And when he had taken her a third time in as many hours, Mac hadn't the strength to draw himself away from her body.

Not the strength, nor the desire. He liked the feel of her heart hammering against his. Of remaining within her, two bodies joined in a warm feeling.

This is how it's supposed to be.

He had no idea where the thought came from and was too tired to chase it down. To chase it away.

With a sigh, he rolled off her, then gathered her to him.

Don't get too complacent, too comfortable, Jolene warned herself, trying to steel off the sensation permeating through her.

She sighed softly, her breath moving the hairs on his chest. "So this is what you call a thorough examination."

She could feel his grin. "Yup."

Slowly she stroked his chest, loving the feel of it. "You do this for all your patients?"

Mac raised his head to look at her, wondering if she was just teasing, or asking him something. And if she was, did he want to answer? He settled on the camouflage of banter.

"Just the special ones."

"I see. And what do you bill this under?"

She felt the laugh rumble through his chest, beneath her cheek. "Miscellaneous."

She sighed, contentment sweeping her into its arms, just as Mac had done a moment earlier. "Great word, miscellaneous."

It was the last thing she said before she drifted off to sleep.

The headache woke her, an annoyingly disconcerting sensation that buzzed around on the perimeter of her head, moving here, stomping there, marking its territory with a heavy foot.

She rose, picking up her robe from the floor where it had fallen last night. She was truly surprised that the whole bed hadn't collapsed. They had gone at it pretty vigorously.

The memory made her smile and nearly cut through the headache.

Nearly.

Entering the bathroom, she eased the door closed behind her before opening the medicine cabinet. The bottle of aspirin was on the bottom shelf. Putting a tablet in her mouth, she cupped her hand and caught enough water to help slide down the pill. She closed her eyes and hoped it would do the trick.

Glancing at the mirror, she shook her head. She looked like death. The least she could do was brush her hair. Grabbing a hairbrush, she pulled it through her hair, then frowned. Hopeless.

When she emerged out of the bathroom, Mac was on his side, his head propped on his hand. He was watching her.

"Everything okay?"

No, everything wasn't okay. But she wasn't about to share that. It was just a headache and it would go away. She didn't want him making a big deal of it. There were other ways she wanted him to play doctor.

"Can't a woman go to the bathroom without being questioned?" she replied flippantly.

He watched her approach, the folds of her silk robe rubbing along her body. "Got another question for you."

She stopped beside the bed and looked down at him. "And that is?"

He raised his eyes to her face. "What are you wearing under that robe?"

"Why don't you take it off and see?"

He was already reaching for the sash. "Is that a challenge?"

She felt him tugging at the sash. "Is that what you like, challenges?"

"I've been known to take up a few in my time." He yanked the sash away. Her robe fell open, framing her nude body.

She liked the way desire flared in his eyes. "And is that what I was, a challenge?"

Rising in bed, naked as the moment he came into the world, Mac pushed the robe from her shoulders. "In the beginning."

Her body sizzled from just the merest touch of his lips against her skin. "And now?"

He couldn't tell her just how much he felt. That would bind him to her. He kept it light. "Now you are the woman who lights my fire."

"Big talk," she scoffed, letting herself be drawn into the bed.

He grinned. "Bigger action."

She felt herself melting, but tried to hold back a second longer. "Show me."

Mac pulled her into bed and onto her back. "Thought you'd never ask."

His body covered hers.

Chapter Fourteen.

R ebecca Wynters had been friends with Jolene ever since they'd been in the same math cla.s.s together in their freshman year at Bedford High. Older by almost six months, Rebecca had always felt protective of the more diminutive woman. So when it began to look as if Jolene was seeing the legendary Dr. Mac outside of the hospital halls, she took it upon herself to go right to the source and state her mind.

She found Mac coming out of the E.R., about to go on a well deserved and extremely abbreviated break.

Accustomed to having women barrel down on him, Mac smiled a greeting as Rebecca followed him to the stairwell for the one short flight down to the cafeteria and a mug of life-affirming coffee.

"Hi, Becky, how's it going?"

She waited until the fire door had sealed itself shut behind them before saying anything. "You know, of course, that if you hurt her, I'm going to have to come after you and cut your heart out."

Mac stopped in the middle of the stairwell to look at the woman. The warning was given only half in jest. He didn't have to ask who she was talking about. Jolene had been on his mind almost continuously, a fact that did not cease to amaze him each time he became aware of it. It had never been his style to dwell on a woman.

Apparently styles changed.

Rebecca looked at him, her smile fading, her expression turning serious. "She's not like the rest of us, Mac. She's fragile."

He thought of how hard it had been to get past Jolene's guard. "Right-for a gunnery sergeant," he quipped.

Rebecca knew Mac better than most of the women he'd been with. Knew the kind of man he really was beneath the good looks and charm. Incredibly decent. After they'd gone their separate ways, her mother died and she fell into a depression. It was Mac who'd been there for her, Mac who had seen to it that she got help and rejoined the living. And Mac who had told her at the end to just keep everything between the two of them. He'd said if word got around, it would blow his reputation.

"You know what I mean." They began walking down the stairs again. "That's just Jolene's facade. She got a raw deal with that guy she married. Matt Jeffrey never met a woman he didn't want. She was so in love with him, she never saw it coming. Makes a girl think twice before handing out her heart again."

Reaching the bas.e.m.e.nt, Mac pulled open the door for Rebecca, his interest suddenly piqued. "What makes you think Jolene's handed out her heart?"

Normally, just considering the possibility that a woman was becoming serious would have been a signal for him to pack up his tent and make an exit.

But the need to flee just didn't seem to be there. What was there, instead, was something akin to permeating sunshine, its rays reaching out in all directions. What was going on with him?

He looked at Rebecca, curious. "Has she said anything to you?"

The corridor leading to the cafeteria was empty this time of day. Their voices echoed.

"It's what she hasn't said that gives her away." Rebecca paused at the entrance. She was still on duty and needed to get back upstairs. "Be good to her, Mac. She's one of a kind."

Rebecca would get no argument from him on that score. "I already know that."

She began to leave, then stopped and turned around again. "Oh, and more thing. We never had this conversation."

He looked at her innocently. "What conversation?"

Rebecca laughed and quickly brushed her lips against his cheek. "That's what I always liked about you, Mac. You always played by the rules."

The only problem was, Mac thought as he walked into the cafeteria, he no longer knew just what the rules were. Someone had changed them on him when he wasn't looking.

Pulling into the driveway, Mac yanked up the emergency hand brake as he turned off the motor. He was struggling to keep his temper in check. It wasn't easy. He shouldn't have to be doing this.

Allen hadn't brought Tommy into the hospital today as promised. They'd had a twelve-thirty appointment to discuss the boy's next surgery. Mac had purposely arranged for the appointment during the man's lunch hour so that Allen wouldn't shrug it off, saying that he couldn't take any time off.

Fat lot of good that had done. He'd waited until one. Allen had never showed.

The boy was getting more attention from strangers than from his own stepfather. Immediately after Tommy's last surgery, Jolene had been as good as her word and stopped by every day after she got off duty to check on the boy's progress. The surgery had healed nicely. And now it was time for the second procedure.

Except, Mac thought, frustrated, he couldn't put things in motion if there were no papers signed, no date set for surgery.

Too bad they didn't believe in public floggings anymore. Allen would certainly be his candidate for a horse whipping.

Mac got out of his sports car, slamming the door. So much for trying to calm down. Maybe he should have brought Jolene with him to keep him in check.

Even at a time like this, the thought of her made him smile.

Taking a deep breath, he composed himself and rang the bell. A dog in the backyard began to bark loudly. At least he was still keeping the animal away from Tommy, Mac thought. Maybe it just took time.

And then again, maybe not.

"You again." Allen regarded him malevolently. Dressed in a faded T-shirt with a tear on one shoulder, and a shapeless pair of dirty chinos, the man stood blocking the doorway. "What do you want?" he demanded curtly.

To hit you over the head with an unabridged copy of an etiquette book for starters.

"You missed your appointment," Mac said evenly.

Allen gave no indication of moving out of the way. "Yeah, well, I was busy."

Mac returned the other man's glare. "It was your lunch hour."

Allen shrugged, glancing over his shoulder at the television set blaring in the background. "Man's gotta eat."

He wasn't here to argue about the past. He was interested in the present. "I'd like to see him." It wasn't really a request, but more of a thinly veiled command.

Allen planted his legs squarely before the doorway, his arms crossed before his sizable chest. Everything about his stance made Mac think of a schoolyard bully who had never grown up.

"Look, am I gonna have half the d.a.m.n hospital trooping through here? Your nurse's already made a pest of herself, coming by every night for more than a week. Don't you people ever back off?"

Mac felt the hairs on the back of his neck rising in response to the offhanded remark about Jolene.

"She believes in going the extra mile." Mac's eyes grew to small slits. "You might stand to learn something from her."

Allen smirked as he regarded him. "I bet she taught you plenty."

Mac could feel his fingers curling into a fist. The urge to sink it into Allen's face was almost overwhelming. But he wasn't here to defend Jolene's honor, he was here to try to mend a small boy's self-esteem.

He looked over Allen's shoulder into the room. "Where is he?"

"How should I know?" Allen snapped, tired of being put on the spot. "Around. I'm not his nurse-maid." He went to close the door again, but Mac stopped him. Allen glared. "Look, that nurse said he was doing okay the last time she was here-"

He had explained all this to him when Allen first came to the hospital to sign the papers. Was the man being deliberately obtuse? Or just a pain in the b.u.t.t?

Mac decided it was the latter. "He needs a second operation."

Allen was tired of hearing about it. The boy had been nothing but trouble from the first. "Well, I need a lot of things I'm not getting, either. It's a tough life." Again, he tried to close the door.

Mac stopped him, gripping his wrist tightly, his eyes full of loathing as he looked at the other man. "I can have you up on charges of negligence so fast your head'll spin."

"Negligence?" Allen spat. He gave up all pretense. "Yeah, I neglect him. I don't want him. His mother died on me. I don't have time to waste raising him. You're so worried about the kid, you take him. I never adopted him, so he's not legally mine. You want him?" Allen jeered. "I'll make you a present of him. He's yours."

Mac saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. When he looked, he saw Tommy pulling back out of view behind the entrance to the living room.

The boy had heard everything.