You Are My Air: Breathless Book 1 (2 page)

"Thank God," I mumbled to myself.

Maggie opened her mouth to speak when I felt a hand grab my shoulder roughly, and I had just enough time to notice a tall middle-aged guy pushing me out of his way as he passed me. I was shoved to the right into Maggie. My foot caught on one of hers, and I tumbled to the ground in a heap on the pavement. I could hear Maggie screaming obscenities after the guy, but he disappeared into the crowd without even looking back to see if I was alright. I ended up on my hands and knees trying to access my body, hoping I hadn't been hurt bad enough to not be able to finish the race. I suddenly felt a presence next to me as a gentle hand came to rest on my shoulder, and I felt an almost electric shock surge through me.

"Are you alright?" A deep smooth male voice spoke very close to my ear. I looked up into the most gorgeous pair of blue eyes I had ever seen. They were close enough that I could clearly see the lighter shade of blue near his pupils that darkened out to the edges. They were beautiful and so was he. The worried furrow between his eyebrows made him look brooding and sexy as hell. The tussle of short dark curls on his head begged to be touched. His short beard and mustache were just scruffy enough to make him sexy and rough looking. He was wearing a fitted navy blue long-sleeve shirt and under the fabric, his broad shoulders and arms were muscular and toned, but not overly large like some 'roided out weightlifter. I was so caught off-guard that I couldn't speak for a moment. His eyes pulled me into them like I was seeing inside him. I sensed loneliness and sadness deep in his eyes. I was disconcerted, and out of my depth as I struggled to find any words to answer his question.

"What a fucking dick." I heard another male voice, this one low and raspy. I ripped my eyes away from the blue-eyed stranger to see another gorgeous dark-haired guy looking down at me, this one with wider shoulders and more muscular than the first. His bright green eyes burned with anger. He was kind of scary.

"You bastard!" Maggie was next to me yelling after the jerk who had shoved me, then she leaned down to look at me too. I suddenly felt like I was under a microscope, and the discomfort got me moving. I struggled to my feet, the blue-eyed guy helping me up, and I ended up standing in front of him with only inches separating us. He was just a few inches taller than my five feet ten inches, so our faces were perilously close to each other. I could smell the masculine scent of his sweat, and the electric heat between us escalated. It was intoxicating. He grabbed my shoulders gently and studied my face.

"Are you okay?" he asked again, his voice lower this time, and I ended up staring at his full lips and wondering what they tasted like. I wondered what his beard would feel like sliding across my skin. He took in a breath, and I thought I saw the same need that I felt ghost across his face for a moment, before only concern was left behind.

"I...I think so," I mumbled quietly. He stepped back, and his gaze traveled down my body as he checked me over. A look that was anything but chaste flowed across his face for just a second as he looked at me, and I shivered. His eyes came back up to mine, and they had darkened. He leaned infinitesimally toward me, and for just a fraction of a second I swear to God that he was going to kiss me, and even though he was a complete stranger, I wanted him to.

"Natalie," Maggie said my name frantically as she grabbed my upper arm, "are you hurt?"

I somehow managed to pull my eyes away from his face to look at Maggie. She looked really freaked out. "I can't believe that asshole pushed you down." She turned me to face her and started checking me over thoroughly, head to toe. That was when I realized my palms were burning, and I lifted them up to look at them. The lower part of them were scraped up pretty badly with road rash, and it was stinging like crazy now. Maggie grabbed the back of my hands and surveyed the damage.

"Ow!" I blurted out when she touched one of my injured palms. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked in irritation.

"Sorry, Nat," she said with a repentant grimace. "Do you hurt anywhere else?"

"I don't think so," I answered. I glanced up from my hands to look for those gorgeous blue eyes again, and I caught sight of his back as he was swallowed up by the crowd running past us. All I was left with was a fleeting glimpse of his incredible backside as he took off running. A feeling of disappointment came over me. I didn't even get to thank him or ask him his name.

"Do you think you can keep going?" Maggie asked me, pulling my attention back to her. I took a moment to bend my knees and flex each foot. No other part of my body seemed to have been affected from my fall. Thank God. I didn't want to have to quit now.

"Yeah," I answered her, "let's go."

We took off again, jumping into the flow of runners, and I was pleased that I could run without any pain. We quickly got back into the groove, and before we knew it, we were down to the last mile. It was probably the longest mile I'd ever traveled in my life, and I swear the finish-line kept getting further away. My legs were starting to feel like they weren't mine anymore as I forced myself to keep going. When we finally crossed the finish-line, the profound feeling of relief that came over me was only overshadowed by my pride in what I had just accomplished. My burning palms were long forgotten, but I couldn't forget about those amazing blue eyes, and the gorgeous man attached to them.

Maggie and I got our medals, and as we were in line for the free bagels and bananas that were being handed out, I kept finding myself looking for him. I knew it was unlikely I'd find him in a throng like this, but I couldn't help myself. I don't think I'd ever felt such an instant attraction to a man before in my life.

"I haven't seen him anywhere either," Maggie said suddenly, and I jerked my eyes back to hers in embarrassment. She was smiling knowingly at me.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I denied what I was doing immediately, even though I knew Maggie wouldn't believe me.

"Please," she said incredulously. "I saw the way that hot guy looked at you.
And
I saw the way you looked at him."

"You should have smelled him," I breathed out with a deep sigh, giving up on denial immediately. It was pointless since Maggie was on to me anyway.

"Why couldn't my blind date have looked like that?" Maggie asked with a huge grin.

"Right?" I asked as we got our snacks. We started slowly making our way to Maggie's car on tired rubbery legs. I couldn't wait to get home to take a nap and a shower, but we had one stop first, one that we had been planning as our reward for months. Ice cream.

**********

We walked into the ice cream shop still wearing our medals. We got some odd looks, but we didn't care. These medals had been hard won, and we weren't taking them off until we got home. Maggie ordered a tin roof sundae, and I got myself a banana split. I led us to a table by the window, and we sat down. I took my first bite and couldn't remember ice cream ever tasting this good. It was the perfect reward, and since we had just burned through over a thousand calories, guilt free. Both of us were so hungry that we had eaten almost all of our sundaes before Maggie started speaking.

"Has Lucas finally stopped calling you?" Maggie asked with a serious expression.

I sighed, not really wanting to talk about my ex right now. "I haven't heard from him in a few weeks."

"Do you think he's finally let it go?" she asked quietly.

"I hope so," I said succinctly, desperate to end this conversation. Lucas and I dated for about six months. I really liked him and he was a good guy, but the longer we were together the more I had begun to realize that I wasn't ever going to feel anything more than that, no matter how much I tried to delude myself. He deserved better than that and so did I, so I ended things and broke his heart in the process. He didn't cope well at all.

The first few weeks he called and texted me daily, begging me to give us another chance. He just couldn't accept that I didn't feel the same way about him that he felt about me. The whole situation made me feel like the world's biggest heartless bitch. Especially when I realized that I hadn't ever really been in love with anyone before. It made me wonder if I wasn't capable of feeling that way about a man, even though it was something I desperately longed for. It was a depressing revelation.

"It's too bad things didn't work out with him," Maggie stated as she watched me closely, a wistful look on her face. "He's a really great guy."

"What was I supposed to do?" I asked in irritation. "Stay with him because he's a 'good guy' even though I don't love him? How would that have been fair to him or me?"

"I know, Natalie," Maggie admitted. "I just hoped that this time around you'd found the right guy for you. You guys were really good together."

"You think I don't know that?" I asked in exasperation. "I wanted that too, but it just didn't work out that way." I let out a harsh sigh. "Can we just drop this subject? You're ruining my post run high
and
my reward."

"I'm sorry, Nat," she said apologetically. "I just want you to be happy."

"I just need to learn to be happy being alone," I stated matter-of-factly, but feeling dubious about my statement. It was easier said than done when every night the loneliness would come for me and fill up my mind, making me feel sorry for myself and doubting my decision to leave Lucas. Part of me wondered if I could have accepted the lack of love I felt for him and learned to find it enough, just so I didn't have to be alone. These thoughts were always followed by guilt over my own selfishness and then realizing I had probably made the right decision. It was a never-ending cycle of thoughts that had kept me awake many nights.

Maggie thankfully decided to change the subject, and we spent the rest of the time it took to finish our ice cream talking about the race and speculating about the blue-eyed guy's skills in the bedroom. It was a harmless diversion that I welcomed, especially since I'd never see the guy again.

**********

I was dead tired by the time I shuffled into my apartment on leaden feet. George greeted me loudly with his usual body slam against my legs. They were so tired and sore that he almost knocked me over. I somehow managed to stay on my feet and stumble to my bedroom with George following in my wake.

Instead of showering, I stripped off my nasty running clothes and crawled into my bed. George curled up on top of the blankets next to my hip, and I basically passed out for almost two hours. By the time I woke up, my stomach was screaming for food again, and I decided to take myself out to lunch after my shower. I was really craving some pasta for a carb overload.

I forced my sore aching body out of the bed, realizing that Maggie and I had forgotten to stretch after the race, and I was going to pay for it for a while. Hopefully, a hot shower would ease some of the stiffness and make me feel better. I spent so long under the warm spray of water that my fingers were pruned by the time I stepped out of the shower, but my stiff muscles felt much better.

I dried my hair and put on a little makeup. I dressed in jeans and a comfortable over-sized tan sweater, then put on my favorite brown boots. I had just slipped on my jacket when my phone began ringing. I hurried over to the dining table to see that it was my mother calling. I sighed with resignation, wondering what drama had "wrecked" her life today. If I wasn't such a good daughter, I would have let it go to voice mail.

"Hi, Mom." I answered in as happy a voice as I could muster, bracing myself for another emotional roller coaster.

"Oh my God, Natalie," she began in a tense voice that filled me with sudden dread. "It's your brother. He wrecked his motorcycle." The dread turned to stark terror.

"Is Ford...?" I babbled out. "Is he...is he...?"

"He's alive, baby," she reassured me. "But I don't know how bad he's hurt yet. I'm on my way to the hospital right now. Your father is on his way too."

"I'll leave right now and meet you there," I told her immediately, already grabbing my keys and purse and hurrying toward the door. She told me she would meet me there, then we ended the call. I rushed to the elevator and hit the down button repeatedly, as if doing that would make the elevator arrive any quicker. When I finally made it to the parking garage, I was grateful I hadn't worn heels as I sprinted to my red Volkswagen Passat. I jumped into the car, threw my bag onto the passenger seat, and started the car, slipping on my seatbelt as I backed out of my parking spot.

I sped all the way to the hospital, grateful I didn't get pulled over or get into an accident myself. Wouldn't that have been ironic? I found a reasonably close parking spot, and flew out of my car to the hospital's emergency-room entrance. I was out of breath, by the time I hurried through the automatic doors and over to the reception desk.

"Can I help you?" a polite older woman asked me.

"Yeah," I panted out. "I'm here for Ford Spencer. He was in a motorcycle accident. I'm his sister."

She nodded and looked at the computer monitor in front of her, her eyes scanning across the screen. "Yes, he's here. Let me get someone to escort you back to him."

"Thank you." I sighed and watched her get on the phone. A few moments later, a young woman in scrubs came out of the ER and walked over to me. She was probably just a little younger than me, with a cute blond bob.

"Hi," she said as she approached me. "I'm Jamie, your brother's nurse. I'll take you back to him."

I followed close on her heels back through the double doors she had come out of. "Is he okay?" I asked in a panicked voice, my mind making up horrible worse case scenarios of massive head wounds and skin grafts.

"He's doing well right now," she reassured me as she led me through the busy ER. "His left foot is broken, and he has some road rash, but he'll be okay."

I let out a deep breath of sweet relief. My big brother was going to be okay. He was my only family member that I had an almost healthy relationship with, and I don't know what I would have done if he had died. Jamie led me to the other end of the sizable ER, and stopped in front of a large glass door with a curtain inside blocking the view into the room. She knocked once and slid the glass door to the side to let me in as I heard my brother's deep voice say, "Come in."