Dare to Take (Dare to Love 6)

He walked down the hall and stopped outside the room he’d been directed to. He drew a deep breath and stepped inside.

Ella was asleep, her light brown hair spread out over the white pillowcase, her face pale. Though she looked fragile, he knew she was strong. He admired her and had never stopped thinking about her over the years … as more than a family friend. As the woman he’d treated so badly … and the one he’d let get away. Not that there was anything he could or would do about that now. He still didn’t trust his ability to commit. And Ella, with her painful past, needed someone who wouldn’t bail on her again.

Seeing her in this bed brought him back to the time when they’d met. She’d been small for her age, a ten-year-old waiting to give bone marrow to her stepmother, much like Avery. Except Avery was giving her bone marrow to a half sister they’d known nothing about until a few weeks before.

Avery and Ella had bonded over their mutual situation, and all the Dare brothers had become extremely protective of Ella Shaw. It was what made his reaction to her that Christmas so damned … wrong. And why he’d treated her so badly afterwards. Self-disgust turned at the wrong person. Because he’d enjoyed her hot, slick body too much.

He shook his head, pushing those thoughts aside.

He stepped farther into the room, and as he made his way toward her, those protective instincts he’d always had for her kicked in, combined with a healthy dose of desire for the woman lying helpless in the hospital bed.

“Excuse me. Who are you and what are you doing in here?” a female dressed in white, presumably a nurse, entered the room and asked.

“I’m here for Ella Shaw. I’m … family,” he said, forcing out the words, because what he felt when he looked at her was anything but familial or brotherly.

The nurse narrowed her gaze. “Well, she’s been through a trauma and—”

“It’s okay, he can stay,” Ella said, her voice raspy and low.

The nurse studied him for a long moment, finally treating him to a curt nod before rushing out of the room.

Tyler turned back to meet her gaze. “Hey, short stuff,” he said, the nickname from when she was younger falling off his tongue.

“When I feel better, I am going to strangle Avery,” she muttered. “I take it you’re the cavalry?”

“You could sound more grateful.”

“And you could speak to me like an adult,” she snapped back, both falling into recent patterns.

To keep his distance and not show how attracted he was to her, he’d put up a wall, treating her like an annoyance or a pesky younger sister. That shit had to stop now. She was right. They were both adults, even if he hadn’t been acting like one for the last few years.

He pulled up a chair, his knees touching the metal frame of the bed. “How are you?” he asked more gently.

She blew out a breath. “My head hurts badly and I’m a little dizzy. Nothing out of the ordinary for a concussion,” she said, eyes suspiciously damp, telling him she was in more pain than she let on.

Without overthinking, he reached for her hand. “I’m sure you’ll feel better when we get you out of here.”

“I was mugged. My money, passport … everything’s gone.”

“I know. But the good news is you don’t need any of those things to fly out on a private jet.”

The noise she made sounded more like a snort. An adorable snort but one nonetheless. “Of course not.”

“Got a problem with that?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never flown that way before but … I’m grateful you came for me,” she said, looking past him, toward the window, obviously unable to meet his gaze. “I’m sure you didn’t want to and Avery had to twist your arm.”

He squeezed her soft hand. “We’ll talk about all that when you’re stronger. Right now let’s find a doctor who can release you.”

It took awhile. Finally a harassed-looking man agreed she could leave as long as she had someone to watch over her. Since Tyler wasn’t letting her out of his sight, that wouldn’t be a problem.

The trip back to the hotel was more difficult, costing Tyler a fortune because, again, most cab drivers wanted to get home, not take passengers out of their way.

The palm trees swayed dangerously as they drove, the driver holding tight to the wheel of the small car.

Ella was oblivious. No sooner had he bundled her into the back of the cab than she’d curled up beside him, laid her head on his shoulder, and passed out. She might have been hospitalized, but she still smelled pure female. He hadn’t thought anything could distract him from the fury of the hurricane, but one whiff of Ella’s hair, an inhale of her scent, and he wasn’t thinking about wind or rain. He was immersed in a force of nature of a whole different kind.

What kind of perv got an erection when a hurt, unconscious woman lay trustingly against him? Shit. The things this woman did to him always had him questioning his common sense.