Baby at His Convenience. Kathie DeNosky

shouted loud enough to wake the dead, Katie would have jumped back and screamed at the top of her lungs if she’d had the energy. As it was, all she could manage was a flinch and a pitiful whimper.

      “My God, Katie, what happened?” He propped the gun he held against the door frame, then reached down to pull her to her feet. When her legs threatened to buckle, his strong arms closed around her and he pulled her to his wide, bare chest. “Are you all right, honey?”

      She started to answer him, but her teeth were chattering so badly she finally just shook her head and burrowed deeper into the warmth of his big body. She was soaked from the top of her head to the soles of her feet and colder than she’d ever been in her life.

      “Come on. Let’s go inside by the fire where you can warm up.”

      Her legs were so stiff they didn’t want to work and before she knew what happened, Jeremiah swung her up into his arms and carried her over to set her on the raised hearth of the stone fireplace. She didn’t want to think what might be running through his mind about how much she weighed. At the moment she was too preoccupied with whether or not she was going to freeze to death.

      “I’ll be right back,” he said, trotting down the hall. When he returned, he knelt in front of her to drape a thick, fluffy towel around her head and shoulders. He wiped water from her face with another towel, then started to unbutton her blouse.

      “N-n-no.” Her protest lost most of its effectiveness when her teeth continued to click together like the false sets sold in novelty shops, and her body shook as wave after wave of chills swept over her.

      “You’re close to being hypothermic,” he said, continuing to work at getting the buttons through the soaked fabric. “We have to get you out of these clothes and warmed up, fast. Otherwise, there’s a chance you could go into shock.”

      “I—I’ll…b-be f-fine,” she said, making her mouth form the words. She wrapped her cold, stiff fingers around his in an effort to stop him.

      “No, you won’t be fine,” he said firmly.

      To her horror, the buttons on her blouse went flying in all directions when he impatiently ripped the wet garment open and peeled it from her body. But her biggest humiliation was yet to come. Reaching behind her, he unhooked her bra and took it off as well.

      If she’d thought her day had been bad up to this point, it had just turned into a complete disaster. Goose bumps covered her exposed skin, but Katie wasn’t sure if her reaction was due to being colder than she could ever remember, or from having Jeremiah strip her from the waist up. Either way, she was sure that if it was possible for a person to die of embarrassment, she should be expiring at any moment.

      Folding her arms over her chest, she covered herself the best she could, while at the same time trying to make herself as small as possible. But that was darned difficult, considering her size.

      Her mortification grew with each passing second as he began to vigorously rub her upper arms, shoulders and back with a second plush towel. “One of the first lessons of basic survival is to get out of wet clothes and into something dry,” he said as if he was teaching a class on the subject.

      She wasn’t sure whether to be thankful that he hadn’t been affected by the sight of her breasts, or disappointed by the fact that he obviously found her unappealing. But as his ministrations worked their magic and she felt warmth begin to seep back into her chilled body, she decided she didn’t care.

      “I—I don’t feel…as c-cold now.” At least her teeth had stopped chattering enough to let her speak.

      “Good.” He handed her the towel he held, removed her tennis shoes and soggy socks, then stood up. “Take off the rest of your clothes here by the fire, while I get the water running in the shower.”

      She immediately wrapped the towel around her chest. “The shower?”

      He nodded. “A hot shower will help get the blood circulating and bring your temperature back to normal.”

      As she stared at him, she began to notice several things that she hadn’t paid attention to when he first opened the door. Jeremiah Gunn was more than an excellent example of a man in his prime, his body was absolutely beautiful.

      His shoulders were impossibly wide, his chest broad, and he had enough ripples on his stomach to make a bodybuilder jealous. A thin coating of black hair covered his impressive pectoral and abdominal muscles, enhancing their definition and perfect tone, while a tattoo of the Marine Corps insignia drew attention to his rock-hard left biceps. A small white scar ran horizontally along the outside of his right upper arm and another marred the tanned skin on his right side.

      “I was grazed by a couple of sniper bullets during Desert Storm,” he said, apparently noticing her inspection of his body. He shook his head. “But that’s ancient history. Right now you need to get out of the rest of those wet clothes.”

      A shiver that had nothing whatsoever to do with being chilled raced up her spine when the muscles on his right arm flexed as he reached out to help her to her feet. Katie did her best to hold the towel in place over her breasts when she accepted his hand, and forcing her stiff knees to straighten, she rose from the hearth.

      “I can start the shower myself,” she said firmly. “Where’s your bathroom?”

      He motioned toward the hall. “First door on the right. While you take a shower, I’ll get a pair of sweatpants and a shirt for you to put on.”

      She gathered as much of her dignity as she could muster and walked in the direction he’d indicated. She’d suffered enough embarrassment for one night, thank you very much. After showing up on his porch looking for all the world like a drowned rat, she’d had her breasts exposed, and been caught staring at him like a hungry dog eyeing a juicy bone. There was no way she was going to add to her humiliation by taking off her jeans and panties until she was safely behind the closed bathroom door.

      “When you get the sweats, you can hand them in to me.”

      Jeremiah followed Katie across the great room. “Make sure the water is good and hot.”

      When she nodded and shut the door in his face, Jeremiah continued on to his bedroom. His hands shook as he shucked the rest of his own wet clothes and pulled on a set of warm sweats.

      Having to remove Katie’s shirt and bra had really done a number on his libido. The sight of her full breasts with their coral nipples beaded to pebble hardness from the cold, had almost caused him to have a coronary. The woman had a body that a man could lose himself in, and unless he missed his guess, she didn’t even know it.