by Janice Lynn
“You think I’m all that?” Levi grimaced. Sure, he wanted Madison to see him differently from the way other women saw him, wanted her to want the same things he did. But her description of him didn’t bode well. “No wonder you asked if I was gay.”
She snickered, her green gaze lighting with mischief as she lay back on the blanket, stretching out in a way that made her T-shirt stretch enticingly over her small breasts, that emphasized the flatness of her belly and made him want to lift the hem of her T-shirt and take a peek. “Your manhood wasn’t ever really in question.”
“No?”
She was breathtaking when her eyes lit with the brilliance of jewels that way. Breathtaking when her lids half lowered and she bit back a laugh. His own lips twitched with wry amusement.
Her gaze dropped to his lips and she shook her head back and forth slowly against the blanket. As if she didn’t want to lose focus on his mouth. As if she wanted to look and look and put every portion of his mouth to memory. Her tongue darted out, moistened her full bottom lip, contracted every muscle in his body in one fell swoop.
Aw, hell. He could have one kiss without looking in the mirror and seeing dear ole dad. He wanted Madison more than he remembered wanting any woman, but he was a grown man and controlled his actions. He had willpower and wouldn’t be stripping her naked because of a mere kiss. Although she’d look amazing lying out on the blanket, her big green eyes staring up at him as he moved over her, inside her.
Almost as if she could read his thoughts, her eyes darkened to a deep forest green, full of desire and green fire and she rose to a sitting position.
Levi was a goner.
Gone. Completely. Over the top and across the finish line gone.
He leaned, touched his mouth to hers, felt the surprised smile of her lips against his, felt her pleased sigh all the way to the tips of his tennis shoes.
She tasted of something sweet, minty, intoxicating, uniquely Madison.
His willpower was in serious trouble.
This was no mere kiss.
She tasted so heavenly he wanted to sprout wings and a halo and stick around indefinitely, playing harps and singing her feminine praises.
Unable to stop himself, he cupped her face. Gently. Reverently. Forcing himself to keep their kiss soft despite wanting to push her back onto the blanket, press his body into hers, and plunder to his heart’s content.
Her contentment.
Their contentment.
He groaned.
Lids batting seductively, she smiled up at him. “Definitely not gay.”
“I wasn’t finished if you need more proof.”
Her expression grew quizzical, slightly guarded, her big eyes searching his. “Is that what you’re doing? Proving a point?”
Part of him wanted to act macho and say, yes, that was what he’d been doing. But he couldn’t do it. Couldn’t lie to Madison. Not about this or anything, and that left him exposed in an unfamiliar and unwanted way.
But that guarded look had undone him.
Someone had hurt her in the past. Hurt her and left her in need of rescue. Hell. He was no white knight. Couldn’t be even if he wanted to be. After all, his father’s blood ran through his veins.
“If you’re referring to the point that I want you…” he stuck with a question he could answer “…then, yes, that kiss was all about proving a point.”
“Excellent point.” Relaxing against the blanket, relief spread across her face and filled him with similar relief.
He laughed, clasping her hand within his. “I like you, Madison. A lot.”
Never had he seen a more brilliant smile on her lovely face. “I like you, too. I have from the moment we first met.”
He remembered the moment well. “You were wearing scrubs with Woodstock on them the day we met.”
She blinked, staring at him in surprise. “I was doing what?”
“The first time I saw you, you were wearing blue pants and a scrub top with that little yellow bird on it,” he clarified, wondering if the fact he recalled what she’d been wearing that day signified anything more than that he had a good memory.
And that she’d made a lasting impression on him.
“It’s one of my favorites,” she said softly, looking a bit as if she’d been hit by a stun gun and hadn’t fully recovered and wasn’t sure she ever would.
“Mine, too.” Because each time she wore that shirt he was reminded of that day and that memory made him feel better inside, made him…dared he say it, happy?
She twisted her fingers together, then caught what she was doing and slid them beneath her thighs, securing them between her legs and the chair canvas. “You’ve dated a lot of women who work at Angel Creek Hospital?”
Oh, Madison. Whoever he was, he hurt you badly, didn’t he?
He lifted her hand to his mouth, pressed a kiss to her soft, capable fingers. “Yes. Because of proximity and the time constraints, a lot of the women I’ve dated work at Angel Creek Hospital. If that’s a problem for you, then we need to discuss that right now, before you and I go any further.”
And what would he say if she said his past was a problem?
He couldn’t change the fact that up to that point women had, for the most part, been interchangeable in his life. Sad, but true. God, he had been turning into a chip off the old block, hadn’t he? A mirror image of dear Dad.
No, he’d never hit a woman. Never would.
Maybe he did have a bit of a white knight in him. One who wanted to pound any man who hit a woman.
“I’ve not dated anyone at Angel Creek Hospital, but I’m not a virgin,” she surprised him by saying. Her eyes flashed in challenge. “Is that a problem for you?”
Was that a trick question?
“Uh, no,” he admitted, but as soon as the answer left his lips the idea that some man had once made love to Madison reached in and gripped his stomach in a vise. A green-coated one. When had he ever been jealous of a woman’s past lovers? Never. He wouldn’t start now. But he had been jealous of whoever she’d spent the previous night with.
He didn’t want her spending time with any man except him.
“Good.” She smiled smugly, almost as if she could read his mind, had seen the flash of jealousy. How did she do that? Look at him and know his thoughts? “Then you’ll understand when I say that your past is just that, in the past. Just as mine is.” She stared him straight in the eyes. “You can’t change yours any more than I can change mine.”
True, and thank God she thought so too.
“You’re a beautiful woman, Madison. Why haven’t you dated anyone since you moved to Angel Creek?” Or had she? She’d said Angel Creek Hospital, not Angel Creek. Was this his way of asking what she’d been up to the night before? Hell, he wasn’t even sure he wanted to know.
A pleased pink hue touched her cheeks at his compliment. She toyed with her bottom lip, teasing him with the fact that he’d like another taste of that lush fullness.
“I haven’t dated anyone because when I arrived at Angel Creek, I took one look at you and didn’t want anyone else. I still don’t.” She paused, momentary hesitation shining in her eyes before she continued, “But I don’t want to share you.”
Share him?
“I’m not willing to go on if you’re not willing to commit to just me for however long whatever this is between us lasts.”
Stunned, Levi stared at her. Her steady green gaze didn’t waver. She was serious.
And she was telling him exactly what he wanted to hear, treating him as if she wanted more than just a one-night stand from him, as if he was capable of a real relationship, as if he wasn’t his father’s son. Maybe he’d misunderstood what he’d overheard her saying to Karen.
Since he wanted a committed relationship with her, wasn’t this like Madison offering him what he wanted? Only…
“Uh, Madison, I want you, but feel compelled to tell you that I don’t do for ever.”
Her eyes widened, filling with horr
or. “Oh, get over yourself. I’m not talking forever—yuck, no.” Her face pinched with mock disgust. “That’s not what I want. But my health is important to me. When you’re with me, you’re just with me. That’s all I’m saying.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
KNOWING she was the biggest fool who’d ever walked the face of the earth, Madison inwardly cringed. Had she really just told Levi that she wouldn’t share him? That when he was with her he was just with her? What the heck had happened to her player mentality?
Players didn’t put such stipulations on relationships. They didn’t even have relationships. They had one-night stands, flings, encounters that meant nothing and had no power to hurt afterwards. But, then, she wasn’t much of a player, was she? Her first go at it and, boom, a total disaster.
Still, even if she hadn’t been a dating guru in the past, she’d not had a relationship suicide wish either.
Okay, so she’d tried to make a swift recovery with the “Yuck, no”. Maybe Levi should have just let her choke on that piece of ice at the picnic. That would have been a much less humiliating obituary than one that read “Died of shame and mortification”.
She paused in her self-recriminations, realizing that, player or not, she wouldn’t share Levi. Been there, done that, and wouldn’t go back. She deserved a man who wasn’t seeing other women. A man who valued her as a person and as a woman.
Neither would she be made a laughing stock the way she had with Simon. The next man in her life would treat her with respect. Or else he wouldn’t be in her life.
Not even Levi.
After her text and now this, he’d probably run away as fast as possible, anyway.
She glanced at him. He wasn’t packing up his fishing gear and running for the hills. Yet. He was smiling at her. As if he liked what she’d just said. As if he liked what he saw. As if he knew something she didn’t.
Why did that smile worry her? Make her feel like he’d spotted his quarry and was ready for the kill—her.
“Okay,” he said slowly, his smile not lessening one bit but her nervousness ratcheting up a few more notches. “For however long whatever this is lasts…” He tossed her words back at her, his dark eyes glimmering almost inky black. “It’ll just be you and me. No dating other women.”
Wow. Ask and you shall receive. Happiness welled within her, pressing against her ribcage.
That was happiness thumping wildly in her chest, right?
She must be dreaming. Real life didn’t happen this way. Women like her didn’t have men like Levi promise to be faithful for however long their relationship lasted.
Of course, that might be the catch. Maybe he wasn’t expecting their relationship to last long.
Regardless, she’d take each day as it came, wouldn’t worry about when the end would come. Instead, she’d enjoy every moment with this man who made her feel giddy inside.
Happier than she should be, Madison smiled sweetly. “Not a problem as I’ve yet to meet a woman who interests me that way.”
He laughed out loud. “Let me know if you do. That I’d like to see.”
“Men.” She rolled her eyes heavenward. “I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” she warned, wondering if her ribs would break from the excited pressure blossoming within her.
“But I think I’d enjoy holding your breath, Madison,” he said in a low voice, dropping his gaze to her mouth. “I think I’d enjoy that a lot.”
He leaned over, placed his lips against hers and took her breath. Literally.
She wasn’t quite sure how he’d done it, but while their mouths were locked in a kiss he’d inhaled, stealing her breath. Leaning back, his deep chocolate eyes held hers while he held his breath.
Her breath, she corrected.
Oh, dear heavens. There was something so erotic, so carnal, so surreal about Levi taking her life breath and holding it inside his body that she ached with need.
Surely her ribcage really was going to explode into a million pieces to let free her burgeoning emotions.
She leaned in, planning to kiss him. All over.
But he held back, shaking his head and waggling his finger at her. Still, he hadn’t exhaled. Any moment she expected him to turn blue. But he just smiled, then when she least expected it, he pressed his lips back to hers and gave her breath back. His breath.
Holding the precious air tightly inside her lungs, she fell against the blanket, staring up at the bright blue sky, dazed. Full of desire. Wondering what kind of game Levi was playing with her, wondering if she had the strength to stop him even if he was just toying with her heart, wondering if she even had the strength to tell herself all this was okay because she knew going in it wouldn’t last.
Yeah, right.
She might as well forget that little fantasy. Her heart was in serious jeopardy.
Very easily she could fall head over heels for him. She was pretty close to already being there despite her mental protests. How could she not be when he was so much more than any man she’d ever known?
And they’d only had two dates. Truth was, how many dates they’d had didn’t matter. Despite her player pledge, she’d been close to falling before she’d even known he knew her name.
Then he’d gone and saved her life, unhooked her, and taken her breath. What a man!
Lungs protesting, she opened her mouth and let the air go, sucked in fresh, but already missed the air he’d given her, his breath.
Too easily she could pull him down to her, beg him to make love to her. Which would do one of two things. Scare him away completely or give him exactly what he was angling for, and then he’d leave because he’d have gotten what he wanted.
Either way, she was going to have to play it cool, not let on how he affected her, that she wasn’t really as carefree as she pretended.
Only how was she supposed to do that when she really liked the way he’d kissed her, the way he’d taken her breath away?
Never in her life had she been kissed like that. As if she was something fragile, precious. He’d kissed her with a reverence that had made her insides melt.
Practice certainly made perfect.
Ugh. She shouldn’t be thinking about all the practice he’d had to earn that level of kissing ability. A lot, no doubt. The man was a genius at kissing. Could write books on the subject. Give seminars. Do webcasts.
She sighed. How was she supposed to play it cool when she wanted him to kiss her again? And again?
To demonstrate that little breath-stealing trick again, too.
Yeah, she’d let him take her breath any time he wanted and that’s what scared her most.
The following afternoon, Madison hummed her way through another chorus of “Walking on Sunshine”.
“You’re mighty perky today,” Karen pointed out as she assisted Madison in turning the elderly woman in Room 218. The woman had been admitted to the hospital in hypercapneic respiratory failure, had spent a week in ICU, and had fortunately recovered enough to be taken off the ventilator and be transferred to the medical floor. However, Mrs. Cline was still weak, hypoxic, and needed assistance with changing position in bed.
Still, she had a wonderful outlook, had been teasing Madison earlier about the sparkle in her eyes. Madison had just smiled. And sparkled all the more.
“Yes, I am.” Madison winked conspiratorially at their obese patient, who glanced back and forth between the two nurses. The woman grinned as if she was in on a secret. “The sun is shining, and life is good.”
“I’m betting I can guess what’s good.” Karen rolled her eyes. “You were out late last night.”
“Out late?” Their patient cackled breathily, obviously enjoying her role as spectator to their conversation. “And sparkling like that? Must involve a man.”
“Must,” Karen agreed, eyeing Madison with a mixture of wariness and happiness.
Madison just smiled, not willing to say more and particularly not willing to discuss Mrs. Cline’s personal physician in front of the lady.
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“What must involve a man?” asked the wonderful, breath-stealing man in question as he stepped into the room, twirling his stethoscope between his long fingers. His long, talented fingers. Looking at those fingers, remembering where they’d been, had heat flushing her cheeks.
He winked at his patient. “Hey, gorgeous. How’re you feeling this morning?”
“Better, but not as perky as my nurse.” The woman smiled at Levi, then motioned toward Madison. “I’ll have some of what she’s having.”
Levi’s brow rose when both Karen and Madison snorted. If only Mrs. Cline knew she was talking to the man responsible for Madison’s perkiness. Then again, what woman wouldn’t want some of Levi? He was amazing. Brilliant. Fun. Witty. Sexy. Wonderful.
Madison would like another helping herself.
“Oh?” Levi glanced toward Madison. His dark eyes twinkling with blatant mischief, a slow smile spread across his handsome face. “You feeling perky today, Nurse Swanson?”
“Yes, Dr. Fielding.” Had her breathing sounded as dyspneic as Mrs. Cline’s? Probably, but she couldn’t help it. Not when Levi was so near. Not when looking at him filled her mind with memories of kissing him. Over and over. And again when he’d taken her home after dinner.
She’d thought to invite him in, but she hadn’t, even though that was exactly what a real playgirl would have done. Neither had he pushed for an invitation. She’d gone to sleep that night thinking the day had been perfect, perhaps with the exception of hooking her arm, the best of her life.
All because of how the man before her made her feel. Was she feeling perky?
“Quite perky.” She met his gaze. “Thanks for asking.”
And for putting that perk into my life.
Karen’s lips twisted in a knowing smile. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Dr. Fielding?”
First sending a quick “be quiet” glare toward Karen, Madison glanced towards her patient. The older lady watched them with interest, which made Madison acutely aware that she didn’t want to discuss her perkiness a moment longer.