Coltrain's Proposal

by Diana Palmer

  Neither did Lou. She watched her colleague pour himself another drink and she frowned.

  Ben produced a card from the computer company for her, and while he was explaining the setup procedure, she noticed Nickie going up to Coltrain. She was wearing an electric blue dress that could have started a riot. The woman was pretty anyway, but that dress certainly revealed most of her charms.

  Nickie laughed and dragged Coltrain under the mistletoe, looking up to indicate it there, to the amusement of the others standing by. Coltrain laughed softly, whipped a lean arm around Nickie’s trim waist and pulled her against his tall body. He bent his head, and the way he kissed her made Lou go hot all over. She’d never been in his arms, but she’d dreamed about it. The fever in that thin mouth, the way he twisted Nickie even closer, made her breath catch. She averted her eyes and flushed at the train of her own thoughts.

  “Leave it to Coltrain to draw the prettiest girls.” Ben chuckled. “The gossip mill will grind on that kiss for a month. He’s not usually so uninhibited. He must be over his limit!”

  She could have agreed. Her hand clenched around the piña colada she was nursing. “This computer system, is it reliable?” she asked through tight lips, forcing a smile.

  “Yes, except in thunderstorms. Always unplug it, regardless of what they tell you about protective spikes. One good hit, and you could be down for days.”

  “I’ll remember, if we get it.”

  “The system I have is expensive,” Ben agreed, “but there are others available that would be just right for a small practice like yours and Copper’s. In fact…”

  His voice droned on and Lou tried valiantly to pay attention. She was aware at some level that Coltrain and Nickie were dancing and making the rounds of guests together. It was much later, and well into her second piña colada, when the lavish mistletoe began to get serious workouts.

  Lou wasn’t in the mood to dance. She refused Ben’s offer, and several others. A couple of hours had passed and it felt safe to leave now, before her spirit was totally crushed by being consistently ignored by Coltrain. She put down her half-full glass. “I really do have to go,” she told Ben. “I’ve been ill and I’m not quite back up to par yet.” She shook his hand. “It was very nice to have met you.”

  “Same here. I wonder why Drew Morris didn’t show up? I had hoped to see him again while I was here.”

  “I don’t know,” she said, realizing that she hadn’t heard from Drew since she was released from the hospital. She had no idea where he was, and she hadn’t asked.

  “I’ll check with Copper. He’s certainly been elusive this evening. Not that I can blame him, considering his pretty companion over there.” He raised his hand to catch the other man’s eyes, to Lou’s dismay.

  Coltrain joined them with Nickie hanging on his arm. “Still here?” he asked Lou with a mocking smile. “I thought you’d be out the door and gone by now.”

  “I’m just about to leave. Do you know where Drew is?”

  “He’s in Florida at that pediatric seminar. Didn’t Brenda tell you?”

  “She was so busy she probably forgot,” she said.

  “So that’s where the old devil has gone,” Ben said ruefully. “I’m sorry I missed him.”

  “I’m sure he will be, too,” Lou said. The sight of Nickie and Coltrain together was hurting her. “I’d better be off—”

  “Oh, not yet,” Copper said with glittery blue eyes. “Not before you’ve been kissed under the mistletoe, Doctor.”

  She flushed and laughed nervously. “I’ll forgo that little ritual, I think.”

  “No, you won’t.” He sounded pleasant enough, but the expression on his face was dangerous. He moved away from Nickie and his lean arm shot around Lou’s waist, maneuvering her under a low-hanging sprig of mistletoe tied with a red velvet bow. “You’re not getting away this time,” he said huskily.

  Before she could think, react, protest, his head bent and his thin, cruel mouth fastened on hers with fierce intent. He didn’t close his eyes when he kissed, she thought a bit wildly, he watched her all through it. His arm pressed her closer to the length of his muscular body, and his free hand came up so that his thumb could rub sensuously over her mouth while he kissed it, parting her lips, playing havoc with her nerves.

  She gasped at the rough pleasure, and inadvertently gave him exactly what he wanted. His open mouth ground into hers, pressing her lips apart. She tasted him in an intimacy that she’d never shared with a man, in front of the amused hospital staff, while his cold eyes stared straight into hers.

  She made a faint sound and he lifted his head, looking down at her swollen lips. His thumb traced over them with much greater tenderness than his mouth had given her, and he held her shocked eyes for a long moment before he reluctantly let her go.

  “Merry Christmas, Dr. Blakely,” he said in a mocking tone, although his voice was husky.

  “And you, Dr. Coltrain,” she said shakily, not quite meeting his eyes. “Good night, Ben…Nickie.”

  She slid away from them toward the door, on shaky legs, with a mouth that burned from his cold, fierce kiss. She barely remembered getting her coat and saying goodbye to the people she recognized on her way to the car park.

  Coltrain watched her go with feelings he’d never encountered in his life. He was burning up with desire, and he’d had enough whiskey to threaten his control.

  Nickie tugged on his sleeve. “You didn’t kiss me like that,” she protested, pouting prettily. “Why don’t you take me home and we can…”

  “I’ll be back in a minute,” he said, shaking her off.

  She glared at him, coloring with embarrassment when she realized that two of the staff had overheard her. Rejection in private was one thing, but it hurt to have him make it so public. He hadn’t called her since the night of the Rotary Club meeting. He’d just kissed her very nicely, but it looked different when he’d done it with his partner. She frowned. Something was going on. She followed at a distance. She was going to find out what.

  Coltrain, unaware of her pursuit, headed after Lou with no real understanding of his own actions. He couldn’t get the taste of her out of his head. He was pretty sure that she felt the same way. He couldn’t let her leave until he knew…

  Lou kept walking, but she heard footsteps behind her as she neared her car. She knew them, because she heard them every day on the slick tile of the office floor. She walked faster, but it did no good. Coltrain reached her car at the same time she reached it.

  His hand came around her, grasping her car key and her fingers, pulling, turning her. She was pressed completely against the car by the warm weight of his body, and she looked up into a set, shadowy face while his mouth hovered just above her own in the starlit darkness.

  “It wasn’t enough,” he said roughly. “Not nearly enough.”

  He bent and his mouth found hers expertly. His hands smoothed into hers and linked with her fingers. His hips slid sensuously over hers, seductive, refusing to entertain barriers or limits. His mouth began to open, brushing in soft strokes over her lips until they began to part, but she stiffened.

  “Don’t you know how to kiss?” he whispered, surprised. “Open your mouth, little one. Open it and fit it to mine… Yes, that’s it.”

  She felt his tongue dance at the opening he’d made, felt it slowly ease into her mouth and penetrate, teasing, probing, tasting. Her fingers clutched helplessly at his and she shivered. It was so intimate, so…familiar! She moaned sharply as his hips began to caress hers. She felt him become aroused and her whole body vibrated.

  His mouth grew more insistent then. He released one of her hands and his fingers played with her mouth, as they had inside, but now there was the heat and the magic they were generating, and it was no cold, clinical experiment. He groaned against her mouth and she felt his body go rigid all at once.

  He bit her lower lip, hard, when her teeth clenched at the soft probing of his tongue. Suddenly she came to her senses and reali
zed what was happening. He tasted blatantly of whiskey. He’d had too much to drink and he’d forgotten which woman he was with. Did he think she was Nickie? she wondered dizzily. Was that why he was making love to her? And that was what it was, she realized with a shock. Only a lover would take such intimacy for granted, be so blind to surroundings and restraint.

  Chapter 5

  Despite the pleasure she felt, the whiskey on his breath brought back unbearable memories of another man who drank; memories not of kisses, but of pain and fear. Her hands pressed against his warm shirtfront under the open dinner jacket and she pushed, only vaguely aware of thick hair under the silkiness of the fabric.

  “No,” she whispered into his insistent mouth.

  He didn’t seem to hear her. His mouth hardened and a sound rumbled out of the back of his throat. “For God’s sake, stop fighting me,” he whispered fiercely. “Open your mouth!”

  The intimacy he was asking for frightened her. She twisted her face, breathing like a runner. “Jebediah…no!” she whispered frantically.

  The fear in her voice got through the intoxication. His mouth stilled against her cheek, but his body didn’t withdraw. She could feel it against every inch of her like a warm, steely brand. His breathing wasn’t steady, and over her breasts, his heart was beating like a frenzied bass drum.

  It suddenly dawned on him what he was doing, and with whom.

  “My God!” he whispered fiercely. His hands tightened for an instant before they fell away from her. A faint shudder went through his powerful body as he slowly, so slowly, pushed himself away from her, balancing his weight on his hands against the car doorframe.

  She felt his breath on her swollen mouth as he fought for control. He was still too close.

  “You haven’t used my given name before,” he said as he levered farther away from her. “I didn’t know you knew it.”

  “It’s…on our contract,” she said jerkily.

  He removed his hands from the car and stood upright, dragging in air. “I’ve had two highballs,” he said on an apologetic laugh. “I don’t drink. It hit me harder than I realized.”

  He was apologizing, she thought dazedly. That was unexpected. He wasn’t that kind of man. Or was he? She hadn’t thought he was the type to get drunk and kiss women in that intimate, fierce way, either. Especially her.

  She tried to catch her own breath. Her mouth hurt from the muted violence of his kisses and her legs felt weak. She leaned back against the car, only now noticing its coldness. She hadn’t felt it while he was kissing her. She touched her tongue to her lips and she tasted him on them.

  She eased away from the car a little, shy now that he was standing back from her.

  She was so shaky that she wondered how she was going to drive home. Then she wondered, with even more concern, how he was going to drive home.

  “You shouldn’t drive,” she began hesitantly.

  In the faint light from the hospital, she saw him smile sardonically. “Worried about me?” he chided.

  She shouldn’t have slipped like that. “I’d worry about anyone who’d had too much to drink,” she began.

  “All right, I won’t embarrass you. Nickie can drive. She doesn’t drink at all.”

  Nickie. Nickie would take him home and she’d probably stay to nurse him, too, in his condition. God only knew what might happen, but she couldn’t afford to interfere. He’d had too much to drink and he’d kissed her, and she’d let him. Now she was ashamed and embarrassed.

  “I have to go,” she said stiffly.

  “Drive carefully,” he replied.

  “Sure.”

  She found her keys where they’d fallen to the ground when he kissed her and unlocked the car door. She closed it once she was inside and started it after a bad fumble. He stood back from it, his hands in his pockets, looking dazed and not quite sober.

  She hesitated, but Nickie came out the door, calling him. When he turned and raised a hand in Nickie’s direction and answered her, laughing, Lou came to her senses. She lifted a hand toward both of them and drove away as quickly as she could. When she glanced back in the rearview mirror, it was to see Nickie holding Coltrain’s hand as they went toward the building again.

  So much for the interlude, she thought miserably. He’d probably only just realized who he’d kissed and was in shock.

  That was close to the truth. Coltrain’s head was spinning. He’d never dreamed that a kiss could be so explosive or addictive. There was something about Lou Blakely that made his knees buckle. He had no idea why he’d reacted so violently to her that he couldn’t even let her leave. God knew what would have happened if she hadn’t pushed him away when she did.

  Nickie held on to him as they went back inside. “You’ve got her lipstick all over you,” she accused.

  He paused, shaken out of his brooding. Nickie was pretty, he thought, and uncomplicated. She already knew that he wasn’t going to get serious however long they dated, because he’d told her so. It made him relax. He smiled down at her. “Wipe it off.”

  She pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and did as he asked, smiling pertly. “Want to sample mine again?”

  He tapped her on the nose. “Not tonight,” he said. “We’d better leave. It’s getting late.”

  “I’m driving,” she told him.

  “Yes, you are,” he agreed.

  She felt better. At least she was the one going home with him, not Lou. She wasn’t going to give him up without a struggle, not when he was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Wealthy bachelor surgeons didn’t come along every day of the week.

  Lou drove home in a similar daze, overcome by the fervor of Coltrain’s hard kisses. She couldn’t understand why a man who’d always seemed to hate her had suddenly become addicted to her mouth; so addicted, in fact, that he’d followed her to her car. It had been the sweetest night of her life, but she had to keep her head and realize that it was an isolated incident. If Coltrain hadn’t been drinking, it would never have happened. Maybe by Monday, she thought, he’d have convinced himself that it hadn’t. She wished she could. She was more in love with him than ever, and he was as far out of her reach as he had ever been. Except that now he’d probably go even farther out of reach, because he’d lost his head and he wouldn’t like remembering it.

  She did her usual housework and answered emergency calls. She got more than her share because Dr. Coltrain had left word with their answering service that he was going to be out of town until Monday and Dr. Blakely would be covering for him.

  Nice of him to ask her first, she thought bitterly, and tell her that he was going to be out of town. But perhaps he’d been reluctant to talk to her after what had happened. If the truth were known, he was more than likely as embarrassed as she was and just wanted to forget the whole thing.

  She did his rounds and hers at the hospital, noticing absently that she was getting more attention than usual. Probably, she reasoned, because people were remembering the way Coltrain had kissed her. Maybe they thought something was going on between them.

  “How’s it going?” Drew asked on Sunday afternoon, grinning at her. “I hear I missed a humdinger of a kiss at the Christmas party,” he added wickedly.

  She blushed to her hairline. “Lots of people got kissed.”

  “Not like you did. Not so that he followed you out to the parking lot and damn near made love to you on the hood of your car.” He chuckled.

  “Who…?”

  “Nickie,” he said, confirming her worst nightmare. “She was watching, apparently, and she’s sweet on Copper. I guess she thought it might turn him off you if there was a lot of gossip about what happened. Rumors fly, especially when they’re about two doctors who seem to hate each other.”

  “He’ll walk right into it when he comes back,” she said uneasily. “What can I do?”

  “Nothing, I’m afraid.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “That’s what you think.”

  She turned on her heel and
went in search of Nickie. She found her in a patient’s room and waited calmly while the girl, nervous and very insecure once she saw Lou waiting for her, finished the chore she was performing.

  She went out into the hall with Lou, and she looked apprehensive.

  Lou clutched a clipboard to her lab jacket. She didn’t smile. “I understand you’ve been feeding the rumor mill. I’ll give you some good advice. Stop it while you can.”

  By now, Nickie’s face had gone puce. “I never meant…I was kidding!” she burst out. “That’s all, just kidding!”

  Lou studied her without emotion. “I’m not laughing. Dr. Coltrain won’t be laughing, either, when he hears about it. And I’ll make sure he knows where it came from.”

  “That’s spiteful!” Nickie cried. “I’m crazy about him!”

  “No, you aren’t,” Lou said shortly. “You’d never subject him to the embarrassment you have with all this gossip if you really cared.”

  Nickie’s hands locked together. “I’m sorry,” she said on a long sigh. “I really am. I was just jealous,” she confessed, avoiding Lou’s eyes. “He wouldn’t even kiss me good-night, but he’d kiss you that way, and he hates you.”

  “Try to remember that he’d had too much to drink,” Lou said quietly. “Only a fool would read anything into a kiss under the mistletoe.”

  “I guess so,” Nickie said, but she wasn’t really convinced. “I’m sorry. You won’t tell him it was me, will you?” she added worriedly. “He’ll hate me. I care so much, Dr. Blakely!”

  “I won’t tell him,” Lou said. “But no more gossip!”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Nickie brightened, grinned and went off down the hall, irrepressibly young and optimistic. Watching her, Lou felt ancient.

  The next morning was Monday, and Lou went into the office to come face-to-face with a furious partner, who blocked her doorway and glared at her with blue eyes like arctic ice.

  “Now what have I done?” she asked before he could speak, and slammed her bag down on her desk, ready to do battle.