LITMIR.BIZ

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       PROLOGUE

      AS NIGHTS WENT, this was a beautiful one: still warm enough to enjoy being outside, with only a faint wind and the nip of a chill settling in. In the distance, Sapporo’s snowcapped mountains stood tall and inviting, giving Eric that feeling that he could stay here, someplace different, someplace else. Someplace where there was time for this...for daydreaming, thinking about a future, having fun in his life. But it was up to him to let it in. Unfortunately, he’d never quite discovered how. But someday...

      “Are you enjoying the seminar, Dr. Hart?” asked Dr. Michiko Sato, stepping up to the balcony rail next to him. Her seductiveness nearly blended into the night. Dark skin, black dress. All woman. He’d spent two days listening to her lectures, the dulcet tones that made the field of physiatry sound almost as sexy as she was. There were other lecturers, of course. But he only had ears for Michi. And eyes. Especially eyes. And he, as well as other experts in attendance, couldn’t get enough of her smile, the way she turned her gaze downward as if she was shy...and her body to die for. But, most of all, her dedication and intelligence.

      Dear lord, perfection in his view for only a few short days. Michiko Sato was a woman who interested him in so many ways, and for a man who couldn’t let himself be interested it was damned frustrating. Especially since he’d caught her staring at him a time or two, and it had not been a professional stare. Well, damn it. He’d done this to himself, hadn’t he? Drawn his boundaries and stayed behind them. Lived a life without the interruption of real pleasure. And now here was real pleasure standing next to him and it was all he could do to keep his hands from shaking.

      “It’s a very good seminar. And call me Eric, please.” He twisted to see the full length of her, and the sight of Dr. Sato in something more than her professional garb—white lab coat—caught him off guard, even though he’d been watching her for nearly an hour now. Tonight, she was stunning in her black sleeveless dress with its low-cut neckline and a side slit nearly up to her hip. The dress was not too tight to be indecent, but tight enough to show her curves. And what fine curves they were. Curves that would fit him so well if ever he got the chance.

      “Eric. And I’m Michi.” She moved closer to him, brushed against his arm, and stayed there rather than stepping away. “You’ve been sitting in the front row, I’ve noticed. Every lecture, every day. Should I be flattered?”

      “I have.” He chuckled. “All the better to see you.” That was a bold statement, but a coziness was settling in around them, and it seemed to be calling for a bold move. Especially since after tomorrow he’d be gone, and she’d be on to her next lecture group or back to her medical practice.

      “Did you like what you saw, Eric? And what you see right now?” She stepped away ever so slightly, to give him a better look.

      “If I didn’t, I’d have been sitting in the back row. The front row was never my style.” She stepped into him a little more, and seemed so innocent doing it. But this wasn’t innocent. They both knew where it was heading. He’d known it the instant he’d walked into her lecture hall and made eye contact with the most beautiful woman he’d ever encountered. There was destiny here. Maybe not one that would go beyond tonight, but it was inevitable. She knew it as well as he did.

      “I’m glad you weren’t. I think I was enjoying my view as much as you were enjoying yours.”

      Sliding his arm around Michi’s waist, he pulled her as tightly to him as she could possibly get. “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked.

      “Not at all.” She nudged her foot against his. “Not at all.”

      Then he pointed to the evening shadows of the mountains. “There’s a little cabin up there. A very isolated cabin. My father owns it, and when I was a kid, he’d have a personal ski instructor bring me here to teach me how to ski. It was the only time I ever got to do something fun, just for the sake of doing it.”

      “So, you’re a good skier.”

      “Depends on your definition of good, I suppose. In my day I was.”

      Michi laughed. “In your day? From what I’ve been seeing, you’re still in your day, and it’s looking quite good.” She sat her glass of champagne down on the wall surrounding the third-story veranda and turned to Eric. “So, tell me, Eric, what else were you good at, in your day?” She wrinkled her nose and her eyes sparkled with flirtation. “Or night?”

      He was good at being a surgeon, day and night, but that wasn’t the way he wanted this conversation to go. Not after listening to her and watching her so intently for what seemed like forever. Memorizing her movements, anticipating her words, trying not to be distracted by her beauty yet being distracted by every little thing about her—the raising of an eyebrow, the slightest hint of a smile meant only for him. “I’m good at picking up your signals.”

      “And what are these signals telling you?”

      “That tonight’s our last chance. Tomorrow we’ll both be back in our normal lives.” Why was his attraction to her so strong? There’d been other women in his life, other opportunities, but tonight, with Michi...

      “And just what would that last chance include?” she asked him.

      “We have options,” he said. “Dancing, although I’m not very good at it. We could go for a walk. Or, stay here and talk.”

      “Talking’s overrated,” she said. “And these shoes are definitely not made for walking or dancing.”

      He glanced down, noticed that her shoes were strappy and spiky, and while he was no expert, he couldn’t imagine that what she was wearing was going to make a walk much fun. Yet while he thought they were probably uncomfortable as hell, they also looked sexy as hell, making her incredibly long legs seem even longer. “Then maybe you’d like to go sit someplace where you can take off those shoes. They’ve got to be killing your feet.”

      Michi laughed. “So, you’re a practical man.”

      “That’s what my colleagues tell me.”

      “That’s what my aunt told me when she recommended you to this seminar. That you’re good at your job, not always as sociable as you could be, and that you’re governed by practicality. But the best in your field.”

      “Your aunt?”

      “Agnes Blaine.”

      He knew Agnes. She worked on the medical end of cardiology while he worked on the surgical end of it. Specifically, pediatric cardiac surgery. “Small world,” he said.

      “Not really. I’m trying to grow my practice in different ways, incorporate more physiatry into medical and surgical areas where it’s not yet used. I asked her to send someone who might be able to make use of my specialty. And while I wasn’t specific in terms of what kind of specialty I wanted to approach, she thought cardiac surgery and rehab would be good. Hence...you. So, let’s get back to these shoes. Are you offering a foot massage?”

      “For starters.”

      “Then what?”

      He bent over and whispered something in Michi’s ear that caused her to laugh. “That sounds very naughty,” she said.

      “Well, if you think that’s naughty...” He whispered something else in her ear, but this time he grazed her earlobe with his tongue, causing Michi to gasp, then stand on tiptoe and whisper something back to him.

      “Will that get me a passing mark in your class?” he asked.

      “That, Doctor, will send you straight to the head of the class.”

      “My favorite place,” he said, picking up her glass of champagne. “And I’m ready to start doing the homework that will get me there, if you don’t mind being my tutor.”

      “I would love to tutor you, Doctor.”

      He

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