"Julie? Julie, honey, can you hear me?"

A soft moan was her only response.

He touched her shoulder, too afraid to touch her anywhere else. He didn't want to jostle her or have her move her neck unnecessarily. If she hit the steering wheel, she'd have a hell of a case of whiplash and who knows what kind of neck or back injuries.

Her eyes flickered open and she stared fuzzily back at him.

"Nathan?" she whispered.

"Yes, honey, it's me."

Her brow crinkled in confusion and pain. "Am I dead?"

His gut clenched at even hearing such a thing.

"No, you're not dead. I need you to stay with me, though, okay? Can you keep those gorgeous eyes open until the ambulance gets here?"

By now more than one person had stopped. Two cars had parked in the inside lane to keep traffic diverted around Julie's car, a fact he was grateful for. The last thing he wanted was for them to get plowed again, and he wasn't going to leave her nor was he going to move her out of the car.

In the distance, sirens wailed, which meant either the cops or the ambulance was already en route. The sooner they got Julie the hell off the freeway, the better he'd feel.

"Am I going to be all right?" she asked anxiously, her eyes focusing unsteadily on him. "I don't feel so well."

Panic surged through his system. He reached tentatively for her hand, doing a quick look to see if there were any obvious injuries before curling his fingers gently around hers.

"You're going to be fine, honey. I promise."

Please don't let him have just handed her a huge lie.

Connor hurried up to stand next to Nathan. "Don't move her. Wait for the ambulance."

Nathan tempered his irritation. Connor was only doing what was best for Julie. "I know. I'm just trying to keep her calm."

Connor leaned over to stare at the blood seeping down Julie's face. "Julie, sweetheart, do you hurt anywhere else but your head?"

She clutched at Nathan's fingers a little tighter, her pupils dilating a bit in fear. That had to be good, right? He remembered one thing about head injuries. It was good if the pupils were equal and reactive. And she was awake. Not entirely lucid, but she'd just had the shit scared out of her. He could hardly expect her to act normally.

"I don't know. My head hurts." Her brow wrinkled in concentration. "My shoulder, I think." She glanced down and both Connor and Nathan shouted a quick no.

She blinked in confusion.

"Don't move your neck, honey," Nathan said soothingly. "Try and stay as still as possible." He rubbed his thumb across her knuckles and tried to ease the shaking in her hand.

Connor nudged Nathan's arm. "The ambulance just pulled up."

Connor moved out of the way, but Nathan stayed with Julie, holding her hand until the paramedics hurried up and asked him to step aside.

Though he hated to get too far away from her, he was only in the way as they began the process of extricating her from the car.

Two policemen were talking to Connor, and Connor called him over.

"He and I both witnessed it," Connor explained when Nathan walked up.

"Yeah," Nathan said distractedly as he looked back to see the progress they were making with Julie. "I got the plates on the truck that hit her."

"I'd like your statement," one of the police officers said as he stepped away from Connor and the other cop.

"Uh, look, can it wait? I want to go to the hospital with her."

The cop gave him a curious look. "You know her?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Let me have your contact information. If I don't catch you at the hospital, I'll get in touch with you later this afternoon. We'll need what information you can give us so we can prosecute this as a hit and run."

"Damn right," Nathan growled. "The son of a bitch wasn't looking where he was going and then he left without even slowing down. I'd like to ring his damn neck."

One of the paramedics motioned for Nathan. They had Julie on a stretcher and were wheeling her toward the ambulance.

"Go. I'll get with you later."

"Thanks," Nathan said as he sprinted to the back of the ambulance.

After the stretcher was loaded, one of the medics stepped back and motioned Nathan inside. Nathan climbed up and slid along the bench until he was at Julie's head.

The paramedic got in behind him while the other shut the doors and went around to the cab.

"Do me a favor and hop into the jump seat," the paramedic said, motioning to the seat above Julie's stretcher. "I need to examine her on the way in so I can give the hospital a report."

When Nathan repositioned himself, Julie softly called his name.

"Right here, honey," he said, lowering his hand to lightly stroke the side of her head that wasn't injured.

He watched while the paramedic efficiently examined her for other injuries, checked her vitals, assessed her pupils and fitted a loose bandage to her head to stop the bleeding.

He listened with keen interest when the medic called in his report to the emergency room and breathed a sigh of relief when he reported nothing major in his findings.

A few minutes later they came to a halt outside the ambulance entrance to the ER and the doors opened. He and the medic piled out and he waited to the side while they removed Julie's stretcher and wheeled her inside.

No one shooed him from the exam room, so he stood back out of the way while they poked and prodded, hooked her up to monitors and ascertained her level of consciousness. She looked frightened and incredibly vulnerable. Her gaze skated frantically left and right. Was she looking for him? He told her he wouldn't leave her, but how was she to know that now if she couldn't see him?

He stepped forward just enough that he could get into her peripheral vision. When her gaze settled on him, her eyes flooded with relief. She seemed to relax under the straps holding her to the backboard.

One of the nurses turned to him, putting her hand on his arm. "We need to clear her spine before we remove the C-collar and take her off the backboard. We're also going to get a CT of her head. She's doing fine so far. Her vitals are stable. Blood pressure is good. She's reacting to normal stimuli. You can stay with her until we do the X-rays."

"Thanks."

As soon as she moved, Nathan beat a path to Julie's bed. Her gaze moved upward when he stood over her and their eyes locked.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"For what, honey?"

"I don't know where you came from, but I was so scared, and you made me feel safe. That was the single most terrifying moment of my life. I'm so glad you were there."

He lowered his head to brush a kiss over her forehead. "Glad I could help. You scared the life out of me when I saw that truck hit you."

A shudder quivered through her body, and he touched her cheek with his fingers, caressing lightly in an attempt to soothe her.

"You're going to be fine, Julie. Just a knock on the head it looks like, and hey, if a part of your body is going to get abused, it might as well be your hard head."

She grinned and then winced. He frowned when he saw a little tiny cut in the corner of her mouth. Had she bitten it? Before she could close her lips again, he leaned down and gently fused his mouth to the cut.

She went still, her quick intake of breath her only reaction.

"Better?" he murmured as he pulled away.

"Better," she whispered.

His mind was already doing swift calculations. He knew she lived alone and didn't have anyone to look in on her much less take care of her. Taking her home with him was probably out of the question, and she probably wouldn't appreciate his slobby ass bachelor den anyway. He seriously needed to clean it up because he didn't want her to run screaming the first time she came over. And she would be coming over.

But he could definitely go home with her and make sure she took her pain pills, ate right and didn't fall on her face on her way to the bathroom. She could end up lying there all night and nobody would ever know.

His scowl deepened as he imagined her cold, alone and in pain. No, he could stay with her. It was just as well the independent heifer learn to have him around, because he didn't plan to go anywhere, despite her repeated attempts to shake him.

She might be stubborn—beautiful, willful, a handful of luscious woman but stubborn nonetheless—but he hadn't grown up with four women just to turn out to be some namby-pamby pushover. He was skilled at getting what he wanted. Hell, he had to be in a houseful of hormonally deranged females.

Two male techs entered Julie's room.

"Hi, gorgeous. My name is Steven and my partner here is David. We're going to go take some pictures of you."

He glanced up at Nathan. "We won't be long if you'd like to wait in the waiting room. She won't be coming back to this room. This is sort of our triage holding area. We'll be moving her to a different exam room until it's determined if she'll be admitted or not."

"You'll get me when she comes back?" Nathan asked.

"Sure, I'll holler at you myself. What's your name?"

"Nathan Tucker, and thanks."

"No problem, man. We'll take good care of her, I promise."

Nathan leaned down and kissed her forehead again. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

She gave him a half smile. "Okay."

Nathan waited until she'd been wheeled out before he made his way to the waiting room. Connor was standing there, hands shoved into his pockets leaning against one of the windows. He straightened when Nathan came out.

"How's she doing?"

"Good, I think. They've taken her to X-ray to clear her spine, and they want to do a scan of her head to make sure there aren't any bleeds. She was still conscious. Shaky and scared out of her mind, but that's to be expected."

"You staying?" Connor asked.

Nathan nodded. "Yeah."

"Okay, if you want, Pop and I will run your truck over and park it in the garage. I'll find you to give you the keys."

"Thanks. I'd appreciate that. Not sure what's going on here. They won't know if they're keeping her until they get the X-rays back."

"Not a problem. I called Pop and let him know what was going on. You might want to call her friend Serena. No sense worrying Faith if Julie's going to be all right. She and Gray are flying in tomorrow morning. I don't want to ruin their last night in Vegas."

"Yeah, I agree. I'll give Serena a holler when I know more. I don't want to freak her out."

"Okay, see you in a bit."

"Thanks, man."

"You bet," Connor said as he walked toward the exit.

Chapter 24

Julie breathed a sigh of relief when they unfastened her C-collar and carefully pulled it away from her neck.

"There you go, Miss Stanford. Can you move your head a bit?"

Julie stared up at the nurse and moved slowly from side to side.

"Good. Does that hurt? Any tenderness?"

Julie frowned. "Just a little stiff."

"That's to be expected. You're definitely going to feel it tomorrow."

"What about my head?"

"The doctor is just now getting the report. He should be in to talk to you shortly." She frowned when Julie winced. "Are you in pain?"

"Head," Julie muttered. "And my shoulder."

"Ah, yes, you have quite a bruise forming on that shoulder. As soon as the doctor gives me the okay, I'll give you something for pain. In the meantime, want me to let your young man back in? He's been pacing a hole in our waiting room floor."

Nathan. He was still here. For a moment, anticipation and something that felt strangely like joy surged through her veins like a shot of adrenaline. Where had he come from? She was still confused by the entire episode. Maybe she'd never really remember it all. One minute she'd been driving down the freeway enjoying having the top down, the next she was staring up at Nathan while he held her hand.

When she realized the nurse was staring at her, still waiting on an answer, she carefully nodded. "Yes, send him in, please."

The nurse smiled, patted her on the arm and turned to walk back out. A few minutes later, Nathan hurried in, concern shadowed in his eyes.

He did feel something for her. Something beyond lust and frustration. There was genuine worry for her reflected on his face. It made her feel warm and kind of funny on the inside. No one had ever really fussed over her like he had on the way to the hospital. It was strangely addicting.

"Hey," he said softly when he neared the bed. "I see they got you out of the bondage gear."

She chuckled softly, careful not to shake parts that didn't need shaking. "Yeah, it's a huge relief. That backboard was about to kill me, and having that C-collar on is like having someone's hands wrapped around your throat just waiting to squeeze."

He touched her face, smoothing her hair back behind her ear. "How are you feeling?"

"I've been better," she said ruefully. "I'd say I feel like I've been run over, but I guess I was."

His expression darkened. "Yeah, you were."

"Can you tell me what happened?" she asked. "I don't remember a whole lot. It all happened so fast. I just remember spinning and thinking I was going to die."