LITMIR.BIZ

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to the clinic’s big double doors, she blushed scarlet from head to toe.

      The walk of shame. This was what friends of hers had talked about in the past! Out on a date, spend the night, and show up somewhere wearing the same clothes for all the world to see. Except she hadn’t even enjoyed what people would think she had, damn it. Shamed without reason.

      “I’m late for work. I’ll...um...see you around.” She walked faster, trying to get inside and to her locker fast, praying no one had paid attention to what dress she’d worn the night before.

      Rafael caught up with her. She stared straight ahead, but he dipped his head to look at her, drawing her gaze to his. To green eyes that now danced with amusement. “Are you worried people will talk, bella, if they see us arrive together?”

      “Yes!” she hissed. “So please go wherever you need to go and goodbye.”

      “Not goodbye. We’re seeing a patient together in twenty minutes. Until then.” He reached for her hand, his eyes twinkling above it as he pressed his lips to it. She snatched it away and practically ran down the corridor toward the women’s locker room. The imprint of that quick kiss still tingled on her skin, and she had a bad feeling that meant she was in for a very long day.

      Freya Rothsberg, the clinic’s PR guru and also James’s sister, raised her eyebrows at Gabby as she tore down the hallway, and she forced herself to slow down.

      “Good morning, Gabby,” Freya said.

      “Good morning.” Was it her imagination, or was Freya’s voice a little questioning? Or was she just being completely paranoid? “I...need to get into scrubs to see my first patient. Have a great day.”

      Finally able to hide in the locker room, Gabby flung off her dress, quickly hung it up, then got her scrubs on. Breathing a sigh of relief, she leaned against her locker door. Clearly she wasn’t up for middle-of-the-night adventures, innocent or not.

      Ten minutes later, she felt almost normal and composed, putting a smile on her face as she went into her patient’s room. Then every ounce of composure slid away when she saw Rafael standing there, talking with the woman.

      “Ah, Gabriella.” His eyes met hers, and that darned twinkle still lingered, making her feel embarrassed all over again. “I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of seeing your patient before you arrived, as my first patient isn’t here yet.”

      She could feel hot color rushing into her cheeks again, annoyed as all get-out at her reaction to seeing him there. Somehow she bit back the words she wanted to say, which were, Yes, I do mind, as a matter of fact. I’m trying to stay away from you!

      “Of course not. How are you feeling, Megan?”

      “Absolutely great! I was just telling Dr. Moreno that my yoga instructor is so impressed with my workouts. I mean, I’m doing every bit as much at eight months along as I did before I got pregnant.”

      “As long as you’re feeling good when you exercise, that’s very healthy for you and your baby.” She made herself turn to Rafael, and the power of that green gaze nearly choked her.

      “I’m sure I’ll be fit enough for the minor role Daddy has in mind for me in the film he’s starting this summer. I told Rafael he should come to the set.”

      “Megan’s father’s films are among my favorite thrillers,” he said. “I particularly enjoyed that scene in his last movie where one of the main guys showed up in the heroine’s bedroom, and she didn’t know until then that he wasn’t her friend but the terrifying killer instead. Scary stuff.”

      The wicked glint in those green depths was both irritating and unnerving, since it sent her thoughts right back to what she’d been trying so hard not to think about. Which was the feel of his hard, warm body against hers, and how he’d looked in those boxer shorts.

      “So,” she said, desperately trying to change the subject, “have you examined Megan yet, Dr. Moreno?”

      “I thought I’d leave that to you, along with getting her vital signs. Just wanted to introduce myself before the big day arrives.”

      “Surely you won’t still be working here in another month, will you?” If her voice held a trace of panic, she couldn’t help it. “I thought this was a brief pit stop in your life.”

      “I expect I will be staying a while. I’m enjoying my time in L.A. and here at The Hollywood Hills Clinic. The staff is most...interesting, and I hope to get to know everyone much better.”

      Gabby dropped the blood-pressure cuff on the floor, then had to take the reading twice she was so distracted by Rafael’s teasing. Which she knew full well it was—for some reason, he was enjoying yanking her chain and making her blush again.

      “I’m about to do your internal exam now, Megan, okay?” She turned to Rafael with a saccharine-sweet smile, hoping her narrowed eyes told him exactly how irritated she was without showing, again, how he rattled her. “So you’re free to see if your patient has arrived, Dr. Moreno.”

      “Why do I get the feeling the boss is tossing me out on my ear?” He turned that lethal grin on Megan. “See you next time you’re in. You have my contact information if you need me.”

      Remarkable how the minute the man was out of the room, Gabby was able to focus on her patient and her job without dropping or forgetting a single thing. Pitiful. Which meant that, if Rafael was really going to be sticking around for a while, somehow, some way she’d have to get a handle on her ridiculous, distracted hormones.

      * * *

      Chuckling to himself as he walked down the hallway to see his patient, Rafael reflected on how easy it was to get under Gabriella’s skin, and how much fun it was. She was such a complex mix of characteristics combined in a fascinating way, all bundled up inside a beautiful, touchable package. Sweet and smart, feisty and a little shy all at the same time, he wanted to spend more time with her. Learn a lot more about what made her tick.

      He might have gotten off on the wrong foot with her initially, but he knew she found him attractive now as well. Last night when he’d held her in his hands and her wide eyes had looked up at him in the dark bedroom, he’d seen the way her lips had parted; had felt her quickened breaths skating warm and fast across his skin. The rise and fall of her chest had been less about her fear and more about sexual attraction—he knew because he’d felt the same hot vibration. Then she’d tried to cover up the zing happening between them with pretend indignation. Zing that had been a two-way street—it had taken all his won’t-power to resist the urge to pull her closer for a kiss, to see where all that heat shimmering between them might lead.

      Except he’d then figuratively smacked himself with the reminder that he was supposed to be lying low in L.A. “Behaving himself,” to quote his parents, and dating “appropriate” women, whatever the hell that meant. Apparently not strippers, or those whose faces graced the gossip magazines, and why any of that was a big deal, he didn’t understand.

      It wasn’t as though a single one of them would ever get an engagement ring from him. Seeing the various loveless marriages in his family, not to mention what James’s parents’ relationship had been like, Rafael figured that kind of commitment would be sheer purgatory. Why in the world would he want to handcuff himself to one woman forever if he didn’t have to?

      Short-term handcuffing, though? Now, that he was all for. Thinking about something short, sweet and hot with Gabriella put the smile back on his face, only it quickly faded because, damn it, he couldn’t let that happen, with the media and his parents breathing down his neck.

      Seeing his next patient got his thoughts back on track, and as he was about to go to the nurses’ station to discuss her chart, the sound of his name on the large, wall-mounted television in the patient’s room stopped him in mid-step. He looked up at the screen to see what ridiculous, untrue story was being spread on the TV gossip shows now.

      To his shock, the photos were of the cliffside mansion he was renting, with two people in

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