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sounds so stupid when you say it like that.”
    “I’m sorry. I certainly didn’t mean—”
    “I was just trying to avoid you offering to help me along with an arm under my shoulders or something. I just have a slight twinge, so I really don’t need that kind of help, if that’s what you’re going to offer.”
    “That’s not what I’m going to offer. I’d much rather just carry you.”
     
     

CHAPTER THREE
     
    In shock and disbelief about what he’d said, I just looked at Jim for a long moment. “No. No, thank you. No way. I do not need to be carried. In fact, considering that I only have an extremely mild sprain, and that’s at worst, I think the suggestion is a little ridiculous.”
    While I’d been speaking, Jim had been kind of looking up and around at the tall pines between the cabins with his mouth twitching once again, as if he thought what I was saying was a little ridiculous, but he was committed to politely humoring me until I was finished.
    Now that I was, he finally looked at me again. “Avery, I’m not saying that you’re helpless, and I’m not saying I’m going to throw you over my shoulder.”
    So, he’d be holding me to his chest. That would almost be worse in terms of feeling his strong arms and smelling his scent.
    “I’m just suggesting that I carry you, simply because it will be easier on you than you limping or hobbling along trying to use an easel as a crutch.”
    I was really beginning to regret that I’d suggested that.
    “So, what do you say? Will you agree to let me carry you, so that we can reach your cabin faster? I really would appreciate it, since I’d like a few minutes for a cup of coffee and a little breakfast before starting my workday around dawn.”
    So, that was why he wanted to carry me. So that we could reach my cabin quicker, and then he could have breakfast. I really didn’t blame him at all; begrudging him time for coffee and breakfast would have been very unkind. It was just that I now realized that maybe I’d been hoping that he wanted to carry me maybe because he found me as attractive as I found him. I realized that some tiny part of me had been hoping this even while I fought against him not to be carried.
    Being made aware of the true reason he wanted to carry me had somehow softened my resolve not to be carried, and I now nodded.
    “All right. You can carry me.”
    Without a moment’s hesitation, he scooped me up and began carrying me down the lane in the dark, holding me to his chest. And the experience was every bit as bad and as good as I’d been afraid of and yet slightly hoping it would be.
    The experience was good because the sensation of being held in Jim’s arms, cradled against his hard chest, breathing in his woodsy, musky scent, was what I could only describe as exquisite. But not just because it felt good to have my body against his, and his against mine. I somehow felt safe in his arms, and on such a profound level that it was startling and even alarming. Particularly since Jim was still just a near-stranger to me. Just some man who was probably going to constantly harp on me to use my power for national defense.
    The experience of being held by Jim was bad for all the same reasons it was good. It was bad because it was so good that I thought it was likely that I could get very used to being held in his arms, and I didn’t want that, being that I knew next-to-nothing about him. Sure, I’d heard things about him, but I didn’t know him personally. For all I knew, Ridgewood’s town hero could be a complete womanizer. He could be a complete tyrant. He could be a violent drug addict. Though, to be honest, I kind of doubted that last scenario was true. And really, I doubted the second as well. And from what I’d heard around town, Jim seemed to be the opposite of a womanizer. I actually hadn’t heard any talk about his love life, other than Platinum Blonde Lady saying he was single.
    For the first little stretch of Jim walking, I