Page 37 of Tempted

“I'll go get you something for the fever, lass.”

She nods and lays her head back down on the pillow, seemingly defeated. I have a humidifier and some vapor rub in the basement, from when I had a flu bug last year, after the last hurricane hit. It seems that the weather brings on these viruses just to make things a little bit more interesting. I grab those items, plus some cold compresses I have in the freezer, and I bring them to her. I place the cold compresses under her arms and I pull her legs apart to tuck them in her groin area, as my mama instructed me to do when I was a child.

She takes the Advil tablets and I also feed her a spoonful of honey for the cough, knowing that that may just be the thing, and if not, I do have some cough syrup somewhere. Whether it's expired or not is another question. Once I have her outfitted with everything, I sit in the rocker recliner next to the bed, and pull out my phone. The cough is dry, which is somewhat of a relief. “Did you get vaccinated this year, lass?”

“I did. I never get sick.”

“It’s something about the storm, all that. I got something like this last year, too.”

“You should go, Malcolm. You could get sick, too, and then we’ll both be useless.”

“I think after this afternoon, if I'm going to get it, I'm going to get it.”

“Aye. But we didn’t kiss. That might have helped.”

I wanted to. I wanted to taste her lips so bad, but I've always learned that once you kiss a woman, that makes it personal. And the way that I took her…there was nothing personal about that. Even though what we had together was hot, there was so much more that I wanted to do. “Doesn’t matter, lass. There's nothing we can do about it now. I just hope that that fever of yours comes down, because there's a slim chance in hell that an ambulance is going to come out this way, or that I'm going to get anywhere near the highway to take you to the hospital.”

“I'll be fine. When I do get sick, which is never, it's gone fairly quickly.”

“Let’s hope you're right. But if that fever doesn't come down soon, I'm going to have to put you in an ice bath.” I tell her, touching her forehead again. Still just as warm, although it's only been minutes since we applied the ice packs. “I'll be right back. I've got to put more ice packs in the freezer.”

I can hear her coughing again, and it sounds more barky than before. I decide it's time to find that cough syrup. Luckily, it's only about a month past its expiry date. After I toss the extra ice packs into the freezer and bring up the cough medicine, she's fallen asleep. Deciding that it's best to let her rest for now, until the coughing starts up again, I push out the recliner on the chair and have a rest myself.

It's about thirty minutes later that she wakes up, coughing again, So I give her the medicine, and check her forehead again. She seems slightly cooler, thank God. “I’m freezing. My hands and feet are like icicles.”

“It’s because of the fever, lass. That will go away once it breaks.”

She is shivering, so I take her hands in mine and warm them. Her eyes are closed, she’s so exhausted, and my heart goes out to her. It’s miserable being that sick, especially in someone else’s home, when it’s not your own bed, and even more especiallywhen we’re in the middle of a hurricane. It worries me that her hands are burning hot but yet she says that she’s freezing. Once she falls back to sleep, I find an online medical service outside of the state, and I pay the premium for help at this hour. But, ultimately, they say that she’s going to be fine as long as her fever doesn’t get too high.

After I hunt for my thermometer, I confirm that she is not in the danger zone, fever-wise, so I go back in the room and sit with her. It’s a couple of hours later when she wakes up, but it’s not because she’s coughing, it’s the wind still battering the windows. She jolts in bed, startled. “It’s okay, lass. It’s just the wind. Go back to sleep.” I tell her, taking her hands in mine again.

“I had a...terrible dream.” She says groggily. “Some dinosaur tried to kidnap me from a gang of wolves in the forest.”

“Fevers make you delirious, lass. It’s okay. Just relax.” I rub her hand, looking at her face, which is pale yet flushed with sick. Yet she’s not complaining or whining, or otherwise driving me nuts. I’m guessing that if it were up to her, she’d just make do and lay here, untreated, miserable, and sick. She’s a survivor, that’s for sure. I respect that. Nothing worse than anyone, male or female, bellyaching.

“You must be exhausted.” She says, voice barely there, and what is there is all nasally.

“I’m fine. I’ve gone many nights without sleep. It’s not like I was going to get any rest, anyway, what with this hurricane. It’s no mind to me, lass. Just rest and feel better.”

She manages a smile. “You know you really are sweet when you want to be. You’re a lot like my granny. She was tough as nails but sweet when it came down to it.”

“I’m nice when people are nice back to me. If you’re an asshole, you can expect the same treatment.”

“Same here.” She sniffs and a cough escapes, but she recovers quickly. “I’m no doormat. And I believe in karma.”

“I like to help karma out some, personally.” I scoff.

She turns on her side and points at me. “I like your way better.”

It’s strange how she’s naked, and her breast just popped out from under the sheets, yet, because she’s sick, it has no effect on me. It’s like she’s put me in touch with my paternal side or something. Earlier, God, she bent down and showed me a square of her ass, and that sent me to the shower to jerk the effect off. Crazy. “How’s those ice packs doing, lass?” I ask, reaching in to the one that’s under her arm. It’s as warm as piss. “Here. We need to change these.”

She exposes herself, removing the packs, but then she tucks herself right back under the blankets, shivering. “I’ll be right back.”

I trot down the stairs and replace the ice packs, and when I return, she’s laying on her side, all bundled up. “Come on, lass. Let’s get these back where they belong.” I tell her gently, tucking them in as she turns for me. I check her temperature, and it’s reduced even more. “That’s the stuff. It’s just a low-grade fever now. Good work.”

“I told you I bounce back quickly.”

“No lie there. How do you feel?”

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