Luke(37)

Faith listened to Shelby's heels clicking as she walked off into the night, her heart starting a heavy beat of anticipation.

"That smells good," Luke said into the silence, gesturing to the casserole she held. "You going to share?"

She eyed him. "You didn't come over here to eat."

"No, but we're going to."

"My blood sugar is fine at the moment."

"Good. After we eat, I'm going to remove every stitch of clothing you're wearing."

He said it so conversationally, it took the words a moment to sink in. Once they did, her heart kicked into an even higher gear.

"And then … I'm going to make you wild."

"Awfully cocky," she managed evenly though her thighs tightened. So did her nipples.

"Yeah. I'm going to make you scream, too," He said this softly, silkily, and stepped even closer, still not touching her in any way.

And still her pulse doubled.

Tripled.

"I'm, um, not really much of a screamer," she said, quite proud of the fact her voice hardly quivered at all, though she was having a huge amount of trouble breathing and her knees had liquefied.

Holding her gaze prisoner, he took advantage of the fact that her hands were full of the hot casserole dish and tugged on her robe, completely exposing one bare breast.

Her gasp echoed around them.

"Mmm," rumbled from his throat. Then one big warm hand cupped the fullness, plumping it up for his seeking mouth, which was warm and greedy.

Staggering back a step, she hit the doorway.

"Hold on to our dinner now," he said around his mouthful, and using his teeth, gently plucked at her nipple. "Still got a grip on it, Faith?"

She whimpered and locked her knees together to keep from falling.

"Faith?"

"Y-yes."

"That's a girl."

And he locked the door behind them, after which he proceeded to make good on his promise to remove every stitch she wore, make her wild … and make her scream.





* * *





Chapter 11


? ^ ?

For the next few weeks Luke raced through his days at the hospital, enjoying his work as much as ever.

And enjoying his time off more than ever.

In the physicians' lounge after a particularly long shift, he gathered his things, shoveling them into his duffel bag, his mind already racing to the night ahead.

He thought he'd take Faith out for dinner, then planned on a delectable dessert by moonlight—Faith by moonlight.

"You out of here, Dr. Walker?"

Luke shouldered his bag and turned to face Dr. Nicole Mann, one of the youngest and most acclaimed new doctors they had. "That I am."

She was dark-haired and petite, and incredibly dedicated to her job at the hospital, specifically working for him in the E.R. The day Luke had been "sentenced" to work at the clinic, she'd come by his office—the only one to do so—offering her sympathy. She, more than anyone here on staff, understood his passion, and felt it as her own.

"You seem … lighter on your feet these days." She tilted her head, studying him for a moment with a little smile touching her mouth. "And, dare I say it, even happy. You get another promotion I didn't hear about?"

"No."

"You done working at Healing Waters?"

"No."

"Well, then." She smiled expectantly. "What's your secret?"

Faith, he nearly said, and bit his tongue. She wasn't what was making him feel like dancing down the hospital hallways. Nope, it was…

Ah, hell.

It was Faith.

"Maybe it's because you have only three weeks left at the clinic."

Three weeks and then no more steaming hot, unbearably erotic rendezvous with Faith?

And suddenly he wondered why he'd ever agreed to that stupid time line. Why had he ever imagined it would be enough?

"I bet you'll be thrilled to get away from all those froufrou oils and self-healing crap, and come back to the scientific basics."

"Actually, the alternative therapies Healing Waters utilizes have been around for centuries," he said. "Longer than our scientific methods—" He broke off and stared at her, horrified at himself.

Had he just … defended alternative healing practices?

Dr. Mann looked just as shocked. "Yes … well, good night, Dr. Walker." Fast as she could, she hightailed it away from him.

Because, clearly, he was crazy. He'd have hightailed it away from himself, too.

Good God, what was happening to him? All his sexual affairs ended sooner or later, and he'd always been fine with that.

Maybe it was because they were impatiently waiting for Faith to get her period. She claimed to be completely irregular, often going two months in between, but he wanted to be sure. He couldn't just walk away until he was certain that there were no ramifications from their oversight. Surely Faith would know before his time was up.

Then, definitely then, he'd be ready to move on.

He left the hospital. And though he'd been looking forward to dragging Faith into his arms, he turned toward the beach instead, and went home. He didn't need to see her every single day. Nope, he sure didn't.