She pulled the loose-knit sweater and cami over her head and he sucked in his breath at the sight of her lacy-bra-covered breasts. She was deliciously curvy, and he couldn’t wait to hold and feel her again. Now both half-undressed, they came together in a tight embrace. He savored her warmth and smooth skin, the impact of her body so close to his, and his hands skated over her, searching for the bra clasp. On the way, he got distracted kissing the curve of her shoulder and just below her ear, and was rewarded with another deep sigh and shiver. Kasey seemed completely in tune with him, every touch and each kiss emitting uninhibited reactions, which turned him on more and more. He removed her bra and felt the heat and weight of her breasts in his palms, wanting nothing more than to bury his face in them. Her pebbled, rosy-pink nipples called out to be kissed. He wanted to do everything at once, all while being buried inside her.
They needed to get completely naked. Fast!
Kasey kicked off her shoes and shimmied out of her slacks and underpants while Jared did the same. God, he was sexy. Not an ounce of excess flesh anywhere, natural muscles rippled and flinched with each move. And, man, oh, man, was he ready for her.
Not thinking. Not thinking. Keep it superficial.
She shooed Miss Daisy off the bed and received a serious warning glance and meow. “Sorry, sweetie.” Her cat had gotten used to being the center of her attention, and as Kasey dove on top of Jared, already reclined on the bed and reaching out for her, the cat got the point and took off.
Jared’s smooth, hot skin was reward enough, but the hooded, dark-sea stare nearly made her crumple at his feet. I am not worthy but, boy, am I glad he’s here.
His hands with long surgeon’s fingers welcomed every part of her body, soon finding two favorite spots, her right butt cheek and left breast, where his mouth did amazing things. She’d been wet and ready since their world-class kiss in Charlestown, so she straddled his hips and, sweet heaven on earth, he adjusted himself, pressing against and sliding over the pick-me-first nub outside. Several moments passed, doing this heady teasing dance, his erection nudging and massaging her, his hands exploring her breasts, heightening her desire, tension twining ever tighter in her core. Being above and in charge, though feeling completely out of control, she widened her thighs, hoping he’d slide inside.
As though getting a sudden slap in the face, common sense reared its frustrating head. “Wait.”
Jared came out of his trance, but barely.
“Condom,” she breathed, her breasts skimming his chin when he lifted his head, his eyes looking on fire.
Jared dropped his head on the pillow with a thud and let out a frustrated moan.
“What? No just-in-case-I-get-lucky wrapper in your wallet?”
He shook his head, his lustful look quickly dissolving into disappointment. So he really wasn’t a Casanova. Good. “You didn’t plan this?”
“I just wanted someone to gripe to tonight, and you were it. Didn’t expect you to be so sexy about it.”
He was a gentleman after all, hadn’t come prepared, hadn’t planned on screwing her. The thought turned her on even more.
“Good thing one of us is prepared, then,” she said pertly as she reached across the bed for the drawer. She’d been off the dating market for a while, but still probably had some condoms. Somewhere. She sure hoped so, anyway, and if she was lucky, they wouldn’t be outdated.
While Kasey balanced on one knee and hand to reach across the bed and pull out the drawer with the other, Jared scooted down and shocked her with a deep kiss and nibble. A reward? Just as she grabbed the condom, when he included his tongue along with another kiss at her entrance, all thoughts left her head, instead pooling between her legs where Jared sent deliciously warm shockwaves throughout her body.
She didn’t move and he didn’t stop.
A few minutes later, crumpled by her orgasm but determined to stay on top, she sheathed him and guided him inside, and his groan of pleasure matched hers. Looking down into his sex-darkened eyes, his hands moving her hips over his heat and strength, seeing the blissful satisfaction on his face, she powered on as a second release rolled through her.
*
Where has this gorgeous, sexy woman been all my life? Unable to hold back another second, Jared rolled Kasey onto her back and lifted her hips to meet his quickening thrusts. Her body melted into his. He hadn’t spent nearly enough time marveling in it, but it was too late now, they’d moved way past getting acquainted. He’d take it slower next time.
Hard and harder he took her. Every last bit of energy in his body focused on their connection, the sheer perfection of it. Her heat and tight feel. Her total response to him as he realized she’d come again. Her quivering over and around his erection as he drove deeper. The power and intensity sent him over the edge, releasing a mega-force of staggering pleasure, completely losing himself to the sky dive.
*
Kasey woke to a quiet room, two eyes staring at her. Miss Daisy. Miffed from inattention. She sat up. The other side of the bed was empty. She should have known better than to expect to see Jared there. They’d given in to desire. Lust. Pure and simple. He’d made love to her twice, the first crazy, like scratching an itch, the second much slower and even more amazing. Wow. She’d lost count of her orgasms.
She sat at the side of the bed. No, she wouldn’t let self-doubt sneak in. This was her plan B. Superficial, uncomplicated sex. They were adults and had done exactly what they’d wanted to do. That was all.
She walked to the kitchen to make some coffee and feed the cat. Her body felt alive and maybe a little achy but, wow, she liked feeling this way. He’d kept her so busy and content she hadn’t had a single second to worry about her future. And she’d slept like a rock.
“Maybe I can sign him up for the next month until I get my results, huh, Daisy?” The cat rubbed her ankle and walked between her legs.
“I’ll probably never see him again, you know.” She stood straighter, squaring her shoulders before stooping to feed the cat. “I don’t need to. What’s the point?” She scratched the cat’s ears while Daisy ate.
A small piece of paper caught her eye on the kitchen table. Had an early surgery. Thanks for last night.
Although there was no mention of calling her, at least it was something. They’d had dinner, then sex. He’d left a note. This was the protocol for a nostrings kind of fling, just what she needed.
Kasey would put on her armor and deal with the consequences of having wildly hot sex with Dr Tall, Dark and Gorgeous, like a grown-up.
She’d done it. It was fantastic. Now it was time to forget him and move on before she invested any feelings in him. There was just one flaw to that logic. It wasn’t her style, and she already had.
CHAPTER SIX
WEDNESDAY afternoon at the clinic, with not a single word from Jared since Monday night, Kasey went through a stack of lab results. Franklin O’Leary’s lab studies were back, and it wasn’t good news. They’d found cancer cells in the paracentesis fluid and he would need further studies, possibly hospitalization, to help discern the primary source of cancer.
Kasey scrolled through the makeshift file she had for him, and found his cellphone number.
She’d tried her best to put Jared out of her mind since Monday night, deciding he was nothing more than a one-hit wonder. Wonder being the perfect word to describe what she’d experienced when making love with him. Now, with the discovery of cancer cells in Franklin’s ascites, she felt compelled to tell Jared.
A hard lump formed in the pit of her stomach, followed by a queasy wave. Consequences. Damn it all, she’d acted exactly like her mother, and now had to face the consequences. She’d had sex with a man she hardly knew, a fellow professional, and though they didn’t officially work together, she’d crossed the line on her personal rule. Now she’d still have to follow up with Jared on a strictly business level. It wouldn’t be easy, but she needed to give him Franklin O’Leary’s lab report.
She scrubbed h
er hands over her face, took a deep breath, and dialed his cellphone number. After four rings, it went to voicemail. Deciding to ignore the phony chirpy social voice, she kept her message all business, gave him the results and asked how he’d like to follow up.
With cancer cells floating around in abdominal fluid, which meant metastases, Mr. O’Leary needed to be seen immediately. She’d give Jared an hour to get back to her then she’d contact Franklin herself and ask him to come in to the community clinic as soon as possible. If necessary, she could request hospital admission for him.
The next chart to cross her desk made her sit up straighter. Bat bite? Did the city of Everett even have bats? Wondering what waited in room number three, she headed down the hall.
A young girl sat sullenly on the examination table, her mother standing next to her wearing a worried expression, biting her lips, fear apparent in the form of constricted pupils.
After introductions, Kasey asked the mother to get right to the story.
“Tessa has nightmares about once a week, and last night she ran down the hall telling me a bird was in her room and it woke her up when it bit her. My husband checked it out and couldn’t find anything, but this morning I found this on her.”
The mother lifted the six-year-old’s long, brown hair to show two tiny pin prick marks on her shoulder. Kasey paused as a rush of possibilities scrolled through her head. The marks didn’t look like a scratch, or any spider bite she’d ever seen, unless it was one huge spider.
“Do you own a kitten or puppy?”
The woman shook her head.
“And your husband didn’t find anything in Tessa’s room?”
She shook her head again. “He turned on the lights and did a quick sweep of her room. I’ve kept the door closed and haven’t gone back in because I think there’s a bat in there.” Tears welled in the young mother’s eyes and the child, picking up on her mother’s distress, got restless.
“I want to go. Can we go now?”
“In a minute, honey,” the mother said.
“What makes you think it’s a bat?” Kasey asked.
“I’ve read about bats being able to bite people without them feeling it.” She scratched her neck, with nervous, quick-moving fingers and whispered, “I’m worried about rabies.” She creased her lips tightly to hold back the fear mounting in her eyes.
What the heck was she supposed to do? She needed to research bat bites before she could give an educated answer or allay this woman’s fears. Only one thought prompted her to answer—what if she was a mother and this was her child?
“Though it is possible, it is highly unlikely that this is a bat bite. And even if it is a bat bite, the odds of that bat having rabies are low. I’d have to look up the incidence of rabies in our bat populations.”
“What’s rabies?” Tessa asked.
Oh, gosh, Kasey had forgotten how attuned young children were to adult conversations. She’d blown it, and wanted to kick herself for potentially scaring the little girl. “It’s like an infection, and if a person has it they need to have medicine to treat it.”
Tears, like small waterfalls, splashed over the mother’s lower lids. Kasey was treating two patients, one who needed to calm down. But could she blame the mother? Fear of the unknown could start as a spark and spread to a flash fire if not handled properly.
“Like the pink stuff I take sometimes?”
“This medicine is different, but maybe you won’t have to take it,” Kasey said.
That seemed to satisfy the little one’s curiosity.
“Well, here’s what I recommend we do. First I’ll wash this area for several minutes. Did you wash it with soap and water last night?” The mother nodded. “Good. Is Tessa up to date on her immunizations? Tetanus?”
The mother nodded again.
“Good.” Kasey fished through the cabinets for a surgical sponge that already had antiseptic soap infused in it. She popped open the plastic and got it wet then began scrubbing the little girl’s shoulder. “Does this hurt?” Tessa shook her head. “Since you haven’t opened the bedroom door since last night, maybe you can have a pest-control person come and search the room for evidence of a bat?”
“I’ll do whatever you say I should,” the mother said.
When Kasey finished up the wash and left tincture of iodine over the two tiny marks they’d agreed as the course of action. Kasey gave Tessa a cherry lollypop and some stickers, though worry made the young one’s eyes look even bigger. On the way out, as the child ran ahead, the mother grabbed Kasey’s arm. “What if it is a bat bite, and we find it and it does have rabies?”
“We’d have to begin rabies post-exposure prophylaxis within ten days. Don’t panic yet. We don’t even know if this is a possibility. Please try to stay calm. I know it’s hard.”
The woman’s clutch on Kasey’s arm let up. “We’ve only got ten days to figure this out?”
Kasey gave a solemn nod.
After they left, Kasey didn’t know if the mother was delusional or on top of a rare but conceivable possibility. Since the clinic was slow this afternoon, she went directly to her desk and computer to do some research, soon getting lost in the project and losing track of time. At least these days the treatment wasn’t as bad as in the past. No more multiple painful injections into the abdomen. These days it would be like receiving a flu shot, five different times over four weeks, along with an initial intradermal immune globulin close to the actual site of the bite.
A shadow darkened her computer screen. Assuming it was Vincent being snoopy, she turned in her swivel chair, ready with a smart-aleck remark. But there stood Jared, dark brown polo shirt, piercing blue eyes, as handsome as ever. All thoughts left her head. The adrenaline pop in her chest couldn’t be ignored. She chose irritation as her cover.
“Do you not know how to call first?”
“What would be the fun of that?” A slow, sexy smile stretched across his face and she thought she might turn to a puddle of drool right before his eyes, so she kept up her tough-chick act.
“Seriously. You’ve got to quit showing up out of the blue.”
He rolled over Vincent’s swivel chair, turned it backwards and threw his leg over like a cowboy mounting a horse. Crossing his elbows over the back, he continued to smile, undaunted by her hardball façade.
“You called. I’m here.”
“Don’t you have some Botox clinic tonight or something?”
“I asked a first-year fellow to take over.” He reached out and touched her shoulder, sending another titillating message in the form of tiny feathers tickling flesh and nerve endings. “So let’s see those lab results.”
After fishing around her desk for the printed-out labs, she found them and handed them to him. “You’ll never guess what I saw today,” she said.
“The elephant man?”
She screwed up her face and shook her head. “Where do you get your ideas?”
He shrugged. “You told me to guess.”
“You’re weird. Never mind. I saw a little girl with a potential bat bite.”
“Get out of town!”
“Really. I hope her mother is wrong.”
“Me too,” he said, now seriously studying the lab results. “Did you call Franklin O’Leary?”
“I was waiting to hear from you.” She picked up the phone and dialed, with little hope of actually reaching the patient. Surprise, surprise, he picked up on the first ring.
Kasey gave Franklin the lowdown about his lab reports being back and asked if he could come to the clinic to talk about them. More surprise, he said he’d be right over.
“I was going to come pay you a visit anyway, Ms. McGowan, because my tummy’s getting big again, and I’m feeling a bit weird today.”
“That’s definitely a good reason to come right away, Franklin. We’ll see you as soon as you can get here.”
After reading the labs, Jared’s expression changed. “We need to admit him to the hospital.”
“Agr
eed.”
“We’ll talk to Mr. O’Leary first, then I’ll call in my admission report.”
“Vincent can help you with anything you need.”
Jared reached over the chair and lightly traced Kasey’s jaw with his fingertips. “I don’t think he can help me with everything I need.”
Okay, he’d stopped her cold again, had her at hello, as the movie went. How was she supposed to respond? She wanted to ask why he hadn’t called her, but that hardly qualified for relationship-lite status. Besides, she’d turned over a new leaf, hadn’t she? Since she had a potential health crisis hanging over her head, the answer to which she wouldn’t know for sure for a couple of weeks, shouldn’t she live one day at a time and just go for it? Knock him on/off balance by being the nostrings-attached bedroom pal of his dreams?
What about the pep talk that morning? She’d already let her guard down, and some feelings had seeped in for Jared. It wasn’t safe to play nostrings starting out with a handicap. But he was there, looking sexy as hell, making all the right moves and saying all the right things.
Damn, she was easy.
She swallowed against a suddenly dry throat, feeling completely out of character from her usual practical and cautious self. “Any time. You name the place.” She was quite sure a mischievous gaze accompanied her parry.
After a small but obvious burst of something in his eyes—surprise or turn-on, she wasn’t sure which—he glanced around the office with a purposeful gaze.
“Hold on, not here, cowboy,” she lifted her hands, steadying the nervous boost.
He lifted his brows and cocked his head. “Was worth a shot.”
There was that wicked sexy smile again. The game was on. She shook her head, feigning disgust.
In one week he’d morphed from a standoffish merely obligated surgeon into the sexiest thing she’d seen in a white coat in her entire life. Huntington’s be damned, she was going for it, living in the solid present and not going to bother to look back…or forward. At least, not yet.
Dr. Tall, Dark...and Dangerous? Page 8