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longer fit into the innocent dreams of her youth, he definitely fit into a grown woman’s fantasy.   Boy, did he ever.  
    She jerked slightly at that thought.   Whoa.   No, definitely not.   She’d been down that dead-end road with Roger, and she wasn’t going there ever again.   When was she going to grow up?   Travis was just a guy, not a prince, not a secret lover, none of the starry-eyed nonsense girls thought up during their adolescence.
    “Here.”   She shoved the towel at him.   “It looks like it got mostly on you.   I won’t need to change the sheets.   You won’t have to get out of the bed.   Are you feeling better now?”  
    For crying out loud!   Now I’m babbling.   What next, drool ?   Somehow she’d have to curb her attraction to the man.
    “I’m fine.   Thanks.”  
    As he wiped his chest, her mouth went dry.   She felt parched and the only way to cure her thirst would be to lap up every drop of water on his body.   Well, so much for drooling .  
    With a hard swallow, she turned to leave.   “I’ll go see about getting you some lunch.   The doctor said you’ve got to build up your strength.”  
    “What doctor?”
    She froze in mid-step at the sound of his steely voice.   Rocky stood and growled.   She gave him the hand signal to sit then turned to face-off against her unexpected visitor.  
    “The doctor that sewed up your leg yesterday.   The one who probably saved your life.   The one you obviously don’t remember.”
    He narrowed his eyes.   She could tell he remembered some of what happened.   His bouts with consciousness weren’t completely lost, but would he recognize her?
    “He said something about a hospital, and I said no.   And he called me Mr. Schuster?”
    She clasped her hands, quickly formulating another lie.   “I didn’t know your name so I made one up.   Mark Schuster was the best I could come up with on such short notice.”  
    His brows furrowed deeply.   “Why not tell him I was a stranger?   Why not have me taken away?”
    “I had the feeling you were in some sort of trouble.”    
    “And you just took it upon yourself to save me?   How do you know I’m not a serial killer or running from the law?”
    She blinked several times, struggling for an answer.   “Rocky didn’t attack you.   I trust his judgment.”
    “Are you sure he wasn’t just sizing me up for dinner?”   He cast her a roguish grin.
    How could he be one of the bad guys with a face like that?   She knew deep down he wasn’t, but still, Jase told her to be careful, to not trust anybody.   “Rocky won’t hurt you, if you don’t hurt me.   You’re perfectly safe.”
    “Uh-huh.   You wouldn’t happen to have a gun around would you?”
    “Why?”   Did he think whoever shot him would come looking for him?   Had they tracked him here or had they brought him, only to return later and finish the job?
    She forced herself to stay upright with the frightening possibilities.   God, how she hated this game they were playing.
    He eyed Rocky sitting by her feet.   “Let’s just say I feel like it might make us even.”  
    She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.   “I don’t like guns.   You two will just have to learn to get along.   And anyway, if you were to hurt Rocky, I’d have to hurt you.”   She meant that in all seriousness.  
    He chuckled.   “You?   Hurt me?”  
    “I wouldn’t be fooled by my size, if I were you.   I’m quite capable of taking care of myself.”
    He looked her over incredulously then shrugged.   “Whatever you say.   But why Mark Schuster?”
    “He’s someone I dated once.”   She hadn’t expected that question, nor had she managed to squelch the nervousness in her voice, darn it.  
    Why did admitting she had dated someone bother her so much?   It wasn’t as if she’d been saving herself for Travis Reid.   Absolutely not!   She dated plenty, and had almost married