
    “Well, we’re going to do it anyway,” James said. “We need to get this stuff out there and deal with it. We can’t let it fester.”
    Mandy mumbled something James couldn’t quite make out. He thought it was the word “whatever,” but he couldn’t be sure. Instead of sinking to her level, though, he stretched his hand across the table and captured her good hand with it. “I want you to tell me why you think I was going to break up with you.”
    “Ally has a big mouth.”
    “I want you to tell me point-by-point why you think I was getting ready to end things,” James said, ignoring her attempt at changing the subject. “We’re tackling this all right now. You’d better get comfortable.”
    “You won’t even look at me,” Mandy announced, immediately looking like she wished she’d kept her mouth shut.
    “I look at you all the time,” James said. “Most of the time I try to look at you when you’re not looking back at me, though, because I don’t want you to see the worry on my face. I’m not good at hiding my emotions.” James had decided that honesty was the best policy here. Whether Mandy was ready to hear his brand of honesty was another story. “My emotions tell me that I almost lost you and I’m terrified. I don’t want that on my face when you’re looking at me, so I hide it. What else?”
    “You won’t touch me,” Mandy said, her voice morose.
    “Dr. Fitzgerald warned me that touching you was pretty much out of the question,” James said. “He explained that every time you were jostled you would be in pain. Each time someone laid a finger on you, there would be pain. Every time I shifted in the bed we share I run the risk of hurting you.
    “I cannot stand the thought of you ever associating my touch with pain,” James said. “I didn’t like it. It’s exactly the opposite of what I wanted. I figured we only had to last a week to ten days. That was not insurmountable.”
    “You won’t even sleep next to me,” Mandy grumbled.
    “That’s because I keep having nightmares,” James said. “Every night. I have ten of them. They’re all the same. I see you walk to the car. I see you stop and turn back. You’re always smiling at me when the car explodes. And then, each time I manage to get to you, I find you’re already dead. Then I jerk awake. I was trying to be sensitive and sleep on the other side of the bed in the hope that I wouldn’t wake you. Obviously, that backfired.”
    Mandy’s eyes were filling with tears, and James was worried she was going to start