Man of Ice by Diana Palmer

the cuts on one side of his handsome face. There was a bruise on his cheek and at his temple. He seemed a little disoriented, and it wasn’t surprising, considering the condition the Jaguar had been in. She shuddered, remembering how he’d looked then.
    His eyes narrowed. He breathed slowly, watching her approach. “Sorry,” he managed to say in a hoarse tone.
    She winced and tears overflowed her eyes. “You idiot!” she raged, sobbing. “You crazy idiot, you could have been killed!”
    “Barrie,” he said softly, holding out a hand.
    She ran to him. The walls were well and truly down, as if they’d never existed. She all but fell into the chair beside the bed and lay across him, careless of the IV they were giving him, shivering as she felt his hands on her shoulders, holding her while she wept.
    “Here, now,” he chided weakly. “I’m all right. Lucky I hit my head and not some more vital part.”
    She didn’t answer. Her body shook with sobs. She clung. She felt his hand in her hair, smoothing it, soothing her.
    “Damn,” he breathed roughly. “I’m so weak, Barrie.”
    “Weak is better than dead,” she muttered as she finally lifted her head. Her red, swollen eyes met his. “You’re going to have a dandy bruise,” she told him, sniffing, dabbing with her fingers at her wet cheeks and eyes.
    “No doubt.” He moved and winced. “God, what a headache. I don’t know if it’s the whiskey or the wreck.” He frowned. “Why was I driving?” he added, struggling to regain complete control of his faculties after the concussion.
    Her heart jumped. “I don’t know, exactly,” she said evasively. “You…got angry and stormed out to the car.”
    He whistled softly through pursed lips and smiled half-humorously. “Nice epitaph—dead for unknown reasons.”
    “Don’t,” she said, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue from the box by his bed. “It isn’t funny.”
    “Were we arguing again?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “Not really.”
    He frowned. “Then what…?”
    The door opened again, and the pretty blonde nurse danced in with a clipboard. “Time for vital signs again,” she informed them. “This will only take a minute.” She glanced at Barrie. “If you’d like to get a cup of coffee…?”
    She didn’t have the heart for an argument. “I’ll be back soon,” she said.
    Dawson looked as if he wanted to say something, but the nurse popped her electronic thermometer in his mouth and he grimaced.
    * * *
    Later, Barrie went back to the house and phoned Antonia to tell her what was going on. She’d called Corlie and Rodge the night before, and they were waiting for her when she arrived. She took time to fill them in on Dawson’s condition before she phoned her best friend in Bighorn.
    “Do you want me to come over and sit with you?” Antonia asked.
    “No,” Barrie said. “I just needed someone to talk to. He’ll be in for another day or so. I didn’t want you to worry in case you tried to get in touch with me and wondered where I was. Especially after I’d told you I’d be back in Tucson today.”
    “Can we do anything?”
    Barrie laughed. “No, but thanks. I’ll keep you in mind. He’s getting plenty of attention right now from a very pretty young nurse. I don’t think he’ll even miss me when I go.”
    There was a pause. “You aren’t going to leave before they release him?”
    “No,” Barrie said reluctantly.
    “You don’t know why he was driving so recklessly?”
    “Yes, I think I do,” she said miserably. “It was partly my fault. But he’d had too much to drink, too. And he’s the one who’s always lecturing people about not driving under the influence.”
    “We can blackmail him for years on this,” Antonia replied with a smile in her voice. “Thank God he’ll be alive so that we can.”
    “I’ll tell him you said so. If I can get his attention.”
    She hung up and went into the study, because she felt closer to Dawson there. She hadn’t