He leaned forward and tenderly kissed her. “I’m thinking I want to apologize for being rude and antagonizing you.”
She nodded. “Thank you. I also … said some snippety things.”
He grinned. “You did.” He sobered as he trailed his hand along her smooth jaw and admitted things he shouldn’t have. “I’m also thinking that you’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.” She smiled sweetly up at him, her lower lip trembling, and her eyes glistening. “But I am going to have to take things slow.”
Her eyes dimmed a bit but she nodded bravely. “Because I’m an actress?”
He could only be honest. “My history with actresses is long and sadly not good. Can we figure things out with your shoulder and then I’ll tell you all about it?” He hoped she realized what a leap this was for him. He’d never talked with anyone about his brother and Amelia, never let anyone into the private nightmare that was his family, or the way Bermuda had used and dumped him.
“Okay.” She bit at her lip and he wanted to be kissing her, but he had to take care of her first. “I appreciate you trusting me.”
Birch smiled but he could feel it was tight. Trust. It was required if he wanted things to progress with Allison. It was going to be rough for him though, especially in light of what she was trained to do: fool people into thinking she had emotions that she didn’t. How to get past her training that was probably instinctive at this point and find the real Allison, the one he’d been watching on the cameras the past two weeks, the one he thought he was falling for? Cameras. Could she be that good that she’d been acting for him while he watched?
He shook his head to push away the worries and had her do several moves with her shoulder. She only winced when she tried to lift it past shoulder height.
“How intense is the pain?” he asked.
“Well, Dr. Merrill,” she teased sassily. “It’s about a two if I’m not using it and an eight when I try to lift it up high.”
He grinned at her tease. “Hey, watch it. Out on assignments I’m sometimes the closest thing anybody has to a doctor.”
“Do you have training?”
“The standard EMT program and then the medical school called ‘life in the military’.”
“Oh, that was funny. Birch pulled a funny.”
He chuckled and reached for her to tickle her or kiss her or throw her over his shoulder and toss her in the pool but then he remembered she was injured. “All right, I’m going to be nice to you because you’re hurt, but when you’re healed remember I owe you one.”
She grinned. “All right funny guy, I’ll remember.” Her grin slowly disappeared. “Are you going to still be around when I’m healed?”
He met her serious gaze. “I plan on it.”
Her smile returned.
They sat there smiling foolishly at each other for a few seconds before he knew they had to move or he was going to just start kissing her and forget about her injury, her stalker, his promise to his brother, and any kind of self restraint.
“Okay. I’m going to make some calls and get you in to the closest orthopedic specialist.” He was a little concerned about taking her in public but everything had been quiet from the stalker and Birch had to figure out what was going on with her shoulder.
“Thank you for taking care of me, Birch,” she said with all appealing sweetness.
“Anytime.” He smiled at her, realizing he meant that. It wasn’t simply that he liked taking care of people, he wanted to take care of her … always.
He’d have to double his prayers and maybe Blade would come down from heaven and tell him it was okay to date an actress now because tonight Birch had promised he would confide in her and as soon as her stalker was caught he wanted to start dating her seriously. He’d fought the feelings for her as hard as he’d fought anything. It had been torture. Could he move past that internal battle while still being true to his brother? He didn’t see how, but he wanted to give Allison a chance to prove who she really was, starting by explaining to her who he really was.