The Last First Kiss (Harlequin Special Edition)

by Ferrarella, Marie

  Dave looked at Clarice, but the nurse just shrugged her very wide shoulders, silently conveying that she hadn’t a clue what was happening out here.

  Kara was surrounded by an army of short people, all eagerly watching her every move. That included dropping to her knees beside an orange plastic chair that appeared to be bolted onto the floor.

  “What are you doing here?” he wanted to know. And why was she now snaking her way under that chair?

  “In a minute,” he heard her mumble in response.

  Then he heard her grunt as she struggled to push a plug into the electrical outlet directly in front of the bolted chair. When she snaked her way back out again, Kara brushed off a layer of dust bunnies from the front of her tank top before she stood up.

  Only then did he notice the gaming system on the magazine table—now completely devoid of any magazines—standing beside the orange chair. Above the system was a twenty-inch monitor. That was new. He looked from it to Kara, momentarily too stunned to adequately form his question.

  “Okay,” Kara announced. He was about to ask her, “Okay, what?” when he realized she wasn’t talking to him. She was talking to the squadron of pint-size patients who were still in the waiting room. “This is up and running,” she told the children. Pointing to the four control pads, each in a different color, she said, “Four of you can play the game at the same time.” She raised her eyes to Dave. “That should take care of your noise problem,” she told him cheerfully.

  That was when he saw that there was a different system hooked up across the room from the first one. The four hand controllers attached to that system were quickly claimed and four patients began their mighty adventure, all struggling to keep their colorful vehicles on the track while they raced toward a virtual finish line. The children not fast enough to grab a controller gathered around them, watching and waiting for their turn at the game.

  Satisfied that the children were all occupied and no longer restless, bored and whiny, Kara finally turned around to face Dave. “I think I just might have found a solution to your noise-level problem and your restless-child syndrome,” she told him with a very pleased grin on her lips.

  “Good thing your mother secured those donations when she did,” he commented. He knew that gaming systems didn’t come cheaply. When he saw the way Kara frowned, he hadn’t a clue what he could have said to bring that on. Or why the frown intensified when he asked, “So how much will I owe you?”

  Forcing a smile back on her lips, she quipped. “Oh, so much more than you will ever be able to repay in one lifetime.”

  He hated being in anyone’s debt—for any reason. “Seriously,” he prodded.

  Kara’s smile was deliberately wide, deliberately innocent and deliberately bright. “Seriously,” she echoed.

  He tried again. “No, what do you want me to write on the check?”

  “To Kara with love?” It was half a question, half a suggestion. The little girl standing beside her giggled and covered her mouth up with both hands. She muffled the sound but giggled again, her bright blue eyes dancing.

  “Besides that,” Dave said patiently, his pen poised over the checkbook he’d taken out of his back pocket.

  “Be right back,” she told the little girl she had begun tutoring on the game’s finer points.

  Taking Dave by the arm, she turned him around so that he was facing away from the people sitting out in the waiting room.

  “Put your checkbook away,” she ordered.

  “But—” he began to protest. That was when he discovered that he really needed to talk quickly to get anything said around Kara when she was on a roll.

  “Did I ask you for money?” she wanted to know, her eyes all but pinning him in place.

  He was determined to get his piece out. “No, but this had to cost more than just two box tops and a stamp.”

  “I can see why you’re regarded so highly in your profession. Nothing gets past you.” She took a breath and he saw that she was not just looking for the right phrase, she was gathering herself together, as well. “Let me explain it to you so that even someone as removed from the lowly, common, everyday world as you obviously are can understand this. You did not ask me to bring any of these systems, thus you do not owe me anything for their sudden appearance at the clinic. You do not have to worry about footing this bill or any bill that has anything to do with video games.”

  She could see that his integrity was making him resist. Kara put her arm around his shoulders, or at least as high up as she could reach.

  “The company I work for is producing video games for a certain target audience. Namely kids under fourteen. Once in a while, it’s nice to come out into the real world and see that ‘audience’ play the games I’ve been slaving over. As a side benefit,” she pointed out, gesturing toward first one group of kids, then the other, “it keeps them quiet for you.” Stepping back, she smiled. “Consider it my contribution toward achieving world peace.”

  It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful. It was just that he felt as if he’d been taken by storm. This was the way people in the path of a hurricane had to feel once it was over.

  Dave shook his head. “Like I said, I’m never going to understand you.”

  She smiled broadly at him, obviously tickled by his admission. “It’s what I’m counting on.” She saw the puzzled look in his eyes. “Every woman likes to be considered mysterious,” she explained, then winked.

  There was mysterious, and then there was dealing with a complete enigma, he thought. Kara definitely fell into that second category. But he didn’t have time to ponder over that. He had patients to see. Patients who, if he didn’t start seeing them, were liable to be here all night, as would he.

  And now that Kara was here, organizing his patients into two teams, he really didn’t want to be here the rest of the night. There was dedication and then there was behavior bordering on the fanatical.

  Maybe he would have slipped into that niche before, but now he had someone waiting for him who didn’t need him to put a thermometer under her tongue. This might not actually be his life, but while it lasted it made one hell of a diversion.

  Picking up a chart, he went to see his patient in the first exam room, already anticipating the light at the end of the tunnel. And, oddly enough, he knew that Kara would be standing there.

  At least for now.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The end finally had a date pinned to it. It was coming tonight. At her mother’s house right after dinner. Maybe even before.

  She didn’t much feel like eating. Kara wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist. She was going to have to change clothes, she thought listlessly. She was practically soggy.

  That’s what happens when you sweat all day, she thought sarcastically. This had to be connected to her telling Dave that they were giving their final “lovebird” performance tonight. Her stomach had been in knots when she’d told him that last night, and he hadn’t received the news very well.

  Undoubtedly because he wanted to be the one to call the shots, she thought.

  But this needed to happen. Now. It certainly couldn’t continue like this indefinitely. She needed to wrap this up, to bring it home.

  Because the longer she put it off, the longer she waited before bringing an end to this mythical romance she and Dave were supposedly involved in, the harder that outcome was going to be to take. For her mother, for his mother and, damn it all to hell, for her, too, Kara thought irritably.

  Feeling oddly woozy, she stopped getting ready for the fateful dinner and sat down on the edge of her bed. It was Friday night and she’d gotten home about half an hour ago. Usually that was enough time for her to get ready with time to spare, but tonight she was moving as if there were molasses in her veins. When she’d gotten
up this morning, she’d felt off, and it had only worsened as the day progressed.

  Damn Dave, anyway.

  Against her own advice, against all reason, like a careless spider, she had gotten caught in her own web. And it didn’t look as if she could work her way free without causing some damage.

  What had possessed her to begin this stupid charade, anyway? If she’d held her peace, put up with her mother’s annoying but heart-in-the-right-place, less-than-veiled hints and attempts to get her to jump into the dating field with both feet, then she would have never known that there was actually someone out there capable of rattling the very foundations of her world.

  She also, Kara quietly reminded herself, wouldn’t have gotten to know the teeth-jarring ecstasy Dave had introduced her to.

  Makes it that much harder to do without it, she thought, unable to shake the aura of sadness that insisted on descending over her.

  “And next week’s going to be harder than this week, Kara,” she said aloud. “C’mon, you knew what you were getting into when you started all this. Don’t get cold feet on me now.”

  The problem was that she hadn’t known what she was getting into, not really. And right now, her feet were far from cold. They were hot.

  All of her was hot.

  Last night, she’d been so wrapped up in how and when to end this make-believe romance, she hadn’t really paid attention to the fact that she was feeling progressively weaker and was now as energetic as a raccoon that’d been run over by a truck.

  Flattened out and close to dead, she thought cynically.

  Again she ran the back of her wrist along her forehead to wipe away fresh perspiration. Had she caught something the last time she’d gone to the clinic? On a generous roll, she’d gone to the clinic to bring a third gaming system and had stayed to hook it up. Her thought had been to minimize the possibility of squabbling children. This time, she’d noted, Clarice had actually smiled at her when she’d gotten the system up and running. The longtime nurse had given her personal seal of approval. It shouldn’t have meant anything to her, Kara thought.

  But it did.

  Looking back, this was obviously a case of no good deed going unpunished because she really felt icky, not to mention dizzy.

  When she heard a bell ringing, it took Kara a couple of moments to realize that the sound was coming from her own doorbell.

  At least her ears weren’t ringing, she thought.

  Every bone in her body ached in protest as she got to her feet and dragged herself across the seemingly long distance from the foot of her bed to her front door.

  Taking a deep breath, doing her best to pull herself together, she opened it. Dave was standing on the other side, looking far from happy, she noted dully.

  He’d spent all day telling himself that he was going to welcome getting back to his usual routine. Welcome not seeing her anymore after tonight. And all the while, his mood kept darkening.

  About to grumble a perfunctory greeting, the words died unspoken on his lips as Dave took a good look at the woman who had turned his world on its ear and was threatening now to drop-kick it to the curb.

  Walking in, he told her, “You look like hell.”

  She left the door open and ambled into the living room, dropping onto the sofa. Her knees felt like rubber bands. Used rubber bands.

  “Hello to you, too.”

  He doubled back to close the door, then crossed over to her. She really did look pretty awful. “What’s going on?” he wanted to know.

  Kara tried to shrug, but her shoulders suddenly weighed too much for her to complete the movement. Instead, she tried to content herself with giving him an accusing glare.

  It was a feeble attempt.

  She was definitely not comfortable in her own skin tonight. It felt as if she were inhabiting someone else’s body. And that body was sick.

  “I think I caught something from one of your patients the last time I came to the clinic.” Her breathing was growing progressively labored. “How come you don’t come down with anything?”

  Oh, but I have, Dave thought. And for me, there’s no medicine, no cure.

  But that wasn’t anything he was about to share with her since she’d nonchalantly told him last night that it was time to finally put this little performance of theirs to bed. She’d undoubtedly have a sarcastic quip for him or, worse, laugh that he could have been dumb enough to get caught up in all this while she was only playacting.

  So he merely cracked, “I don’t know. Clean living, I guess.” Concerned, he tried to put his hand to her forehead but she jerked her head back and almost fell over on the sofa as she did so. “Hold still,” he ordered gruffly.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to interfere with the latest scientific breakthrough for gauging a person’s body temperature—or are you just trying to get fresh and working your way down?” Each word cost her a little and it took a great deal of effort to remain coherent. She didn’t like this. She was hardly ever sick and she had no patience with her own weakness.

  “Well, there’s obviously nothing wrong with that rapier tongue of yours,” he observed. “That still seems to be working just fine.” He’d barely touched her forehead, but what he’d felt told him she was burning up. Her eyes appeared almost hollow with dark circles under them while the rest of her was very flushed. “You need to get into bed.”

  She lifted her chin, or thought she did. One hand on the sofa’s arm for support, she pushed herself up to her feet, the picture of unsteady defiance. “Not even going to buy me dinner first?”

  “I’m serious, Kara,” he said sternly. “You’re burning up. I don’t know how you’re managing to even stand.” Although, he added silently, she was weaving in place a bit.

  “Grit,” she answered between clenched teeth. At this point, she could have sworn that the perspiration was pouring out of her.

  “Either that, or you’ve glued yourself upright.” Okay, enough was enough, he thought. Time to be her doctor and not her rejected would-be lover. He had an oath to follow. “In any case, you’re going to bed.”

  “No, I’m not,” she argued, although not with anywhere near the verve she’d intended. “We have a fight to get into, remember?” she protested. That was what they’d agreed to, wasn’t it? To go to her mother’s for dinner and then pick a ridiculous fight with one another that would escalate into a shouting match.

  Oh God, her throat felt raw. How was she going to hurl accusations at him with a raw throat?

  “I’d say we’re already into it,” he pointed out coolly. “Now, are you going to listen to me and go to bed, or are you going to force me to take drastic measures with you?”

  “Sounds kinky,” she quipped, doing her best to ignore the fact that her head was spinning at a progressively faster and faster speed. This didn’t happen to her, she insisted. At least, it didn’t happen without a soul-draining kiss from Dave to start her off.

  She blinked, trying desperately to cast off the encroaching fog consuming her brain.

  “You are the most infuriating woman,” he complained. The next second, he scooped her up into his arms. Turning, he began to carry her into the bedroom.

  “Where did the floor go?” she asked weakly. She was still trying to focus, though it was growing more and more difficult.

  Beneath the barrage of sarcastic remarks was one very sick young woman, Dave thought. Her whole body felt hot in his arms, right through her clothing. That wasn’t a good sign.

  “How long have you been like this?” he asked her gruffly.

  “About thirty years,” she answered, pushing each word out. It took a great deal of effort. “My mother said I started talking when I was less than a year old.”

  He could readily believe that. And obviously, she hadn’t learned how
to stop since. “I mean, how long have you had this fever?”

  She felt like she had been this way forever. She paused, trying to think.

  “I woke up with it,” she recalled. Lately, she’d been waking up with him beside her. But last night, after she’d told him about what they were going to do tonight, Dave had opted to leave. He didn’t even bother making an excuse.

  Oh well, that was something she was going to have to get used to from here on in, she’d told herself. She’d hated being alone in her bed, but that wasn’t up for discussion. Ever. Though the fact remained that before this fever hit with full force she’d begun feeling remarkably empty and disconnected.

  She knew it had to do with the fact that she was missing him—how stupid was that? How could she have gotten so used to having him there for her when she’d spent most of her life not having him there?

  It made no sense.

  Nothing made sense anymore. They were breaking up, she thought sadly.

  “And you went to work?” It was more of an accusation than a question.

  “It’s what I do.” The answer came out breathlessly. “Don’t walk so fast,” she ordered, doing her best to sound authoritative. The words came out in a raspy whisper. “You’re making the room spin.”

  He was walking slow and in a straight line that couldn’t be responsible for making anything spin. “What are you taking for your fever?” he asked, reaching her bedroom.

  “I don’t know.” She pressed her cheek against his chest, seeking the comfort of hearing his heart beat. “What’ll you give me?”

  Well, at least her mind was still functioning, he consoled himself, even if it was an old joke.

  With the side of his shoulder, he pushed the door open all the way and crossed to her bed. A bed, he couldn’t help thinking, where so much had happened. A bed that, for a little while, had belonged to both of them.