Babies in the Bargain (6 page)

His brain screamed
no
. His body tensed, throbbing against her softness. “Damn it, woman. I need you so much.” He lowered his head and met her parted lips.

“Oh, Marc,” she murmured, their hearts drumming together as she laced her fingers behind his neck.

He crushed his mouth to hers. Hunger and despair mingled in his demanding kiss. She responded with the same passion he’d tasted seven years ago. The same fervor he’d eagerly wished to recapture in the last few weeks.

She pulled back to drag in air. His lips abandoned hers and trailed along her jaw, while his fingers played with a lock of her hair. She didn’t move out of his embrace but met his gaze with a question in her eyes.

He groaned, squeezing her against him. She was his anchor to sanity. Blocking the memory of last night, the agonizing hurt, he let his lust submerge his pain. Without hesitation, without taking the time to tease or taste, he devoured her lips like a starving man.

She moaned, an erotic whimper that snapped him back to the gloomy present.

He looked at her, sucked in a heavy breath and released her. How had he been able to stay away from her for so long? He’d had no choice. His family had needed him.

“You can’t believe how I’ve missed you all these years.”

“No, Marc. You didn’t miss me. And this was a mistake.” She slid back behind her icy mask of the last five weeks and snatched the door open.

He pursed his lips, grasping the unspoken feelings. She resented him for letting their long distance relationship dwindle and die a slow death. Maybe he should mention he had overwhelming responsibilities. “Holly, I want to tell you—”

“Don’t, please.” Her chin raised, she waggled her hand. “I’ve tried to comfort you, but that’s all there is between us.”

“Of course. I appreciate your effort.” He let her pass in front of him and leaned against the doorframe, watching her walk briskly away. Now wasn’t the right time for explanations.

Would there ever be a right time for him and Holly?

* * *

Friends with Marc? Holly clucked her tongue as she pressed several times on the elevator call button.

What a joke. Only two minutes into this newly found friendship and she’d kissed him as if her life depended on it. Hating and loving their last encounter, she touched her lips. They were swollen and tingling. Her cheeks flamed at her healthy desire for more.

More like unhealthy, inappropriate desire.

The man was in full mourning and she’d tempted him and then responded to his kiss like a teenager in hormonal crisis.

The elevator door opened. Holly stepped in and bumped into the passenger coming out. “Sorry,” she automatically said.

“Hi, Dr. Collier.”

What was Jenna McCullough doing in the wing reserved for the attending physicians’ offices?

Holly fixed a speculative look at the redheaded nurse who sashayed toward the end of the corridor, her heady perfume wafting around. Toward Marc’s office?

Sure enough, the pretty redhead knocked on Marc’s door. Holly immediately pushed the arrows to keep the elevator door open. Nervousness assailed her. She wouldn’t follow Jenna, but she couldn’t leave without finding out what the nurse was up to. Or more precisely, how Marc would deal with Jenna?

He answered and stood at the entrance. Holly craned her neck out of the lift. Her eyes nearly popped out when she saw Jenna throw her arms around Marc’s neck.

Not again
. A shiver ran up her spine as an old scene flashed through her memory. Marc kissing a nurse the day after he’d spent a last passionate night with Holly. Just before he left for Puerto Rico.

Was history repeating itself?

Her stomach twisted as she focused on the end of the hallway. Marc didn’t move to let Jenna in. He kept his arm propped against the doorframe blocking her entry to his room.

How long was the nurse going to keep her claws around his neck?

Would he let Jenna in?

Damn it, grieving or not, he had too many women gravitating toward him. She’d learned the hard way that caring for Marc was trouble for her heart. As she narrowed her eyes on the nurse, Holly promised herself not to fall into that trap again.

Marc was now holding Jenna’s hands. He dropped them and raised his head, looking beyond her in Holly’s direction. How she wished she could hear the exchange. She extended her head further out.

Marc must have seen her. He tilted his head and waved.

Holly grimaced, backed into the elevator, and stabbed at the fourth floor button. She took a deep breath to calm her raging pulse. She’d seen too much of Jenna for the day.

Darn, why did she care about Jenna’s interest in Marc?

He was a friend. Only a friend. She repeated the word to convince herself. It tumbled from her lips and speared her heart.

CHAPTER FIVE

An hour later, Holly stopped at the regular nursery to check on Terry’s son.
Another little one in need of love
. She found Jenna feeding him a bottle and froze in her tracks.

“Hi, Dr. Collier. The new baby is doing great. I heard Dr. Suarez supervised the anesthesia. Isn’t he something else? Working in spite of the situation.” Wisps of red hair escaped from Jenna’s cap, and her hazel eyes shone with admiration.

Holly was certainly not a jealous shrew but she couldn’t erase the image of Jenna hanging on Marc’s neck. She bit down a sharp remark and wondered if her face looked as pinched as it felt.

Be fair
. Jenna was an excellent nurse who took good care of her little patients. “Don’t let any visitors come close to this baby. We’re waiting for a psych evaluation of the mother,” Holly said, ignoring Jenna’s enthusiastic approval of Marc.

“Okay.” Jenna shrugged. “Dr. Guerlin is going home, so Dr. Suarez will take care of today’s cases.”

“I see.” Holly should have known the hospital grapevine was the fastest network of information. She promised herself she’d make an effort to stop at the nurses’ station more often to learn the latest news. Did they talk about her? But who would be interested in the
hospital’s spinster
as she’d overheard Jenna call her once while gossiping to another nurse?

Jenna laid the sleeping baby in his isolette. “I may leave early to attend the wake. Are you going?”

“Nope. I’m on call. Aren’t you?” Holly arched her eyebrows.

“Stacey will cover for me. I won’t be long.”

“Whatever.” Holly bent to place her stethoscope on the baby’s chest.

The infant’s heartbeat thumped at a normal rate, but when she removed the stethoscope and clasped the metallic disc in her hand, she heard her own erratic pulse skitter like a racecar on an icy track. As a Neonatology fellow, she had no right to forbid Jenna to go to the funeral home. And hug Marc again.

Before moving to the next baby, Holly lifted narrowed eyes and scrutinized the nurse. The white skirt hugged perfect hips, and the open top buttons of her blouse revealed a hint of voluptuous breasts beneath the taut fabric.

Marc was mourning now. How long would a man with his
love’em- and- leave’em
reputation resist such a temptation? Why would he resist? He wasn’t married, or attached in any way.

And why would Holly care? Hadn’t she agreed to be
friends
—
just friends
?

She snatched the baby’s chart from the rail of the bed. Her stomach tight, she scribbled her report with a jittery hand.

Damn it, but she did care. And she didn’t want Marc associated with the gorgeous Jenna in any way.

* * *

Holly entered Recovery and froze at the door, unable to believe her eyes at the commotion greeting her. The environmentalist, her feet dangling off one side of the bed, fought with two nurses. Holly rushed to the trolley. “What’s going on here?” she asked in a controlled voice, trying not to disturb the post-surgical patients lying in parallel beds.

“Terry pulled out her IV line and tried to get up. We paged Dr. Suarez,” one of the nurses said over his shoulder as he struggled to hold the patient.

“I wanna see my baby. You got no right to take my baby,” the woman screamed, pounding a fist against her restrainer’s chest.

“Terry, calm down. I’m Dr. Collier. I just checked your baby. He’s fine and he’s recovering right now.”

The woman breathed hard, her eyes wide. “He? It’s a boy?”

“Yes, he’s a beautiful boy.” Holly smiled to reassure her.

Terry’s panic-stricken gaze fixed on Holly. “Is he hea...healthy?” she stammered.

“He’s very healthy.”

Terry lowered her head. Convinced that the woman cared for her son, Holly told the nurses to let her go. They released the patient’s arms but remained next to the gurney.

“I ain’t gonna stay here. I wanna take my baby and go. I don’t want no doctors touching me or my baby.” Suddenly, the woman lashed out and slapped Holly across her face. “You bitch, where you got my son?”

As Holly jerked back, gasping, she stumbled right into a sturdy body.

“Holly, are you okay?” Marc’s arms closed around her.

Her back against his solid chest, Holly suffocated. Raw emotions squeezed all air from her lungs. “I’m fine.” She squirmed out of his arms and tried to regain her composure.

“Call security.” Marc ordered a nurse. He grabbed Terry’s shoulders and pushed her down onto the bed while she struggled against him. Two security guards walked in and tied her hands to the bed rails with leather restraints.

“The psychiatrist is on his way. Don’t sedate her now,” Holly said as she fingered the sore spot on her cheek. It hurt like hell, but she didn’t have time to deal with it.

“What psychiatrist? I ain’t crazy, you fool,” Terry spat, rattling the bed rails.

“You’d better calm down and listen to Dr. Collier.” Marc scowled at the patient. “She’s trying to help you when she could sue you for assault and battery.”

Terry closed her eyes and stopped fighting.

A stocky man wearing a beige suit approached them. “Dr. Collier? I’m Dr. Caruso from the Emergency Crisis Center.” They shook hands. Holly introduced Marc and the two nurses. “Can we move the patient to a private room? I’ll call you after I’m done talking to her.”

Holly nodded. “Please do.” The security guards rolled the gurney out.

Marc led Holly out of Recovery, his hand at her back. As soon as the exit door swung shut, she turned around, fuming. “Why did you tell her I could sue her? You know I’d never do that.”

“Well, someone had to scare her into behaving.”    

“Would you mind letting me handle my own case?” She glared at him, her anger at his interference exacerbated by a lingering image of Jenna hanging onto his neck.

“At the moment, Terry is unstable. She’s my patient as much as her son is yours. Besides, I’m concerned about you.”

“Why?”

Holly turned and then strode across the hallway to the elevator, Marc on her heels.

“What do you mean, why? You should see your face. You’re my friend. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”

Holly entered the elevator. Marc followed and pushed the button for the first floor. She banged the fourth floor button with her knuckles. “If you have to fight to protect your multitude of female friends, you’ll spend your life doing nothing else.”

In the confined space, Marc’s clean, masculine scent enveloped her like a warm cloak, robbing her mental faculties of their usual alertness. She took a small breath and pressed her back against the wall of the elevator, wishing to disappear through it. Right now, she badly needed the privacy of her own room to sort out her feelings.

“
Dios mio
, what are you talking about?” His forehead creased, his face a mix of surprise and hurt. “What multitude of female friends?”

Even when the shadows in his eyes reminded her of his grief, the man oozed sex appeal.

As they stepped out of the elevator, she crossed her arms to prevent him from noticing her shaking fingers. “You don’t owe me any explanations. We’re colleagues. Period.”          

“Colleagues, hmm.” Huffing, he flapped his arms in frustration.

Turning her back on him, she strode toward her on-call room.

He accelerated his pace and caught up to her. “Understood. Colleagues. But colleagues can be friends, can be concerned about each other. Right?”

“Forget it.” She glanced at him and shrugged, not ready to get entangled in a definition of specific words. “Earlier today, I tried to soothe your pain. Others are entitled to do the same for you. So don’t feel obligated to reciprocate by trying to
protect
me.”

“Wait a minute.” Marc paused as they reached her room. “Others? You mean Jenna, right? She tried to force herself through my door. Didn’t you see me preventing her from entering my office?”

Holly bit her lip and nodded. Why was she so upset?

Good grief, she was jealous of Jenna and worried stiff about her own new bout of attraction to Marc. “Still, I’d rather not have you interfere with my case,” she said, using work as a protective shield against her annoying feelings.