Spellbound in His Arms Read Online Free PDF Page A

Nobody
was . Not after everything that had happened during these past few months.
    Thinking back, she stiffened. She remembered Stephanos’
face devastated from the pain and sorrow, and Maria…beautiful, twenty-seven
year old Maria lying in a coffin.
    She felt Michael squeezing her hand and realized he was
watching her.
    “Don’t worry,” he reassured her, probably
misinterpreting her reaction as worrying about her health. “There’s nothing
wrong with you, except that you hit your head on the steering wheel when the
car went off the cliff…but you’ll be fine soon,” Michael said.
    “The cliff?” Jackie repeated, taking in a deep breath.
Now, things started to come back to her about the accident. She struggled to
lift her head and a sharp pain shot right through every muscle in her body. “Oh
my God, my head hurts so badly!” She groaned and stopped moving.
    “Take it easy,” he urged her. “You need to stay put and
let the doctors take care of you.”
    “Is it that bad?” she asked, searching his face. He
looked tired and very worried. His hair was messed up and he needed a shave.
    “You did lose a lot of blood,” he admitted and
encouragingly squeezed her hand.
    “What about you?” she inquired. “Don’t you need to see a
doctor? You don’t look so good.”
    “I told you, I’m fine,” he insisted. “It looks a lot
worse than it actually is” he reassured her, looking down at his ripped and
bloodstained clothes.
    “But all that blood…” she went on.
    “Well, actually…it’s not mine,” he admitted.
    Jackie realized it was her blood all over his
clothes and felt a shockwave running up her spine. I must be in a lot worse
shape than he’s willing to admit. The thought got her really worried.
    What now? How long would she have to stay in the
hospital? And in the meantime, what would happen to Aphrodite?
    “When am I going to be able to leave this place?” she
asked him, feeling restless.
    “The doctors want to keep you for one more day.”
    “But I feel fine,” she lied.
    “Well, you know how doctors are. Even though the tests
didn’t show anything to worry about, they still want to make sure everything is
fine before they let you go.”
    “But, I can’t stay here!” she insisted.
    Michael looked at her cautiously. “It’s just for one
day,” he said. “Is there anybody we need to notify?”
    “No!” she replied abruptly. Seeing the surprised look on
his face, she tried to smooth things over, “I’m here on vacation,” she lied,
“and I don’t want my family to get worried.”
    Michael looked at her for a few seconds, clearly not
buying her story.
    Jackie silently cursed herself for not coming up with a
better excuse. She was furious this stranger had the ability to so easily tear
down her defenses. She just couldn’t believe that even with his face all
scratched up and his tight fitting jeans and T-shirt torn and dirty, he still
looked so handsome and inviting.
    Suddenly, she realized something. “Am I under arrest?”
she asked.
    He seemed to be thinking about it for a couple of
seconds. “That really depends on you,” he finally said enigmatically.
    Jackie looked at him puzzled. “What’s that supposed to
mean?” she asked and felt her stomach tightening.
    “We’ll talk about this later,” he said and left it at
that. “For now, the important thing is for you to get out of here.”
    “That’s exactly my point,” she agreed and tried to get
out of bed, even though she was suffering.
    “Wait a minute, young lady!” he yelled and gently but
steadily pushed her back on the bed. “Where do you think you’re going?”
    “I’m leaving,” she said. “I can’t stay here a minute
longer. I have a million things to do.”
    “I thought being on vacation meant taking it easy and
doing nothing,” he pointed out with an ironic look on his face.
    Jackie bit her lower lip. Right from the very first
moment, she had realized he was going to be trouble.