enthusiasm for Mack’s well-publicized social life. Nor was a denial that he had a stable of “babes” likely to be believed by either of them.
“I think what the doctor is trying to say is that I might not be the best example for you to follow when it comes to matters of the heart,” Mack said.
Tony stared at him. “Huh?”
Mack tried to control a grin and failed. “Yeah, I don’t get it, either, but women are funny about things like this. We’ll have a man-to-man talk on the subject another time.”
“Not on my watch,” Beth said grimly. “Tony, you need to get some rest.”
“But I’m not tired,” Tony protested.
“I think she wants to get me alone,” Mack explained to him. “She probably wants to chew me out for being a bad influence.”
“Oh, give it a rest,” Beth muttered. “This isn’t about you. It’s about Tony not getting overly tired.”
“Hey, Doc, you were the one in here playing video games. I just got here,” Mack reminded her.
Frowning at him, Beth marched to the door and held it open, giving Mack a pointed look until he finally shrugged. He bent down to ruffle Tony’s hair, promised he’d be back tomorrow, then followed her from the room.
“Mind telling me what that was all about?” he inquired, regarding her with amusement. “Are you just a sore loser?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Jealous?” he suggested, surprisingly intrigued by that particular scenario.
She gave him a look that could have melted steel. “I don’t think so.”
“There must be some reason you don’t want me talking to Tony about women.”
“How about the fact that it’s inappropriate? It’s not your place. Besides that, he’s twelve, for goodness’ sakes. He doesn’t need to start thinking about girls in that way for a while.”
“I had a girlfriend when I was twelve,” Mack said, recalling the blue-eyed imp with curly hair rather fondly.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Beth responded irritably.
Mack smothered a laugh. “Something tells me you were not dating at twelve.”
“I wasn’t dating at twenty,” she snapped. “That’s hardly the point.”
“Then what is the point?” He studied her closely. “And why did you wait so long to date? You’re not bad-looking.” He deliberately chose the massive understatement just to see the flags of color brighten her pale-as-cream cheeks.
She opened her mouth to respond, then snapped it shut again.
“Not sure?” he taunted.
The fire in her eyes died slowly. She regarded him with a vaguely chagrined expression. “Not entirely, no.”
“Yeah, that happens to me sometimes, too. I lose track of what point I was trying to make. Of course, it usually only happens when a really sexy woman catches me off guard. Is that what happened here? I got to you in there, the adrenaline started rushing around, and you kinda lost track of things?”
The fire came back with a vengeance then. “In your dreams, bud.”
She whirled around and stalked off, leaving Mack to stare after, oddly aroused by the whole exchange.
“Hey, you didn’t tell me why you were such a late bloomer,” he called after her.
She pointedly ignored him, her spine rigid as she rounded a corner and disappeared from view. Only when she was out of sight did he stop and question exactly which one of them had actually won this latest little skirmish. Since he was standing here all hot and bothered, he had a feeling Beth had triumphed without even realizing the game they were playing.
* * *
Every positive point Mack had accumulated in recent days flew out the window as Beth walked away from his taunting gaze. The man was maddening. He was an immature, skirt-chasing rogue. Worse, he prided himself on it.
Giving Tony advice on women? Please! What was he thinking? If Maria Vitale heard about that, she’d probably ban Mack from ever seeing her son again.
Then, again, maybe she wouldn’t, Beth concluded with a sigh. Mack was good for Tony, inappropriate remarks and all. He made the boy laugh, and under current circumstances, even Beth could forgive him a lot for accomplishing that miracle.
That didn’t mean she had to like Mack or spend another minute in his company. She’d simply steer clear of him. It shouldn’t be that difficult. It wasn’t as if he was underfoot at the hospital all day long.
He had a job, an important job in the view of some people, even if she wasn’t among them. He had a family, even if at least one member of that family was in part responsible for pushing Mack into Beth’s life. He had a lot of community obligations. And, goodness knows, he had a social life. Given all that, it was astonishing that he spent any time at all at the hospital. Avoiding him should be a breeze.
Satisfied with her plan, Beth had barely made it back to her office when Mack appeared in the doorway.
“You!” she muttered, not sure whether she was more annoyed at him or at herself for not anticipating that he’d be right on her heels.
Mack chuckled. “You didn’t actually think we’d finished talking, did you?”
“I had high hopes that we had,” she told him. “Don’t you have a date or something?”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” he responded. “But I have time for this.”
“For what?” Beth asked warily as he strode across her office.
“This,” he said, lowering his head to touch his lips to hers.
It began as a gentle, exploratory kiss, maybe meant to tease, maybe to shock. Beth reached up to shove him away, but instead found herself clutching his jacket just to hold herself upright. Her knees were suddenly unsteady, her heartbeat frantic. In some distant part of her brain, she heard herself saying that this was crazy, that it was stupid, that it was dangerous. The litany of warnings went on and on, as did the kiss until her brain shut off and her senses took over.
She heard a soft moan of pleasure and realized it came from her as Mack’s mouth plundered hers, making her blood sing and her head reel. This was bad. Really, really bad.
But oh, so good, she thought with a whimper of dismay as he slowly pulled away, one arm still firmly behind her back, one hand gently cupping her chin.
As her eyes fluttered open, she was looking into his steady, turbulent gaze. She couldn’t have looked away if her life depended on it.
“What the hell just happened here?” Mack murmured under his breath.
Beth had a hunch he was asking the question more of
