Tugging Jill alongside her, Felicity rushed to Martina and the two women embraced. "Jill Hershey, this is Martina."
Martina gave Jill an assessing glance. "I understand you're going to plaster my brother all over billboards in Fort Worth for the sake of charity. Are you sure his head will fit?"
Jill's lips twitched and she met Tyler's gaze. "Gosh, your own sister seems to think your ego is the biggest—"
"My sister hasn't seen everything," Tyler said.
"Oooh," Martina said, and made a hissing, sizzling sound."I like this one, but I'm still not sure how they'll fit your entire head on a billboard."
"We have an excellent photographer," Jill said, and softened just a bit. "But the subject is pretty fascinating, too."
"That's her way of saying she picked me because I have a nice butt."
Felicity turned to her. "Are you going to kill him?"
"Of course. I'm just not sure which way to do it."
Martina's eyes grew wide and she touched her abdomen.
"What's wrong?" Brock asked.
She waved her hand. "Nothing. I think it's the baby moving. Little flutters. I'm not sure you can feel it yet." She drew his hand to her abdomen. "Can you?"
"Are you sure it isn't indigestion?" Brock asked.
"Let me try," Felicity said, kneeling beside her sister-in-law.
Tyler glanced at Jill and saw her bite her lip. She looked pale and stiff. He moved to her side and put his arm around her. "Okay?" he asked in her ear.
"Do you want to feel it?" Martina asked Jill.
Tyler heard Jill take in a sharp breath and tried to cover for her. "Not everyone needs to feel the results of the tortilla chips you ate on the drive from Dallas."
"No," Jill said. "That's okay. I'd love to feel your baby move." She gingerly moved forward and allowed Martina to guide her hand. She concentrated for a long moment, then smiled. "I can feel it. This one will keep you up nights once he or she gets a little bigger."
Martina nodded. "If I keep eating the way I have been, I'm going to outweigh my brothers. And I wasn't eating tortilla chips," she said to Tyler. "Plain corn-chips."
"Close enough," he said, and tugged Jill outside. He looked down at her. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Still pale, she took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes. That's actually a little step forward for me. I haven't felt someone else's baby move since the accident, and I didn't faint or fall apart." She gave a brave smile. "I was fine."
She was such a strong woman that her vulnerability tore at him. He slid his hand behind her nape and nudged her upward to kiss her. "You were better than fine."
The depth of her ordeal was beginning to sink in for Tyler. The physical trauma she must have experienced, the grief and then the abandonment by her husband. His mouth tightened. She had been brave to accept his dare. She had known there would be pain for her, but she'd done it, anyway. Tyler didn't think he'd ever admired a woman more. More alarming, he'd never wanted to possess a woman more, either.
Jill still needed her wave machine on Monday. Although she felt she had made tremendous progress in working past some of her pain, another issue had bubbled to the surface. And it was all Tyler's fault.
Sex.
Her hormones had been in the deep freeze for such a long time she'd gotten used to it. Now, she thought with a frown as she flipped through her CDs in search of something soothing and nonsensual, her hormones were thawing.
She scowled. She supposed she could just go to bed with him, but Jill had never figured out how to give her body and keep her heart. She wondered if there was a how-to book on the subject.
Her door burst open, and Trina brought in a fresh bouquet of flowers. She lifted a brow. "Whoever it is he's consistent."
Jill sighed. Nobody in this hospital knocked. She grabbed the card and read it. She grimaced.
"Your boss?"
Jill nodded. "I guess I didn't make myself as clear as I should have."
Trina shook her head. "Sometimes you have to hit 'em over the head with a frying pan."
"Hit who?" Tyler asked, striding into the room. "Morning, beautiful," he said to Jill.
Trina blushed and took the greeting for herself. "Thank you. Did you see Jill's new flowers?"
His grin faltered. "How about that. Persistent booger, isn't he?" He eyed the flowers. "What are you going to do with them?"
"She's going to keep them," Trina said. "They're beautiful."
Curious, Jill watched him. "What did you have in mind?"
He began to pace in that slide strut that drew attention to his long legs and height. "Sometimes when people get flowers they don't want," he said, and quickly amended, "or can't use, they give them to a patient. An elderly lady recovering from surgery or a teenager stuck in traction." He shrugged. "Just a thought," he said. "If you don't want—" he grinned "—or can't use them."
"I'll think about that. In the meantime, today is another photo day for you." She glanced at his hair, face and eyes. "Are you ready?"
"He looks perfect," Trina said. Her phone rang.
"Please swoon over and answer that," Jill said.
Tyler shut the door after she left and walked toward Jill. The look in his eyes made her pulse go haywire. "Good morning, beautiful," he said, and lowered his mouth to hers.
Jill swallowed a moan at the touch of his lips. He kissed her gently but purposefully.
"Miss me?"
"When?" she asked, indulging herself, for just a few seconds she told herself, in his taste and scent.
"The minute I left you last night," he said, rubbing his mouth from side to side over hers.
She felt her knees turn to butter and her nipples tighten. Too much indulgence. She took a careful breath and made the excruciatingly difficult move away from him.
"Miss me?" he asked again, his gaze falling over her in a warm wave.
"No," she insisted for the sake of her sanity.
He shook his head and brushed his knuckles over her aching nipples. "You're lying."
She could have denied it again, but she feared her nose would grow like Pinocchio's. He was right. He was getting to her, and she needed to stop him.
Moments later he rushed into the room. "Sorry," he told Jill, squeezing her arm. "Is this where I'm supposed to stand?" he asked moving toward the podium."
Jill attached a microphone to his collar. She could see he was distracted. "Problem?"
He shrugged. "Later," he said, then his lips drew upward into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "What can I do for you nice folks who had the sorry luck to get me as your assignment?"
The crowd laughed. One reporter stepped forward. "How do you feel about your new modeling career?"
"I'm sure it will be brief," Tyler said. "The photographer says I move around too much."
"Seriously," a woman began, "how do you feel about the pediatric cardiology wing?"
"Passionately," Tyler said. "We need it. The kids need it. The parents need it, and the good people of Fort Worth are just the ones to pull together and make something great happen."
"You're not a native of Fort Worth?"
"No, but I've got Cowtown in my blood. I was raised on a ranch in West Texas."
"Dr. Tyler," another woman reporter said, stepping forward, "some of our readers will be interested in your hobbies and favorites."
"I ride a motorcycle. I prefer a horse, but my landlord wouldn't permit it."
The crowd laughed again.
"Your favorite color?"
He glanced at Jill and gave a devil's smile. "Pink." His pager went off amidst the tittering. He looked at Jill and shook his head.
She immediately sensed he had something pressing and stepped forward. "An emergency?"
He nodded grimly.
"Go," she said, and turned back toward the group of reporters. "Dr. Logan is doing what we all want him to do most, and that's take care of his patients. If you have any additional questions, I'll try to answer them. Feel free to use the press kit. The first ad mock-up is also available."
An hour later she took the elevator up to the floor that housed his patients and found Tyler standing over a bed where a girl lay sleeping and a monitor bleeped her heartbeat. Another nurse stood in the room. Tyler must have felt Jill's presence. He looked up and seemed to drink in her presence.
"Thanks for covering for me with the press," he said as he left the room.
"That's my job."
"You do it well," he said.
"As you do yours."
He pushed his hand through his hair. "The trouble with my job is that humans perform it, but you can't be human. You have to perform perfectly, because someone's life is at stake."
"How do you do it?"
"In surgery I never think about anything except the procedure. I don't think about the kid or the parents. But when I finish, that's when I let myself think about the kid." His face wrinkled in pain, and he led her out of the room. "Lilly, that girl in there, has so many problems with her heart it's a miracle she's alive. She's been in for twelve surgeries and I've performed the last two, but she has multiple deformities. Every time she comes in her parents and I know this could be the time her heart just quits. She went into arrest on the table yesterday."
"Have you ever lost a patient?" Jill asked, feeling the strength of his tension.
"No, and I don't ever want to."
Her heart swelled with emotion for him. "What can I do for you?"
His lips twitched. "Kiss me."
Jill rolled her eyes and turned away. "I'll talk to you later. Hope you get some rest."
"Hey, Jill," he called to her back.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. "What?"
"What did you do with the flowers?"
She refused to give him an ounce of satisfaction in that area. "None of your business."
Her doorbell woke her at 4:00 a.m.
Jill stumbled out of bed, pushed her hands through the sleeves of her robe and went downstairs to the front door. She looked through the peephole, and her heart jumped when she saw Tyler on her front porch.
She whipped open the door immediately, taking in his unshaven face, rumpled clothes and weary eyes. A knot of concern tightened in her chest. "What's wrong?"
"Lilly died."
Jill's heart fell to her feet at the gutted tone of his voice. She couldn't not hold him. Tugging him into her condo, she wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"She went into arrest three times, and the doctor on call brought her back two. By the time they called me, she was gone." He swore and pulled away, turning his back to her. "It was the strangest damn thing. I hung around until after midnight. A little over an hour later she went into arrest. It was as if she was waiting for me to leave to die. I should have been there."
She hated seeing him so torn up. "You can't always be there."
"It's my job to be there to take care of a patient in a medical crisis," he said, his voice harsh.
"And you did more than that by staying until after midnight."
"It wasn't enough."
"You told me she hadn't been expected to live as long as she already had."
"She shouldn't have died in a damn hospital. She was only eleven. She shouldn't have died period," he said.
Jill slowly walked toward him and touched his shoulder. "Do you think that maybe it was just her time?"
"It is never my patient's time to go," he said, his voice clipped.
Jill's eyes widened and she took a careful breath. "And I thought you were the only doctor I'd met who didn't suffer from a God complex."
He hung his head. "I didn't want her to die."
Jill walked around in front of him and took his face in her hands. "Of course you didn't. She was lucky to have you for her doctor, to have someone so skilled and so caring. She was very lucky."
"Not lucky enough."
"It sounds to me like you helped stretch her time."
"That's what her parents said." His gaze met hers, and she felt herself drowning in her need to help him, if that were possible.
She tugged him to her sofa. "Sit down. I'll be right back." She went to her small stash of liquor, poured a double shot of whisky and returned to set it on the sofa table.
He glanced up at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Drink it."
"Bossy?"
"Just at 4:00 a.m.," she said with a slight smile.
He tossed back the drink, grimaced, swallowed then banged the glass on the table.
"Another?" she asked, reaching for the glass and refilling it.
He drank the second and looked at her. "Now what?"
"Now we take off your jacket," she said, tugging his leather jacket down his sleeves. "Then your shoes," she said, bending down to pull off his boots.
He met her gaze as she stood. "Don't stop now."
She smiled and shook her head. "Come on." She led him up the stairs to her bedroom. "I don't want to mislead you. We're not going to make love," she told him as she unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it off his broad shoulders.
"Why not?" he asked, his eyes dark with a brooding desire.
"Not the right time," she said, feeling her pulse triple as she unfastened his belt. She hesitated before she slowly unzipped his jeans, easing the zipper down over the bulge of his masculinity. Her hands began to tremble. She stopped and swallowed. "I think you can finish taking them off."
Tyler shoved off his jeans, and she took in the sight of his well-muscled tall body. This was going to be more difficult than she'd thought. She was more aroused than she'd planned, but Jill sensed he needed something different, and she was determined to give it to him.
"Lie down on the bed," she said, steeling herself for the moment she would touch him. He shrank the space of the double bed, and she took a breath before she sat on the bed. She lifted her fingers to his brow and stroked his forehead.
His throat worked and his eyes glinted with confusion. "What are you doing?"
She continued to stroke his forehead and eyelids. "Does it feel good?"
"Yes," he said. "But what—"
"Hush," she said, sliding her finger over his mouth. "The doctor takes care of everyone. Every once in a while, someone needs to take care of the doctor. Just relax."
For a moment he looked as if he were going to argue, then he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Jill continued stroking his face until his breathing grew deep and regular. He was far too handsome for the good of the female race, she thought as she looked down at his chiseled face. Strong brows framed his large eyes crowned with black spiky eyelashes. Crinkles of concentration formed on either side of his eyes, his nose was straight, his chin stubborn and his mouth generous.
Even in sleep, he looked full of vitality. He used his charisma to help the healing process. Perhaps, she thought fancifully, he was the sorcerer.
But not tonight. Tonight he was a man.
Jill felt a stirring sensation in her, almost like the wind before a storm, sweeping across places she'd thought were locked away, slipping into secret places in her soul. Disturbed, she frowned. Comforting Tyler wasn't about sex. It wasn't even about love. It was about simple human compassion and nothing more, she told herself.
Shrugging out of her robe, and lying beside him on the bed, she gently nudged him on his side and held him from behind, her breasts against his back, her arm curled around his waist. Human compassion, her mind mocked her, as Tyler folded his hand over hers.
Tyler awakened to the sensation of slim, feminine legs entwined with his. Her breasts teased his back.
Small puffs of breath tickled his neck. He couldn't recall a nicer hug even though this one was backward. He couldn't recall a woman being so tender with him since he was a child. He might have smiled if not for the small, slim hand riding dangerously low on his abdomen. But that was Jill's hand, and the knowledge that she was so close fully aroused him. He bit back a groan.
She snuggled and her hand slid another inch closer. Tyler grew warm. To have her this close was heaven. And hell. He could slowly roll over and take her mouth, kiss her awake, take her breasts in his palms, then slide his hands down her ribs and abdomen and lower. He would explore her with his fingers and his tongue until she awakened wet and wanting him. Then he would slide inside her and pump.
Unable to stand it any longer, he carefully rolled over and slid his fingers through her tousled hair. Her cheeks were pink in sleep, her lips slightly parted as if she were waiting for his kiss. That was enough for Tyler.
He lowered his mouth to hers. She nuzzled against him and sighed. He increased the pressure and she stretched her arms around him. She was so sweet, so sexy, and he wanted her so much. Rolling onto his back, he pulled her on top of him and relished the sensation of every inch of her body pressed against his.
She moaned, then pulled her head slightly back. "What—" She blinked and sighed. "What are you doing?"
"Kissing you," he said, taking her mouth again.
She started to respond, then pulled back. "This isn't a good idea," she said in a husky voice.
"I think it's a great way to wake up. I think we should do it more often."
She pushed her hair from her face and tried to slide away, but he stopped her. "Don't rush off," he said. "You lured me to your bed last night. You're not going to leave me all alone now, are you?"
"I told you we weren't going to—"
"Make love?" He grinned, lifting his hand to stroke her hair. "That was last night."
"Last night was an act of human kindness," she insisted, pushing off him. "I realize you have a one-track mind at times, but you needed something different."
"Whisky and Jill to watch over me," he said, raising himself up on his elbow. He reached for her hand. "Don't pull away," he said. "Thank you."
She bit her lip and glanced away self-consciously. "It wasn't much. It was just—"