One Hot Momma by Cara North Page A

then he can try this shit. Until then, we are taking the crutches, and if he so much as tries to go farther than the bathroom, you call.” Heath propped his hands on his hips and looked down at her. The man meant business.
    “Okay. I wanted to call in the first place.” Layla shrugged.
    “Should we try to wake him up first?” Jack asked Heath.
    Layla responded before Heath could. “He’s out. The pain meds knock him out solid. You could throw him downstairs, and I doubt he would wake up.”
    “ You been wanting to throw him down some stairs?” Heath quirked a brow. “No.” She blushed and looked away.
    “ It’s okay, Layla ,” Jack said and put a hand on her shoulder. “We know you’re taking the brunt of his moods. I imagine any one of us would be in similar temper if we had to have someone care for us around the clock. I like being babied by Bethany, but I would be humiliated if she had to do everything for me you are having to do for Rafe right now.”
    With that, the brothers left her to get Rafe . She made sure the bed was ready for him. He was like a huge rag doll, one they undressed and positioned back in the place he was supposed to have been to begin with.
    She noticed Heath inspecting Rafe the same way a parent would look over a child. Her heart thumped heavily as she realized how much his family truly loved him. They were every bit as worried, and though they may talk big when he was a wake, they were sure showing concern now. He looked at Rafe’s ankle again. She assured him, “I’ll put some ice on his ankle.”
    “Oh, of course.” As if he were caught being too attentive, he snapped right back into a more macho demeanor. He headed out tossing his words over his shoulder, “Night Layla .”
    Jack started talking before she could respond. “If you need a break or anything…”
    “I don’t,” she insisted.
    “Yeah, I didn’t think you would.” Jack nodded as if he understood something she didn’t. He also read her expression like an open book. “Don’t give up. He’ll come back around to where he belongs.”
    “And where is that?” Layla asked and frowned at him. Jack thought that was funny.
    “Here, with you, them—” He pointed up in the direction of the children’s rooms. “—and us. You gotta understand, Layla , Rafe has never had to chase a woman. He has never had to work to get to know her. He’s a cocky S-O-B, and you have proven over and over again he doesn’t know more than the rest of us. In fact, when it comes to you, I bet he knows less than the rest of us. He was too blind by what he wanted, too sure that any day you were going to wake up and swoon over him like every other woman in his life had, and you...you were just as stubborn as he was about it all.”
    “You’re right.” She nodded.
    “You wanna call my wife and tell her that?” He smiled as she shook her head no. “Traitor.”
    “Night Jack,” Layla said as he walked away. Bethany was a very lucky lady to have Jack.
    “Night.”
    * * *
    The next few days were hell. It was difficult to deny him anything he wanted, including getting out of his bedroom, and she was tired of trying. The only thing he liked about being in his bedroom was getting his daily sponge bath. Much like Pavlov’s dog, he was conditioned. He got hard at the sight of the basin, expecting his daily relief.
    “What did you do before you were injured? Did you have to… you know… every day?” She was curious.
    “Not every day,” he teased. “Can I have my crutch back today?”
    “Ugh! No!” She was so tired of this. “I swear if you ask me for that crutch one more time before Friday, I am going to tie your ass to that bed and make sure you can’t get out of it at all!”
    She bit her lips. She didn’t mean to shout at him, but he was making her crazy. Crazy every day with longing to be more than just a brief relief. Crazy with guilt for being the reason he couldn’t do anything anyways. Had she not gone to the