The Doctor Wore Spurs (9 page)

"Look at me," he said.

"I can't," she said. "You're too distracting."

"That's part of the dance, though. You have to be able to do it even when you're distracted."

"Okay." She looked up and focused just past his shoulder to a picture on the wall.

He chuckled. "You're cheating," he said. "You're not looking at me. This is a social dance. Look at me, Jill."

Hearing him say her name did wonderful things to her respiratory system. "They're your feet," she warned him crisply, and looked into his eyes. She immediately stumbled.

"Slide, slide," he said, holding her gaze.

Clinging to him with her arms, with her eyes, she somehow managed to keep pace.

"Very good. You're ready for the next distraction," he said, and lowered his mouth to hers.

He made the room spin, but she kept dancing. He made love to her mouth, French kissing her, sliding his tongue over hers.
Slide, slide.
His tongue swept into her mouth, his lips seducing her, turning up her body heat.

With his mouth still fastened to hers, he tugged the zipper of her purple sheath all the way down her back. He pulled her to a stop and sent the dress down over her shoulders and hips to the floor and guided her out of it.

Sweeping her body against his, he skimmed his hands over her bare skin, hair, neck and back as if he couldn't touch enough of her at once. Through the sheer fabric of her bra, his chest abraded her nipples. Jill felt a drugging eroticism seep through her.

"You feel so good," he said, teasing the underside of her breast with his thumb.

She felt her bra snap loose, and he toyed with the stiff tips of her breasts. The sensation made her restless; she pushed her breast against his palm. Too much, not enough. He must have felt her urgency. Seconds later he was pushing her stockings down her legs. She stepped out of them and felt his palms cupping her buttocks, then his fingers sliding between her thighs to find her wet and wanting. Jill had never experienced such a powerful rush of raw need. Sensation after sensation washed over her. The scent of his need, the sound of his breath mingled with hers, the feeling of his denim-clad leg brushing between her bare legs.

He swore. "Jill
,
we just started and I already know I can't get enough of you." He devoured her mouth and touched her secret places with his fingers, turning her femininity into a passionflower. Her bare skin felt sunburned. She wanted him closer, as close as he could be. The razor edge of sexual desperation startled her. She glided her hands over the corded muscles of his back, his broad shoulders and the soft hair on his hard chest. She dropped her mouth to his throat, and the open button of his jeans taunted her.

"Why," she demanded in a voice husky to her own ears, "am I naked while you're still dressed?"

"Because as soon as these jeans are off, I'm going to be inside you," he said roughly.

She hoped that was a promise. Feeling more wanton and driven than she'd ever dreamed, she eased his zipper down over his bulging masculinity. When he protested, she pressed her mouth to his and slid her hand inside his jeans to cup his full hardness.

He let out a hiss of breath and squeezed her arms. "What are you doing?"

She skimmed her open mouth over his chest. "You don't like it?" she asked, and rubbed her thumb over the moist tip of him.

He growled, lifting her high in his arms and urging her thighs around him. He took one of her swollen breasts into his mouth and drew on her nipple.

Jill gasped, feeling the tug in her nether regions.

"I want in you,"
he said, swinging her around in his arms and carrying her upstairs.

Her very existence seemed to whirl and spin as he carried her through his bedroom door and eased her down onto his large bed. His eyes glowing like fire, he reached inside the bedside table drawer and pulled out a plastic packet. "I need to protect you."

Jill bit her lip, the bittersweet reality cutting through their passion. "That's taken care of," she said. His gaze falling over her like a desperado staring at gold, he followed her down and began to devour her with his hands and mouth. He dragged his tongue down her neck and chest to her turgid nipple, then kissed his way down her abdomen to her thighs where he took her with his tongue.

The sensation of his tongue on her most sensitive place made her cry out. She climaxed up and over.

With one sure stroke, he thrust inside her taking her to the top again. With fluid, rippling movements, he pumped and she squeezed him intimately.

He closed his eyes as if the pleasure was too much. "I knew you would send me out of control," he muttered, and stiffened from a long unbridled release. Tyler sank to his side and pulled Jill against him. The silence in the room was deafening to her. She felt as if bombs had just exploded around her, inside her. She looked at the man who caused the explosion and wondered if she would ever be the same again.

She also felt as if Tyler had reached inside her and changed her mind, body and soul, and that frightened her. The power of their passion stunned her. Heaven help her, she'd never experienced anything near it with her husband.

But Tyler didn't believe in forever; Jill wouldn't be staying in Fort Worth forever, anyway; and the mere thought of forever shouldn't be entering her brain.

A sliver of apprehension slid through her. She was beginning to think that she shouldn't have done this. More than her hormones were involved. Of course more than her hormones were involved, or she wouldn't have gotten involved with Tyler in the first place.

She looked at Tyler, who lay there sleeping in all his indolently nude male beauty, and she felt a rush of desire. She closed her eyes. She should not be feeling this. She should not want him again. Goodness, they'd spent the entire night feasting on each other. Her mind, which she was certain had been parked in neutral, started to race.

Maybe it would be best if she left, so she could start thinking straight, because she clearly didn't think straight in his presence. Carefully sliding to the edge of the bed, she got one foot on the floor and Tyler's hand shot out to capture her wrist.

His eyelids fluttered open to reveal his laser-blue eyes, which made her feel as if she were stuck going up the down elevator. "Where are you going?"

"Bathroom," she said.

"Don't be gone long," he said.

She wouldn't, she thought. Just maybe a week or so, if she could find her clothes. She crept downstairs as quietly as she could and felt her face flame at the way her clothes were scattered throughout the den. She tugged on her dress and stepped into her shoes when she couldn't find her stockings.

"Keys," she muttered nervously under her breath, raking her hand through her hair as she scanned the den. "Purse."

"Kitchen counter," Tyler said.

Jill's heart rose to her throat. She glanced up the stairs to find Tyler nude and watching her.

"Morning-after jitters?" he asked, arching his brow.

She swallowed. "I, uh, started thinking."

"Oh." He made a tsking sound. "You shouldn't do that on an empty stomach."

"Tyler," she said, trying to focus on his ear, "I'm not sure last night was the best—"

"It wasn't the best?" he said in disbelief.

Well, she certainly couldn't say it hadn't been the best. Her nerves bounced in her stomach. "I meant to say it might not have been the best
idea
for us to get involved," she said, and added in a low voice, "intimately."

He walked toward her, his eyes serious. "Too late now."

She took a deep breath and willed her heart to calm down. "Too late for last night, but not for the future."

He looked at her incredulously. She might even say he was hurt if such a thing were possible, and it surely couldn't be. "You wanted a one-night stand?"

Jill cringed. "No! But I didn't expect—" She shook her head. "I had no idea—" She closed her eyes. "It was too much. I can't—" She heard her voice quaver and wanted to swear. "I don't think we should do this again."

"Why?" he demanded.

She opened her eyes and stared at him in exasperation. "Because."

"Has sex ever been that good for you before?"

"No," she admitted. "But—"

"Has it ever been so powerful, so overwhelming—"

She held up her hand. "Stop. I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect to feel this way. I'm sorry, but I need to find my sanity." Her voice broke, and she bit her lip. "I need to find me. I can't be with you right now. I'm sorry."

She turned on her heel to gather her purse and leave. Just before she closed the door behind her, she heard him say, "You're running, Jill."

A tear squeezed out of the corner of her eye. He might be right, she thought, but she still closed the door behind her and fled to her car.

Tyler licked his wounds. He would never have believed it possible, but a woman had hurt his feelings in a big way. He had just spent the most incredible night in his life making love to the most incredible woman, and she'd said it was a mistake.

Her words left a bitter taste in his mouth and a heaviness to his heart. In the back of his mind the Logan Curse taunted him. His eye twitched at the thought. It couldn't be, he told himself. He didn't believe in it, and he would never put himself in a position where it could be exercised. And he sure as hell wouldn't now.

He showered, went to the hospital and avoided Jill the entire day. If she couldn't see how good they were for each other, then she was blind. The extra attention he was getting because of his billboard exposure did little to salve his ego or hurt. In fact, it irritated him that so many women were interested in him, but not the one who kept taking up space in his head.

The following day he continued to avoid Jill, but halfway through, he began to wonder if he was the only one suffering from the loss of their closeness. He'd begun to depend on her and share things about his day with her. Now he couldn't. Now he was faced with yet another interview about what his favorite color was.

Jill was a sinking mass of confusion doing her best to stay afloat. The kava tea and ocean wave machine were not working their magic. To keep herself occupied, she accepted Trina's offer to lunch in the hospital cafeteria.

Making their way through the line, Jill took the grilled chicken Caesar salad, and Trina got a club sandwich. As soon as they sat down at a table, Trina made a moue of surprise. "Don't look now, but a reporter with an extremely questionable reputation is eating lunch with Dr. Logan."

Jill frowned even as her heart sped up. She hadn't seen him since she'd left his apartment. "Where is he?" she asked.

"Five o'clock, and I'm at twelve," Trina said. "That reporter is Danielle Crawford, and she is a menace."

Jill scanned the lunchtime crowd and immediately spotted Tyler. Her chest hurt in an odd way at the sight of him. She glanced at the woman with him who smiled, nodded and batted her eyes. The woman leaned forward and touched his arm. Jill felt her stomach tighten. Tyler was not hers, she reminded herself, and never would be. Strictly reining in her feelings, she turned her attention to her interest in him professionally. "Danielle Crawford? Questionable reputation? She isn't professional?"

Trina waved her hand. "Oh, she's probably fine as a reporter. She's just got a reputation as a man-eater. She's been married twice and engaged too many times to count." She looked in Tyler's direction. "Looks as if she'd like to eat Dr. Logan." She glanced back at Jill. "Aren't you going to do anything?"

Jill resisted the urge to look at Tyler. She picked at her salad instead. "Why should I do anything? If any man can handle himself with the ladies, Tyler can."

Trina's eyes grew wide. "But you two," she began. "I mean, it's common knowledge that the two of you are involved. At least, you have been until the last couple of days."

Jill tightened her lips. "Trina, my primary interest in Dr. Logan is in how he can best help accomplish his goal of getting the new wing. I'm sure you appreciate that," she said.

Trina wasn't one for subtlety. "Sure you are, but Dr. Logan is so gorgeous any woman would jump at the chance to have him—"

"I'm not jumping," she told her assistant, who she had always thought might be better suited as a social secretary.

Trina glanced in Tyler's direction again. "Well, I'll tell you one thing. If I had any—" she paused and cleared her throat for effect "—personal feelings for Dr. Logan, then seeing that woman put her-hand on his knee would bring out the
me-ow
in
me."

The image of the attractive reporter touching him sent Jill's blood pressure zooming. She counted to ten, and chanted
Tyler is not mine.
"Unless he needs my assistance in a professional way, it's none of my business. How is your club sandwich?"

Trina shot Jill a look of disbelief and shrugged. "It's okay. What about your salad?"

Her nerves a mess, Jill put down her fork. "It was delicious," she lied. "But I'm full. Thank you for lunch, but I hope you'll excuse me. I need to get back to work." Jill returned her tray to the exit area, and on her way saw the reporter leaning forward and touching his arm. Surprised and dismayed at the strength of her reaction, she returned to her office, turned on her wave machine and paced.

This was just one of the reasons why she shouldn't have ever gotten intimately involved with Tyler, she told herself. She had always known he was a flirt and a babe magnet. The man would be a magnet for women when he was eighty, because he just knew how to remind a woman that she was female and make her glad of it. Zeroing in on just one woman would be difficult for him, she tried to tell herself, even though a part of her argued the point. She deliberately shut off her internal mental arguments and got to work.

Late that afternoon she paid a visit to Sam. "Hi, Sam," she said. "I brought you a new book."

"Jelly," he cried when he saw her, bouncing up and down. "Read to me! Sing oat song."

His reaction tugged at her heart. "You look like you're doing so much better. Are you still sore?"

Sam nodded, pointing to his chest. "Boo-boo," he said.

She carefully picked him up and sat in the rocker. "Well, you are going to be so much better soon. You'll be able to leave the hospital."

"At the end of the week, as a matter of fact," Tyler said from the doorway.

Jill's gaze tangled in his, while her heart seemed to stall.

"Hi, Doc," Sam said.

"Hi, boss," Tyler said, looking at the boy and grinning. He walked toward them and knelt down in front of the chair. "Let me take a look at your special boo-boo," he said.

"Do you want me to put him on the bed?" Jill asked.

"You can hold him. He looks happy where he is," Tyler said, his voice neutral, then turned to Sam. "You like Jelly holding you?"

Sam gave a big nod, but sat quietly while Tyler examined his stitches and listened to his heart. He reached for the bear on his stethoscope. "Bear."

Tyler looked at the boy thoughtfully. "You like him? His name is Cody. He might have a brother who will go with you when you leave the hospital. Would you like that?"

"Yeah. I don't have any brothers."

"You might with your new foster family," Tyler said, glancing at Jill. "Social Services will find a special-needs foster family to care for him while he's healing."

Jill hated the idea of Sam being bounced from one home to the next. "I'll visit you, too," she told Sam, who had stuck his finger in his mouth.

"Sing oat song, please," Sam said.

"Of course," she said, thinking there wasn't much she wouldn't do for this child. They'd been through such a dark time together and come out okay. Tyler, she recalled, had been there the whole way for both of them. Her feelings all over the spectrum, she sang the silly song, then read him the story of
The Velveteen Rabbit.

"I thought you might like that story, since you like your rabbit so much," she said, too aware of Tyler's gaze on her.

Sam was busy looking at the pictures in the book.

"So, how did he win you over?" Tyler asked.

Caught off guard by the question, she shrugged. "I don't know. He just needed me," she said, searching his face for clues to his emotions, but Tyler seemed less open with her. She felt the inexplicable sting of loss. "Why?"

"Just curious," he said. "G'night, boss," he said to Sam.

"Night-night, Doc," Sam said. "Pet your bear?"

Tyler nodded and knelt down to let Sam pet the miniature bear. Jill tried not to love him for that. She tried with all her might, but it was such a tender thing for a busy, important doctor to do. How could she not love him for it?

Jill couldn't sleep. She hadn't slept well since she and Tyler had shared that awesome night together. At this rate she was going to wear out her sound machine. Not that it was doing her much good.