Читать книгу Christmas Kisses Collection - Джанис Мейнард, Louise Allen - Страница 17

MCKENZIE BOLTED OUT of her office chair and took off after Lance. She grabbed hold of his white lab coat and pulled him back into her office.

He couldn’t just leave like that.

She pushed her office door closed and leaned against it, blocking his access to leave until she was ready to let him go.

“Does that mean we aren’t going to be friends anymore?” Did she sound as ridiculous as she felt? He’d asked her out. She’d turned him down. Repeatedly. He’d told her he’d leave her alone. She’d stopped him. What did that say about her?

Dear Lord, she was an emotional mess where this man was concerned. She should have let him go. Why hadn’t she?

“You want to just be my friend?” His blue eyes glittered with steeliness. “I’m sorry, McKenzie, but I want more than that. After our kiss, it’s going to take time before I can rewire my brain to think of you as just a friend. We can’t be ‘just friends.’ At least, I can’t think of you that way.”

“Stop this,” she ordered, lifting her chin in defiance at him and the plethora of emotions assailing her. “All this because I won’t go get frozen yogurt with you? This is ridiculous.”

“Not just frozen yogurt, McKenzie, and you know it. I want to date you. As in you and me acknowledging and embracing the attraction between us. As in multiple episodes of mouth-to-mouth and wherever that takes us. I’ve been honest with you that although I’m not interested in something long term, I’m attracted to you. Isn’t it time you’re honest with yourself and me? Because to say our working in the same building is why you won’t date me is what I find ridiculous.”

“But…” She trailed off, not sure what to say. Way beyond her excuse of not wanting to date a coworker, McKenzie was forced to face some truths.

She liked Lance.

She liked seeing glimpses of him every day, seeing his smile, hearing his voice, his laughter, even when it was from a distance and had nothing to do with her. She liked catching sight of him from time to time and seeing his expression brighten when he caught sight of her. She liked the way his eyes ate her up, the way his lips curved upward. She didn’t want him to avoid her or not be happy when he saw her. She didn’t want to stop grabbing a meal with him at the hospital or hanging out with him at group functions. She enjoyed his quick wit, his easy smile, the way he made her feel inside, even if she’d never admitted that to herself. If he shut her out of his life, she’d miss him. She’d miss everything about him.

“You can date other women,” she pointed out, wondering at how her own heart was throbbing at the very idea of seeing him with other women. Not that she hadn’t in the past. But in the past she’d never kissed him. Now she had and couldn’t stand the thought of his lips touching anyone else’s. “You can date some other woman,” she continued in spite of her green-flowing blood. “Then we could still be friends.”

He shook his head. “You’re wrong.”

“How am I wrong?”

He bent his head and touched his lips to hers.

McKenzie’s heart pounded so hard in her chest she was surprised her teeth weren’t rattling. But her thoughts from moments before had her kissing him back with a possessiveness she had no right to feel.

She slid her hands up his chest and twined her arms around his neck, threading her fingers into his dark hair. She kissed him until her knees felt so weak she might sag to the floor in an ooey-gooey puddle. Then she kissed him some more because she wanted him to sag to the floor in an ooey-gooey puddle with her.

The thought that he might cut her out of his life completely gave desperation to how she clung to him.

Desperate. Yep, that was her.

When he pulled slightly away he rested his forehead against hers and stared into her eyes. “That’s some mouth-to-mouth, McKenzie.”

She shook her head. “Mouth-to-mouth restores one’s breath. That totally just stole mine.”

Why was she admitting how much he affected her?

He cupped her face in a caress. “I can’t pretend that doesn’t exist between us. I don’t even want to try. I want you, McKenzie. I want to kiss you. Your mouth, your neck, your breasts, all of you. That’s not how I think of my ‘friends.’”

Fighting back visions of him kissing her all over, she sighed. “You don’t play fair.”

His fingers stroking across her cheek, he arched his brow. “You think not? I’m being honest. What’s unfair about that?”

She let out an exasperated sigh, which had him touching his lips to hers in a soft caress.

Which had her insides doing all kinds of crazy somersaults and happy dances. Okay, so maybe she’d wanted to say yes all along, but that didn’t mean everything about him wasn’t a very bad idea. Just as long as she kept things simple and neither of them fell under false illusions or expectations, she’d be fine.

When he lifted his head, she looked directly into his gaze.

“I will go to the hospital with you and get frozen yogurt afterward with you, but on one condition.”

“Name it.”

She should ask for the moon or something just as elaborately impossible. Then again, knowing him, he’d find a way to pluck it right out of the sky and deliver on time.

“No more mouth-to-mouth at work,” she told him, because the knowledge that she’d dropped to her father’s level with making out at work and to her mother’s level of desperation already cut deep.

He whistled softly. “Not that I don’t see your point, McKenzie, but that might be easier said than done.”

She stepped back, which put her flat against the door. With her chin slightly tilted upward, she crossed her arms. “That’s my condition.”

“Okay,” he agreed, but shook his head as if baffled. “But I’m just not sure how you’re going to do it.”

Her momentary triumph at his Okay dissipated. She blinked. “Me?”

Looking as cool as ever, he nodded. “Now that you know how good I am at mouth-to-mouth, how are you going to keep from pulling me behind closed doors every chance you get for a little resuscitation?”

Yeah, there was that.

“I’ll manage to restrain myself.” Somehow. He was very, very good at kissing, but there was that whole self-respect thing that she just as desperately clung to. “Now leave so I can work.”

And beat herself up over how she’d just proved her parents’ blood ran through her veins.

McKenzie looked over Edith’s test results while she waited for Lance to come to her office. Her hemoglobin and hematocrit were both decreased but not urgently so. Her abdominal and pelvic computerized tomography scan didn’t show any evidence of a perforated bowel or a cancerous mass, although certainly there was evidence of Edith’s constipation.

Had the woman really spit up blood? If she had, where had the blood come from? Had she just coughed too hard and had a minor bleed in her bronchus? It wasn’t likely, especially as Edith had said it hadn’t been like throwing up.

McKenzie had ordered the gastroenterology consult. She suspected Edith would be undergoing an endoscopy to evaluate her esophagus and stomach soon. Then again, it was possible the specialist might deem that, due to her age, she wasn’t a good candidate for the procedure.

“You look mind-boggled,” Lance said, knocking on her open office door before coming into the room. “Thinking about how much fun you’re going to have with me tonight?”

“Not that much fun,” she assured him, refusing to pander to his ego any more than she must have done earlier. “I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with a patient.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” At his look of disappointment, she relented. “One of my regulars came in today with a history of abdominal pain, constipation, and spitting up blood that she described as not a real throw-up, but spitting up.”

“Anemic?”

“Slightly, but not enough to indicate a major bleed. She always runs borderline low, but her numbers have definitely dipped a little. I’m rechecking labs in the morning.”

“Have you consulted a gastroenterologist or general surgeon?”

“The first.”

“Any other symptoms?”

“If you named it, Edith would say she had it.”

“Edith Winters?”

Her gaze met his in surprise. “You know her?”

“Sure. I used to see her quite a bit. She’s a sweet lady.”

“She has me a bit worried. It’s probably nothing. Maybe she drank grape juice with breakfast and that’s what she saw when she spat up. I don’t know. I just feel as if I’m missing something.”

“You want me to have a look at her for a second opinion?”

“Would you mind?”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I minded. I’ll be at the hospital with you anyway.”

“Good point.” She got her purse from a desk drawer, then stood. “You ready to go so we can get this over with?”

“‘This’ as in the hospital or the night in general?”

She met his gaze, lifted one shoulder in a semishrug. “We’ll see. Oh, and if you think you’re going to get away with just feeding me frozen yogurt, you’re wrong. I’m not one of those ‘forever dieting and watching her carbs’ chicks you normally date who doesn’t eat. I expect real food before frozen yogurt.”

Lance grinned at the woman sitting next to him in his car. Twice in less than a week she’d been in his car when he’d begun to wonder if she was ever going to admit there was something between them.

He understood her concerns regarding them working together, but it wasn’t as if they worked side by side day in and day out. More like in the same office complex and caught glimpses of each other from time to time with occasional prolonged interaction. With other women he might be concerned about a “work romance,” but not with McKenzie. She was too professional to ever let a relationship interfere with work.

Thinking back over the past few months, really from the time he’d first met her a couple years ago when she’d moved back to Coopersville after finishing her medical training, he’d been fascinated by McKenzie. But other than that he’d catch her watching him with a curious look in her eyes, she hadn’t seemed interested in anything more than friendship and was obviously not in a life phase where she wanted a serious relationship.

Not that he wanted that either, but he also didn’t want to become last month’s flavor within a few weeks. She didn’t seem interested in dating anyone longer than a month. It was almost as if she marked a calendar and when thirty days hit, she moved on to the next page of her dating life.

Although he had no plans of marriage ever, he did prefer committed relationships. Just not those where his partner expected him to march her down the aisle.

He owed Shelby that much. More. So much more. But anything beyond keeping his vow to her was beyond his reach.

Since his last breakup he definitely hadn’t been interested in dating anyone except McKenzie. If he was being completely honest, he hadn’t been interested in dating anyone else for quite some time.

Oddly enough, since she dated regularly and routinely, she’d repeatedly turned him down. Which, since she was obviously as attracted to him as he was her, made no sense. Unless she truly was more a stickler for not dating coworkers than he believed.

“Have you ever dated a coworker in the past?”

At his question, she turned to him. “What do you mean?”

“I was just curious as to why going on a date with me was such a big deal.”

“I didn’t say going on a date with you was a big deal,” she immediately countered.

“My references say that going on a date with me is a very big deal.”

“Yeah, well, you might need to update that reference because I’m telling you Mommy Dearest doesn’t count.”

He grinned at her quick comeback. He liked that about her, that she had an intelligence and wit that stimulated him. “Did you think about our kiss?”

“What?”

He grinned. He knew that one would throw her off balance. “I was just curious. Did you think about our kiss on your porch this weekend?”

“I’m not answering that.” She turned and stared out the window.

Lance laughed. “You don’t have to. I already know.”

“I don’t like how you think you know everything about me.”

“I wouldn’t presume to say I know everything about you by a long shot, but your face and eyes are very expressive so there’s some things you don’t hide well.”

“Such as?”

“Your feelings about me.”

“Sorry. Loathing tends to do that to a girl.”

There went that quick wit again. He grinned. “Keep telling yourself that and you might convince yourself, but you’re not going to convince me. I’ve kissed you, remember?”

“How could I forget when you keep reminding me?”

He laughed again. “I plan to keep reminding you.”

“I have a good memory. No reminders needed.”

“I’m sure you do, but I enjoy reminding you.”

“Because?”

“You normally don’t fluster easily, yet I manage to fluster you.”

“You say that as if it’s a good thing,” she accused from the passenger seat.

Seeing the heightened color in her cheeks, hearing the pitch-change to her voice, watching the way her eyes sparked to life, he smiled. “Yes, I guess I do. You need to be flustered, and flustered good.”

“Why am I blushing?”

“Because you have a dirty mind?” he suggested, shooting her a teasing look. “And you liked that I kissed you today in your office and Friday night on your porch.”

“Let’s change the subject. Let’s talk about Edith and her bowel movements.”

He burst out laughing. “You have a way with words, McKenzie.”

“Let’s hope they include no, no and no again.”

“Then I just have to be sure to ask the right questions, such as, do you want me to stop kissing you, McKenzie?”

She just rolled her eyes and didn’t bother giving a verbal answer.

There really wasn’t any need.

They both already knew that she liked him kissing her.