by Leigh, Jo
They rounded the corner, and he could already smell the food carts near the subway. He wished they’d gone to dinner. Somewhere they could share a good bottle of wine. Followed by great sex at her place. “You know...if I got us a cab...”
Her step hesitated, her eyes lowered. Shit. His own misstep was worse. “Thought not,” he said, “but the night feels too good to just go home.”
She nodded, walking again at his side.
While his attempt at getting her on a real date had ended ignominiously, the play would go on. There were too many looks between them not to try again. If she decided to come back to the clinic. Or she offered her phone number.
“Actually,” she said finally, “I still have work to do for my real job.”
“Ah. Right.” It occurred to him she might be meeting a boyfriend. Maybe she even lived with a guy. He hoped not. “When will you decide about coming back to the clinic?”
“I’ll call Valeria tomorrow morning.”
That told him nothing.
She glanced at her watch again, and this time she really sped up. He should have paid more attention to the clock. When they reached the top of the steps, he spotted an empty cab stopped at the light. They looked back at each other and their gazes locked again. Two seconds later, he leaned down while she tipped her chin up.
He kissed her. Hadn’t planned to. Thankfully, she kissed him back. Pulling her closer caused the kiss to deepen. The feel of her against him tested his self-control. He kind of liked the way they met along the high points. The very tips of her breasts, her right hip, his right knee.
He wanted to part his lips and hope for the best, but he didn’t. She was in charge. When she touched his arm and brushed her lips across his, the tip of her tongue followed the same path. He hoped she would leave her lips parted, but instead she stopped the kiss, but didn’t step away from his arms.
God, she smelled fantastic, even after being in that horrid room. He honestly hadn’t realized how petite she was until they were this close. Of course, that wouldn’t matter when they were both horizontal.
“I have to go,” she said, turning toward the stairs. She took the first step then she paused. “I’ll come in tomorrow afternoon. If Valeria needs me.”
“I’m pretty sure she will.”
She tilted her chin down. “My train.”
He tilted his to the left. “My taxi.”
She laughed. It was the best.
* * *
LISA MISSED HER STOP. She got out at Nostrand and caught the C going south. She didn’t mind. She hadn’t lied about the work waiting for her at home, but all she wanted to do was remember that kiss. Not just the kiss, which was far too rushed and too public, but the man who let her set the pace.
It had been perfect. A soft reentry to the world of dating. He’d wanted to deepen the kiss, hold her tighter. His body had thrummed with energy and desire. For her.
She hadn’t even meant to turn him down for dinner, but she’d gotten scared. God, she was like a stalking survivor or something. What did you call it when someone stole your identity and the rest of your world? Identity theft didn’t cover it.
Unwilling to go to the dark place when she wanted to ride the pheromone train all the way till morning, she touched her lips. Remembered. God, she’d tasted him. Just a little, but enough to know she wanted more. If she did her work superfast, she could go to bed early. She wouldn’t even need her vibrator.
* * *
DANIEL HAD JUST finished going over a patient’s chart and was about to enter room 3 when a woman’s scream stopped him cold. It had come from the waiting area and was followed by more shouting and children crying. Staff and patients were sticking their heads out of exam rooms as he ran down the hall to the front. The real fear hit when he saw the unflappable Hector frozen behind the reception desk.
That was all Daniel could see but he heard the mounting hysteria, then felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see that it was one of the nursing students. She looked terrified and could barely croak out, “He’s got a gun.”
“Have the police been called?”
Eyes wide, she seemed confused. “I think so.”
“Make sure they have.” He glanced over her head at Valeria, who looked equally frightened. “Stay back. I’m just going to check out the situation.”
Walking slowly and calmly, he put down the chart in his hand. Then he rounded the corner. A man he didn’t recognize was waving a gun. He was short and whippet-thin. The room was crowded with adults sitting in the plastic chairs and wide-eyed kids staring from the play area in the corner.
“Sit your ass down,” the guy said when a young woman tried to reach her crying child. “Or I’ll shoot you both.”
With a choked sob the distraught mother sank back in her seat.
Hands up, Daniel walked into the main room, ignoring Hector and everyone else. All he could see was that the gunman was high on something. Likely meth. From the look of him—torn Kanye T-shirt, filthy jeans, huge pupils—Daniel figured he was tweaking now, when he was least stable.
“Who the fuck are you?”
It was everything Daniel could do not to duck when the bastard waved his weapon at him. “I’m a doctor. If you tell me what you want, I’ll make sure you get it. No one needs to get hurt.”
“I already told you Nancy’s in there. She stole my shit. That’s what I want. You’ve got two minutes to get my shit, or people are gonna die. You got that?”
He waved the gun so wildly, Daniel was afraid it would go off any second. But he needed to stall until the police came. “Is Nancy a patient here?”
“What the fuck do you think? She ain’t no doctor. The lying bitch.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hector carefully getting the people closest to him to duck low and run around the corner to the hallway. But it was the little ones who had Daniel worried. They were too far away from Hector. Where were the goddamn cops?
“Okay,” he said, taking one step closer to the junkie. He could crash anytime, or worse, stay tweaked. “I’ll go back and get her and your stuff. As soon as you let the children go.”
The weapon stilled for the longest moment, pointed straight at him. Shoving back his greasy blond hair, the guy’s unfocused gaze shifted to Daryl, Alexis Washington’s nine-year-old grandson. “I ain’t letting anybody go,” he said and grabbed the boy’s collar. “I’m gonna shoot you first. Then I’m shooting this kid. How you like that, Doc?”
Mrs. Washington let out a screech and lurched off her seat. The women on either side of her caught her arms. But she screamed at the junkie to let her baby go. He swung the gun toward her.
“Hey,” Daniel said, hoping someone could shut her up. “Look at me. I’m the one who can help you.” Holding his hands up higher, hoping the idiot’s eyes would track them, Daniel lost what he was going to say when the front door opened and Lisa walked in.
He wanted to shout for her to run, but they’d finally quieted Mrs. Washington. The calmer the junkie stayed, the better off for everyone. Including Lisa. Jesus. Why now? Why hadn’t she seen the gun through the window and turned around? Daniel couldn’t let himself be distracted by her.
She dropped her purse. Loudly. “What’s going on?”
The gunman did a 180, pulling a crying Daryl along with him.
Daniel rushed forward, but came to a halt when Lisa held up her hands like stop signs instead of surrender. If that prick hurt one hair on her head, Daniel would tear him apart like only a doctor could.
“Get over there, Barbie.” The gun waved, wobbly again. “’Fore I mess up your pretty white shirt.”
Daryl cried louder.
Lisa kept walking. Her eyes were wide, her hands in clear sight. “Use me,” she said, in the gentlest voice. “Take me instead of the boy, okay? I’ll be
good. I’ll be so good. I’ll do just what you want.”
Daniel’s heart nearly burst out of his chest. He couldn’t see the gun from where he was standing. Jumping the son of a bitch was out of the question.
He was on the brink of coughing to call attention to himself when Daryl ran as fast as he could toward his grandma. When Daniel looked back at the junkie, Lisa was so close to him, Daniel couldn’t see what she was doing. Jesus, he had no way to tell where the gun was. He had to find a way to get Lisa and everyone else to safety. Now.
Just as he took a step closer, praying he wouldn’t get Lisa killed, he heard a loud grunt and suddenly the gun was skittering across the floor and the junkie hit his knees. Daniel froze when Lisa stopped the man’s fall. Thin as he was, the guy still outweighed her by a good forty pounds, but she twisted his arm up behind his back and pushed him to the floor. On his way down he briefly met Daniel’s gaze, looking like a man who’d just gotten spanked hard by Barbie, and she hadn’t broken a sweat.
Another grunt came when his hands were yanked together and Lisa planted a knee on his back. “Daniel, can you get the gun? Did anyone call the police?”
He just stood there. He still wasn’t sure what had happened, only that it had happened in less than a minute.
“Daniel?”
He nodded, picked up the gun.
“I’ll take it if you don’t mind.”
As if he would disobey her now. He gave her the gun, then moved back when she told him to. With one hand on the prostrate junkie’s neck, she did something with the gun that made the magazine fall out.
She was a hell of a lot more at ease than when he’d checked out her paper cuts. One thing was for certain: she hadn’t learned those moves pushing paper for her brother’s security and investigations firm. Or perhaps she’d had a more personal reason to learn self-defense.
His musing was interrupted by two screaming cop cars parking right in front of the building, and more immediately by Mrs. Washington, who marched up to Lisa and the junkie, then whacked the guy in the head with her purse.
“Don’t you go messin’ with my baby.”
He only groaned. Whether his body was ready for it or not, he was now in the crash stage of meth addiction, which wasn’t a place anyone wanted to be, let alone for a long time.
“How’d you do that?” Mrs. Washington stared at Lisa with curiosity and awe. “You some secret agent?”
Lisa shook her head, but couldn’t explain because the police were now inside, trying to figure out what had happened and how the tiny blonde had ended up on top.
As Daniel made sure the nurses and med students were taking care of the witnesses, he kept stealing glances at Lisa. The way she was talking to the cops made them relax. Nod a lot. She’d already proved she had everything under control.
The minute she turned from the cops, she pointed at Mrs. Washington but spoke to the group at large. “Every one of you needs to learn self-defense. No excuses. You hear me? You never know what you’re going to walk into. Or what’s going to fall on your head. Protect yourselves.”
Lisa walked past Daniel, giving him the slightest dip of her head. He followed her, and it was interesting how the folks still in the hallway parted to clear the path. It wasn’t hard imagining her in one of those skintight superhero costumes. She sure had the skills for it.
When she got all the way back to exam room 4, she walked in the open door.
He followed her right in, turning the lock behind him.
6
LISA PRESSED HER lips together as she stared at Daniel. Adrenaline screamed through her body and it was all she could do to be still. She wanted him. Now. When this hot-white heat burned away everything she’d been afraid of and every inhibition.
“You were...” Daniel took a step away from the door. “I have no idea how you got that bastard to his knees but, God, it was—amazing.”
Her arms were bent at the elbow and her tightly fisted hands rested against her clavicle. She shook them out, trying to temper the fire inside. “I know.” She was panting now. Why was he by the door? She wasn’t going anywhere.
“You’ve done this thing a lot, then?” he asked, but there was no hiding his dilated pupils, the way his nostrils flared.
“Not for a long time.”
“It must feel—”
“Amazing. I was on fire.”
His breathing had accelerated, lifting his chest higher and faster. Those black eyes were a warning. A promise? God, she hoped so.
Daniel moved closer. “How long does this part last?”
She shook her head, barely blinking, watching, watching everything. “Don’t know. Twenty minutes, maybe?”
“That’s not too long. The drop will be epic.”
“Depends.”
“On?” He took another step.
“What I do to expend my energy.”
His smile was cautious. “Anything I can do to help?”
“There is. But it’ll be risky.”
“Really?”
She didn’t answer in words, just gave him a very louche shrug. Which was an effort, considering she could probably run all the way to Brooklyn. “You do realize I’m not going to be able to keep this up. I’m wound tighter than a Swiss watch, and something’s gonna give.”
“Can I do something real quick first?”
“Like what?”
“Take your pulse? Make sure you aren’t hurting yourself?”
She didn’t uncurl her fists yet. “Yes, you may. And it would be extra nice if you could fill me in about what happened before I arrived at the scene. You were going for him, weren’t you?”
He picked up a blood pressure cuff. Shaking his head, he said, “That’s some disguise you wear. It fools everyone, doesn’t it?”
“Not everyone.” She could barely stay still long enough for him to check her out.
He finished, tossed the cuff on the exam table, then pulled her into his arms. “You were magnificent,” he whispered. “Like a superhero.”
“More like someone who knows her strengths.” She relaxed just enough to hug him back. “I have a feeling you were pretty super yourself. I mean, you were right there, in range.”
“I was just stalling until the police came. But you got here first.”
She laughed. “Beats filing.”
He laughed with her, and his eyes grew darker. The way he held her was a bit sideways so she only felt his thigh. As if she didn’t know he was as turned on as she was. When he sniffed her hair, she pressed into him.
“You smell like honey.”
“I don’t. My shampoo does.”
“Well, I like it. Damn,” he murmured when she moved her thigh. “You’re a very distracting woman.”
That smile of his. It was wonderful. And so was the hand that rubbed her back. If she got on her tiptoes, and he met her halfway, she could kiss him.
He read her perfectly and lowered his head. The kiss was glorious. A stroke of his tongue at the front of her upper palate, a nip on her bottom lip. Then he pressed against her as he thrust into her mouth, their rhythm perfectly in sync, possessive, unguarded and hot as hell.
She moaned when he brought his hand between them and cupped her breast.
“Shh,” he whispered. “Don’t make a sound.”
Okay, this was getting even more interesting. Silence wasn’t big on the list of things she was good at. Not during sex. “I don’t know if I can.”
“You can do anything,” he said, and how was he already unzipping her slacks?
She grinned. “So it’s going to be fast, quiet, with dirty tricks thrown in?”
“We keep condoms in all the exam rooms. But that means moving next to the sink.”
She was so wired, she could probably start
electrical fires. They were marching toward danger, which made her want him all the more. The door might be locked, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be discovered. Public sex wasn’t her thing, but this? Her breathlessness was a sure sign that she was up for the challenge.
He kissed her again, then literally danced her around until they stopped at the sink. When they had to take a breath, he held up a red packet in triumph.
“Bravo. I guess we each have our secret skills. I didn’t peg you for a dancer.”
He dipped her so quickly she gasped, then grinned. “Why not?” he said, his lips just shy of hers. “Dancing is a lot like making love.”
“Not the way I do it.”
They both laughed, his deep and sexy, hers a quiet giggle. Then she was standing again, right by the exam bed.
He was quicker than she was. He’d opened the top button of her pants, and he was starting to push them down her hips.
She couldn’t reach between them yet. But once her behind felt nothing but air, she made her move. He put his big hands on what he’d uncovered, then gave each cheek a squeeze she’d remember for a while.
It was time for him to drop ’em, and when she saw an opening, she took it. She slipped straight down into a crouch, eye level with the prominent bulge in his finely tailored trousers. All things being equal, she gave him a little squeeze back, enjoying the muffled moan only she could hear.
Quickly she had his belt open, button undone and zipper down. She stood up again. “The rest is up to you, Dr. Cassidy.”
He took her mouth in a savage kiss, and that was the end of chatting. They’d spent too much time in the room already, so he’d have to move fast. She had a feeling a quick rub in the right place would send her right over.
He got off to a good start by lifting her up until she sat at the edge of the exam bed from the side. Her butt made the paper beneath her crackle. When he released his cock from those snug boxer briefs she got to see his pre-orgasmic bliss face. A moment and a quiet hiss later, he ripped open the condom, and then his hands disappeared once again.
She loved that he still had his lab coat on. If only he’d been wearing his stethoscope, she could have stored enough doctor fantasies for years to come.