Luke Read online

  With a sigh, she started straightening her clothes.

  He looked down at himself and tried to figure out if a doctor’s coat could possibly cover the biggest erection he’d ever had.

  “So, have we come to terms?”

  He stopped in the act of tucking in his shirt and looked at her. “Terms?”

  “About…you know.”

  “Sleeping together?”

  She shook her head. “Actually, sleeping would be a bad idea.”

  His head was spinning. “But you just said…”

  “Sleeping implies some sort of relationship, when we both know a relationship between us would never work. In fact,” she said earnestly, “sleeping together would only backfire.”

  “Right. Backfire.” And she was right. Hell, she was so right. He’d gotten sidetracked in her glorious body, but the truth was staring him in the face. He didn’t want a relationship, and neither did she. So why his hands itched to grab her close again and talk her into exactly that was beyond him.

  She finished buttoning herself up—though not correctly—and scooped her hair up off her face, holding it there with some clip she pulled out of her pocket. Immediately, strands of long red hair escaped, making her look like…like she’d just been in the storage closet being ravaged. “I’ll see you,” she whispered and turned from him to reach for the door.

  Let her go.

  Instead, he grabbed her and turned her back to him. Reaching out, he fixed the buttons on her blouse. The woman needed a goddamn keeper. Not a job he wanted to apply for. Nope. He was going to walk away. Hell, he was going to run—

  She kissed his cheek, sent him a smile that made his heart tumble in his side. “Thanks.”

  Then she was gone.

  Luke stood in that closet for a good long time, until his coat was no longer tented with his obvious hard-on. Until he’d decided that yes, the right thing was to walk out of the closet and right out the front door of the clinic.

  So he walked out of the closet.

  Walked down the hall.

  And then turned right instead of left, and went to see which patients needed his attention.

  * * *

  THAT NIGHT, FAITH sat alone on her couch staring at the wall. She’d done yoga, had given herself an aromatherapy session and had eaten dinner with Shelby.

  None of the normally calming, soothing rituals had soothed her. Nope, she was keyed up, strung tighter than a cheap guitar, and for once it wasn’t nerves or anxiety over money or the clinic.

  She’d thrown herself at Luke today.

  She’d like to blame the heat of the moment, especially with his mouth on hers and his hands…oh goodness, his hands. Things had gotten so fiery so fast in that storage closet, they’d practically singed off any unwanted body hair with the fire they’d generated.

  Yeah, blaming the heat of the moment sounded like a good excuse for how shameless she’d been. How else could she explain offering him sex for the next two months?

  So damn it, where was he? She looked out the window. The only car in the lot below was hers.

  He should be here now, easing her tension with his hands, his mouth, his body.

  Why wasn’t he?

  But after the last patient had gone, so had he.

  And here she sat, alone, thinking about sex until her body hummed.

  Only a few weeks ago she’d have said that sex, no matter how consensual, how healthy, should never be used outside a loving, monogamous relationship. But only a few weeks ago she hadn’t met Luke Walker.

  With a sigh, she got ready for bed alone, and plopped onto her mattress.

  And then proceeded to stare at the ceiling imagining all she could be doing if Luke had shown up.

  Since sleep wasn’t going to come—and neither was she or Luke apparently—she padded downstairs in her oversize T-shirt and favorite bunny slippers to hit the paperwork until she felt suitably tired.

  Flipping on the light in her office had her blinking like an owl. Her desk was definitely threatening to burst at the seams. Looking at the stack of unpaid bills, her tummy flip-flopped. It would be nice to have someone to call right now, right this minute, someone to talk to, someone who understood her, through thick and thin.

  But her mother and father, while wonderful, giving people, had never really been the kind she could go running to. They dealt with people who needed them on a daily basis, and in return, expected more of their offspring.

  She supposed she could call her sister, but the truth was, Faith didn’t even have a contact phone number for her. That had always seemed so independent, so modern, but now she only felt…sad. She could call Shelby, but her friend’s answer to loneliness tended to be sex, and she would have wondered what Faith had done wrong to scare off Luke before she’d struck it rich.

  Truth was, Faith didn’t have any idea what she’d done wrong. Clearly she wasn’t good at seducing men, but she’d never claimed to be good. She would have bet the bank that a man—being a slave to his penis of course—would have leapt at her offer of unencumbered physical relations.

  Which didn’t speak so well of her desirability.

  Maybe what had happened tonight—or hadn’t happened—was for the best. And honestly, had she really thought she could keep a big, sensual, earthy, edgy man such as Luke sexually satisfied?

  Clearly, he’d done them both a favor by not showing up, he really had. Besides, now that she was thinking clearly, she remembered the truth about sex. It was like chocolate, fun in the moment but messy afterwards.

  Yep, she was far better off without it.

  With a pathetic sigh that didn’t fool even herself, she moved toward the desk and her stack of bills, determined to keep her chin up. Sure, yes, she’d rather be experiencing an orgasm beneath Luke’s hands at this very moment, but that was life. She wouldn’t waste time with regrets.

  Besides, what she did here in the clinic was important to her, and deserved her time and thought. All she wanted, all she’d ever wanted, was to ease unnecessary suffering. She was doing that now, on a daily basis, and felt extremely proud of it.

  And yet…she could admit here, alone with her bunny-slippered feet up on her desk, that maybe, just maybe, she was a little lonely because of it.

  “Oh, get over yourself.” She sat up straight and opened her bookkeeping program. She started flipping through the bills to figure out which ones she could pay now and which could wait.

  Most went into the wait pile.

  After only a few minutes of this, as the unpaid pile grew, her head started to swim. Damn it, she wasn’t run down, she’d gotten her sleep…why would she be feeling these all-too-unwelcome symptoms of the virus now? Stress? The only stress she felt at the moment came from unfulfilled sexual urges, thank you very much Dr. Luke Walker, aka Dr. Universe, aka best kisser in the free world.

  Looking for calm, she lit a few vanilla scented candles, her favorite, and practiced her breathing techniques for a few moments. And okay, maybe she stole a quick little bite of chocolate from her secret stash. Sue her.

  Feeling better, she finished up sorting the bills, then sent the files to be paid to the printer. Now all she had to do was load the checks into the printer and she could hit the sack. Again. Sure, she’d have to hit it alone, but she was used to that, very used to it.

  Unlocking her bottom drawer, she let out a rather unladylike oath when she saw she’d run out of checks. Figures. For a moment she let the overwhelming feeling of impending doom shake her. Help would be nice. An easing of the burden of running this place alone would be nice. Someone else keeping up the positive feelings for once would be really nice.

  But she had her pride. Asking for help wasn’t a part of her genetic makeup. Besides, who would she ask? Her employees already gave everything they had. Her family didn’t have anything left to give. And there was no one else…

  Luke, said a little voice, which she firmly ignored. She knew what he thought of this place, she knew he’d only come back out of a