Over the next few days, Tracy stopped by Javier's room often, and the two of them would talk about everything and nothing, just enjoying each others company. Tracy was drawn to the newly awakened young man, and he to her, though neither would have admitted it. Both loved their independence, and whereas Javier hated to ask for help from friends, Tracy wasn't above it, though she'd never gone crawling to her father. He made her laugh, more than any one person she'd ever known, and she brought him companionship, something he had been lacking in Spain.
They complemented each other, like Bonnie and Clyde. Javier was normally close- mouthed about anything personal, but with Tracy, it was different. Something inside him wanted to tell her everything about him, but as much she pleased him, she also frightened him. Baring his soul to her, to anyone, was dangerous. It gave that person power, the power to hurt you, and Javier had been hurt enough in the past that he did not care to repeat the experience.
One week later, Javier was released from the hospital, free to go. Everyone was there when he was released. As Javier signed the release papers, Nick asked him, “Where are you going to stay? You didn't have a hotel ready for you when you came in, did you?”
“No. I thought I'd deal with it when I got here.”
“Typical Javier,” Urs said wryly.
“Hey!” Javier murmured, mock-offended. Tracy laughed. He shot her a wounded look.
“So, where are you going to live while you recover?” Nick asked.
Javier was silent. “He can stay with me,” Urs volunteered.
“Be reasonable, Urs, you have one bedroom and the sofa doesn't come out to be a bed,” Nick contradicted. “And I don't have a spare bedroom either.”
“Neither do I,” Natalie added. Tracy was silent up until this point. Natalie looked at her sideways, urging her with her eyes to offer. Here's your chance, girl. Take it and run.
“I have a guest bedroom,” Tracy offered tentatively. Javier looked at her in interest.
“Sure you can take me?” he goaded, a grin on his dark face.
“Honey, I can take everything you've got and then some,” Tracy shot back, and then for full effect, let Javier and everyone in the room watch as she blatantly looked him up and down, as if sizing him up for her bed. Natalie and Nick laughed as Javier audibly gulped. Urs looked decidedly unhappy.
Javier cleared his throat and after a moment, spoke. “That's fine with me if you don't mind.”
“Great, it's settled. Let's get you out of here and to my place.” Javier had very little baggage, a small backpack that had survived the crash. The rest had burned. Natalie pushed his wheelchair to the entrance to New Orleans General and Javier got up slowly. He turned around and gave Nick and Urs hugs, and then said thank you to Natalie. The trio watched as Javier left with Tracy, each thinking different thoughts. Natalie was elated and happy that Tracy would finally have a chance with Javier now that he was at her apartment. Nick was laughing inside, thinking that his friend didn't have a shot in hell surviving Tracy Vetter, and Ursula was seething inside, upset that the man she loved was going to be with some other woman, a woman who obviously liked, if not loved, him.
The ride to Tracy's was silent, tense, almost uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable for Tracy because she was in close proximity to a man she found extremely attractive, who radiated sex appeal and they were on their way to her apartment, where he would be staying for an indefinite period of time. Under her roof. They would be there. Alone. Together. Unable to bear the silence, Tracy asked, “So, what are you going to do about the clothes situation?”
“Nick's going to take me out tomorrow to a mall and get clothes. I'm going to pay him back, but I don't have the money right now.” Javier hated to be indebted to anyone, including his best friend Nick, and so it was hard to take hospitality from Tracy, no matter how much he liked her. “Thank you for taking me in, but the moment I get to be too much, tell me and I'm out of there.”
“Oh, I think you got to be too much a long time ago,” Tracy said lightly, a small smile on her face. Jav turned in his seat and looked at her. Wind blowing her hair into a frenzy, a small smile playing on her lips, and her eyes sparkling, Javier was struck by how beautiful she was, this woman who had taken him in.
Thirty minutes later, they arrived at her loft. It was on the third floor of the complex and on the ride up the elevator to her loft, Tracy could feel Jav's eyes on her body. It made her jumpy, the way that he affected her. Finally, she turned to him. “Can you not do that?”
Javier didn't even try to play dumb. “No,” he mouthed. Tracy narrowed her eyes. The smug SOB laughed. When they reached her floor, Tracy walked ahead of him, letting him carry his own bags, positive if she walked anywhere near him, she'd smack his sexy face, and then where would she be?
Tracy let them into her apartment and walked through, letting him follow at his own pace. “This is the living room and the kitchen. The bedrooms are this way,” Tracy said, leading him down a hallway, pointing out the different rooms as they went along. “This is my bedroom,” she gestured. Javier peeked through, taking a quick glance. His gaze lingered on the king-sized bed, imagining Tracy sleeping, and in his mind's eye, he left the room, and for a brief moment, traveled through time, to a place he did not recognize, and yet he did. He had a flash of hovering outside her bedroom, watching her sleep, her still form shrouded in darkness and yet he could see her clearly. “Hello, anyone in there???” Tracy practically shouted in his ear.
Javier was sharply taken out of his reverie by Tracy's voice. He shook off the memory, but that wasn't possible. He had never seen Tracy while she slept. The room he had just seen had been completely different from Tracy's bedroom, a room he had never seen before, not in reality, and not in his dreams. “Where were you a minute ago? It's like you blanked out. Maybe I should take you back to the hospital,” Tracy said worriedly.
“No, that's all right. I'm fine now. I don't know what came over me. I was thinking about something.”
“Well, that must have been a pretty important something. You didn't even blink and I called your name ten times.”
“I'm fine now. Where'd you say my room was?” he asked, getting back on track. It turned out the guest bedroom was next to Tracy's.
“There's your closet. You know where my bedroom is. The only bathroom is adjacent to my room and it has a connecting door, so when you go in, don't open my door. We don't want any problems to occur,” Tracy said primly.
Javier was grinning by the time she was through. She pursed her lips and crossed her arms across her chest. His gaze dropped to her breasts and wiggled his eyebrows. “Javier!!!” she cried indignantly, covering her chest. He just laughed.
“Sure you wouldn't want to take advantage of poor little me?”
Tracy slowly walked up to Javier and, looking into his brown gaze, slowly leaned in until her lips were a hair’s breath away from his. For a tense moment, neither breathed, just staring into each other's eyes. Javier's were silently daring, and if she looked close enough, dark with anticipation. Tracy's eyes were filled with something he couldn't identify, but soon recognized with her next comment. “In your dreams,” she murmured, the corner of her mouth turned up in a smirk, as if she couldn't hold back her mirth.
Javier silently groaned. “Tease,” he murmured hoarsely. Tracy laughed lightly and walked away, back into Javier's room. He followed her slowly, attempting to control his raging libido. Barely a flirtation, and he was sweating.
The rest of the day passed in relative peace, without any further sexual innuendo or overtures. Night came to pass and soon it was time for bed. Javier was shaving his face, chest bare, fresh from the shower and clothed only in a pair of tight jeans, the top button casually left undone. There was a light knock on the bathroom door from Tracy's side, and Jav called out, “Come in.” Tracy quietly walked in. For a moment she was stunned by the sight before her, Jav barely clad in a pair of tight jeans that hugged his sexy ass. Tracy's observer's eyes zoomed in on the tight fit of his jeans, indicating he was not wearing any underwear. Her hungry eyes were drawn to the front closure of his jeans, to the undone button and the sparse dark hair peeking seductively from the opening, taunting her with unfulfilled promise. A warmth spread throughout her body and moisture pooled between her thighs. She unconsciously licked her lips, and completely missed the devilish expression on Jav's face. “Enjoying the view, Trace?” Javier mockingly asked, his face lit in a smirk, barely concealed lust in his own gaze as he too looked over Tracy's lush form. Tracy snapped out of her enjoyment by the abrupt sound of Javier's husky voice.
“Hmmm?” she asked distractedly, trying to sneak a peek at the goods in front of the package.
Javier turned around completely, flattered and enjoying her perusal of his person and engaging in his own view of her form. “ I said, are you enjoying the view?”
“Much,” she murmured without thinking. A moment later she realized what she had blurted out and flushed from the tops of her breasts, which were peaking out from the prim and matronly white robe she wore, to the tips of her delicate ears. “Dear God, I can't believe I just said that!” she groaned and rushed out of the bathroom. “I'm going to just dive under the covers and pretend the last five minutes did NOT happen,” she said as she made a hasty retreat and jumped into bed. Javier followed her footsteps into her bedroom. Her slight weight was buried underneath a mound of lacy covers. Walking over to the bedside closest to her one dim reading lamp on her side table, Jav sat down on the edge of the bed, and pulled the covers away from Tracy's red flushed face.
“You weren't the only one enjoying the view, Tracy,” he murmured silkily, his eyes glittering with unresolved sexual fires, barely banked behind a control that was on the brink of collapsing and with it, letting go of every desire he had felt for Tracy since the moment he awoke weeks ago, just before he swiftly leaned down and his hot warm lips claimed hers.