Tamed By Her Army Doc's Touch

CHAPTER THREE

THE INSTANT DINNER ENDED, Lilah escaped to the ladies’ room to freshen her make-up and shore up her shaky composure. What the heck had Jenna been thinking to seat her beside Luke Sullivan?

Okay, so she knew what Jenna had been thinking. It was what everyone else had been thinking ever since the tabloids had hit the stands this morning. Damn that picture. And damn the rosy cloud of romance Jenna was floating around on. She was madly in love and wanted everyone else to be too.

Little did she know that Luke Sullivan was the last person Lilah would ever consider having a romantic anything with. And although he wasn’t her boss, he was the boss’s nephew. In Lilah’s mind it was the same thing. It was a nightmare to go along with all the other nightmares she’d had recently. Like South America but with a guy she couldn’t ignore no matter how much she tried. A guy who refused to let her ignore him.

The harder she tried the more perverse pleasure he seemed to take in sabotaging her. Like brushing against her when she talked to the man on her left or accidentally bumping her arm and spilling her champagne down her cleavage.

And he smelled delicious. Like warm, virile man and cool, earthy forest. Every breath she took filled her senses with his wonderfully warm woodsy smell until she was dizzy with the notion of finding out exactly where it originated. With her mouth.

Or maybe that was just the champagne.

Whatever it was, she became excruciatingly aware of his every move, and soon found herself holding her breath, waiting for his next. And, boy, he made plenty. Playing with the stem of his wine glass, invading her space while he kept her champagne glass filled, or removing his jacket and tie, rolling up his shirtsleeves to expose the corded strength of his forearms and his big boney wrists. Accidentally brushing his knuckles against her thigh.

And breathing. Especially breathing.

It all combined to make her as twitchy as a preschooler in Sunday Mass, and if she’d gulped down more champagne than usual, it was his fault. As was the headache blooming behind her eyes.

Exhaling with relief at finally being able to breathe without inhaling his potent masculinity, Lilah joined a host of other women at the mirrors. While listening to the gossip flowing around her, she spent a few minutes wrestling with her hair, even though she knew it was a lost cause. Taming the long curls had always been a challenge.

Finally, when she could no longer avoid the inevitable, she shoved everything back into her clutch bag and left the bathroom, praying Luke Sullivan had ridden off into the sunset on his big black hog. Maybe then she could start enjoying the evening.

Following the sounds of the band, she exchanged a few greetings with other guests on their way back to the ballroom and paused in the doorway as Jenna and Greg took to the floor for the newlyweds’ dance.

It was a beautiful moment and she couldn’t help feeling a little envious of the way Greg looked at his new bride. The couple practically glowed with happiness, reminding Lilah she hadn’t had anything resembling a date in over two years.

The dance ended to hoots and cheers as the couple shared a heated embrace. Without pausing, the band segued into another song and the little pinch of envy became a sharp ache of emptiness as Jenna’s father stepped onto the dance floor. He tapped Greg’s shoulder then swept his daughter into his arms with a look of such pride and love that Lilah felt tears prick the backs of her eyes.

This was a moment she would never experience for herself. And though she tried to shove them back into hiding, all the old feelings of resentment and abandonment she hadn’t felt since adolescence came rushing back.

Right there in the midst of celebration she was sucked back to her mother’s death and the letter telling Lilah about her father.

It had taken her almost a year to get past the grief and anger following the plane crash that had killed her mother to summon the courage to open it. Sometimes Lilah wished she never had—wished she didn’t know about her mother’s summer internship at a prestigious Seattle law firm or her wild romance with the married son of the firm’s founding partner. Life would have been so much simpler.

When twenty-two-year-old Grace Meredith had revealed she was pregnant, Rowan Franklin had been furious. He’d accused her of trying to ruin his life and his career, and then he’d offered her money.

Her mother hadn’t exactly said it had been for a termination, but Lilah wasn’t stupid. She could read between the lines. Even at sixteen she’d known her father had paid Grace to have an abortion then kicked her to the curb like an unwanted pet.

She clearly remembered hopping on an intercity bus with plans to confront him. Lilah snorted silently. She didn’t know what she’d expected, but to a girl who’d dreamed of the day she would meet him, Rowan Franklin III had been handsome and dazzling as a movie star. She recalled being struck dumb in his presence as a chaotic mix of anger and desperate hope filled her.

Unfortunately, he’d been no happier to see her then than he’d been the day her mother had dropped the baby bombshell. He’d checked his watch and listened impatiently while she’d introduced herself and explained about her mother’s death. When she’d finished, he’d walked to his desk, pulled out his checkbook, and without once looking in her direction he’d coldly asked how much it would take for her to go away.

She’d been devastated. With one stroke of his ten-thousand-dollar gold pen he’d destroyed a young girl’s fragile dreams as easily as he’d signed his name.

So she’d reacted badly.

Lilah huffed out a silent laugh. Okay, badly was an understatement. She’d flung scathing insults in his smug, handsome face and when he’d looked her in the eye and denied being her father, she’d snatched some fancy glass paperweight along with several family photographs from his desk and hurled them at the wall of glass cabinets behind him. The destruction had been as satisfying as it had been horrifying. Even to this day she couldn’t believe what she’d done.

White-faced with fury, he’d stalked over, grabbed her arm in a bruising grip and dragged her to the door. Then he’d slapped the check in her hand and warned that if she ever contacted him or tried to blackmail him again, he would have her arrested.

She’d walked into that lavishly appointed corner office a nervous, eager child with dreams of finding a father who’d been searching for his daughter and had left with her heart and pride in tatters. She’d also left determined never to let anyone close enough to hurt her again.

That meeting had cured her of any “daddy” issues she might have had. And just in case she forgot, she’d kept that uncashed check of twenty-five thousand dollars as a reminder that she had to rely on herself and that some men made promises they never intended to keep.

Lost in the past, she didn’t notice someone come up behind her until a deep voice drawled, “Don’t tell me you buy into all this sappy stuff, wild thing?”

Startled, Lilah sucked in a sharp breath and rounded on him. “Will you stop sneaking up on me?” she snapped, slapping a shaking hand over her pounding heart. “And stop calling me that.” Besides, she didn’t want to be anything like her mother.

Luke shoved his hands in his pockets and hiked a dark brow up his forehead as though she was acting crazy. Lilah felt a little crazy. He made her crazy, dammit.

“Lady, you’re either in hearts-and-roses land or you need another glass of champagne.” He snagged one from a passing waiter and shoved it at her. “Here, maybe this will help.”

Lilah stepped back and looked at the glass like it might bite her. Frankly, the last thing she needed was another glass of champagne. Muttering something, she swung away to watch as other couples began drifting onto the dance floor. Maybe if she ignored him long enough he’d get the hint and go away.

But, of course, he didn’t. That would be asking too much, Lilah thought furiously. Instead, he chuckled deep in his chest and leaned closer, the heat of his big body sending awareness shivering into every strand of DNA.

His deep voice held more than a hint of amusement when he asked, “Did you just say the only way champagne will help is if I drown in it, Dr. Meredith?”

Lilah fought the embarrassment heating her cheeks and inhaled slowly to give herself time to get a grip. But that only gave her a head full of his amazing scent. Besides, she hadn’t meant for him to hear that. Had she?

She finally ground out, “Of course not,” through clenched teeth and tried to edge away, but the darned man had practically herded her into a corner. She couldn’t escape without drawing attention to herself, and after the past twenty four hours, attention was the last thing she wanted. “I would never be so rude.”

He gave another chuckle as though he didn’t believe her, and lifted his hand to play with the soft curls at her nape before drawing a light fingertip down her spine to the zipper tab. His touch, so deliberately casual, sent goose bumps fleeing across her flesh, and to Lilah’s absolute horror, could be felt all the way to her tingling toes. Her belly clenched, her nipples tightened, and this time she didn’t even have the benefit of her little jacket to hide her visceral response.

She hitched her shoulder to dislodge his touch and tried to move away but the man obviously had a hard head if he could ignore such obvious go-away signals. Instead, he dropped his hand to her hip and pulled her back against his chest.

She gasped and tried to jerk away but his fingers tightened. Heat instantly spread up to her nape and down to the backs of her knees—and, heck, everywhere in between. “What are you doing?” she demanded in a low voice, and tried to turn, but his palm slid across her jittering belly and pressed her against his front.

Lilah froze at the unexpected intimacy of his embrace. “You haven’t answered my question,” Luke reminded her against her ear, his thumb idly brushing warmed silk. His deep voice vibrated against her back like the rumble of distant thunder—or maybe a huge satisfied cat after eating a fat pigeon.

She sucked in a shivery breath and tried not to feel like a frightened pigeon. It was humiliating enough to discover how threatened she felt, especially when his touch heated up all the lonely places in her body that hadn’t seen action in way too long.

“About what?” she rasped, her throat as dry as the Mojave Desert.

“About buying into all … this romantic garbage,” he murmured, using his free hand to indicate the white-and-gold-decorated ballroom. Lilah tilted her head and looked up over her shoulder into his shadowed face.

“You don’t?”

Amusement lit up his green eyes and lurked at the corners of his mouth. He snorted. “You’re kidding, right?” And when she continued to stare at him he shrugged a heavily muscled shoulder. “I’m a guy. We’re allergic to weddings.” Her eyebrow rose up her forehead and he chuckled. “Okay, I’m allergic to weddings.”

“Then why come?”

“I heard the food’s great.” He must have noticed her expression because he laughed and said, “I promised Greg I would.”

When he laughed, golden flecks lit the green depths of his eyes. Like sunlight shining through water. “And you keep your promises?” she asked to distract herself from the feel of his hard body against hers and what it did to her.

Something indecipherable came and went in his expression and the golden lights winked out. “Don’t you?”

“I asked first,” Lilah countered, and instantly wondered at the shift in the energy around them. His eyes turned somber as they slid over her face before moving to the ballroom. She didn’t know why but she got the odd impression he wasn’t seeing the opulent room with its flickering candles and laughing guests. As though he’d withdrawn somewhere she couldn’t follow—somewhere a lot less cheerful than a hotel ballroom in uptown Spruce Ridge.

His jaw flexed and she felt like she was intruding on a private moment filled with pain and bleak memories. “Some promises are impossible to keep,” he murmured, and dropped his hand. Lilah shivered at the abrupt loss of heat and cursed herself for caring.

Something must have happened to put that haunted look on his face, she thought, fighting the urge to turn and wrap her arms around him. Luke Sullivan didn’t need her concern. He was big and hard and capable. And dangerous. Very dangerous, she reminded herself. At least to her peace of mind. So when a young resident appeared beside them and asked her to dance, she accepted, suddenly eager to escape Luke Sullivan’s disturbing presence.

She didn’t know why she sent him a silent look over her shoulder. She certainly didn’t need his permission. But when he shrugged and said, “I don’t dance,” before turning and disappearing from the ballroom, she couldn’t help feeling rebuffed.

Fortunately the resident made it impossible to brood and before long Lilah was laughing at his bad jokes as he twirled her around the dance floor. Finally, after a dozen dances with as many new partners, she laughingly cried uncle and escaped out the French doors into the warm night.

A few people were scattered around the torch-dotted terrace and Lilah wandered over to the low stone balustrade. She looked out into a night as dark and lush as black velvet—a night perfect for romance and moonlit trysts. Frangipani and night-blooming camellia scented the balmy air while solar-powered lights led a rambling path through the extensive gardens to a pool, glowing like blue magic in the darkness. To her right the well-manicured lawns rolled towards the lake, slumbering like a sea of ink beneath a fat yellow moon.

The scene might have come right out of a movie if memories of the previous night hadn’t flooded her mind. She shivered and rubbed her arms just as someone came up beside her. A jacket dropped around her shoulders in an echo of her thoughts but even before a smooth voice solicitously murmured, “You’re cold,” in her ear, she knew it wasn’t the man she’d been thinking about.

Lilah bit back a grimace and looked up into Peter’s handsome face. Just when she’d decided he’d lost interest, here she was cornered on the terrace in the dark. By her boss. What joy.

And from the look in his eyes she’d have to think of something fast if she wanted to escape with her job and her integrity intact. Something like an aneurysm or appendicitis. Or maybe mad cow disease. People tended to get a little paranoid when the words “mad” and “cow” weren’t being used to describe a crazy woman at a Bloomingdale shoe sale. But then she reminded herself that he was a doctor and would know he’d have to eat her brains before contracting it. She couldn’t see that happening in the next five seconds.

Dammit. She was trapped—by good manners and his hands on her shoulders.

“Finally,” he murmured, like she’d been waiting all night to be alone with him. Yeah, right. In the moonlight his golden hair gleamed almost as brightly as his smile. Like an angel—or some equally perfect celestial being. And if she were any other woman she might have been charmed. But she wasn’t. She had too much history with men like him to ever forget that he was married—and used vulnerable women.

“It’s been torture, sitting alone,” he said deeply, rubbing her arms, and for the second time that night Lilah felt herself pulled back against a man’s warm chest. But whereas Luke’s chest had felt wide and warm and oddly comforting, Peter’s just felt … vaguely threatening.

“Miss me?”

And that was Lilah’s cue to escape. She faked a shiver and seized the excuse to pull away. “I’m cold, maybe I should go in.” His hands prevented her attempts to slide his jacket off her shoulders. They also kept her swathed in a cloud of expensive cologne and the cool calculation of a practiced seduction. Lilah shivered, this time it was genuine. She had an awful feeling the man had no intention of letting her go without a struggle.

Closing her eyes, she drew in a steadying breath and pushed memories of another man and another seduction attempt from her head. Damn. She really needed this job but Peter was making it increasingly difficult for her to remain polite when what she wanted to do was turn and knee him in the nuts and bolts.

Turning abruptly, she backed up against the balustrade and fought the urge to vault over it.

“Dr Webster,” she said, deciding to confront him and risk being fired. “You’re … um … my boss and … and married.”

He hummed in his throat and stepped closer, dropping his hands onto the stone behind her, caging her with his arms and body. She had to press her hands against his chest and lean back to keep a few inches between them.

“My wife doesn’t care,” he explained with a smile, as though her protests amused him. God, as though her protests aroused him. “She does her thing and doesn’t interfere with mine.” He leaned forward to kiss her mouth but she turned her head at the last moment and his lips glanced off her cheekbone. “It suits us both.”

“Well, it doesn’t suit me,” she said briskly, and grabbed his wandering hand before it could reach her breast.

He sighed and shifted back a little. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those women?” He sounded a bit annoyed, as though she was playing hard to get when she should be flattered by his attention. Lilah felt her jaw drop open.

“Excuse me?”

He must have heard something in her voice because he sighed and straightened. “All I’m saying is you’ve been sending out signals all night.” What? “I’m not the only man to pick up on them, Lilah.”

“Signals?”

His mouth slid into a charming, coaxing smile. “I am, however, the only man with enough balls to follow through.”

Lilah stared at him as though he was speaking an alien dialect. Besides, the last subject she wanted to talk about was his … well, that. “What are you talking about?”

He sighed impatiently. “You’re not making this easy, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart? “Easy?”

“You’re lucky I saw you slip away.” She spluttered and he chuckled. “Let’s not waste time,” he cajoled gently, framing her face in his hands. “We can go back to your place, or get a room at the hotel if you prefer. Your choice. But you should know …” he paused and smiled meaningfully “… I can do things for your career.”

Lilah stared up at him for a couple of beats and wondered if he’d lost his mind or was drunk. But he appeared sober and quite serious. As though she would actually consider taking him up on his less than flattering offer. She didn’t know whether to laugh or slug him.

She shook her head and shifted to remove his jacket, but he covered her hands with his and drew the satin lapels together like a straitjacket. Maybe he meant it to be comforting but she just felt claustrophobic.

“All right.” He chuckled indulgently. “We’ll do this your way. Why don’t we go to the bar for a drink? Then …” He waggled his eyebrows and Lilah had to bite her lip to keep from rolling her eyes. She wanted to tell him what he could do with his drink—and anything else he was considering—but then again if she agreed, she could say she had to go to the bathroom and then make a break for it.