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“That woman is such a witch!” Lauren exploded. “Granted, she’s a baby one, but what potential!” She gave him an edited account of her recent conversation with Sabrina, leaving out the woman’s prediction that Nick would soon break from the confines of propriety.
He groaned in response to her confession. “You actually told her we were late because we were making love?”
“As good as.”
“Damn, Lauren.”
“I know…I know. It was a terribly childish thing to do.” She shook her head in disbelief that she’d let Sabrina get to her that way. “I don’t know what came over me. I hope you’re not upset.”
To Lauren’s astonishment, the night rang with Nick’s laughter. “Awed by your creativity, maybe, but not upset. Did you really think I would be?”
“I wasn’t sure. I mean, she is the boss’s wife.”
“Yeah, poor guy,” Nick murmured, instantly sobering.
“And I did tell her one heck of a whopper.”
“The lie wasn’t that big.”
“Are you kidding? We haven’t even kissed.”
“We can remedy that easily enough.” Nick surprised Lauren by turning slightly so he could pull her up tight against him. He then brushed his lips over hers in the lightest of touches, just enough to leave her begging for more.
“You call that a kiss?” Lauren heard herself blurt out. It had been too, too long since a man had held her this close. She couldn’t resist prolonging the contact even though no good would come of it.
With a grunt of satisfaction that must have meant no, Nick pressed his mouth to hers again and proceeded to demonstrate exactly what he called a kiss.
Firmly, yet gently, his lips seduced. He teased, he tasted, he tantalized…without words urging Lauren to open her mouth and let him deepen the kiss. She did, then took control—slipping her tongue between his teeth, exploring, savoring.
The thunder of Lauren’s heartbeat drowned the night sounds. Nick’s musky cologne obscured the garden smells. She heard a soft moan—his or hers?—and sighed with regret when he dragged his mouth from hers.
“Woman, you are lethal,” Nick whispered, trailing his lips across her cheek so he could nibble the supersensitive spot just under her earlobe. Lauren shivered in response to the caress.
“Me?” She tipped her head, making it easier for him to nuzzle her neck. “You’re the one who’s lethal, and if I’d had the faintest idea you could kiss like that, I’d have fought Diana for you.”
Nick snorted and raised his head. “Get real. You were only thirteen.”
“Just the right age to learn about the birds and the bees,” Lauren replied. To her surprise, Nick held her away from him.
“Who did teach you about the birds and the bees?”
“Bobby Winfree when I was eighteen.”
“That empty-headed jock?”
Lauren shrugged. “He may have been an intellectual lightweight, but his kisses sure made my heart go pitterpat.”
“And what about my kisses?” Nick asked. “Do they do anything to your heart?”
“What is this, true confessions?”
“I was just curious.”
“Hmm. Well, I’ll tell you what your kisses do to my heart after you tell me what mine do to yours.”
“It’s interesting you should mention that, because my heart is acting really weird right now.”
“What do you mean ‘really weird’?” At once all business, Dr. West pressed her palm to Nick’s chest. She tensed, then remembered and bubbled with laughter. “That’s not your heart, Nick. That’s my pager. It vibrates when I’m getting a call.”
With a grin that admitted he knew that already, Nick placed his hand over hers and pinned it against his shirt pocket. “I’m not letting you answer that, until I have your promise we can finish our cardiac comparison later.”
“Trust me when I tell you the mood won’t be the same,” Lauren murmured with disgust. How many times had that stupid pager interrupted a tender moment during the last few years of med school, residency and practice? Hundreds? No, more like thousands…at least it felt that way sometimes.
“Nick? Lauren?” It was Phillip, standing at the French doors. “Sabrina tells me that dinner is ready.”
“We were just coming in. Lauren’s been paged.” Nick got to his feet and tugged Lauren to hers. “Only a couple of hours more and this night will be over,” he whispered.
And when it ends, so will our engagement, Lauren silently answered, not a bit surprised to find herself despondent at the thought. Nick wasn’t the only one who’d felt restless of late. So had she, if the oft-verbalized concern of her co-workers was anything to go by.
But running into Nick at the stadium had changed all that. Suddenly energized and loving it, she could not bear to think what would happen once he exited her life again.
Lauren took care of the page with one quick phone call, and the four of them soon made their way to the dining room where waited a table set with delicate china and crystal. Wishing for pepperoni pizza and a cold beer, Nick assisted Lauren into her chair, then sat across the table from her.
Halfway through Sabrina Avery’s exotic meal, Nick discovered just how much his and Lauren’s garden escapade was going to cost him in peace of mind and body. He found himself eating automatically, one ear tuned to the conversation of his host, all his other senses focused on Lauren, smiling demurely at him from time to time.
He heard her easy laugh, felt when she crossed her long legs and accidentally nudged him, smelled her cologne. As for taste, even the highly spiced entree did not obliterate his memory of the flavor that was so distinctly Lauren. His whole body felt charged up and ready—some parts more than others—and he squirmed in his chair like a little kid anxiously awaiting the dessert.
Thus distracted, he had little to say the rest of the evening, but if Phillip noticed, he did not comment. As for Sabrina, she said maybe three words all during dinner and after. Finally at ten-thirty Nick and Lauren murmured their thank-yous and goodbyes and escaped to the car.
“Am I to understand that the whole reason for this dinner tonight was so Phillip Avery could hint he would sponsor you, should one of the partners at Avery, Sanders and Wright decide to retire?” Lauren asked, once they were safely away. She had already taken off a shoe and was rubbing her foot as if it were hurting, a task for which Nick wished he could volunteer.
“Looks that way,” he said, glancing over at her every time they passed under a streetlight. “Retirement rumors have been circulating around the office for months now, though no one has a clue which partner is retiring or who will be invited to replace him. I think this dinner tonight is Avery’s way of saying he’s sticking around and wants me in management.”
“Why, that would be fantastic!” Lauren exclaimed, the next instant adding, “Wouldn’t it?” in a voice so uncertain Nick knew she must have picked up on his mood. It was oddly flat, considering partnership in the architectural firm had been a dream of his for years.
“Yeah, sure.” To change the subject, he said, “Would a kiss make that better?”
“Would a…? Oh. My foot.” She shook her head and slipped her shoe back on. “Doctor that I am, I can say with complete authority that it would not. A Band-Aid would do wonders, though.”
“I have a whole tin of them at my place. Fluorescent ones. Want to take a detour and stop by there?”
For a moment Lauren didn’t answer, then she turned slightly in the bucket seat as though to better see him, not easy since the streetlights had begun to thin. “Why do I get the feeling I’ve just been invited to your place to look at some etchings?”
“Because you have?”
Lauren sighed. “Nick, there’s something I have to tell you—”
“’No thanks’?” So the party was already over. Though disappointed, Nick wasn’t surprised. He’d known it wouldn’t take long for Beauty to tire of the Beast and honestly hadn’t planned beyond tonight. “I understand, Lauren. I know I’m not your type, and I had no business even suggesting that we…um…get to know each other again.”
“For your information, I don’t have a type. And what I was going to say is this—while there’s nothing I’d like better than to get to know you again, I’ve tried twice to evenly balance my personal life with my professional one, and I just can’t seem to do it.”
“That’s crazy. There must be thousands, maybe millions, of doctors who carry pagers and yet manage to balance their professional and personal lives.”
“I didn’t say it couldn’t be done, Nick. I said I couldn’t do it evenly…at least at this stage in my life. I’ve only been in private practice for two years. I have dues to pay. Therefore, much as I’d love to spend all my time getting to know you again, the most I can promise is leftovers.”
“I’d never ask for all your time, Lauren. In fact, I don’t recall asking for any of it. I just thought—heck, I don’t know what I thought.”
“That the kisses we shared tonight were incredible, maybe? That it felt really great to be held so tight?”
“That just about sums it up.” Nick turned onto Blue Moon Lane, then a couple of blocks later, into her drive. He braked the car and killed the engine, then sat without speaking, not sure what to say to break the awkward silence between them.
Fortunately Lauren didn’t have that problem. “Just so you know, I enjoyed our garden party, too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Nick shifted his position so he could see her better. “What would you say if I told you I want to kiss you again?”
Leaning to cover the distance between the bucket seats, she gave him a light peck on the mouth that instantly set him on fire for her. In a flash, Nick wrapped his arms around Lauren, holding her where she was—close, and in danger of being stabbed by the stick shift.
“Now what about our doing some serious making out? Would you go for that, too?”
“Not in this car, I won’t,” she answered, squirming to free herself. “And I guess you’d better define serious.”
“Serious is—jeez!” Nick slapped a hand to his pocket, only then remembering that pesky pager, vibrating in his pocket like an angry bumblebee. With an embarrassed laugh, he handed the pager to Lauren, then flipped on the dome light so she could better view the number she needed to call.
“Lisa Millcott. One of our receptionists. I’d better call her, and I’d better set this pager to beep again.” Lauren did so, then opened the car door and looked back at Nick, who had never moved. “You’re coming in, aren’t you?”
“You want me to?”
“How else will I ever discover what ‘serious making out’ is?” Laughing, she slipped from the car and ran across the dew-kissed lawn to her sidewalk. Nick battled his raging libido maybe half a second before he leapt from the car and loped after her. Together they climbed the porch steps. After digging into her bag, Lauren unlocked the front door and pushed it open. The ring of her telephone greeted them. Lauren dashed into her den, set her pager on an end table, then scooped up the telephone receiver.
“Hello?”
Nick, who’d followed Lauren into the room, saw her face light up. “Why, hi there.” She covered the mouthpiece with one hand and whispered, “It’s Diana,” then motioned for him to have a seat on the blue chintz couch, which he did. She sank down on a matching chair, slipped out of her shoes and tucked one leg up under the other. “Is everyone okay? I mean, you’re usually snoring by now.” Lauren winked at Nick as though she knew that remark would bug the heck out of big sis.
Nick grinned, imagining Diana’s rejoinder. He expected Lauren to laugh, but to his surprise he saw her jaw drop and her cheeks flame crimson.
“Di…please…let me explain—”
Lauren’s gaze met Nick’s across the room. She drew her forefinger across her neck, the age-old sign of disaster and certain doom.
“Yes, Frank was talking about the Nick Gatewood you once dated—”
Uh-oh.
“—but he didn’t have his facts exactly straight.” She shook her head, clearly agitated by whatever Diana had to say to that. “No, I’m not saying he lied. What I’m saying is…is…” Once again Lauren put her hand over the mouthpiece and gave Nick her attention. “What am I saying?”
“Depends on what she’s saying,” Nick retorted.
“Di’s upset, and I mean really upset, because I told Frank about the engagement before I told her.”
Great. “Then you’d better tell her the truth.”
“Schoolgirl crush!” Lauren loudly exclaimed, apparently in response to something Diana said. Nick doubted she’d heard his suggestion at all. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I never had any schoolgirl crush on Nick Gatewood.” She positively glared at Nick as if he, and not her sister, were the accuser. “As for his suitability as a mate, I’ll have you know that Nick is an architect. Yes, I said architect. He works at a very prestigious firm here in Dallas and is going to be offered a partnership very soon.”
Nick groaned at that exaggeration, a sound that earned him another glare from Lauren.
“You’re what? Oh, Di, I wish you wouldn’t.” Lauren flashed Nick a look of pure panic, but said nothing, clearly on the receiving end of a sisterly diatribe. “But of course I’d love to see you, it’s just that I’m always on call and—okay, okay. Come ahead, but I’m telling you now that you’re going to feel really silly…”
Lauren heaved a sigh, met Nick’s steady gaze and shook her head.
“Maybe you’re right. A face-to-face chat is in order. I’ll do my best to meet your plane…what? Okay, then, take a taxi. You still have a house key? Good. Well, I’ll see you when I see you, I guess. And, Diana…will you please not mention the engagement to Mother? I, um, want to tell her myself.”
The moment Lauren hung up the phone she buried her face in her hands.
“You okay?” Nick asked, getting up and walking over to her chair. He dropped down on one knee in front of her.
Lauren raised her head. “Diana’s flying up in two weeks to find out what’s going on.”
“I gathered that.”
“I’m going to love looking her dead in the eye and telling her she’s interfered for nothing, that this whole thing is a lie.”
“You mean you’re actually going to wait that long before you spill the truth about us?” He couldn’t believe it.
As if already formulating just how she’d advise Diana to mind her own business, Lauren actually nodded in reply before his question really registered. Then she froze, winced and met his gaze. “Oh God. That would be awfully mean, wouldn’t it?”
“I’d say so, yeah. She’s your favorite sister, after all.”
“Diana is my only sister.”
“All the more reason not to keep her in the dark too long.”
“I suppose.” Lauren pulled the diamond ring off her finger. “Here, take it. There’s no way out of this mess now but to tell everyone the truth, and pronto.”
“Not so fast,” Nick retorted, backpedaling. “While it’s only right that you should tell Diana everything now, there’s no way I can do the same to Phillip Avery.”
Lauren arched an eyebrow in censure. “Well, if that isn’t a double standard!”
“No double standard. Our situations aren’t remotely similar, and there’s no way I can justify this faked engagement to Avery. I mean, what am I supposed to tell the man…that I lied so his wife would get her tongue out of my ear?” He shook his head and handed back the ring. “I don’t think so.”
Lauren hesitated, then took it. “I hate to admit it, but you have a point.” She slipped the ring back on her finger. “So we’re agreed that we won’t tell Avery, but do we tell Diana?”
“Absolutely.”
Sucking in a deep breath as if to bolster her courage, Lauren reached for the phone and punched out a number. Almost instantly she grimaced and dropped the receiver into the cradle. “Line’s busy.”
