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Taylor stood a little stiffly, when the elegant Taylor was never stiff. “I’m sorry. I’ll go. Just make sure Suzanne gets her tray back—”
Nicole reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Look…I’m the sorry one.”
“No need.”
Nicole sighed at the cool hurt lingering in Taylor’s face and tugged on her wrist until she sat back at her side. “I’m an idiot, all right? An idiot who doesn’t know how to…have friends.”
“So we are friends?”
“You know we are. Unless you shove any more fruit down my throat.”
“In that case…” Taylor spread her silk skirt carefully and made herself comfortable on the bed before reaching for a piece of toast. “There’s enough here to feed an army. Ty, some sausage? Don’t be shy, hon, Suzanne is so nervous about her upcoming nuptials that she’s overcooking to compensate.”
“Taylor,” Nicole said in a warning voice that turned into a squeak when Ty suddenly joined them.
On the bed.
His long denim-covered legs brushed hers. There were the covers between them, but given the electric zap she felt at the brush of his warm, hard body, and given the way the current continued to run through her, there weren’t enough covers in all of South Village to keep between them.
And then there was how her heart gave a little leap when he turned his head and pierced her with those amazing eyes of his.
Instant lust. She’d heard about it but had never experienced the phenomenon firsthand.
She didn’t like it.
Gripping the sheet to her chest for all it was worth, Nicole watched as her two uninvited houseguests helped themselves to the tray of food balancing on her knees.
It was an unreal feeling having Ty’s long fingers hover over the plate only inches from her very naked body as he decided on a slice of apple.
It crunched between his white teeth as he looked at her.
Unreal, she decided, and definitely…arousing, if the way her body tingled was any indication. “I…need to get up.”
Taylor used the fork to bite into the homemade hash browns, then moaned. “Oh, these. These are to die for. Ty?”
Leaning in, he opened his mouth to the forkful Taylor was offering him.
“Fabulous, right?” Taylor said as he chewed.
He licked his lips, and for an instant, as he looked at Nicole, something hot and dangerous flashed in his eyes. “Oh yeah.”
“More?” Taylor asked. “A man your size, who works as hard as you do, needs to keep up his strength.”
Still gripping the sheet, Nicole grated her teeth. “I really need to—Hey!” she said around the bite of warm hash browns Ty shoved into her mouth. And not too gently either. She had to open quickly and use her tongue to keep from spilling them down her front.
His electric-blue eyes never left hers. She would have opened her mouth and blistered him if she hadn’t had it so full of the food. And oh man, the food. Heaven.
Not that she was going to admit it. “I don’t eat breakfast,” she said, trying not to moan in pleasure as the food started to hit her stomach. “Just—”
“Coffee,” Ty finished for her, bending so close his lips almost brushed hers. “We’ve heard. It’s here.” She could feel his body heat, the warm breath that caused goose bumps to skitter down her side. “You’re going to give yourself ulcers the way you eat.” He tsked. “And you claim to be a doctor.”
“Oh, I definitely like you,” Taylor said to Ty, who grinned at her. “We can tag-team her. I know you like to move around a lot, but I don’t suppose after this job you’d stay on and reprogram my friend here?”
“I really have to get up,” Nicole said, jaw clenched. “So if you could…” She gestured to the door.
“Go ahead.” Ty’s eyes were lit with the dare. “Get up.”
Nicole thought about how very naked she was under her sheet and gripped it tighter to her chest. She’d never been shy, had never felt anything but comfortable in her own skin. This came from years of no privacy in a tiny house with too many family members, then college dorms, and more recently, the locker area at work, which wasn’t much bigger or more private than her bedroom happened to be at the moment. But in front of this man, she suddenly felt…inadequate. He was red-blooded, through and through. She figured she knew his type; big boobs and breeding hips, with lots of hair to drape over his chest, that’s what he’d want.
Her virtual opposite.
Not that she cared. She just didn’t plan to flaunt her small boobs and small hips anywhere near him.
Then, from across the small bedroom, under a mountain of clothes and more medical journals on a chair, came the unmistakable sound of her beeper going off.
Taylor held out her hand to keep Nicole in bed. “It’s your day off.”
“I can’t just ignore it.” But it was a shame she hadn’t piled more clothes on top of the beeper before last night. A few more days’ worth and no one could have possibly heard the thing go off. “Okay, fun’s over. You guys did good, you fed me. Now get lost.”
“Nicole,” Taylor said sternly, still sitting on the bed. “Do not get that pager.”
Nicole turned to Ty, whose daring, smiling gaze had never left hers. “I have to.”
“Sure you do, darlin’.” He lifted an inviting hand. “Go right ahead, if it’s meaning that much to you.”
“You have to move first.”
Generous to a fault, he scooted down on the bed a tad, giving her enough room to leave the bed if she so desired. “Go on now.”
With as much dignity as she could muster, which wasn’t much, she grabbed the sheet and held on to it for dear life as she slid from the bed. Standing was a bit tricky, but she wrapped the sheet around her so fast her head nearly spun. Surely no one had gotten a glimpse of anything. Still, she didn’t quite dare to look back and catch a peek at Ty’s face as she headed, chin thrust high, toward the chair.
She had to shove the medical journals and clothes to the floor to verify, but yep, it was work.
“Don’t tell me.” Taylor stood up. “You’re going in. You’re hopeless, you know that?” With a dramatic sigh, she headed toward the door. “But we’ll be there, Nicole, if you fall.”
“We?”
“Suzanne and I, of course. Ornery as you are, you’ll need us to stick by you. So go. Go work yourself to exhaustion again. Enjoy.”
“I will, thanks.” Half amused at the genuine compassion and worry that she’d seen on Taylor’s face, she turned back to face Ty. “Don’t let the door get you on the ass on your way out. I’m taking a shower.”
“Maybe you’d better take your caffeine with you.” He held out a mug of coffee.
“Thanks.” Grateful but not about to admit it, Nicole held on to the sheet for dear life and hobbled into the bathroom. She shut the door harder than she should have, and clicked the lock into place with what sounded like a gunshot.
She might have had to wake up with an audience, then eat with one, but hell if she’d shower in front of one, no matter how pretty he was.
Still, the hot steam worked wonders, and she stayed there for a good long time, until the hot water turned warm, then tepid. Finally, she stepped out and sighed.
Damn, she’d been looking forward to a day off.
There was one dry towel left on the rack, which meant she needed to seriously consider the pile of things behind her bedroom door as well as the pile now on her floor, both of which she so lovingly referred to as Laundry Mountain Range. Tucking the towel beneath her armpits, she studied herself impassively in the mirror.
Not bad, she’d give herself that. And though she’d prefer to be taller than so damn short, her bones weren’t bad either. Thanks to her workouts, she was a lean, mean, fighting machine.
But breasts would have been nice.
Laughing at herself, she turned away. What would she have done with cleavage? It wasn’t as if she had dates lining up.
Still smiling, she opened the door and marched into her bedroom, dropping her towel as she went.
Because she had excellent eyesight, she therefore had a front-and-center view of Ty sitting on her bed, holding a glass of orange juice.
He had a front-and-center view, too. Of her.
The glass slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor in tune with her shriek as she bent down for her towel. “What are you doing?”
“I…”
Straightening, she studiously avoided looking into his face as she refastened the towel. “I thought you left!”
“Yeah, I…”
“You said that already!”
Ty knew that, but he was still flummoxed by the sight of her tight, lean body all dewy and damp from her shower. Standing now, he wasn’t reassured by the fact his knees wobbled.
What was wrong with him? She wasn’t his usual type, meaning stacked and blond and soft. There was nothing soft about Nicole, not her tough, angular body, not her voice, and most definitely not her eyes.
So why couldn’t he stop thinking dirty little thoughts? Or take his eyes off her? “Sorry. I just wanted to be sure you at least drank some juice.”
“Can’t do that now, can I?” With jerky movements, she tightened the towel even further over her breasts.
Breasts that he now knew were a perfect handful, tipped with tight rose-colored nipples. Somehow he managed to walk to her, lift her chin and look into her furious and…damn it, very embarrassed, eyes. “I’m sorry,” he repeated softly.
“Yeah.”
He gazed at her grim mouth, and unbidden, his thoughts turned to kissing her until she was soft and pliant, until she sighed and gave herself over to him and the pleasure he could give her. He, Ty Patrick O’Grady, no-good bastard, black-heart. “You should know I’m attracted to you in a way I can’t quite seem to get over.”
“And yet you’ve seen me naked. Imagine that.”
She didn’t believe him. He sucked in a breath and inhaled the scent of her shampoo and ridiculously, his body reacted.
Perfect.
Now all his thinking had taken him to a place he had no business going, not with this woman. She wasn’t the type to put up with a man afflicted with a serious sense of wanderlust, a man who never knew when he was going to decide to up and relocate.
Hell, he’d never found any woman, on this continent or otherwise, who’d put up with that.
Not that he wanted one to.
“You’re beautiful, Nicole,” he heard himself say as he stroked a finger over her cheek, her jaw. “So damn beautiful.”
It wasn’t until he got down the stairs and into his car that he let out the breath he’d been holding and stared off at nothing.
He’d meant what he’d said. He was attracted to her in a way he couldn’t get past. And she was beautiful, with or without that mouthwatering body and all that creamy, creamy skin exposed. So damned beautiful he ached.
Not a good thing, not a good thing at all.
CHAPTER 3 (#ulink_b40b00ac-bfdf-553d-b3f7-e9da20eea308)
NICOLE WORKED so many hours over the next two days she managed to forget Ty had seen her very naked. At the end of a particularly long, atrocious shift, she stood in front of her locker in the doctor’s lounge and realized she actually had the next day off.
Sleep, here she came.
“That was an interesting sigh,” said a male voice from behind her. A voice that made her wish she’d gotten out of here five minutes ago.
Dr. Lincoln Watts. Head of Surgery. And ruler of his domain.
Not that she didn’t appreciate his skill, because he was truly gifted. But that gift didn’t extend to his people skills.
In short, out of the operating room, he was a jerk. The nurses hated him, the aides feared him. The other doctors merely tolerated him, mostly because he ruled over all of them, but also because it was too much trouble to cross him.
Oh, and he had the memory of an elephant.
As the youngest doctor on staff, Nicole had learned to keep a low profile. She did her job; she did it well. It was all she’d ever wanted.
Even with Dr. Watts staring at her ass. “Can I help you?” she asked politely, turning to look at him so he had to raise his gaze.
He took his time about doing so, and for the first time she was glad she had small, unimpressionable breasts. She wanted to give him as little pleasure as possible.
“Can you help me,” he repeated with a little smile as he finally met her gaze. “Why yes, I believe you can.”
Damn.
“Come with me to the benefit tomorrow night.”
The benefit he referred to was an annual event designed to extricate money from rich patrons and deposit it directly to the hospital’s coffers. It put critical funds at the hospital’s disposal, as well as provided write-offs for the hospital’s patrons. Everyone was happy.
However, it required an evening of stiff smiles for Nicole, who hated dressing up, hated being “on” and hated the forced mingling. This year she’d arranged to be on shift so as to avoid the entire messy affair. “Sorry, I’m working.”
“I can rearrange that for you.”
At a considerable cost, one she figured would involve him and his bed. “No, thank you. I don’t mind missing it.”
“I want you to come with me.”
And what Dr. Watts wanted, Dr. Watts got. “I’m sorry, Dr. Watts, but that wouldn’t be fair to the others.”
