Nighthawk's Child

by Linda Turner

  And with every touch, every stroke, the need inside her burned hotter. Restless, achy, needing the feel of skin against skin, she reached for the buttons of his shirt. “I need to touch you,” she said huskily. “To feel you.”

  Groaning at the admission, Gavin knew just how she felt. She made him burn, and right then there was nothing he wanted more than her bare skin next to his and her slender body moving under his. Growling low in his throat, he surged to his feet with her in his arms.

  Startled, his shirt forgotten, she threw her arms around his neck. “Where are we going?”

  “To bed,” he rasped, and carried her up the stairs as if he were Rhett Butler sweeping Scarlet off to the privacy of their bedroom.

  And just that easily, he made her forget the pain of losing Cindy’s baby and the hurt that had lodged deep in her heart. Dropping kisses across her face and neck, he didn’t give her time to think of anything but him and the need that coiled tighter and tighter inside her. Kissing her hungrily as he let her feet slide down to the carpet, he finished unbuttoning her shirt, and before she could do anything but gasp, he’d peeled off not only her blouse, but her bra, as well.

  Urgency firing her blood, she wanted him as bare as she, but now, as before when they’d first made love, there was just something about the buttons of his shirt that her fingers couldn’t master. When he laughed, the rough, sexy laughter teasing her nerve endings like a caress, she gave in to her frustration and curled both hands into the material of his shirt. In the next instant, buttons went flying.

  Later, Summer couldn’t have said who was more surprised—Gavin or herself. For a stunned moment they both froze, startled. Then she realized what she’d done. Appalled, she blushed crimson. “Oh, God, I’m sorry!”

  Far from upset, he only grinned down at her in the darkness of the bedroom. “For what? I’ve never had anybody rip my clothes off before. I think I like it. So why don’t you finish what you started?”

  His brown eyes glinting with devilment, he arched a masculine brow at her, boldly daring her to continue. Hesitating, caught in the snare of his eyes, her heart slamming against her ribs, she was sure she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t an aggressive woman; she never had been. Especially when it came to sex. But there was something in his eyes that told her she could be…and she just might like it. All she had to do was shed her inhibitions and take what she wanted.

  And she wanted him.

  She hadn’t realized how much until just then. She wanted to touch him, to make love with him, to make him forget every other woman he’d ever touched. Giving in to the need, she lifted her hands to his buttonless shirt. She saw his eyes flare, felt him take a sharp breath, and was surprised by the sense of power that surged through her. She hadn’t even touched him yet and he couldn’t hide his reaction to her. Encouraged, she slipped her hands beneath the gaping front of his shirt and swept it off his shoulders. Before it hit the floor, she was tackling the snap of his jeans.

  Groaning, Gavin didn’t think he could have stopped her if his life had depended on it. Her fingers were gentle, unsure but determined, and they drove him wild. With just the brush of her knuckles against his belly as she worked at the fastening of his jeans, she made him so randy, he burned.

  Torture. There was no other way to describe what she did to him as she fought to pull off the rest of his clothes. Sweet, wonderful torture. She finally managed the snap, then turned her attention to the zipper of his jeans, and that was almost his undoing. Sweat breaking out on his brow and a muscle clenching in his jaw, he struggled to hang on to his self-control, but a man could only take so much.

  And where she was concerned, he quickly discovered, he had no control whatsoever. Her fingers brushed against his hardness, and just that easily, his control shattered. Her name a rough growl low in his throat, he swooped down to cover her mouth in a hot, sizzling kiss and he grabbed her hand to press it against the hard length of him.

  After that, there was no time for teasing, for dares, for anything but satisfying the hot, burning desire that raged between them like an inferno. Stripping off the rest of his clothes, then hers, he carried her with him down onto the bed and moved over her, into her, stealing her breath, her thoughts.

  And with no effort whatsoever, he turned her into a wild, passionate woman she hardly recognized. Whimpering, her body starting to shake with the need for release, she moved desperately under him, clinging to him, feeling as if she was going to go up in flames any moment.

  “Gavin!”

  “I know, sweetheart,” he groaned. “It feels good, doesn’t it?”

  Good didn’t begin to describe it. Nothing had ever felt so perfect in her life. She wanted to tell him, to explain how wonderful he made her feel, but her breath was tearing through her lungs and she couldn’t find the words. Her heart pounding, her head hazy with passion, she clung to him and all she could think was that she wanted more. She wanted more of him, more of the tenderness that brought tears to her eyes, more of the heated desire that held them locked together in a dance that was as old as time. She wanted it all.

  But with every breath she took, the need gathering deep inside her coiled tighter and tighter until she sobbed from the wildness of it. Then, just when she thought she couldn’t bear it a second longer, her startled cry pierced the heated darkness and she shattered in his arms.

  Groaning, Gavin fought his own release, wanting to cradle her close and cherish her sweetness. But the battle was lost before it had begun. The storm they’d created together grabbed him and dragged him under, and just that easily, he gave himself up to the wild wonder of the moment.

  Long after Gavin had fallen asleep beside her, Summer lay wide-awake, staring up at the darkness as the thunder of her heartbeat echoed in her ears. Her body still humming and her emotions far from settled, she tried to convince herself that what she and Gavin had shared had been nothing but sex. That was all it could be, all she could allow it to be.

  Why, then, did it feel like love?

  Shaken, she immediately shied away from that thought. No! She wouldn’t let herself get caught up in the idea of hearts and flowers and happily-ever-after. She wasn’t living in a romance novel—this was real life, and the only thing she and Gavin shared was a limited partnership that would end precisely in one year. You didn’t love your business partner. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t.

  She did.

  How had this happened? she wondered wildly. When? She’d been so sure she had her emotions under control, that she wanted nothing more from Gavin than his help at her clinic for a year. She’d walked right into their arrangement with her eyes wide open, smugly confident that she could handle anything for a year.

  So much for wishful thinking, she thought with a groan. They’d been married a little over a week, and already she was in love with him! She had to be out of her mind. That was the only explanation. Gavin didn’t love her; she wasn’t even sure that he liked her. He just wanted her. And that hurt. Because she wanted a heck of a lot more from him than that, and she didn’t think she was ever going to get it.

  Dear God, what was she going to do?

  Three days later, Summer was still searching for answers. Thankfully, though, she didn’t have time to brood about it. It was Gavin’s first day of work at her clinic, and she’d taken the morning off from the hospital so she could show him the ropes and introduce him to the staff and patients. They had to be there at eight, and before that, they had to take Alyssa to Lettie’s. That meant their day started early.

  Summer liked to think she was a responsible person. She was seldom late for work because she planned her wardrobe the night before so that everything she would need the next morning would be right there at her fingertips. In the past, however, she’d never had to worry about getting anyone else ready but herself. It was a whole different ball game when you had a baby who also needed to be dressed and provided for for the day. Especially when that baby was up with the chickens and demanding to eat while both parent
s were trying to get dressed for work.

  In the process of hurriedly drying her hair, Summer swore softly under her breath when Alyssa let out a sharp warning cry that she was quickly running out of patience. “I know, baby,” she called out. “I’m coming. Just give me a second. I’ll be right with you.”

  She didn’t dare call herself mama to her yet, but it didn’t matter to Alyssa. She wanted toast and jelly, not excuses. Held captive in her crib, she let out another frustrated cry, this one more miserable than the last.

  Adjusting his tie, Gavin stood next to where Summer sat at the vanity and grinned at her in the mirror. “Somebody’s getting impatient. I seem to be further along than you—I’ll take care of Little Bit.”

  “I’ll be right there,” she promised, trying not to notice just how devastatingly handsome he was this morning. She’d seen him in a dress shirt and tie at the hospital more times than she could count, but never the morning after spending the night in his bed. That single factor changed everything.

  By the time Summer made it downstairs, Alyssa had finished her toast and she had grape jam all over her. She took one look at Summer, gurgled happily, and held up her arms.

  “Oh, no!” Summer groaned, laughing.

  “The more she likes her food, the more she likes to wear it,” Gavin chuckled as he dampened a washcloth and stepped over to clean the baby’s face. “How are we doing on time?”

  Summer glanced at her watch and winced. “Not good. I didn’t realize it would take so long to get all of us ready.”

  “That’s because you’ve never had to mess with this little monkey in the morning,” he said as he snatched Alyssa from her high chair and made her giggle. “Tomorrow we’ll get up earlier.”

  They had to hustle to get to the reservation in time. Lettie, who’d taken care of Alyssa from the moment she was born until Gavin left her with her aunt Rachel, was thrilled to have the baby back in her care. Love shining in her dark brown eyes, she couldn’t stop talking about Alyssa and how devoted a father Gavin was. Fascinated, Summer would have loved to stay to hear more, but she had responsibilities at the clinic. Promising herself that she would sit down with Lettie one day soon to learn all about Gavin, she made sure the older woman had the clinic phone number, then kissed the baby and hurried to the clinic.

  It was a minute to eight when they arrived, and there was already a stream of patients spilling out of the waiting room onto the front porch. Pushing her way through the crowd, Summer took the time to speak or nod a greeting to everyone, and all the while she was checking to make sure there were no emergencies that had to be dealt with immediately. Only when she was sure that the majority of the patients were there for the usual cold or flu symptoms did she step through the swinging door that separated the waiting room from the examining rooms to introduce Gavin to her three-member staff.

  “Gavin, this is Mary Joe Hunter, our receptionist, and Terry Carter and Beth Fox, the two best nurses in the world.”

  Smiling, Gavin shook hands all the way around. “It’s nice to meet you, ladies. It looks like we’ve got a full house this morning.”

  Mary Joe, who had a round face and easy smile, had the kindest eyes he’d ever seen. “We have a full house every day, Dr. Nighthawk. Out here on the reservation, we’re the only game in town.”

  “Gavin’s going to be working the morning shift and three afternoons a week,” she told the other women. “Let me show him around so he’ll know where everything is, and we’ll get started.”

  Of all the things she’d done in her life, there was nothing Summer was more proud of than the clinic. But when she gave Gavin a quick tour of the place, she couldn’t miss the dismay in his eyes when he saw the old-fashioned equipment in the examining rooms and shortage of supplies in the supply room.

  “This is the best I can do with the money I was able to borrow,” she said gruffly. “I’ve applied for a government grant, but it takes time to be approved, so I just do what I can until it comes through.”

  Shocked, Gavin said, “Are you telling me you’re using your own money and funding this entire clinic by yourself?”

  “The funding will come through soon—”

  “But in the meantime, you’re digging into your own pockets,” he cut in with a frown. “How in the world are you getting by? I saw that crowd in the waiting room. I’ll bet most of them don’t have insurance or the money to pay for medication or their exams. You’ve got to be operating in the red.”

  She didn’t pretend to deny it. “It’s only a temporary situation, just until the funding comes through.”

  “But you said yourself that could take months,” he retorted. “How can you afford to operate the place? At this rate, you’ll be broke by the end of the year.”

  Just then Terry escorted a young woman with an infant in her arms and a toddler clinging to her skirt into one of the examining rooms. Meticulously clean, the young family was dressed in clothes that had been washed many times and it was obvious that their circumstances were strained. And all three appeared to be miserably sick with colds and in need of help.

  Nodding to the trio, Summer simply said, “How can I not? These are my people and they need my help.” Nothing else needed to be said.

  Ten

  They worked side by side all morning long, and the crowd in the waiting room never seemed to lessen. As soon as one patient was examined and sent home with a prescription that Summer paid for herself, there was another one to take his place, then another. If he hadn’t known better, Gavin would have thought he was working an assembly line. The faces of the patients blurred, and at that time of the year, their ailments were all fairly universal. Flu, cold, allergies, with the occasional stomach virus thrown in for variation. Gavin hadn’t seen anything like it since his days of working the emergency room in the county hospital when he was in medical school.

  And with every patient that came through the swinging door to the examining rooms, Gavin’s admiration for Summer grew. She knew just about everyone’s name and treated them as if they were old friends. There may have been dozens of people in the waiting room, but she didn’t let that rush her. She took the time to ask each person she examined about their families, school, the new baby or the new job. And they loved her for it. She received hugs of thanks from one patient after another, and she didn’t hesitate to return each embrace, even when that meant being exposed to some obviously contagious viruses.

  Concentrating on the patients and their needs, she worked tirelessly through the morning, taking only the barest of breaks, and those were few and far between. Amazed, Gavin didn’t know how she did it. He was a dedicated professional and liked to think he worked as hard as the next doctor, but she left him standing in her dust. Marveling at her stamina, he could only shake his head and try to keep up. Motioning to Mary Joe to call the next patient, he drank the last of the now cold coffee he’d been trying to finish ever since he’d come in that morning, then hurriedly washed his hands.

  Stepping into the examining room, he checked the name on the chart and greeted the elderly woman who sat stiffly in a chair rather than on the ancient examining table Summer had bought at an auction. “Good morning, Mrs. Elkhorn. How are you doing today?”

  She was eighty if she was a day, but behind the lenses of her bifocals, her nearly black eyes were as sharp as a cornered cougar’s. “I don’t like doctors,” she said with quiet dignity. “There is nothing you can do for me.”

  Early in his training, Gavin had learned that many of the elderly patients weren’t afraid of doctors, as most people thought, but rather the thought of getting sick and losing control of their lives. So they denied their illnesses and pretended nothing was wrong, and in the long run, they only ended up harming themselves and bringing about the very thing they were trying to prevent.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he replied. “It says here in your chart that your daughter brought you in because you’ve been having dizzy spells.”

  Refusing to even look
at him, her chin went up a notch. “My daughter meddles in things that are none of her concern.”

  Gavin’s lips twitched, but he only nodded sagely. “I’m sure that must be frustrating for you, but since you’re here, I’d like to examine you—”

  “No.”

  “It won’t take long—”

  “No.”

  She had the look of a woman who was prepared to sit there all day if she had to. Surveying her ruefully, Gavin knew when he was beaten. “Well, then, I guess there’s nothing I can do to help you, but I think there’s someone here who might. If you’ll excuse me a moment, I’ll be right back.”

  Not giving her a chance to argue, he left her in the examining room and went in search of Summer. He found her at the nurses’s desk making last-minute notes in a chart before she called her next patient. “I need your help,” he said as soon as she glanced up.

  Surprised, she immediately closed the chart and jumped to her feet in alarm. “An emergency? No one told me—”

  “No, it’s Sharon Elkhorn,” he said, blocking her path before she could rush into the other examining room. Quickly and precisely, he told her about his conversation with the other woman. “She’s not going to let me come near her. Maybe you should talk to her.”

  Surprised by the request, Summer couldn’t believe she’d heard him correctly. As most doctors, Gavin had a healthy ego. He wasn’t as bad as some surgeons who thought they were right up there with God in the pecking order, but he didn’t lack for confidence when it came to doing his job. For him to admit that he couldn’t get anywhere with a patient was pretty amazing.