Читать книгу: «Crossing The Line», страница 3

“Don’t get offended,” Dante said. “It’s just that you’re not Mark’s usual type.”

“No?” Of course not, Elle thought. Cassandra was Mark’s usual type—blond, beautiful and busty. Elle stared down at her own average-sized 34B bosom.

“You’re too smart for him.”

“You don’t even know me. How can you say that?”

“You have lively eyes.”

Elle snorted, but his words brought a heated rush of pleasure to her cheeks.

“Let me guess, you put Mark through medical school. Worked a full-time job, paid the bills and helped him with his homework.”

Dante was so right it hurt. “You know what?” Elle said. “That’s none of your business.”

“Touché,” Dante said. “He’s through.”

“Who? Mark?”

“No, the fawn.”

Indeed, the baby had sucked the bottle dry. Feeling an odd strangeness she couldn’t quite identify, Elle got to her feet and swiped at the mud on the knees of her scrubs. “My lunch hour is over. They’ll be wondering where I am.”

Dante stood up, the fawn cradled in his arms. “What are we going to do with him?”

Elle reached out for the baby. “I’ll call my sister-in-law. She’s interning for the vet at the end of the road. She’ll know who to call about disposing of the fawn’s mother and what to do about this little guy.”

Dante transferred the deer to her arms, their fingers brushing again in the process. Suddenly her heart was in her throat and she had no excuse for it.

“So tell me,” she said. “Did you satisfy your curiosity? Or are you still bored?”

He lowered his eyelids and gave her a sultry look. He raked his gaze over the length of her body, then went back to stare at her lips. He looked like a man whose appetite had just been whetted.

Then he said in low, provocative voice, “Not by a long shot.”

The baby kicked and she almost dropped him. Elle tightened her grip on the fawn and told her silly heart to stop beating so fast. The look Dante was giving her meant absolutely nothing.

Chapter 3

HALF AN HOUR LATER, the animal control people came to haul away the mother deer’s carcass, while Elle’s sister-in-law, Charlotte, arrived in a van to pick up the fawn.

Elle stood at the back entrance to the hospital cradling the trembling animal in her arms, Dante at her side. She wondered why he was sticking around, but she didn’t ask.

“Ooh, Elle,” said her sister-in-law’s assistant, Linda when she spied the baby. Linda was a middle-aged woman with a welcoming smile, dimples in both cheeks and dog hair all over her lab jacket. “Look what you’ve got there.”

The receptionist looked from the fawn to Elle and then to Dante, and then an appreciative gleam came into her eyes. The look on Linda’s face proved Elle’s suspicion that the man attracted feminine attention wherever he went.

Charlotte came around to the front of the van where Elle, Dante and Linda were standing. Elle’s sister-in-law wore her dark-brown hair in a short, stylish cut that accentuated her gamine features. Underneath her lab jacket she wore jeans, a yellow T-shirt and scuffed cowboy boots. She was wiry and petite. Elle had a hard time imagining her wrangling large farm animals.

Charlotte immediately zeroed in on the fawn. “What happened?”

“His mom got hit by a car. Animal control came for her.”

Charlotte sighed. “Poor little guy.” She turned to Dante. “Hi.” She stuck out a hand. “My name’s Charlotte. I’m married to Elle’s younger brother, Tom.”

“Dante Nash,” he said and shook Charlotte’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Dante’s the new surgeon at Confidential Rejuvenations,” Elle explained. “He was with me when I found the fawn.”

“Oh really?” Charlotte got that matchmaking look in her eyes. Ever since she’d married Tom, Charlotte was relentless about trying to hook up her single friends and family members. She was still in the starry-eyed honeymoon phase, convinced that marriage was the solution to everyone’s problems. “So tell me, are you married, Dr. Nash?”

“I’m not.”

“No?” Charlotte glanced at Elle and wriggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“Dante was Mark’s best friend in college,” Elle said and sent Charlotte a look that said forget about fixing me up.

“Not best friends,” Dante corrected. “Mark and I were just roommates and football teammates.”

“There you go,” Charlotte said. “Clearly he knows Mark’s true colors if he’s not claiming him as a friend. Score one for Dante.”

“Char,” Elle said through gritted teeth. “This fawn is getting heavy.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. Right this way.” She led them to the back of the van where she opened up the double doors, and Elle settled the fawn down on the floor.

Dante stood behind Elle, silently watching the proceedings. Elle felt weird having him hang out with her, especially after what Charlotte had just said, and she wondered what on earth he must be thinking.

“I gave him some baby formula from the hospital nursery,” Elle said.

Charlotte looked up, a serious expression on her face, the matchmaking temporarily forgotten. “Good thing you found him when you did. If he’d been out in the cold overnight without his mom, I hate to think what would have happened. Either coyotes or bobcats would probably have gotten him. You saved his life, Elle.”

Warmth spread from the center of her heart outward in a sweet glow. Elle smiled and softly scratched the fawn behind one ear. She’d saved a life. Nothing made her feel happier than that.

“I’ll keep him at the office for a while, make sure he’s going to be okay and then we’ll take him to Dr. Levy’s sanctuary.” Dr. Levy was the vet Charlotte was training under and he had donated several hundred acres along the Colorado River as an animal sanctuary.

“Thanks. I knew you’d know what to do.”

Charlotte looked over at her assistant. “Hop in the back with the baby, Linda. I’ll drive.”

“Will do.”

Linda climbed inside the back of the van. Elle gave the little buck one last parting look and sighed wistfully as Charlotte shut the door.

“Elle’s going to make a great mother someday,” Charlotte said to Dante. “She’s so good with babies, whatever the species.”

“No doubt,” Dante said.

Elle sneaked a glance over at him, but she couldn’t read a thing from his impassive face.

Sorry for my matchmaking sister-in-law, she telegraphed him with her eyes.

He gave her an enigmatic smile and a slight shrug as if to say: Family, what are you going to do?

“Are you still planning on coming to the family softball tournament? It’s three weeks from Saturday,” Charlotte asked Elle. “Tom’s ordering this year’s jerseys and I need a head count.”

“As if I could skip out. Dad would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t show.” Elle said. The first weekend in May the Kingstons staged an annual family reunion centered around a weekend-long softball tournament. It had been a family tradition long before Elle was born.

Charlotte tucked her fingers into the back pockets of her jeans and sized up Dante. “Why don’t you come, too?” she asked. “Our team is short a catcher since Mark divorced Elle. If you don’t come we’ll be forced to play Aunt Gertie.”

Mortified at her sister-in-law’s forwardness, Elle couldn’t bring herself to look at Dante. “Char, for heaven’s sake, let it be. Dante has no interest in playing softball with the Kingston clan.”

“Maybe not,” Char said. “But he might have interest in spending some time with you.”

Kill me now, Elle thought.

“Thank you for the invitation,” Dante said. “It sounds like a lot of fun, but I have to check and see if I’m scheduled to be on call that weekend.”

“Just know that we’d love to have you,” Charlotte said. “Aunt Gertie can’t catch to save her life.”

“We’ve gotta go now. Thanks for looking after the deer.” Elle said, and then lowered her voice so only Charlotte could hear her. “You are so dead.”

Her sister-in-law laughed. “You’ll thank me on your golden anniversary.”

“I gotta get back to work,” Elle said, turned on her heel and hurried back inside the hospital before her matchmaking sister-in-law found yet another way to embarrass her.

AFTER ELLE WENT BACK inside the hospital, Dante returned to the office to find Mark waiting for him.

Mark took one look at the damp, muddy suit that would have cost Dante half a month’s salary if he’d been the one to pay for it and shook his head. “Hell, man, what happened to you?”

“Got lost in the forest.”

“Huh? What were you doing in the woods?”

“Never mind.” Dante shook his head. “Where could I get a set of scrubs to change into?”

Mark shook his head. “No, no, we’re going to lunch in Austin with Covey and Butler. You can’t wear scrubs.” Mark eyed the width of Dante’s shoulders. “We’re still about the same size. You can wear one of my suits.”

“You keep extra suits at the office?”

“Don’t you?”

“You forget,” Dante said, following Mark into his office. “I’ve been working for a county hospital.”

That was the phony cover the FBI had provided for his résumé. And he’d worked at enough county hospitals as both an intern and resident that he knew they were as different from Confidential Rejuvenations as Park Avenue was from the streets of Baghdad.

Mark stepped to a mahogany wardrobe in the corner of his massive office and threw open the door. Inside were four suits, all much more expensive than the one Dante was wearing. “Long way from our UT dorm days, huh?”

“You’ve done very well, Mark.” Dante selected a navyblue suit from the wardrobe and looked over at his colleague. They’d shared a dorm room and the football field, but they hadn’t been the best of friends, mainly because Dante never let anyone get that close. Still, he couldn’t help feeling like something of a traitor.

If Mark’s involved in this mess, he’s going down. You have no reason to feel guilty.

No, he shouldn’t feel guilty, but lying didn’t come easily. “Thanks for the loaner,” he said. “I’ll go change.”

After returning to his office, Dante closed the blinds on his window before changing into the clean suit. As he reached for the string on the louvered blinds, he found his gaze drifting to the edge of the forest and his memory flashed back to Elle.

He thought about how she’d looked with her auburn hair curling up around her face in the rain. She really could have been a water nymph with her dewy skin, mischievous lips and womanly figure.

The setting hadn’t been sexual, but he’d gotten aroused. It had taken every bit of the self-control he possessed not to kiss her. When Dante had touched her hair, he’d come so damned close to falling into the abyss.

It scared him.

Not only because she was just as much a suspect as anyone else at Confidential Rejuvenations, but because she made him feel things he had no business feeling.

He wanted to take her to bed.

Bed? Hell, he’d wanted to take her right there on the forest floor.

And she’d looked at him as if she wouldn’t resist.

Then he thought about how tender she’d been with the baby deer. A true earth mother. That thought made him feel something else entirely. Longing, sadness and a bittersweet loneliness he hadn’t experienced since his mother had taken off when he was a kid.

He smiled, remembering about how flustered she’d gotten over her sister-in-law’s matchmaking attempts. Clearly Elle was still touchy on the subject of marriage, not that he could blame her. From all accounts, she’d been through a rough time with the divorce.

Dante shook off thoughts of Elle along with his muddy suit. He was a professional, an undercover FBI agent. These emotions could only trip him up. There were only two feelings he could afford to indulge in.

One was justice.

The other was revenge.

Elle Kingston was Mark’s Achilles’ heel. No one knew more about a man than his wife. And no one could flip faster than an ex-wife scorned. She was Dante’s route to Lawson’s downfall.

He knew then what he had to do. He must capitalize on the chemistry between them. Get closer to her. Find out exactly what secrets she was keeping about her exhusband. He would have to use her, manipulate her and then, in the end, he was going to have to walk away.

It was a dirty job.

But he’d been assigned to do it and Dante Nash never shirked his duty.

TWO DAYS AFTER ELLE’S strange encounter in the woods with Dante, she met her two best friends, Vanessa and Julie, at Stevie B’s, a popular blues bar down by the marina, not far from Confidential Rejuvenations. They met once a week, usually on hump day, to blow off steam and offer each other moral support. It was a weekly ritual Elle had come to rely on since her divorce. She had no idea how she would have made it through such a rough patch if it hadn’t been for her friends.

Elle was the last one to arrive. Vanessa and Julie were already sitting at a casual picnic style table in the back overlooking the Colorado River. Catamarans glided majestically through the water, the setting sun cast golden lights over the sails. It was early, the crowd was still light. The band wouldn’t start playing for another hour.

Vanessa and Julie weren’t watching the boats. Instead, they were engrossed in a game of “Sex or Dinner” and they hadn’t seen her come in.

“Jerry Seinfeld,” Julie said to Vanessa with a toss of her ash-blond hair.

Julie was one of those petite women who men seemed to instantly gravitate toward and want to take care of. Even dressed in the pink scrubs of the newborn nursery where she worked as a registered nurse, Julie looked incredibly feminine. She had a certain romantic naiveté about her that didn’t jive with the earthy, nononsense personality shared by the majority of nurses. If Julie weren’t so darned sweet, Elle would have been jealous of her.

“Strictly dinner,” Vanessa answered. “Jerry’s funny, but sexy he’s not. How about Colin Ferrell.”

“Seriously, you have to ask?” Julie blushed.

“I gotcha, chica.” Vanessa flashed a sly smile. “Sex all the way with that delicious Irishman.”

“Sex sounds fabulous,” Julie said, “but you know I’d be too shy to see it through. Good thing Colin is just the stuff of my midnight fantasies.”

“What about that cowboy sitting over there on the bar stool underneath the Coors sign?” Vanessa nodded at a lean-muscled, good-looking man in a Stetson at the end of the bar. “Sex or dinner?”

“Hmm,” Julie said. “This game makes me nervous when it leaves the realm of celebrity fantasies.”

“Please, you’ve been working at Confidential Rejuvenations long enough to know that celebrities are no different than the rest of us. They just think they are. I mean come on, Mark managed to snag Cassandra Roberts.”

“But Mark is rich and good-looking and a doctor.”

“So sex or dinner with Mark?”

Julie shuddered. “Neither. Besides the fact he’s Elle’s ex, there’s something about him that’s just…”

“Hi, guys,” Elle said, rushing to let her friends knowshe was standing there before they kept talking about Mark. She plunked down beside Julie and hooked her purse over the back of her chair. “I had to restock the crash cart before I leftwork.We had a code at the end of the shift.Ateenager.”

“Oh gosh, it’s especially awful when it’s a kid. Survivor?” Julie asked, nibbling her bottom lip.

Elle nodded and smiled triumphantly. It was always a good day when they saved a life. “We got her back.”

“That’s great news,” Vanessa said.

Because of patient confidentiality, Elle couldn’t discuss the case with her friends, although she longed to tell them what had happened and get their opinion on the odd turn of events. The daughter of a high-ranking local political official had collapsed at her private high school. The school had called an ambulance and they’d rushed her to the E.D., but by the time she rolled through the doors, she wasn’t breathing. A few seconds later, the girl had gone into full-blown cardiac arrest and they had to call a code.

One of the girl’s friends, who’d been escorted to the hospital by the police, had confessed that she’d taken a pill they’d bought the weekend before from some guy they’d met at a rave. The lab had drawn blood samples from the victim, but they’d been unable to detect any drugs in her system, so they’d sent the samples out for more rigorous testing at a specialized lab.

According to the victim’s friend, the pill was supposed to make you feel sexy and floaty and in love with everyone. It was a lot like Ecstasy, she’d said, only sexier.

“We ordered a pitcher of raspberry beer and chicken nachos for appetizers,” Vanessa said.

“Sounds great.” Elle slipped out of her cardigan. “Because of the code, I missed lunch. I’m starving.”

“So,” Vanessa asked her. “How’s your week been so far?”

Elle started to tell them about Dante, but what was there to tell? She was attracted to another man for the first time since her divorce. Big deal. It couldn’t go anywhere. “Nothing unusual.”

“That’s not what I heard.” Julie reached for the pitcher the waitress set on the table along with three frosted mugs and began pouring up the beer. She tilted the glass to keep too much foam from forming.

“What did you hear?” Vanessa leaned forward.

“I heard Elle went into the woods alone on Monday and she came out with a baby and a man.” Julie grinned impishly and slid a mug of beer in front of Elle.

“What?” Vanessa jerked her gaze from Julie to Elle, her dark Latina eyes flashing with interest.

“It was a baby deer.” Quickly, Elle explained how she’d come to find the fawn.

“What did you do with it?”

“Charlotte came and got it,” she said. “The vet she works for has an animal sanctuary. They say the fawn’s going to be fine.”

“Except that he’s an orphan,” Vanessa said gloomily. She’d had a difficult childhood and had the tendency to look on the dark side of life.

Elle studied her two friends who were so different, not only in looks but temperament, as well. Julie was the timid, tenderhearted romantic who saw the world through rose-colored glasses. Vanessa was the bold, sharp-witted cynic with a fiery temper.

And her?

Well, Elle was the center. Neither sweet nor tart. Neither too timid nor too daring. Tepid. Average. Nothing special. Elle supposed that was one reason they were all such good friends. They balanced each other out.

“So what about the guy?” Vanessa asked.

“What guy?” Elle evaded, even though she wasn’t really sure why she didn’t want to talk about Dante. Usually, she told Julie and Vanessa everything.

“The guy from the forest.”Vanessa took a sip of her beer and eyed Elle over the rim of her mug with an assessing stare.

“There was no ‘guy’ from the forest,” Elle said lightly. “It was just that new doctor, Dante Nash. He saw me go into the forest and thought maybe something was wrong and I needed help. He has a bit of a rescuer complex.”

“What do you mean by that?” Julie asked, and dove into the platter of chicken nachos the waitress deposited in the middle of the table along with three plates.

Elle told them what had happened in the E.D. on the day Dante arrived and busted up her disaster drill.

“Hmm.” Julie grinned. “I think something more might be afoot here.”

“What do you mean?”

“What if Dr. Nash is really into you?”

“I don’t care if he’s into me or not. I’m not into him.”

Keep lying like that and your nose is going to grow.

“I met him,” Vanessa said. “He’s very sexy, if a bit aloof. Why don’t you let him rescue you?” She winked boldly. “If you get my drift.”

“For one thing, I don’t need rescuing. Julie’s the one who’s into rescue fantasies,” she said.

Julie held up her palms. “Hey, after what happened with Roger, I’m through with love. At least for the foreseeable future. For now, all I want is hot sex.”

“I don’t want love or hot sex.” Elle nibbled at a nacho. “I just need a nice guy to be nice to me.”

“No, no.” Julie shook her head. “You can’t settle for less than you deserve.You deserve fireworks, great sex and a nice guy. Problem is, I fear such amanis a mythological creature.”

“Julie’s on the right track, Elle,” Vanessa said. “You need a wild fling to cleanse your palate after Mark before you jump headlong into a new relationship and motherhood. You definitely need a rebound guy.”

“Julie’s twenty-five—she doesn’t have a biological clock that keeps going off every two minutes. She can afford to have meaningless flings. I’m thirty-two and not getting any younger. I’m past the point of caring about chemistry. Mark and I had chemistry.At least in the beginning we did, and look howthat ended up. Besides, another thing against Dante is that he’s Mark’s college roommate, and from the stories Mark tells, the guy was a real player.”

“Playboys are perfect for meaningless affairs,” Vanessa said. “That way nobody gets hurt.”

“Maybe he’s not a playboy anymore. People can change,” Julie pointed out. “I’m trying to change. I’m not as shy as I used to be and I did work up the courage to give Roger the boot.”

“You’re looking at this the wrong way,” Vanessa argued. “You need a rebound guy that wants to give you nothing but sex. Someone gorgeous and totally inappropriate for you. That way you can get past the hurt Mark caused.”

“I’m not following you.”

“Stick it to Mark the way he stuck it to you. Think how jealous he’ll be when he finds out you’re sleeping with his college roommate.” Vanessa tapped a perfectly manicured nail against the Formica tabletop.

“That’s petty,” Elle said, but she had to admit the thought held some appeal. She wasn’t proud of her less-than-noble instincts, but she was human. It would eat at Mark’s craw if she had fling with his old friend. The way he’d treated her, he deserved it.

And there was the delicious fact that she found Dante extremely attractive. Itwasn’t too difficult picturing the two of them in bed. Their legs intertwined, sheets tousled, bodies slick with the sheen of lovemaking. Especially since it had been a long time since she’d enjoyed that kind of intimacy.

“Payback’s a bitch.” Vanessa grinned.

“I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“What if he’s not interested?”

“He went into the forest after you, didn’t he?”

Vanessa had a point. She was pretty sure Dante was attracted to her. “I wouldn’t know how to start.”

“Just seduce him.”

“You make it sound as if it’s as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich.”

“For her,” Julie said, “it probably is. Nessa, you gotta remember, Elle and I don’t have the same powers of seduction that you do.”

Vanessa snorted. “Of course you do. You seriously underestimate yourselves. Both of you. Men are so easy. Feed them, don’t talk to them during sporting events and go down on them every now and then and they’re happy.”

Elle thought of the dark look in Dante’s eyes. She hugged herself and shivered against the memory that sent a fresh tingle of sensation tripping up her spine. “I have the feeling Dr. Nash is a lot more complicated than most men.”

“He does seem rather enigmatic, but that makes the challenge all the more exciting, don’t you think?” Vanessa rubbed her palms together gleefully.

In theory, a strictly sexual affair sounded good, but in reality, Elle knew it wasn’t that simple. Sex changed things and she’d never been one of those women who could take pleasure in a physical encounter that held no emotional component. That belief hadn’t protected her, however. She’d given her heart to Mark, tried her best to make their marriage work and she’d ended up hurting more than she’d ever known it was possible to hurt.

For the past fourteen months she’d been floundering, not knowing what her identity was now that she was no longer anyone’s wife. She and Mark had moved in together when she was right out of nursing school. She’d only had a couple of lovers before him and none since.

So maybe Vanessa was right. Maybe it was time for a change. Maybe it was time to try on a new identity.

A part of her was so scared. Terrified to take a risk. She had to do something to ease the emptiness she felt inside. But the very idea of a carefree fling made her palms sweat and brought a sick feeling to the pit of her stomach.

No, she simply couldn’t have a casual affair. Not yet. Not now.

And most certainly not with Dante Nash.