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concern was for her and her recent injury. So, even though
he had stairs digging into his back and a four inch by four inch
post had conked him on the head, he cradled Gina as protectively as
he could.
    Gina looked down at him in a daze, her left
hand clutched in his t-shirt and her right held against her chest.
Her eyes were wide with fright and her hair more wild than normal.
Their legs had gotten tangled, and her right leg was over his lap.
Looking down, it was easy enough to imagine another, more intimate
situation, and in spite of the crazy circumstance, his body
responded. Even as he tried to ignore the tempting picture she
made, his dick hardened.
    “Uh, wow,” she laughed. She tried to adjust
her leg, and Matt knew the exact second she noticed his erection.
All movement stopped, and a pink tinge colored her cheeks, but she
looked up with a smile, which surprised him. “We, uh, need to quit
meeting like this. Really.” She pressed a quick, hard kiss to his
chin before she scrambled off his lap. She took several steps back
and surveyed the damage.
    Matt could see the dismay on her face when
she saw the mess, and he felt his face heat with embarrassment. He
pushed the base post off his shoulder and levered himself up off
the step, then turned back to look.
    God, it was bad. These cookie-cutter houses
had been here for a long time, and the age showed in the frailty of
the wood. The old base had snapped at the bottom and ripped up two
of the hardwood floor boards. The post was still attached to the
banister, but six of the spindles had broken as well and were
leaning in over the stairs. The only good thing he could see was
that the long banister itself was not one piece. It was two
sections. In his mind, he had already begun the fix.
    Humiliation gnawed at his chest, and his face
felt as red as it had ever been. Sweat broke out on his forehead
and ran down his cheek. “I am so sorry,” he choked out. Disgust
beat at him, and he clenched his jaw so hard his teeth creaked. He
had turned out exactly as Rick had said years ago. Big, stupid,
clumsy ox. The man had been dead for years, but Matt could still
hear his voice as if he stood next to him. No good for
anything .
    Taking a deep breath he dared to glance at
Gina.
    She smiled up at him gently. Her brows were
raised in humor, and her left hand was propped on her hip. The
right was nestled between her breasts. But there was no censure in
her eyes. She shrugged her shoulders and giggled. “We just can’t
seem to have a normal conversation, can we?”
    Unable to believe that she wasn’t mad, Matt
shook his head. “No, ma’am.”
    Her gaze suddenly zeroed in on something and
she reached up with her left hand to grasp his chin, turning his
head to the right. Gentle fingers lifted his hair off his head, and
Matt realized his hat was on the floor. He hadn’t even noticed it
being gone.
    “Oh, Matt. Come on.”
    Gina clutched his hand in hers and tugged him
toward the kitchen. Once there, she pulled a chair away from the
table and swung it around in front of the sink. “Sit down, please.
You conked your head pretty good with that post.”
    Matt reached up and probed the area. He
pulled back bloody fingers. He hadn’t even noticed he’d been hurt.
Wiping the side of his face with a paper towel she shoved at him,
he realized it was blood running down his face, not sweat. Once he
recognized the blood, the area started to throb in pain.
    Gina rummaged in a low cupboard, most of her
body buried inside. It was the first time Matt had ever seen her in
jeans, and he had to admit he liked them much better than scrubs.
They cupped her ass to perfection.
    When she backed out and stood up, she had a
square white first-aid box in her hand. Popping the latch
one-handed, she ripped open a square gauze pad and pressed it to
his head. Matt winced at the thought of getting her dirty and tried
to put his hand in her place. “Hold that there a minute,” she told
him.
    She rummaged in