ambulatory clinic? But…” Remembering who he was talking to, the administrator nodded. “Of course. I should have realized you’d want to work directly with Dr. Douglas.”
Perhaps he should feel guilty for using his influence to change where he’d be working at the last minute. Hadn’t he sworn not to let moving home corrupt him? That he’d remain true to the man he’d grown into while thousands of miles away? But working in the ambulatory clinic appealed enough for him to ignore any doubts about his motives.
He had no doubts.
He wanted to be near Dr. Kasey Carmichael.
Whether or not wanting to be near her was a good thing remained to be seen.
Early that evening, Kasey finished seeing her afternoon patients and slouched into the comfy ergonomic chair at her desk.
Her office wasn’t much larger than a broom closet, but she’d been allowed to decorate the room to her taste. She’d gone with crisp white walls and black furniture. A vase of colorful Shasta daisies, looking so real people often reached out to touch a petal just to see, sat on the top of her bookshelf along with a model of a human kidney and a two-foot-tall skeleton she’d nicknamed “Bones”.
She kept a vanilla-scented air freshener plugged in to drown out the antiseptic smell that permeated the rest of the clinic.
The room wasn’t fancy, but at least she had a small private place to call her own.
Right now, she desperately needed privacy.
Eric was here. At the clinic.
Maybe he’d work on a different floor and she’d never see him. What kind of doctor was he anyway?
Dropping her face into her palms, she massaged her temples.
This couldn’t be happening.
Just seeing Eric in the hallway had made her want to push him into a room and perform a thorough examination of all his many attributes, right down to taste-testing him from head to toe.
Which shocked her.
She’d never been adventurous sexually. She and Randall had shared a good enough sex life, but they hadn’t been the stuff to burn down buildings.
One night with Eric and smoke still clouded her mind.
Intoxicating smoke that made her want to inhale deeply and give in to sweet fantasy.
Sweet? There hadn’t been anything sweet about her fantasies. Hot, enthusiastic, sweaty, yes, but not sweet.
Kasey’s fingers dug deeper into her scalp.
No way would she risk her career because of a man a second time. Not at Rivendell, where she’d made her fresh start and the potential to achieve her lifelong dreams dangled in front of her like the proverbial carrot.
A knock sounded at her door and she looked up. Eric watched her.
Realizing she was massaging her temples in overtime, she dropped her hands to her desk and tapped the sleek black surface. Which was no less nervous appearing than her temple massaging. Taking a deep breath, she flattened her palms against the desk to stay their fidgety tapping.
“I thought you’d left.” Brilliant conversation. Yet what did it matter? His family owned stock in the center. Could the situation be any more Randall-like? She needed to put Eric firmly in the past and keep him there.
If she remained steadfast, perhaps he’d take a hint and leave her alone.
Which was what he’d eventually do regardless. She was definitely like her mother in that regard. Men never stayed long. She’d thought Randall had been different. Steady, dependable Randall. But she’d been wrong. Horribly wrong and just look what that mistake had cost her in the long run.
Not to mention that she’d gone to Eric’s hotel room on the night they’d met. She didn’t respect herself, how could she expect him to?
“I did leave,” Eric admitted. His gaze roved over her in melted chocolate temptation that made her libido growl in hungry response. “I came back.”
“Why?” Why did he have to look so wonderful in his black slacks, blue shirt and tie? Like something on the cover of a men’s magazine. He’d taken off his suit jacket at some point since she’d seen him earlier and his tie was loosened around his neck, making her want to walk over to him and straighten it.
Or perhaps she just wanted a reason to touch him?
“You.”
“Me?” As much as she thrilled at his answer, he had to stop. She’d made a mistake the night they’d met. One she could forgive due to her mother’s death. But she couldn’t justify a repeat of their amazing night.
His family held power over the medical center.
They were going to be coworkers.
If she’d learned anything from her experience with Randall, she’d learned not to mix personal stuff with one’s job.
The consequences were too dire.
“Seeing you today was an unexpected surprise.” He stepped into her office, closed the door behind him, overwhelming the tiny room. Even Bones appeared to tremble in his presence. “I enjoyed our night together.”
What rabbit hole had she fallen into? Because he looked as if he wanted to touch her. As if he’d like to push her against her desk, hike up her skirt and run his hands along her thighs, along her— Kasey gulped. “No!”
At his startled look, she took a calming breath.
“That night was…” Amazing, wonderful, just what she’d needed. Embarrassing. She didn’t behave like her mother. Not usually. She wasn’t a woman driven by lust and she had no intention of becoming one. She’d worked too hard to make something of herself, to rise above her past, poverty and genetics. “Nice, but we both know it was a one-night stand kind of thing.”
“One-night stand kind of thing?”
He towered over her, not in a menacing way, but she fought the desire to lean as far away as possible…to ease the temptation of moving closer to those broad shoulders and talented hands.
“You’re wrong,” he continued, looking completely aware of her proximity dilemma and pleased by her reaction to him. “That night wasn’t a one-night stand. Far from it.”
“What would you call it?” Besides the most humiliating event of my life? No, that would have been when Skymont Hospital had let her go over her relationship with Randall. Or perhaps when her mother had shown up drunk at her high school graduation ceremony. Either way, her night with Eric had been a mistake. That’s what she repeated in her head, not allowing her hormones a word in edgewise.
“The beginning of something worth pursuing.” His eyes bored into her, daring her to deny his claim. Unbidden, her gaze dropped to the strong set of his jaw, to his lips. That mouth had kissed her. All of her.
“Stop.” She closed her eyes, fighting memories of the tender kisses he’d placed on her hair, her face, the way he’d kissed away her tears. Memories of tenderness that had given way to passion. To urgent kisses. “Our meeting that night was nothing more than a bad coincidence. We should forget it happened.”
“What you call a bad coincidence I call a stroke of good fortune. Just as I consider seeing you today good fortune.”
His words were sweet to her ears, but what he was really saying was that he wanted sex again. They’d slept together on the day they’d met. He wasn’t interested in a real relationship with her. Just sex. Toe-curling, life-altering sex but, still, just sex.
He moved further into the office, crowding her personal space by coming around to her side of the desk and half sitting, half leaning against the corner. His closeness zapped her ability to breathe.
“Why