Gina’s voice. He opened his eyes. “Hmm?”
Her gaze was full of worry. “Does your knee hurt a lot?”
She wanted him to say no. It was on the tip of his tongue to lie. He opened his mouth, but she pressed a fingertip to his lips.
“Don’t lie,” she said in a low voice. “Truth. Does your knee hurt?”
He let out a slow breath. “Yeah. Kind of.”
Her mouth firmed and she nodded. “We’re taking you to the hospital. Can you walk?” She glanced at Kevin, who shrugged. “Stone, you’re the biggest person in this building. I don’t think there’s anyone here who can help you walk.”
Aaliyah leaped to her feet. “One of the segment producers is a big guy. I’ll go get him.”
Stone shook his head. “I’ll walk.” He got his legs under him, wincing when his knee and arm sent shooting pain from the points where they’d made direct contact with the hard floor. Once he was upright, he felt a little better. Granted, he had yet to take a step, so that mightchange, but at least he could stand under his own power. Gina still looked worried, so he cupped her face and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Don’t worry, babe. I’ll be able to dance on Monday.”
Gina gasped. Stone blinked, realizing what he’d done. He’d kissed her face, in front of Lauren, Jordy, and thecameras.
Lauren propped her hands on her hips. “Since when did you guys get all lovey-dovey? You screwing or something?”
Kevin’s laid-back manner came to the rescue. “Hey, Lauren. Not cool. This isn’t the time to joke around.”
Lauren huffed. “Fine. But how are we supposed to practice our team dance if one fourth of the team is laid up?”
It was a good question. And how the hell was Stone going to samba with a busted knee?
“Kevin, you keep working on the dance,” Gina said. “I’ll go with Stone to the doctor.”
Stone shook his head. “No. You stay here. Work your magic—choreograph the dance with Kev. Then you can teach it to me.”
“I don’t want to leave you—”
“Gina.” He kept his voice gentle. If only he could kiss her fears away right now. The stricken expression on her face was killing him, shredding his resolve to keep his hands off her when the cameras were on. “I’ve been hurt way worse than this, in locations where there wasn’t a doctor around for miles. I’ll be okay going to a Los Angeles ER to get checked out.”
She bit her lip like she was holding back an argument, but nodded. “Go home after the doctor. We’ll see where we are tomorrow.”
There was something in her gaze, something she was trying to communicate to him. He couldn’t decipher it. Despite his calm words, his knee hurt like a motherfucker. With a nod to the rest of Team Ice Cold, Stone leaned on Jordy’s shoulder and limped out of the studio.
It was nothing. Just a bad bruise. But it meant Stone was laid up in bed, icing his knee and flicking through cable channels. There was nothing on. He couldn’t exercise, swim, run, or hike.
He was bored.
His laptop sat on the room’s desk, but he didn’t feel like moving to get it. Maybe he’d watch a movie. He’d missed all the latest superhero flicks while filmingLiving Wild.
Someone knocked on his hotel room door.
He frowned. Had he ordered something?
No. He hadn’t hit his head. He’d remember whether he ordered room service or not.
“Who is it?” he yelled from the bed.
“It’s me.”
Muffled, subdued, but unmistakable. Gina.
“Hold on.”
Clicking off the TV, he threw the remote aside and shifted the enormous ice pack off his knee. Whereas the laptop had seemed like too much trouble, Gina’s voice brought him a burst of energy. He hobbled to the door and swung it open.
