The Millionaire and the M.D. (12 page)

Rebecca figured it must have something to do with Amy because after last night there's no way he would want to see her except in a professional capacity. Then the conversation stopped and Grace came out of the office and into the hall.

She stopped when she saw Rebecca in the doorway. “Gabe Thorne is here.”

“I heard.” Rebecca didn't move.

“Aren't you going to talk to him?”

“What does he want?”

“He wants to see you.”

“Did he say why?”

Grace slid her a funny look. “I didn't actually ask.”

“Isn't part of your job to screen people who come to see me?”

“Only when you're busy with patients. Which you're not today.” Grace folded her arms over her chest. “Do you not want to see him? Because I can get rid of him for you.”

“No. Yes.” She bit her lip. “I don't know.”

She wanted to see him. And she didn't. If she spent any more time with him he was going to start asking questions that she didn't want to answer. He was becoming too important, so important she knew it would hurt when he washed his hands of her. The best thing would be to walk away before it got to that point.

“No,” she said to Grace.

“What's up with you, Rebecca?”

“It's complicated.”

“Okay. Then you can explain it to Gabe yourself.”

Grace spun on her heel and walked out before Rebecca could stop her. She went back in her office because running away was wimpy and locking her door childish. Then Gabe stood in her doorway.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” she said back.

“You're not seeing patients this afternoon.”

“How did you know that?” she asked.

“Amy told me.”

Rebecca made sure all her patients were aware of office hours and how to reach her when she wasn't in the office.

“Is your sister all right?”

He nodded. “Jack's with her. She's doing some filing for him. Light clerical stuff.”

“I think that's really good for her. It will make her feel productive without being too physically strenuous. I hope you're paying her.”

“I'm putting it toward her room and board.”

“Gabe, she's family—”

He put up his hand. “That was a joke. Of course I'm paying her.”

He was a nice man. It would be so much easier if he wasn't.

“If Amy's fine, then I'm not sure why you're here.” After last night. But she didn't say that out loud.

“I'm here to break you out of this place.”

“I don't understand.”

“You have the afternoon off. I have the afternoon off. We're going to do something.”

“Why?” What she wanted to say was why would he bother, but her brain-to-mouth filter was actually on for a change.

“Because you work too hard and you need to have some fun.”

“Work is fun.”

“It won't be if you burn out,” he said. “The way to avoid that is regular rest and relaxation.”

“Good advice. I appreciate it. And I'll do that as soon as I finish my paperwork.” She looked up at him and felt as if her racing heart hit a speed bump. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“My pleasure.” He folded his arms over the impressive chest that had been even more impressive with his shirt off. “Just so you know, I'm not leaving here without you.”

“I'm sorry?”

“I'll sit here or out front in the waiting room until you're ready to go with me.”

“I'm not going anywhere with you,” she said, just so they were clear. “I have work to do.”

“What part of ‘I'll wait until you're ready to go' did you not understand?”

This was crazy. “I thought you had inspections and building stuff going on. Why aren't you in your office working?”

“The inspections are done for now. I've been working twenty-four/seven for way too long and I need some time off.”

“Very wise, Gabe. Don't let me stand in your way.” She rounded her desk and sat down. “Bye.”

“Are you throwing me out again?”

Her gaze jumped to his, but the anger and annoyance she'd seen last night were gone. There was only charm and humor in his expression. Why wouldn't he take no for an answer?

“Yes, actually. I am throwing you out. If that's what it takes.” She picked up her pen and clicked it open and closed. “Look, Gabe, you and I—I don't think it's—”

“Don't make this complicated, Rebecca. We're two people relatively new to Las Vegas. I hear Red Rock Canyon is pretty spectacular and not to be missed. I'd like company when I go. Have you been there yet?”

“No, but—”

“I didn't think so, what with the workaholic thing you've got going on. So, here's the deal. Do you want to be one of those people who never take the time to see the natural wonders in her own backyard?” He held up a warning finger. “Don't you dare say yes.”

His grin was so slow, so sexy and his eyes so smoky, she forgot what she was going to say.

She tried to stop the smile, she really did. But her mouth refused to cooperate with the rational part of her mind warning that she was playing with fire if she gave in.

Without a word she stood up. It was pathetically easy for him to talk her into putting work aside. Maybe that was because she'd always been a nose-to-the-grindstone girl. More likely it had to do with the fact that she just couldn't turn down the chance to be with him.

“You know, Gabe, you're not nearly as cute as you think you are.”

“Yes, I am.”

Yes, he was. And so much more than just a pretty face. But he'd been to hell and could never come back from that. She couldn't trust him with the secret of her own hell. He was right. She was making this way more complicated than necessary. It was a couple of hours looking at rocks. How romantic could that be? How dangerous?

She knew how things were with him. It's not like she was risking a fall, emotionally speaking.

After following Rebecca home and waiting while she changed clothes, Gabe took the 215 Beltway East and exited at Charleston Boulevard, then followed the signs to the Red Rock Canyon Visitors' Center. He stopped at the entrance and paid the five-dollar-per-car admission price, then drove up the road toward the group of buildings at the top of a slight rise.

After parking, he and Rebecca got out and walked up two sets of stairs and went inside where the Bureau of Land Management operated the gift shop and a series of exhibits depicting wildlife, a history of the area and a display of scenic photos entered in a photographic contest.

Gabe watched Rebecca wander through and stop to read all the information, fascinated by the indigenous animals and plants. He was far more fascinated by the way she filled out a pair of jeans. She bent to look through a microscope at something that caught her attention and he studied her butt, which was pretty amazing. He'd seen her in scrubs, more often than not covered by a white lab coat, and a little black dress that could revolutionize CPR, but until today he'd never seen that her curves were made to wear denim.

She straightened, turned, then her eyebrows rose when she realized he'd been staring. “So, there's quite a bit of stuff here. I had no idea.”

That made two of them. “It's pretty interesting.”

“I didn't realize that bats were such an important part of ecology.”

“Yeah.” He glanced up at the printed information on the wall. “They've been maligned for that whole vampire, bloodsucking, neck-biting thing.”

Although he knew for a fact how it turned him on to bite her neck. Her hair was pulled on top of her head, revealing the smooth, slender column. If he leaned forward slightly, he could touch his lips to a place that he'd discovered to be very sweet and sensuous. Last night he'd hardly done more than breathe on that very spot to make her shiver and tremble in his arms.

The pulse at the base of her throat beat very fast as she pointed to the words and pictures. “I didn't realize that bats pollinate plants and that entire species are dependant on them for their very existence. Who knew that just to attract the bats these flowers bloomed at night?”

She'd certainly bloomed at night, he thought. She'd opened up in a way he'd never dreamed and attracted him with her sweet, simple and honest responses.

Then something he'd said had changed her mood and, once again, there was nothing simple about her. He'd told himself that was for the best and he should back off, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. He told himself he'd gone to her office today as a friend. To reach out. The truth was he couldn't stay away—kind of like bats to those night-blooming flowers.

They wandered to their right and passed a series of photographs. One was the valley with the red rocks and the perfect arc of a rainbow. Another was a black-and-white shot of a rabbit in the snow.

After that they walked outside and followed a path past the desert tortoise habitat where the renowned Mojave Max resided.

“I don't see him,” Rebecca said, searching the enclosure.

“He's probably hiding.”

Like you, he thought, looking at her delicate profile. Last night she'd stuck her head out of her shell, then pulled back in. Did she sense danger? From him? He thought she knew him better than that. And today was all about getting her to open up, to let her know he wouldn't hurt her.

There was a path of stepping stones, some with words on them, memorial messages with years of birth and death. Brothers, sisters, children, husbands and wives. Rebecca grew quiet, solemn, and he knew she was reading as they walked. One sentiment made him stumble as he read, “Your spirit is gone but the love is forever.”

And he couldn't help thinking of Hannah. He would always remember her beautiful soul. But you couldn't hold that close when the night dragged on and threatened to pull you forever into the darkness.

Halfway around the building the path abruptly ended. It was bare dirt and just waiting for more messages to lost loved ones. And he knew he didn't want to ever again be the one left behind to remember what was gone forever.

They walked back to the patio outside the center and with their backs to the low stucco wall, looked at the hills in the distance. With the lowering sun shining directly on them, the red color was even more vivid and dramatic.

Rebecca sighed and shook her head. “Oh, Gabe. Beautiful is pathetically inadequate to describe the view of those mountains. It's breathtaking.”

“I know what you mean,” he said, sliding his gaze from her face to the craggy peaks and crevices of Red Rock Canyon.

“Looking at those mountains, I—” She stopped and sighed again.

“What?”

“It's so corny.”

“Tell me,” he urged.

“It just feels like the beauty fills up my soul.” She looked sheepish. “Silly, huh?”

“No.”

He knew exactly what she meant. But it wasn't the beauty of nature that got to him. When he looked at her, the empty places in his soul didn't echo nearly so loudly. And that was a problem. He didn't want to love again and risk losing it with nothing to hold on to but a memorial tile and meaningless words.

He'd been an idiot to bring Rebecca here. A moron to give in to the need to see her. She was a doctor, a nurturing spirit committed to making people better. The thing was, he was as better as he wanted to get. He'd loved, lost and was finally coming out on the other side of the darkness.

He didn't think he had it in him to go through that again.

“Y
ou're awfully quiet over there.” The lights of passing freeway cars highlighted Gabe's face when he glanced at her. “So what did you think of Bonnie Springs?”

About six miles from the Red Rock Canyon Visitors' Center, Bonnie Springs was a hole-in-the-wall tourist attraction. Nestled at the base of some pretty spectacular mountains, the place was a mining town with a Wild-West theme. They had mock gunfights every hour on the hour, a mock hanging and dance revue.
Cheesy
was the first word that came to mind, but being with Gabe made cheesy magical.

Rebecca had just had, if not the best day of her life, then it was somewhere in the top five. But she couldn't tell him that because she didn't intend to spend time with him again. At least not outside of being his sister's doctor.

“It was an interesting place,” she finally said.

“Define ‘interesting.'”

“Well, the restaurant was rundown, but the burger was pretty good.”

“Or you were pretty hungry,” he pointed out. “All that fresh air. The outing was good for you.”

Not in the long run, and that's what she had to look at. She'd already decided not to comment on how today had affected her. Back to Bonnie Springs. “I've never seen breakfast, lunch and dinner menus pasted on old whiskey bottles.”

“Also proving my point that you need to get out more,” he said, pulling off the 215 at the Pecos Road exit.

“So
you've
seen menus on whiskey bottles?”

“No. But maybe I need to get out more, too.”

That implied getting out more together, and she wasn't going there, so she decided to say nothing.

“Don't go quiet on me again,” he warned.

“Right back at you.”

“What?”

“You got pretty quiet on the memorial path at the Visitors' Center.” She shouldn't ask, but it was the main reason she believed getting out more together with him was heartbreak waiting to happen. “Were you thinking about Hannah?”

“Yeah.” His mouth pulled tight for a moment. “It was hard not to. Some of those tiles were testament to relationships that lasted years. Hannah and I never got much of a chance to try.”

And losing her had taken all the try-again out of him. He turned onto Paseo Verde and they were almost back to her place. She didn't want the day to end, and yet she knew it was time to end things permanently.

“I think—”

“I think you think too much,” he interrupted.

She thought so, too, but it's the way she was wired. “What do you want me to say?”

“Let's talk about the petting zoo.”

He didn't want to get heavy. Or he didn't want to talk about Hannah. Either or both proved that putting the brakes on this relationship was a good decision. “It smelled. The peacocks roaming free were beautiful.”

“Are you aware, Doctor, that the male of the peacock species is the one with the great tail?”

“I'm sure I heard that somewhere.” She laughed. In spite of her dark thoughts, the man could still make her laugh. How unfair was that.

He turned right and pulled up to her security gates, then punched in the code to open them. A minute later he stopped the car in her driveway.

“Thanks for everything, Gabe,” she said, opening her car door.

“Aren't you going to invite me in for a cup of coffee?”

“I don't think that's a good idea.”

He curled his fingers around her upper arm to stop her from getting out. “What's wrong, Rebecca?”

“Nothing.” Not yet. But if she didn't stop right now, something could go very wrong. “I think we should call it a night. And—”

“What?”

“I don't think we should see each other outside the parameters of a professional relationship.”

“Are you dumping me, Doctor?”

The coach lights from the garage illuminated his face, and she met his gaze. This was when she really hated her lack of a skills set for awkward social situations. “I don't think I'd phrase it quite like that. It implies a dating history, which we don't have.”

He dropped his hand. “I don't know how to respond to that.”

“No response is required. Good night, Gabe.”

She got out of the car and walked to her front door, settling the strap of her purse over her shoulder. Darned if everything didn't waver and get blurry as tears stung her eyes. The soul she'd so recently filled up with the beauty of the canyon suddenly felt drained and empty.

Because she couldn't really see, it was by feel that she located her keys in the bottom of her purse and managed to find the lock. Once inside, she turned the dead bolt, then leaned her back against the door and felt the moisture welling in her eyes spill over and trickle down her cheeks.

This spontaneous sadness, the deep and profound sense of loss, convinced her she'd done the right thing and just in time. Breaking it off made her cry like a baby, and she hadn't known him that long. How much longer before she was in a place where him walking away could do her heart catastrophic damage?

And she had no doubt he would have walked if she'd told him her secret. The man who had wanted to marry her took off because her hang-ups were too much to handle. Even if Gabe could handle it, after what he'd gone through he wouldn't let himself fall in love. Clearly, the two of them were not meant to be.

Suddenly the doorbell rang, startling her heart into a painful pounding. Her purse slid off her shoulder and thudded loudly on the entryway tile. Since the porch light was still on, she could see Gabe when she peeked through the peephole.

He knocked. “Open up, Rebecca. It's not like you can pretend not to be home.”

“Go away.”

“We need to talk.”

To do that she would have to see him, and that was the last thing she wanted. Her nose was running and her eyes were probably red, matching the blotches on her cheeks. “I don't want to see you.”

“I don't care what you want.”

She rested her forehead against the door. “Why didn't you just leave?”

There was a long silence before he said, “I couldn't. And just so you know, I'm prepared to have this conversation through the door. That means your neighbors will hear every word.”

She wished she could say she didn't care, but it would be a lie. It should have been so easy. She was letting him off the hook. He didn't want a deeply personal commitment so why was he pushing this? The only answers she'd get would be all over the neighborhood if she didn't open the door.

So she did, then stood back to allow him inside.

“Thank you.”

“You're not welcome.” She sniffled and turned away, then walked into the family room to flip on a light switch.

“Are you crying?” he asked.

“No.”

He moved behind her and gently curled his hands around her upper arms. “It's allergies, right?”

“Must be.” She sniffled again.

“Rebecca—Don't cry.” He turned her and folded her in his arms.

She wanted to push away and she really tried, but she couldn't. “This isn't crying. I'm a doctor. I don't cry.”

“That's a lie. And just so you know, I'm glad my sister's doctor cares enough to cry.”

The solid feel of his chest beneath her cheek felt too good for words. And she didn't even want to think about what that big warm hand rubbing up and down her back was doing to her. It was turning her spineless, that's what it was doing.

“Please go away.”

“Give me one good reason.”

“Because you were right. I'm dumping you.”

The man had the audacity to laugh. She felt the rumble in his chest even before she heard the full, rich sound of it.

He rubbed his chin on the top of her head. “Let me get this straight. Overall we had fun today, but you don't want to do it again. Is that about right?”

It was so much more complicated, but essentially that was the bottom line. “Yes.”

“Why?”

She was a social geek, but not so dense that she didn't realize giving him this information while snuggled in his arms sort of took the power out of her words. “I don't want to see you anymore because this whole thing is not really working for me.”

“Define ‘this whole thing.'” He put her away from him, just far enough to study her face, look into her eyes.

“You. Me. This—whatever it is—between us. For me, it's just not working.”

He cupped her face in his hands and applied the gentle pressure of his lips to hers. Just like that, her female parts were working far too well. Her brain? Not so much, because the next thing she knew they were upstairs in her room beside her bed and she'd started undoing the buttons on his shirt. His hands were busy with the button and zipper on her jeans. They were both breathing heavily.

She pulled back, her chest rising and falling fast, her heart pounding almost painfully. Her voice was raspy when she asked, “Did you not leave because you wanted sex?”

“No.” He looked at her, his eyes dark and brooding, intense and blazing all at the same time. “I wanted to leave and I actually drove to the gates before turning around. I couldn't go. I only wanted to talk.” He kissed her softly, then smiled. “But I wouldn't turn down sex.”

“Okay. Good,” she said breathlessly. “Because I think conversation is highly overrated.”

“It is at the moment,” he said, reaching behind her to unhook her bra, then slide the straps off her shoulders. He cupped her bare breasts in his hands and stared into her eyes as his thumbs did things to her nipples that had definite therapeutic benefits. “I prefer to communicate by touch.”

A shaft of heat and need shot straight to that place between her legs, and she moaned softly. “Have I ever told you how incredibly eloquent you are?”

He stared at her face, and an achingly tender expression crept into his eyes. “One look at you is worth a thousand words.”

How amazingly sweet was that? And he had her. Right then and there, he had her. She was in for a penny, in for a pound, testing the depth of the water with both feet. Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire, and every other cliché in the whole world of smart women making unwise choices. But she couldn't find the will to care.

She slid off her shoes, then jeans and panties with one sweeping movement and stood in front of him naked as the day she was born. He did the same. Just looking at him made her want to touch him everywhere. His broad shoulders, muscular arms, flat belly. More than her next breath, she wanted to feel her skin next to his and took a step forward to wrap her arms around his waist and press her breasts to his chest.

His shuddering sigh came from somewhere deep inside, just this side of a groan. “Rebecca—I—You—You feel really good.”

She stepped back and looked into his eyes, then lifted his hand to her breast. “I heard somewhere that touch is a superior form of communication.”

He swung her easily into his arms, set one knee on the bed before lowering her to the center of the mattress. “Then I intend to have a very, very long conversation with you in a reclining position.”

She slid her arms around his neck and smiled. “Okay. Talk trashy to me.”

“It's like you can read my mind.” He grinned, then brought his lips to hers in a sizzling kiss.

If Rebecca wasn't already flat on her back, she would have been a puddle at his feet. The man could
kiss.
He nibbled her lips, then swept his tongue across the bottom one until she parted for him. He slid inside and skimmed it across the roof of her mouth. Her stomach trembled as he moved his hand from her breast, over her abdomen and teased her legs wider.

Like last time she wanted to go tense, go rigid, but she knew Gabe wouldn't hurt her. And she wanted this. She wanted him. When he moved his hand to that most feminine place between her legs, she gave him full access to the warmth. He slid two fingers inside her, and the touch sent an intense ache down the center of her body, all the way to her toes.

She heard small whimpering cries, and her pleasure-drenched mind took several moments to realize that the sounds came from her. Her back arched and her hips began to rock, starting a rhythm, a willful invitation as the heat balled in her belly.

With his thumb, he touched the small nub that was the center point of her pleasure. When she gasped, he settled his mouth on hers, swallowing her cry of desire. Then he trailed kisses over her cheek, down her throat, flicked his tongue over a spot just beneath her ear and nearly sent her over the edge.

She half turned onto her side, reaching, touching, using her body to communicate her need. When it wasn't enough, she said, “Please, Gabe—” her voice a ragged whisper “I want you. Now—”