stubbornly. “Not to me it doesn’t.”
If she had been standing, and was a foot taller, he was sure she would be looking down her nose at him. “At the risk of sounding like a tool, all evidence is to the contrary, cupcake.”
Outraged, she opened her mouth, probably to say something mean, or respond to the cupcake remark, then something inside her seemed to give. Her face went slack and her body sort of sank in on itself. She dropped her head to her knees again, groaning, “You’re right.”
He was? She really must have been out of sorts because she never thought he was right about anything.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“You know those days when you feel like you could take on the world? When everything goes exactly the way you want it to?”
“Sure.”
She looked up at him with red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes. “This is not one of those days.”
He cringed. “That bad, huh?”
She dropped her head back down to her knees. “Choking on the job is just the icing on the cake.”
Clearly. “So you really never choked?”
She shook her head, making her messy bun flop from side to side, and said, “Not even in nursing school.”
He took a chance and sat down beside her. She didn’t snarl or hiss, or unsheathe her talons, so that was good. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Shoot me and put me out of my misery.”
“I think you’re being a little hard on yourself,” he told her. He had heard of surgeons who choked during surgery and never got their confidence back, but this was different. This wasn’t a matter of confidence, this was pure human emotion.
“What if it happens again, when she needs me?” Clare said, looking up at him. She had the prettiest eyes, and she smelled amazing. It would barely take anything to lean in and kiss her. Her lips looked plump and delicious. It might even be worth the concussion afterward, when Clare clocked him.
“If there hadn’t been fifteen other people in the room to compensate, if it had been just you and me, or even just you, I have no doubt that you would have performed admirably,” he said.
“It’s getting more difficult to be objective with her,” Clare said, looking genuinely distraught. “When they called the code I thought for sure that this was it, that this time she wouldn’t snap back. It made me sick inside, like she was my own flesh and blood.”
“Your compassion is what makes you such a good nurse.”
“Yeah, I’m awesome,” she said. “I was so limp with fear I barely made it out of the elevator. I was sweating and my heart was pounding and I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and all the way down the hall it was like I was walking through quicksand.”
It sounded like a panic attack, but to suggest it would probably only make her feel worse. “These are special circumstances.”
“How do you figure?”
“Until they find Janey’s mother, or get her into foster care, you and I are the only ‘parents’ she has. She may be a ward of the state, but it’s up to us to see that she gets the best care. That’s a huge responsibility.”
“You’re right,” she said, sounding cautiously optimistic. “Maybe that’s why I have this deep need to protect her.”
“Right now, she needs protecting.”
She looked up at him and there were those lips again. Plump and juicy and pink. She had pale, flawless skin and the brightest, clearest green eyes that he had ever seen.
He would never forget the day he’d met her, when she’d walked into the staff meeting and the administrator had introduced them. He had been totally blown away. He’d probably held her hand a little too long when he shook it, and all through the meeting he hadn’t been able to stop staring at her. Which, in retrospect, might have seemed a little creepy. Maybe they’d just gotten off on the wrong foot.
“I’m not sure if I’ve ever said it, but you’re a really good doctor,” she said.
He wiggled his brows and said, “Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Now if we could just do something about your personality,” she grumbled with an exasperated shake of her head, but there was the hint of a smile, and a twinkle of something sly and impish in her eyes. She was teasing him.
“Admit it,” he said, teasing her right back. “I’m starting to grow on you.”
“I admit nothing,” she said, nose in the air, trying not to smile, but he could see that she was having as much fun as he was. “Though I will say that after this, it might be a little more difficult to dislike you.”
He grinned and wiggled his brows. “Then my evil plan is working.”
* * *
Clare laughed. She couldn’t help it. Because it was just so Parker. And boy did it irritate her that she knew him well enough to say that. Five minutes ago she’d felt lower than low; now he had her laughing. How did he do that?
Try as she might to push him away, he always pushed back a little harder. Was this campaign to keep him at arm’s length a futile waste of time? Was falling for him an inevitability?
She refused to believe that. She would just dig extra deep for the will to resist him.
No meant no, not maybe.
“You know that I don’t date people from work,” she said. “Especially doctors.”
He grinned. “Who said anything about dating?”
The way he was looking at her mouth... If only he knew how tempting that really was.
On second thought, it was probably good that he didn’t know. “I don’t sleep with people at work either,” she said.
“We definitely won’t be sleeping. And we won’t be doing it at work.” His grin was teasing, but there was a fire in his eyes, and it was one hell of a blaze. He was so damned sexy and he smelled so good. He’d missed a small strip of stubble on the underside of his chin. Any other man would look sloppy or unkempt. On Parker it looked sexy and charming. And she wanted to kiss him there. And pretty much anywhere else.
Okay, why was she saying no? He had a body to die for; he was beyond gorgeous. Not to mention nice, with a really good sense of humor, and she had the feeling that he would not disappoint in the bedroom. Maybe, if they could keep it a secret...
No, no, no!
What was wrong with her? She was a strong, independent woman. When she made up her mind about something, there was no changing it. So why this sudden ambivalence? What was it about being around this man that made her go all gooey?
The dynamics were fairly simple: rich doctor, bad.
Parker was watching her, looking amused. “Penny for your thoughts.”
Considering the semismug grin he wore, her inner struggle must have been pretty obvious.
Swell.
“Tell you what,” he said. “Since you seem to be having a rough time with this, I’m going to give you an easy out.”
Why would he do that?
Suspicious, she asked, “What’s the catch?”
“No catch. If you can honestly tell me that you aren’t attracted to me, and that you want me to leave you alone, I promise I’ll back off.”
Really? After all this time he would really just give up? “I’m not attracted to you,” she said.
His smile was smug. “That was great. Now tell it to me, cupcake, not your shoes.”