by Ann Mcintosh
She was fine with a light cardigan, and was even barefooted, as was her habit at home.
Stretching her tired neck muscles, she tried to relax and let go of the stress that had built up during the week. Although the schedule was lighter here than back in California—seven days on call, then seven off, rather than two weeks on and two off—getting used to a new routine was taxing. As was getting called out three of the seven nights, when a patient needed her urgent attention.
Even building a working rapport with the staff she interacted with the most took its toll, but she felt as though she’d achieved that.
Well, except with Morgan Welk, who seemed bent on trying to undermine her whenever he could. It didn’t bother her, since she’d learned, from a very young age, how to deal with people like him. When faced with that kind of opposition, she became more determined, and made sure to ruthlessly cross her t’s and dot her i’s, so as to never be found lacking.
The only real fly in the ointment, as far as she was concerned, was the upcoming dinner with Mateo Herrera, which was scheduled for the next evening.
Every time she thought about it, an internal battle ensued.
Her sense of self-preservation told her not to go.
But her adventurous side, which she hardly ever let out to play, wanted to see where this all would lead.
Oh, he’d tried to make it sound merely casual and friendly, but Regina hadn’t been fooled. The truth was in his eyes, which gleamed darkly whenever he looked at her, and seemed to make all kinds of naughty promises.
Promises she was both eager to take him up on, and a little afraid of, too.
Or maybe she was just overthinking? After all, he was at least ten years her junior. Why on earth would he be interested in an older woman, when he could have his pick of all the younger ones?
So she should go, and they would have a nice dinner, and that would be that.
And if it went any other way, she’d just shut it all down.
That was also something she was very good at—setting boundaries and steadfastly disallowing anyone to cross them.
But each time she’d had to interact with him, she found herself feeling slightly off-kilter.
And excited.
It had taken her all of three days to actually admit that to herself, but her physical reactions whenever he was around couldn’t be ignored. Yet, hadn’t she decided to cut men, with their ridiculous demands and deceit, out of her life?
That decision had been firm and definitive, brought about by the kind of situation no self-respecting woman ever wanted to be caught in. And even four months later she couldn’t shake the shame and anger of being accosted by a strange female in the hospital parking lot and accused of being a home-wrecker.
Regina had been speechless. She really hadn’t known Kevin was married. In the ten months they’d been seeing each other, it hadn’t even crossed her mind to doubt he was as single as he’d claimed to be. They’d slowly been getting closer to the point where she’d have considered a commitment, which he professed to want from her, but she’d been in no rush. First, she was studying for her master’s degree in hospital management, then she’d been putting in a lot of hours to position herself for the next promotion she wanted.
Only afterward, in hindsight, had she realized how easy she’d made it for him to perpetrate his deception.
With her work schedule and complete focus on the upward trajectory of her career, she’d been a prime target. He canceled on her? No problem. She’d just moved on to the next thing on her to-do list, which was always long, and meticulously written down. With her sights set on the long term, she was too busy to worry about a few missed dates.
He’d completely fooled her, and her takeaway from the experience was—no more relationships. No more messy interactions that would detract from her plans or open her up to ridicule. Being the cynosure of all eyes at work because she’d made a stupid mistake had become too much, even for someone who normally paid no attention to what others thought.
Which was why it annoyed her to no end to find Mateo this attractive.
To feel her insides melt and heat and quicken whenever he was around, as she wondered what kind of lover he’d be.
Thank goodness for a well-developed poker face and the ability to keep her feelings to herself. Those attributes had served her well, although occasionally she’d caught him looking at her in a way that suggested he was seeing right through her facade. And what he’d gleaned was as exciting to him as he was to her.
After agreeing to go to dinner with him, Regina had given him her address and phone number, and expected him to call or text sometime over the next few days. Most of the men she’d dated had gone for the hard sell: calling all the time, laying a foundation to get her to sleep with them, treating her like a challenge or competition.
Instead, there’d been radio silence, leaving her to stew about whether Mateo was at all interested in her.
She couldn’t remember feeling this way about any other man.
If she were made of less stern stuff, Regina mused to herself as she sipped her wine, she’d be terrified.
There was no way to know which way her dinner with Mateo would go. He’d been completely professional whenever they interacted in the hospital, which was almost daily, as they’d worked together on diagnosing and treating four patients, including Mrs. Morales.
It was a good thing they’d come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan for the elderly lady before her daughter-in-law had arrived. The younger Mrs. Morales was a firecracker, and had made it clear she was there to take charge of her mother-in-law’s care going forward.
Regina was glad to see the obvious affection between the two women, and the gentle way the younger woman treated the older. And when Mateo came into the room, her patient waved toward him and called him Papito, which made her daughter-in-law laugh.
When Regina had asked Mateo what it meant, he’d looked a little sheepish, and the tips of his ears got adorably red.
“It’s just a silly nickname,” he’d said, trying to sound dismissive.
“But what does it mean?” She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t let it go, when it was clearly not something he wanted to discuss.
“Um, strictly translated, Little Daddy.”
She’d bitten the inside of her cheek so as not to laugh at the grudging admission.
When she’d fought for and won back her composure, she’d asked, “Do you get those kinds of nicknames often?”
It had been on the tip of her tongue to actually call him that, but she’d restrained herself at the last minute. It felt too intimate to tease him that way, and the last thing she needed was to get even friendlier with him.
“Occasionally. Now, about her treatment schedule...”
Letting him off the hook was harder than she liked. And she’d subsequently had to stop herself from calling him Papito a couple of times thereafter.
There was something about him that brought out her lighter side, and, coupled with her physical attraction toward him, it made him all the more dangerous.
Sighing again, she took another sip of wine and then lifted her face up to let the night air flow across her overly warm skin. Just thinking about him made her hot and jumpy, and she searched for some justification that didn’t involve wanting—quite desperately—to sleep with him.
It was, she decided, just a side effect of all she’d been through, and being in a strange place. A place that seemed to hum with electricity unlike any she was used to. Redolent with a sort of carefree, beach vibe on one hand, and the frenetic energy of a racing, hustling city on the other.
Mateo Herrera was just one more facet of a brief change that had, understandably, given her usually work-focused, driven life a shake-up.
But in the final analysis, nothing that happened here in Miami was going to have a lasting impact on the
life she’d mapped out. She wasn’t planning on sleeping with Mateo, or on possibly opening herself up to the same kind of gossip and ugliness she’d fled San Francisco to get away from.
If she just reminded herself of that and kept her eye on her long-term goals, it would all work out fine.
Lifting her glass, she silently toasted her own determination, before tipping the last of the wine into her mouth.
Nothing—and definitely no man—was going to stand in the way of her achieving her goals.
Not even one as delectable as Mateo.
* * *
Mateo pulled into the parking lot of Regina’s building on the night of their dinner and drove under the portico. She’d told him she’d meet him in the lobby, but traffic had been lighter than he expected and he was fifteen minutes early.
He wished he’d timed it better, since sitting in the car, waiting, gave him far too much time to think. His nerves were jangling, his pent-up excitement tightening his muscles and making his mouth dry.
It was a while since he’d been on a date, but that wasn’t the problem.
What made it nerve-racking was that it was a date with Regina, a woman who made him ravenous each time he looked at her, and brought out in him a fierce, almost feral, desire.
Whenever he saw or thought about her, his brain seemed to freeze, to stumble over itself, even as his body reacted in far more carnal ways.
Waiting for her to appear had anticipation tingling through his body, and made him feel like a teenager again.
It wasn’t a comfortable sensation in the slightest.
He couldn’t recall feeling like this on past dates. Not that he’d had time to do much dating while raising his siblings.
At first, he’d thought that once they grew up and things settled down, he’d have time to go back to his old life. Of course, he was wrong. As a nominal single parent, things had just gotten more complicated. There was a constant round of school and extracurricular events he had to attend, as well as making sure he was keeping them on track scholastically and emotionally. Even as they became teenagers and wanted to do their own thing, he realized he couldn’t release the reins just yet. In fact, to him, that had been the most critical time.
Those early teen years were when so many young lives went off the tracks, and it was his responsibility to make sure they all stayed on the straight and narrow, and were happy.
Now he was free—or as free as he’d ever be—and it seemed he was sorely out of practice when it came to women. The few casual relationships he’d been able to slip in without disrupting his home life apparently hadn’t prepared him for this.
But he was probably just being silly, he told himself, as he glanced at his watch. While he was certain of his electric attraction to her, he wasn’t 100 percent sure it was reciprocated. And he knew, for a fact, that if Regina Montgomery decided there would be nothing between them, he couldn’t change her mind.
She was too determined a woman, and he was too much of a gentleman. Strong-arm tactics weren’t in his nature, and he had no intention of adding them to whatever small dating repertoire he still possessed.
They’d probably have dinner, chat about inconsequential things, and that would be that. Not that he wouldn’t make his interest known, but no matter how badly he wanted her, he’d make sure to leave the decision on what happened completely up to her.
He’d been watching the lobby, and each time the elevator doors opened his heart skipped a beat. Just as he glanced at his watch again, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up.
This time his heart not only stuttered but seemed to turn right over, leaving him breathless.
She was absolutely stunning.
Her electric blue long-sleeved top wrapped across her shoulders and under her breasts, hugging every curve and making her waist look tiny. The tantalizing hint of cleavage had him wanting to kiss all the way along it and down, so as to discover the mysteries lying below. A silky skirt in vibrant colors flowed around her legs and clung enticingly to her thighs as she walked. High, strappy sandals completed the sexy ensemble, and her hips swung with each long stride.
It wasn’t just her looks that kept him entranced. The way she carried herself—so proudly, regally—made the need inside burn hotter. He was totally enraptured, frozen where he sat, his heart pounding, blood racing through his veins like lava.
Then she paused, looking out through the glass, reaching up to touch her hair, as though to make sure the long waves were still in place. She normally wore her hair up, and Mateo’s fingers itched to tunnel through it, rub her scalp until she purred.
He bit back a groan, annoyed at his reaction.
This is ridiculous.
Tearing his gaze away, he reached for the handle of the car door and made himself open it. Wasn’t it just a few moments ago he was calling himself a gentleman? Time to get his head on straight and start acting like one, rather than a sex-starved teenager.
As he got out of the car, she saw him, and although her face didn’t light up the way he’d have liked, a little smile tipped her lips. And it was a more relaxed, natural one, than the thin, distancing smile she usually gave.
He got to the door to the apartment building just before she did, and when she pressed the lever to unlock it, he held it open for her.
“Hi,” she said, sailing past him and leaving a sweet waft of perfume behind. It went straight to his head, like scotch. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long.”
“Not at all. And I have to say, you look very nice.”
Of course, she looked way more than just nice, but he knew better than to be too effusive. He’d seen the way she coolly cut down any comment that even hinted at flattery or kissing up.
His comment still earned him a slanted, sideways glance over her shoulder, as he reached out to open the passenger door.
“Thank you,” she replied, rather wryly, as she slid gracefully into the seat. “I wasn’t sure where we were going, so I hope I’m dressed appropriately.”
He bent to tuck the end of her skirt properly into the car so it wouldn’t get caught in the door, bringing their faces almost level. This close, her beauty stole his breath, but it was her gleaming, lioness eyes that caught and held him.
Was it his imagination, or was there more than just amusement in those molten depths?
“No matter where we go, you’re dressed appropriately,” he replied.
“So it’s the hotdog stand, then?”
Now there was no mistaking her teasing, irrespective of her dry tone. It was there in her gaze and the upward curve of her gorgeous, sensual lips.
He chuckled, wanting to kiss the smile off her mouth, but forcing himself to straighten instead.
“How did you know that’s my favorite spot in Miami?” he asked. “I made a reservation for the bench closest to the cart.”
“Lovely,” came her swift reply. “As long as they serve the dogs with sauerkraut, I’m happy.”
“What?” He feigned outrage. “Not on your life. This is chili country, lady.”
Light laughter greeted his statement just before he shut her door, and he was still chuckling as he rounded the hood of the car. The silly levity made the evening feel less fraught, although the laughter did nothing to quell his desire for Regina.
If anything, her quirky sense of humor intensified it, even though nothing in her demeanor led him to think she was interested in him physically.
Either way, he thought, as he opened his own door, the evening should be fun.
And he was content with that.
CHAPTER FOUR
REGINA SETTLED BACK against the soft leather seat and smiled ruefully to herself.
Although she’d dithered back and forth a bit while trying to decide what to wear, in the end she’d dressed for seduction—wearing a blouse that showcased her boobs, and a ski
rt that tended to outline her legs as she walked. Everything she had on, down to her silky, lacy lingerie, was carefully chosen to scream Sex!
Just when she’d decided a little fun and games with the delectable doctor would be okay, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was that at some point the realization had struck—this might be the last time she had a chance to totally let loose without fear of the consequences. And she figured she might as well let him know straight up.
And what was Mateo’s reaction?
You look very nice.
She had to bite the inside of her cheek not to laugh out loud.
So much for going for the obvious.
Almost even more annoying was how incredible he looked, and her reaction to seeing him get out of the car.
Used to him being in scrubs, which he made look ridiculously yummy, she found that seeing him dressed for the evening gave her an even better appreciation of his good looks and fine body. His white linen shirt made his shoulders and chest seem even wider than usual, and his dark dress pants showed off powerful thighs.
Her heart had trip-hammered, and a surge of heat rushed through her, settling deep in her belly. It wasn’t like her to have such a visceral response to a man, and it had taken her aback. Then she’d reminded herself that she’d spent the last week thinking about him and wondering whether there might be something about to happen between them.
Well, since he’d just said she looked nice, she could relax and put that thought aside. If he were interested, she was sure he’d be more explicit with his compliments.
Most of the men she’d come into contact with were.
Yet, his nonchalance made her tension dissipate, and she decided to simply enjoy the evening. At least it seemed they shared a similar, ridiculous sense of humor, so that would make things easier, although why she felt comfortable sharing that with him was debatable. Only her closest friends were privy to that side of her.
Not wanting to go down that road mentally, she asked, “So where is this hotdog stand we’re going to anyway?”
