angles of moonlight and porch lamp shadowed the serious mask of his face. She tried to read his expression but fell short. Something told her to be still.
He moved forward to frame her face with surprisingly warm hands for someone who’d just driven a motorcycle. Cold fear swept over Jan when she realized he planned to kiss her. She sucked in a breath of protest, but was forced to hold it when his lips covered hers. Her hands flapped at her sides. His hungry, searching kiss tore at her good sense. She dropped her purse. Her hands found their way up his arms to his neck, the neck she’d stared at the entire drive home, and she kissed him back.
With mind battling body, her will lost when she parted her lips and stole a taste of Beck’s velvet-smooth mouth. His tongue pressed against hers and jagged, raw energy sliced through her center.
Beck.
She remembered his kisses. They always led to heaven…or the back seat of his father’s car.
Her lips searched his mouth, drawing on long-forgotten memories of frantic make-out sessions with the hottest boy in high school. The guy all of her friends had warned her against getting involved with. The one who’d taken her virginity on a special night she’d never forget as long as she lived.
The father of the baby she’d lied about. The baby she had given away.
Beck.
His demanding kiss guided her from far-away thoughts back to the moment. The man still had it, and she felt whatever “it” was all the way down to her toes. With her body swirling with sensations, and her knees growing weaker by the second, she somehow managed to come to her senses and tore away from the dangerous kiss.
She shook her head and sputtered for air. “What the hell are you trying to do?”
Calculating hazel eyes delved deep beyond her guard. “Just testing,” he said.
She shuddered.
He bent down and picked up her purse, handing it to her. “Goodnight, January,” he said, as if he hadn’t felt a thing. “I’ll see you at the hospital.”
Stunned, she watched Beck saunter to his motorcycle, put on the helmet, rev the engine and ride off into the night. By the time he’d disappeared round the corner, her heart still hadn’t figured out what a normal rhythm was.
What the hell had he been thinking? Beck hit the freeway at breakneck speed. Maybe he could ride off the old feeling that had penetrated the barrier around his heart. Damn! It was supposed to have been a revenge kiss, angry and rude, but it had quickly turned into a steam-up-January’s-glasses-and-mess-with-Beck’s-head kind of kiss. Wearing the heavy armor of retribution, he hadn’t expected to react so thoroughly to her. He’d assumed he’d become immune, but time and pain hadn’t changed a thing.
The soft, sexy sparks had started almost immediately at the touch of her lips to his, and had soon escalated to near fireworks. Her tongue had nearly driven him out of his mind. It had been all he could do to keep from pressing her against the door and feeling every inch of her. If she hadn’t stopped him, he’d be thinking of ways to get inside her house and into her bed right this minute.
This wasn’t how he was supposed to get even. He wasn’t supposed to want her. If he wanted to get even, he’d have to toughen up, regain her trust, then move in for the payback.
He stepped on the gas and hit the highway as if in a race to save his life.
“Tell me. Tell me. Come on, share.” Carmen zipped up beside Jan the moment she arrived at work the next afternoon, already hot and annoyed from the inconvenient bus ride in.
Jan stared straight ahead and kept walking, foolishly hoping to put Carmen off. No such luck.
“You ride off into the night on a Harley with a hunk, and don’t have anything to report? You’re more messed up than I thought.”
“Knock it off. It was just a ride home. You deserted me, and I was stuck with Beck. That’s all.”
Carmen stopped, arms akimbo. She let out an exasperated sigh. “What flaw did you find this time?”
Jan nailed her with a glare. “He rides a chopper.”
Carmen rolled her eyes. “Oh, great. So here we go with another lame excuse from the queen of brush-offs. What was wrong with the last guy you went out with? Oh, yeah, his teeth were too white.” She shook her head in a slow, wide swing.
“That guy’s teeth were practically fluorescent, Carmen. I couldn’t look him in the face without needing sunglasses.”
Carmen worked to conceal the crack of a smile. She moved closer and lowered her voice. “Beck is different. You’ve got to admit, he’s a real find. A keeper,” she sang. “Why not give him a chance?”
Jan drew a deep breath and adjusted her glasses. “Look. I admit he’s a hunk, but let’s face it. He’s out of my league.” She gave a pleading puppy-dog glance. “You don’t want to be responsible for my broken heart, do you?”
Carmen slumped her shoulders. “You’re impossible. Someday you’re going to realize what you’ve missed out on and regret it.” Carmen couldn’t possibly know what a home run she’d hit with that bit of wisdom. She raised her hands in defeat. “OK. I give up. I’ll butt out.”
Knowing Carmen as she did, Jan knew the woman had no intention of butting out. At least Jan had bought herself some time to figure out a strategy of her own on how to deal with the Beck situation.
She spun around and headed toward the triage station. Thankfully tonight it was her turn to assess patients and assign their priority in order of their illness’s severity instead of at what time they showed up at the ER. If she played things right, she could possibly avoid Beck the entire shift.
Before she reached her station, Beck appeared at the front desk. Her heart rocked with an unwanted reaction. He looked clean-shaven, and if it were possible, his hair was even shorter. He wore his dark police uniform like a new-age knight, a tall, broad-shouldered, noble public servant. To protect and serve.
Not fair.
When he noticed Jan and quickly looked away, she almost wished things could be normal between them instead of strained. Then she made a beeline for the triage door.
Patients arrived in clumps. Eight different maladies rushed the front desk within five minutes of each other, and Jan worked her way through the problems in order of severity. The chest pain first, the child with the asthma attack next, the skateboard accident with a potential fracture third. The frequent-flyer migraine and the infected lip piercing would have to wait a bit longer. The rectal pain, “microscopic bugs under the skin,” and the new-onset fever and cough would most likely have a two-to three-hour wait before seeing an emergency doctor tonight.
Three hours into the busy Sunday evening shift, a car sped into the red zone directly in front of the emergency entrance. A skinny teenage boy frantically rushed inside.
“I need help,” he called to the desk clerk. “My girlfriend just had a seizure.”
Jan heard him and rushed to the wheelchair storage area, thankful their stock hadn’t been depleted, grabbed one and wheeled it to the curb. A lethargic redhaired girl drowsily lifted her head from the front seat
