Wait for Me by Samantha Chase

surgery but Lucas always chose to ignore it.  He knew what he was doing.  What was the point to opening himself up to more invasive procedures when he’d never get back all that he lost?  What could he possibly gain from putting himself through all of that again?
    The freedom to not have to sit for hours on end alternating heat and ice while you’re in pain.
    “Shut up,” he mumbled as he headed to the kitchen to get himself something to drink.  It was too late for a beer so her opted for some water and leaned against the countertop while he looked in the direction of the sofa.
    Emma.
    What was he supposed to do now?  He hated to wake her but he’d feel like crap if he just covered her and left her on the couch while he took the bed.
    It’s your bed…
    “I know, I know,” he said softly out loud.  Still the thought bothered him.  He may live on his own and be a little rough around the edges but he was still a gentleman.  Flexing his leg again to be sure that he was okay, Lucas put his glass in the sink and headed back over to the couch and stared down at Emma.
    “It’s not like I haven’t done this before,” he said with a sigh and reached down to scoop her up into his arms.  She curled into him with a sigh and Lucas felt her warm breath on his neck and groaned.  He was a glutton for punishment.
    It was one thing to carry Emma when she was unconscious and hurt; it was another to carry her to bed while she was all warm and sleepy and know that he wasn’t joining her in the bed.  He thought of their kiss earlier and had to force his mind instantly into another direction.  He had wanted her desperately right then and there and if he were honest, he’d admit that he wanted her the same way right now. 
    But she was asleep.
    “Lucas,” Emma whispered sleepily against his neck.  She slowly lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him through slumberous eyes.  “What are you doing?”
    Looking down at her sleepy face, Lucas couldn’t help but smile.  “You fell asleep on the couch and I wanted you to be comfortable.”
    “Why didn’t you wake me?”
    “I tried,” he replied softly.  “You’re not an easy woman to wake.”
    Emma yawned and placed her head back on Lucas’s shoulder.  “I would have been perfectly fine on the couch.”
    “It’s not very comfortable.”
    “You sleep there,” she reminded him.
    “I’m used to it.  I promised you the bed and so I’m just helping you get there.”  No sooner were the words out of his mouth then he was standing next to the bed and lowering Emma on to it.  She looked up at him with her big blue eyes and Lucas’s mouth went dry.
    No matter how hard she tried, Emma couldn’t look away.  There was something very intimate about a man carrying a woman to bed and somehow she doubted that it should feel this awkward.  She cleared her throat and finally allowed herself to blink.  “Is the marathon over?”
    Lucas chuckled.  “I think it goes on well into tomorrow.  You’ll have time to watch more of it then.”
    “Are you going back out there to watch TV?”
    He leaned forward and pulled the comforter over her, doing his best to hide the temptation that she was.  In yoga pants and a t-shirt, Emma shouldn’t have been so appealing, but she was.  “Go to sleep, Emma.  You can watch those movies anytime.”
    “It’s not about the movies, Lucas,” she said honestly and was shocked by the intensity on Lucas’s face.  He didn’t say a word but the question was there.  “I guess I’m asking if you’re going to go back to the living room or if you’re going to stay in here with me.”  Her heart was beating madly in her chest and Emma thought that surely any minute she was going to hyperventilate. 
    Lucas could only stare.  There was no way that he could answer her at the moment; not with the blood pounding in his ears.  She was offering him exactly what he wanted but there was a war waging within himself.  The