KeyParty (9 page)

When he was close she crawled backward to the middle of the
bed. He followed, crawling on hands and knees over her without touching her
anywhere. She didn’t need him to. She wanted nothing more than his body
pressing hers to the comforter, his cock filling her to bursting and his
mouth—her lifeline.

He kissed her in long, delicious tastes, sucking one lip and
then the other, dipping his tongue in her mouth and then lightly pulling on
hers when she responded. He balanced his weight on his arms over her and
settled his hips between her thighs.

She had to turn her head and catch her breath when he pushed
all the way inside her in one long stroke, not stopping or slowing down until
he was buried to the hilt.

“God yes,” she heard herself whisper as a white-hot electric
thrill scorched her.

“You are all mine, Rachel Marsh.” He spoke against the side
of her face as he thrust again. “Look at me.” He rolled his hips. Her back
wanted to arch but she was pinned to the mattress from ass to shoulders by his
body. “Rachel, look at me, baby.”

It took so long for her to force her eyes open.

“I see you, Ben,” she managed to say. “I see nothing but
you.”

She barely stopped the words I love you from slipping off
the end of her tongue, but they were there. And she meant them. Every letter of
them.

“This is how crazy feels.” He pulled back slowly. “Can you
feel it?”

She expected him to slam into her, even braced herself for
it, shaking with eager anticipation, but he rocked back into her as though he
had all the time in the world.

“I feel you, Ben.” She slid the sole of one foot down the
back of his leg and wrapped her other leg around his waist. “I feel nothing but
you.”

He kissed her in another long, unhurried taste as the
movement of his hips took on more of a rhythm. A very slow, very erotic rhythm.

As hard as it had been to open her eyes after that initial
rush of their bodies joining, now she couldn’t look away. He didn’t close his
eyes when they kissed, but neither did she. For the moment nothing else existed
but her and Ben and the way their bodies fit together. Ben and the way he
stoked the fire within her slowly, drawing out the moment one delicious thrust
at a time, the heat from his own body pouring into her.

Ben and the impossible, dangerous amount of love she felt
for him.

“Good, you’re here.” Ben closed the door and stepped farther
into his dad’s huge office. “Do you have some time for me?”

“Hey, kid.” His dad took his reading glasses off, folded
them and set them aside. “I have to dictate a couple of charts, then I’m
finished for the day. What’s up?”

Ben tucked his hands in his pants pockets. “I need to talk
to you about working at the Chicago office instead of Homewood.”

His dad laced his fingers together on his desk top and
looked at him expectantly.

“This is about Rachel Marsh.”

There was a pause. “What about her?”

“I’m dating her.” He’d thought confessing his relationship
with Rachel to his boss, his strongest supporter and his dad, was going to be
difficult, but he felt nothing but calm. “I wasn’t being completely honest when
I told you we were friends in college. You need to know that I started seeing
her a few days before her first interview. I didn’t say anything before because
I wasn’t sure where things were going with her, and, personal feelings
completely aside, I think she’s ideal for the job.”

“So do the rest of us, as you know, but you also know
company policy, Ben.”

He laughed a quiet, humorless sound. “I know it, but company
policy is for the Chicago center. I understand the rules will apply as is for
Homewood as well, but there is no policy regarding involvement between
coworkers at separate facilities. And no one but you and the other three board
members have the ability to do the same damage that Paul and his wife did all
those years ago.”

His dad’s mouth twitched, amused. “You have a point, but if
the board starts turning a blind eye just because there’s a gray area where
this is concerned…”

“Your employees will think you’re stepping into the
twenty-first century.”

“They already do without an amendment to the standing rule.
We’re ahead of our field in preventative therapies as well as treatments for
some of the most debilitating diseases. We have a generous employee benefits
package, full coverage insurance. We offer more paid sick and vacation time
than a lot of companies I know about.”

“So what will it hurt if you do away with the rule?”

Tracy studied him a moment. “No one but you has questioned
it until now.”

“No. No one has questioned it out loud. It’s archaic and
unnecessary.”

His dad stood up and came around the desk, shaking his head
but smiling. “I can’t do away with a rule because you’re dating someone we want
to hire. You and I both know everyone would scream favoritism if it suddenly
vanished for you.”

“Anyone who would already is. You’ve made it clear from the
day I graduated and started working here that your spot on the board is going
to be mine someday.” He took a deep breath and raised his hands. “Dad, I didn’t
come here to fight. I came here to tell you I’m in love with her, and to ask if
there’s any way we can work around that without ruining her chance of getting a
job she both wants and deserves.”

Tracy smiled a little nostalgically. Ben could see he’d hit
a nerve.

“Love, you say?” he drawled. Suddenly they were not doctor
to doctor, boss to subordinate—they were a dad and his son.

“I have to admit I’m relieved this didn’t happen sooner.” He
ran his hands through his hair and paced to the windows overlooking the street.
“She’s all I think about when I’m not working. And even when I
am
working she pops into my head all the damn time. I’d have never made it through
school if she hadn’t quit and disappeared.”

Because he was sure, from the moment she’d stepped out of
Jude and Petra’s house before their date the night before, that she was it for
him. Always had been, always would be. For that matter, if he’d been paying
closer attention, he might have realized it the second he recognized it was her
he’d been admiring at the key party that first night.

“Maybe there was more than one reason that happened,” Dad
said.

Ben gave him a look over his shoulder.

He grinned. “You don’t believe in fate, so don’t give me
that serendipity crap.”

“I do believe you were meant to become the best doctor you
could, and you wouldn’t have been able to do it if she’s that big of a
distraction.”

He had a point. When Ben thought she’d just taken off
without giving him a second thought, he’d been motivated him to put that
fleeting notion of having a real girlfriend out of his mind. If he’d had any
idea she was as interested as he now knew she was, his focus would have been
divided. And probably not evenly.

“I have to admit you make a pretty good case regarding
policy.” His dad sat on the front corner of his desk. “But you’re a couple of
hours too late. She came in to see me earlier and took herself out of the
running.”

Ben went still. He was sure he hadn’t heard right. “Rachel
was here today?”

“She was in the parking lot when I got here this morning,
wondering if I had a minute to talk to her. She withdrew her application.”

“She can’t quit before she has the job.” He half sat, half
leaned against the window sill. “She wants it so much, and she’d be great.”

“I agree with you.”

Ben looked toward the door without really seeing it, his
mind racing.

He looked back. “There has to be something we can do.”

* * * * *

After the talk with his dad, Ben spent some time working in
the center, then accepted an invitation from Dr. Li to have dinner with him and
his wife at their house. Dinner at the Li residence was always an elaborate
seven-course affair, in which they both cooked and served, inviting their
guests to help out in the kitchen if they wanted. Not that Ben could cook
anything more than the basics necessary for survival, but he always had fun
learning this tip or that technique from them when they had him over.

He’d had a terrific time as usual with the Lis, but he’d
left their house feeling restless and not at all ready to go home. Torn between
wanting to see Rachel and respecting the plans she’d told him she had with
Petra and Bree, Ben was relieved when Jude, also bored and on his own for the
night, called and asked if he wanted to go out for a drink.

No sooner had Ben told him about what was going on with
Rachel, the job at the wellness center and what she’d done by pulling herself
out of the running than Jude suggested they crash girls’ night.

Blondie was blaring on the sound system as Ben and Jude
entered the roller-skating rink. Colored lights were flashing and the disco
ball above the skating floor was throwing bright spots of light over everything
and everyone.

Jude had explained the skating rink held late hours on
certain days for adults only. After the suburban junior high kids went home at
ten, the doors opened to people twenty-one and older until four in the morning.

The crowd was mostly made up of women, but there seemed to
be a fair number of couples as well. Ben spotted two small groups of men not
wearing skates sitting at tables, drinking beer and laughing among themselves.
Everyone else was out on the floor, looking as though they were having a great
time.

He spotted Rachel right away as he and Jude made their way
closer to the rink. She was easily the tallest woman on the floor, and those
sexy curls of hers made her that much easier to identify at a distance. She was
skating with Bree, who was disco dancing as if she’d stepped straight out of
the late seventies, occasionally hip bumping Rachel as best she could with
their considerable height difference.

The music changed to Joan Jett’s cover of
Crimson and
Clover
as he and Jude got closer. A younger guy in a striped referee’s
shirt swooped over to Bree as the colored lights dimmed, leaving just the
flashing of the disco ball. She laughed and gave Rachel a look before she
agreed to skate with him.

Ben leaned on the railing surrounding the rink, content to
watch her having fun while he waited for her to spot him on her own. As they
watched, Petra swung around backward in front of Rachel and they started to
skate together.

“Now that’s a sight,” Ben said to Jude.

“Just wait until they see us.” Jude slid him a knowing look.
“It’ll get better.”

Ben looked at him.

“They’ll put on a show for us,” Jude clarified.

“Hmm,” he hummed thoughtfully. “I think I’d like to see
that.”

“Oh, you do,” Jude agreed.

Petra spotted them first. She gave them a wave and a naughty
smirk. Rachel turned and met Ben’s gaze and he was caught off guard by the
happy smile that lit up her face. It was so open, so full of what appeared to
be genuine joy to see him.

Jude gave him a nudge. “See?”

Sure enough, Petra said something to Rachel that made her
grin. They shifted closer—Rachel’s hands resting lightly on Petra’s waist,
Petra’s hands framing Rachel’s face—and then they went down. Another couple
went down on top of them. Yet another tripped and fell near them and someone
cried out in pain.

He and Jude bolted across the floor at the same time,
dodging skaters and ignoring the shouts from those who hadn’t seen the
accident. At first he couldn’t tell who was who in the tangle of bodies as they
approached. From somewhere nearby he heard a whistle blow in two short bursts
and the music cut out and the lights came up.

He and Jude helped the two people who’d fallen on top of
their girlfriends off the floor and made sure they were all right. Both seemed
more concerned with Rachel and Petra who were still lying on the floor, Rachel
lying eerily still over Petra.

Ben slipped his hands under Rachel’s arms and lifted her off
Petra. He got her to her feet, but she looked dazed and there was something
wrong with her right arm. The prominent bone in her wrist was shoved too far
down her hand and the ulna itself was broken to the point it looked as though
it was close to puncturing her skin.

“It’s okay, baby, I’ve got you,” he assured her quietly. He
held her tight but cradled her wounded arm gently, keeping her steady when she
slipped on her wheels.

She looked down at it as he helped her up the short step to
the carpeted area, horror registering on her face.

“It’s broken, Ben,” she said, her voice quiet and frightened
as she let him lead her toward a table. “My arm is broken.”

“I know.” He spoke to her calmly and settled her into a
chair. “We need to get you out of your skates so we can go to the hospital.”

“Is Pete all right?” she asked, craning her neck to get a
look.

Petra was sitting up. She was rubbing the back of her head
with one hand, laughing as Jude unlaced her roller skates.

“I think she’s going to be all right,” he said to Rachel,
who’d gone pale and was starting to tremble. An odd sort of calm came over him.
He had to show her how to gently cradle her right arm with her left so he could
have his hands free. He tucked the hair that had fallen in her eyes behind her
ear and leaned into her line of sight.

“It’s starting to hurt,” she whispered, wincing as tears
sprang to her eyes.

“I know, baby,” He raised up on his knees and pressing his
lips to her forehead.

He looked around for Bree. She was already rolling toward
them at an alarmingly high speed, her arms full of their shoes and purses.

“She says she’s all right. I’m going to take her to the ER
anyway, just in case,” Jude said as he and Petra reached the table.

“We’re coming too. Rachel’s arm is broken.” Ben finished
unlacing Rachel’s skates and stole a glance, quickly checking her for signs of
shock.

“I’m the DD tonight,” Bree said, handing him Rachel’s shoes.
“Who drove?”

Ben could hear in her voice she’d slipped into ER nurse
mode, coolly taking control.

“I did,” Jude said as he took Petra’s shoes and motioned for
her to sit.

“You take Petra, I’ll drive Ben and Rachel so he can sit
with her.”

Ben looked up at Rachel, who was with it enough to share a
smile with him.

“All right, boss,” she said to Bree in a shaky voice.

Northwestern University Hospital was surprisingly slow for a
Friday night. The admissions clerk took one look at Rachel’s obviously broken
arm and called for someone to take her back right away.

He held her free hand while the doctors worked on her,
feeling unexpectedly nervous and sick when she cried out through them resetting
her broken bones. How many times had he done the same thing during medical
school? Never once had the sights or sounds bothered him, yet he found himself
cringing because it was her.

He kissed the fingers of her free hand and whispered
encouraging words to her when she broke down and cried, the gravity of what her
broken arm meant setting in while the doctor wrapped her arm in a neon-pink
cast.

She wasn’t going to be able to work for a long time and she
knew it. She told him she’d taken a job with a high-end spa in the city after
she’d talked to his dad, but she was going to have to back out of that one as
well. He assured her she didn’t need to worry about it right away, stroking
that wild, curly hair out of her face until the stronger pain meds kicked in
and helped her fall asleep.

She was still sleeping when Jude and Petra found them hours
later.

“How is she?” Petra asked as she slipped past the privacy
curtain separating them from the prying eyes in the rest of the emergency room.

“She’s a brave soldier,” Ben said, getting out of the chair
next to her bed to stretch his stiff back. “We’re just waiting for the
attending to sign her discharge papers. Her nurse told us the second bad car
accident of the night came in a few minutes ago, so we might be here a little
while. How are you?”

“I’ve got a big bump and a nasty headache, but no
concussion.” She touched the hard cast on Rachel’s arm. “Is Bree still here?”