The Doctor Wore Spurs
The Doctor Wore Spurs
Leanne Banks
Pediatric cardiologist Tyler Logan always rounded up what he wanted–such as Jill Hershey's fund-raising expertise to build a children's hospital wing. When she refused, he lassoed the sultry businesswoman with his stethoscope, daring her to help.But now something was daring him–to take a chance and break the curse that said Logans never won at love….Jill had tried to bury herself in her high-powered job–but it couldn't substitute for love and family. And now Tyler was touching her heart–and other Places–dangling what she yearned for most. Jill couldn't give her body and keep her heart. So maybe it was time to give both….
Tyler Looked Into Jill’s Eyes And
Felt An Odd Tug Inside Him.
“I like the way your eyes shine in the moonlight.”
Her lids slid downward, hiding her eyes from him. “Tyler,” she said in a husky, sexy voice that felt like a stroke over key erogenous zones.
Glancing down, he noticed her sandal strap was twisted. He knelt down and untwisted it. He wrapped his hand around her ankle and rubbed his thumb over her smooth skin.
“You have small ankles, too,” he said, skimming his hand up her calf, behind her knee to the inside of her thigh.
She stopped his wandering hand.
He met her gaze. “Does it bother you for me to touch you?”
“It’s distracting,” she said, her gaze smoky. “I know you’re a flirt. You’ve succeeded in arousing—” she urged him upward and rested her hand on his chest “—my curiosity. But I want to know what’s behind the flirt….”
Dear Reader,
Spring is in the air…and so is romance. Especially at Silhouette, where we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary throughout 2000! And Silhouette Desire promises you six powerful, passionate, provocative love stories every month.
Fabulous Anne McAllister offers an irresistible MAN OF THE MONTH with A Cowboy’s Secret. A rugged cowboy fears his darkest secret will separate him from the beauty he loves.
Bestselling author Leanne Banks continues her exciting miniseries LONE STAR FAMILIES: THE LOGANS with a sexy bachelor doctor in The Doctor Wore Spurs. In A Whole Lot of Love, Justine Davis tells the emotional story of a full-figured woman feeling worthy of love for the first time.
Kathryn Jensen returns to Desire with another wonderful fairy-tale romance, The Earl Takes a Bride. THE BABY BANK, a brand-new theme promotion in Desire in which love is found through sperm bank babies, debuts with The Pregnant Virgin by Anne Eames. And be sure to enjoy another BRIDAL BID story, which continues with Carol Devine’s Marriage for Sale, in which the hero “buys” the heroine at auction.
We hope you plan to usher in the spring season with all six of these supersensual romances, only from Silhouette Desire!
Enjoy!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
The Doctor Wore Spurs
Leanne Banks
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
LEANNE BANKS
is a national number-one bestselling author of romance. She lives in her native Virginia with her husband and son and daughter. Recognized for both her sensual and humorous writing with two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times Magazine, Leanne likes creating a story with a few grins, a generous kick of sensuality and characters that hang around after the book is finished. Leanne believes romance readers are the best readers in the world because they understand that love is the greatest miracle of all. You can write to her at P.O. Box 1442, Midlothian, VA 23113. A SASE for a reply would be greatly appreciated.
Four generations ago, the Logan family moved
west from Virginia and took a scrap of Texas land.
Despite droughts and floods, broken hearts and death,
the Logans now own one of the most successful
cattle ranches in Texas.
The Logans have power, brains and strength. Some
call their ongoing success a legacy. The Logans would
instead point to hard work, persistence and plain old
American ingenuity. When it comes to matters of the
heart, however, they refer to their inheritance as a curse.
The Logans face their greatest challenge in breaking
that curse, and finding a love that lasts forever….
This book is dedicated to all who have had the courage
to face their personal waterloo.
My gratitude to Millie Criswell
for the title and ten years of friendship.
Contents
Prologue (#ue47e8f15-df4f-56e7-82fe-d83f2fe1baf2)
Chapter One (#u5b82c4ba-59af-570a-8035-c11da89af4ff)
Chapter Two (#uc8540bf4-c06e-5e44-81d5-f65427597c97)
Chapter Three (#ua4f82738-228b-5868-b770-3a32a3cedb72)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue
“She has a reputation,” Clarence Gilmore said, his gaze on the same woman Tyler Logan was watching.
Idly aware of the intense schmooze factor of the Hospital Association’s convention, Tyler watched Jill Hershey the same way he’d been known to watch a buck during hunting season. The outer package was enough to merit a second glance: silky, warm-brown hair, intelligent green eyes and a compact but curvy body that was almost concealed by her conservative clothing. Another man might not notice the subtle swell of her breasts against the double-breasted black suit jacket or the enticing curve of her waist and hips, but Tyler always looked beneath the surface.
He just didn’t always let everyone else know he did. What held his attention about Jill Hershey, however, was the way she kept her gaze focused on whomever she was talking to. Even from twenty feet away he could sense the power of her focus.
“What do you know about her?” he asked Clarence.
“She’s a public relations miracle worker. That’s why she’s in demand. You wouldn’t believe what she did for the cancer treatment center in Minneapolis,” Clarence, the hospital administrator, said wistfully.
“Then get her,” Tyler said simply.
Clarence threw him a long-suffering glance. “You surgeons don’t understand anything about the business of health care.”
“Good thing, too,” Tyler said with a grin. “We’d have a lot more dead people, if surgeons were thinking about business instead of surgery.” He looked at Jill again. “If she’s the one we need to beef up our children’s treatment center, then get her.”
“There might be a few obstacles to that. One, she probably costs too much. Two, she’s probably already booked. Three, we might be too small.”
“Sounds like a bunch of mights and maybes. What’s the harm in asking?”
“I’ve requested information about her before,” Clarence said a shade defensively. “I was told she doesn’t do children’s projects.”
That stopped Tyler. He glanced at Clarence. “Really?”
“Yes,” Clarence said, pulling slightly on his collar.
“Well, maybe she needs a new challenge,” Tyler said.
“You’re not going to approach her,” Clarence said.
“Sure I am. Isn’t that why we’re at this convention? To gain some visibility for the new children’s cardiac wing.”
“Yes, but—”
Tyler shrugged. “You said she’s the one we need. So, I’ll go get her.”
The man with the cowboy hat waited patiently behind her former client, Mr. Waldron. Jill tried not to look at him, but it was difficult. He was taller than most men in the room, unabashedly Western, and, she concluded after a few moments passed, determined. He was a little too handsome for his own good, she thought. Just the way he stood, he exuded a gut-level kind of confidence most people never experienced. His searching gaze generated an odd ripple inside her.
Her former client must have felt the man’s presence because he glanced around quizzically.
The man immediately stepped forward. “Hello, I’m Dr. Tyler Logan from Fort Worth General Hospital. Pleased to meet you.”
“Bill Waldron of Cincinnati University Hospital. This is—”
“Jill Hershey, public relations sorceress,” Dr. Logan finished with enigmatic charm. He extended his hand and met her gaze with the direct impact of a two-by-four. “We need you.”
Jill blinked. Although her career success had grown quickly over the past three years, she wasn’t accustomed to this approach. Noticing the strength and size of his hand, she managed a smile. “I’m flattered,” she said. “I think.”
Mr. Waldron excused himself, and Jill retrieved her hand. “I wouldn’t call myself a sorceress.”
“You don’t have to. You have others who do it for you.”
She felt a surge of curiosity. She wondered what was behind his cowboy charm. “Dr. Logan,” she began.
“Call me Tyler,” he said.
Surprise seeped through her. Many of the doctors she’d met were very attached to their titles. “Tyler, what is your specialty?”
“Pediatric cardiology. Surgery.”
Jill’s stomach clenched. It took a moment to catch her breath, but with effort she produced a smile. “That’s an important field, but I must tell you I haven’t done much work with children’s projects.”
“Why not?”
His question took her off guard. “I always felt I was more effective with other specialties.”
“You don’t like kids?”
“No!” she immediately denied, and shook her head. “I… I do like children.” She shrugged, wanting to get away from this impertinent man who had unknowingly stabbed her in her most vulnerable area. “I told you I have always felt I was more effective with other specialties. Not only that,” she said, wishing her voice didn’t sound so tight with tension, “my latest projects have been with larger hospitals.”
“You wouldn’t want to get in a rut,” Tyler said.
Jill’s head began to pound. “A rut?” she repeated.
He nodded. “You look like a woman who needs a new challenge to keep you happy.”
She didn’t know what irritated her more, the fact that he was making a huge assumption or the fact that it was right. “Dr. Logan—”
“Tyler,” he corrected, his blue eyes glinting with masculine humor.
She stifled a sigh. “Tyler, I have to be honest. I usually accept assignments recommended by the president of my company. If you’re interested in our services, you can contact Jordan Grant. Our telephone and fax numbers are in the conference kit. It was nice meeting you.”
He nodded slowly, thoughtfully, as if he saw more than she wanted him to see. Jill turned away, both disturbed and relieved.
“I dare you,” she heard from behind her. His words brought her back around.
“Pardon?”
“I dare you to come to Fort Worth General and make a lot of children’s lives longer and better. You’ve got what it takes to do it.” He looked her directly in the eye, and she felt the heat and power of his passion. “I dare you.”
One
Jill could hold her own. She’d had years of practice, and she rarely played the fool. She was no coward, and she knew how to protect herself. The first week after Dr. Tyler Logan had audaciously delivered his challenge, she’d dismissed him and his hospital. She refused to be manipulated.
As much as she dismissed him, however, he kept popping up. He’d had no idea of the enormity of his dare. He’d had no idea that he was presenting her with the opportunity to conquer or be conquered by her greatest, most secret pain.
And that was why she was currently organizing her temporary office at Fort Worth General Hospital. She glanced out her window at “Cowtown’s” downtown area. A few blocks away stood the old stockyards, a statue of the legendary cowboy William Pickett, and Billy Bob’s bar, the largest saloon in Texas. Wherever Jill’s projects took her, she’d learned her job went much easier if she understood the natives. That meant she was going to have to be a temporary cowgirl. That might be challenging, considering she didn’t eat beef.
“It’s just temporary,” she whispered, trying to settle her nervous stomach. “Temporary insanity.” During her stay in Fort Worth, this office would be her safe haven, the place where she could close the door and take deep breaths, her island of peace and creativity. Her sanctuary.
A sharp rap sounded on her door, then it whooshed open. “Welcome to Cowtown.”
Jill’s stomach tightened again. That voice had haunted her during the past month. The man wasn’t important, she reminded herself. He was merely a door she would walk through to make peace with herself. She glanced up to meet his blue gaze. The incongruous combination of his white coat, a stethoscope with a tiny stuffed bear attached to it and his cowboy hat caught her off guard. Even though the man was tall with broad shoulders and dark good looks, that tiny stuffed bear should have deep-sixed his sexual appeal. It didn’t. “Thank you,” she finally said.
“What took you so long to get here?”
She gave a light laugh and relaxed slightly. “You were that sure I’d come.”
“If you followed your instincts,” he said, entering the room. “You’ll like it here.”
“It’s temporary,” she said more for herself than him.
“You didn’t answer my question. What took you so long?”
That Texas drawl and lanky stride were deceptive, Jill thought, hiding a grin. The man was impatient. Jill understood impatience. She’d just learned to conceal hers. “This may surprise you, but I was working on another project at the time. I needed to tie up some loose ends and make sure there was a smooth transition between me and the new rep. I couldn’t just snap my fingers.”
“Well, I am surprised,” Tyler said. “You’re supposed to be a sorceress, remember?”
She shot him a sideways glance. “I’m curious,” she said. “Is this how you usually get your way with people?”
He picked up a pencil holder. “How?”
“Oh, by using a combination of flattery and manipulation.”
He widened his eyes in mock innocence. “Flattery?” He shrugged. “I just tell the truth. And manipulation sounds mean. I’m not mean. I just do what it takes to get the job done. That makes some people nervous. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do I make you nervous?” he asked in a voice like black velvet.
Her heart jumped in her chest. “No,” she said, a half beat more quickly than she should.
“Good,” he said, “because you and I will be working together. I make the administration a little jumpy sometimes, but I get the job done.” His lips twitched. “You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Temporarily,” she emphasized.
His gaze swept over her. “Long enough,” he promised. “Why are you staring at Wild Cody?”
Jill blinked. “Wild Cody?”
“My bear. You remind me of one of my kids.”
She felt her cheeks heat. “I’m not used to seeing a bear on a stethoscope.”
“Distracting, isn’t it?” His lips twitched again when she nodded. “That’s the idea.” He took her hand and held it in his, then took her index finger between his fingers.
Feeling a strange, tumbling sensation in her stomach, she tried to pull back.
Tyler shook his head. “Hold on.” He pulled another tiny bear from his pocket and attached the little bear to her finger. “You are now officially a member of the heart menders’ wild posse.”
Why was her heart pounding? she wondered with a kick of exasperation. She glanced at the little stuffed bear and sighed. Oddly touched, she smiled. “Thank you. Do you give these to your patients?”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s not a bad idea. Maybe I could get them in bulk. I can see Clarence twitching over a purchase requisition for a hundred miniature bears.” He grinned and squeezed her hand. “There you go. A good idea and you haven’t even been here an entire day. I told you we needed you.”
Her stomach turned another somersault. “Ideas are the easy part. The hard part comes later,” she murmured, thinking he had no idea how hard this could become for her.
“You need a challenge,” he told her.
His assumption nettled her again. “Why do you say that? You don’t even know me.”
“I could say your reputation precedes you,” he said. “Or I could say we needed you at Fort Worth General because you’ve got great legs. Or I could just say I know a kindred spirit when I see one.”
“Is this a multiple-choice quiz?” she asked, her voice betraying her impatience.
He leaned closer and she could see the very devil in his blue eyes. “Check all of the above.”
A flirt, she concluded with disapproval. Her ex-husband had been charming, too confident and an outrageous flirt. She didn’t need to read that book again. “I don’t think—”
“Howdy!” a young, plump woman called from the doorway. Her gaze immediately latched on to Tyler. “Oh, hi, Dr. Logan,” she said in a breathy voice.
“Hi, Trina,” Tyler said. “This is our PR specialist, Jill Hershey.”
Her gaze weaving between Tyler and Jill, she said, “I’m Trina Hostetter and I’ll be your assistant while you’re here in Fort Worth.”
“Good job,” Tyler said as he moved toward the door. “Trina, you take good care of Jill. She’s going to do great things for us.” His gaze dipped to Jill’s legs for an audacious extra second, then he gave a half grin. “See you later.”
Jill watched Trina gaze longingly after Tyler. “I’d like to do great things for him,” Trina murmured under his breath.
Jill rolled her eyes. “He’s a flirt.”
Trina swerved her head around. “But not a mean flirt,” she quickly said. “He just knows how to make a woman feel good. He doesn’t break hearts.”
Jill raised her eyebrows doubtfully, but smiled. “Why do I think you might be a little prejudiced?”
“Oh. Just because it’s obvious that I’d like Tyler to park his boots under my bed anytime, you think I might be prejudiced.” Trina shook her head. “Just about every woman with any taste would like to have Tyler. What’s not to like? He’s handsome, but not pretty. He’s smart, funny, kind, and he likes kids. Sure, he dates a lot, but he doesn’t make promises he won’t keep. Everyone’s just trying to find a way to get him to make some of those promises.” She glanced at Jill’s finger. “Omigod, he gave you one of his bears. He must really like you,” she said with a trace of envy.
Jill immediately unfastened the bear from her finger and transferred it to a pencil. “Don’t worry. It has no romantic significance. The reason Tyler wants me here is because he believes I’m going to help him get something he wants—the new pediatric cardiology wing.”
Trina blinked. “Are you saying you don’t want him?”
Jill smiled. “Exactly. I would rather catch the flu than catch Tyler.”
“Are you married? Engaged?”
“No, just sane. Very sane when it comes to men. Believe me,” Jill said, feeling a rumbling of trepidation inside her. “I’m not here to get involved with Dr. Logan.”
A sharp rap sounded on Jill’s office door, startling her and breaking her concentration. The door opened and Tyler strode in. “Time for your tour,” he said.
Jill blinked in irritation. The man always seemed to catch her off guard. “Trina already took me on a tour of the hospital,” Jill told him. Trina had also given her an earful on just about every person they’d encountered.
“That was Trina’s tour. Mine is different.”
“Trina was very thorough,” Jill said.
“I’m sure she was,” Tyler said with a dry chuckle. “You probably felt like you’d walked through scripts for three soap operas by the time she finished.”
“It was—” she paused and her lips twitched “—colorful.”
“I can tell you’re in PR. My tour is different,” he said. “I want you to meet some of my patients.”
Jill’s stomach tightened. “Oh, well, you don’t have to do that.”
He met her gaze. “Sure I do. People put more on the line when it’s personal. If you meet some of these kids, it will be personal.”
She nodded slowly. “You’re right, but we don’t have to do it today. I’m sure you’ve had a long day, and I’m digesting all the information I’ve gathered today and—”
“Why don’t you want to meet them?”
Her breath stopped somewhere between her lungs and her mouth. How could she tell him that she wasn’t prepared to face her demons in that way today? She couldn’t. She carefully inhaled and exhaled. “I didn’t say I don’t want to meet them. I just thought there might be a better day.”
“Nope,” he said with a shrug.
She bit her lip and nodded. “Okay,” she said, resignation sinking into her as she walked out of her office with him.
“We have three recovering from surgery and four either in for testing or preparing for surgery,” he said as he led her with his long-legged stride through the white-tile corridor to the elevator.
“What age?” she asked, telling herself she could handle this.
“Infant through teenage.”
Infant. Jill steeled herself against the poke at her secret wound. Focus on something else, she told herself. “What made you choose your specialty?”
He nodded for her to enter the elevator. “I think it chose me. If my father had chosen, he would’ve kept me on the ranch. Thank goodness my oldest brother is the rancher.”
“Sounds like your family is big on tradition.”
He shrugged. “You could say that. We’ve been around West Texas for several generations now, we have a long-standing feud with our neighbor, and some say there’s a curse on the Logan name.”
“A curse?” she echoed, intrigued at the prospect that the cocky, charming Dr. Logan could suffer from a curse.
He rolled his eyes. “I never believed it, but the Logans have not been particularly lucky in the romance department. Their women don’t seem to hang around.”
“They leave?”
He shrugged again. “Or die.”
Her eyes widened and she swallowed a chuckle. “Oh, my. Is that why you haven’t married?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Nah, just haven’t met the right one.” He looked her over curiously. “What about you?”
“I thought I had, but I was wrong.”
“I thought someone would have tried to take you off the market. What did he do?”
“He left at the worst possible moment,” she said and smiled. “No fairy-tale ending, but I’m over it now.”
“Ready to go again?” he asked with a flicker of sexual challenge in his blue eyes.
“I like taking my time,” she returned, thinking he would be a tempting package for some other woman. She met his gaze. “I know it’s part of your style to flirt with women and to flatter. You don’t have to do that with me. My ego can handle the direct approach.”
He glanced at her mouth, then back to her eyes, and he gave a sensual grin. “What if I like flirting with you?”
“I think you should save it for the legions of women around here who want to—” she paused, then added Trina’s words “—lasso your heart.”
He roared with laughter. “You’ve been talking to Trina.”
“No. Trina’s been talking to me.”
“So you’re not gonna try to lasso me,” he said, rubbing his chin. “I wonder if my feelings should be hurt.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive,” she said in a dry voice. “No ropes, no chains. If I want your body or your face, it’ll be for a media photo op that will get you your new wing.”
“Some men might see that as a challenge,” he told her.
“I’m glad you’re too intelligent for that,” she said with far more assurance than she felt. Intelligence was one thing, the male ego another.
The elevator stopped. “We’ll see,” he said. “But right now you get to meet some of my kids. Hey, Betty,” he called to a nurse. “How’s TJ?”
“A little down. His mom might not be here until tomorrow morning.”
Tyler winced and swore under his breath. “TJ is seven and has six brothers and sisters. His family lives three hours away and his dad has a broken leg, so his mother is doing triple duty right now. He has surgery tomorrow to repair a hole in his heart. This is his room.”
“Hey, bud,” he said as he entered the room. “What’s up?”
TJ was thin, his face drawn and his eyes frightened. Jill’s heart immediately went out to him.
“My mom won’t be here until late tonight.”
“I heard,” Tyler said. “I’m sure she’ll be here as soon as she can. I need you to rest for surgery tomorrow.”
“Will I really be able to play baseball after the operation?”
“No reason from my end. Who knows? After you recover, the majors may be calling you.”
TJ smiled.
“Hey, I brought someone to meet you. Her name is Jill Hershey.”
“Hershey?” TJ repeated. “Like the candy?”
“Yeah, eye candy,” Tyler said and winked at her. “Like the kiss.”
“Is she your girlfriend?”
“No,” Jill quickly said. “I work at the hospital.”
TJ glanced at her street clothes in confusion. “You’re not gonna take any more of my blood or give me any more shots, are you?”
“Not me,” she assured him. “Dr. Logan tells me you have a lot of brothers and sisters. Are you the oldest?”
TJ shook his head. “I’m in the middle. I had to come early for surgery because one of my sisters got sick and they didn’t want me to get sick before the operation.”
“Oh,” Jill said. “It can be boring in the hospital.”
“Yeah.”
“Boring?” Tyler repeated indignantly. “Them’s fighting words.”
“Well, you get to do the interesting stuff like surgery,” Jill pointed out.
“And TJ gets to lie around and have people wait on him.”
“The food is gross,” TJ said.
“What do you like to do at home?” Jill asked.
“After I get my operation, I’m gonna run and run and never stop running,” TJ said, his words pulling at Jill’s heart. She could tell that was a dream Tyler would make come true. “I read a lot,” he said. “My mom reads to all of us every night.”
Jill glanced at the stack of books on his bedside stand. “Would you let me read one to you?”
TJ’s eyes lit up. “Sure!”
Jill felt Tyler’s hand on her shoulder. “You—” His pager went off and he glanced at it. “Another doctor. Probably needs a consult.” He looked at her with a mixture of approval and basic male interest that made her heart jump and her brain go uh-oh. “I’ll be back.”
Jill didn’t really want to like Tyler, but she was hard-pressed when she looked at TJ and knew he probably dreamed every night of running, and Tyler would make that dream a reality. Good press, she thought, and tried to compartmentalize as she picked up a book from the table.
Jill read several books to TJ, and much later Tyler appeared and removed the book she was currently reading from her hands. He pressed his finger to his lips and pointed at TJ, who was sleeping.
Taking her hand, he led her from the room. “I didn’t intend to put you to work tonight.”
She let go of his hand and waved hers in a dismissing gesture. “It was a small thing. I didn’t mind at all.”
He paused, studying her. “I think there’s more to you than meets the eye. You look cool, as if you are totally pulled together, as if no one could ruffle your feathers or get to you,” he said. “But TJ did. I thought you didn’t like kids.”
Jill stifled a sigh of frustration. “I never said I didn’t like kids. I just said I’ve been most effective working on projects for adults,” she said, then changed the subject. “How was your consult?”
“Two consults, and I checked in on another patient. That’s what took me so long. There’s one more thing I want you to see,” he said, and touched her back to guide her toward the elevator. “One floor up, then I’ll take you to dinner.”
“Dinner’s not necessary,” Jill said.
“Sure it is.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Sure it is,” he repeated. “Haven’t you ever heard you’re not supposed to argue with the doctor?”
“Is that one of the bits of fiction they teach you in med school?” she asked sweetly.
Tyler chuckled. “No respect. I get no respect.” The doors whisked open. “I can’t let you read to her,” he said as they rounded a corner, “but I thought you might like to see my youngest patient.” They stopped in front of a nursery window, and he pointed to a small baby off to the side. “Meet Annabelle Rogers. She’s three months old.”
Jill saw the nursery full of isolates with babies wrapped in blankets, and she broke into a cold sweat. The image of another hospital and another nursery swam before her eyes. Tyler was talking, but she couldn’t hear him. Instead, she heard another doctor’s voice from another time.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Hershey. We could not save your baby.”
The words echoed in her head, and everything went black.
Two
Tyler caught Jill as her body slumped in a faint. He swore under his breath. The woman was white as a sheet.
“Mr. Logan, do you have to do that in the hall?” an anesthesiologist, Bill Johnson, joked as he passed by. “Can’t you use the laundry closet like everyone else?”
Comedians. He was surrounded by comedians. “She fainted,” he said.
Bill’s eyes widened and he stopped. “Well, I guess she picked the right place. Let’s get her feet elevated. Oxygen.”
“No need,” Tyler said, watching Jill’s eyes flutter.
“She’s pretty. I haven’t seen her around. Who is she?”
“PR consultant,” Tyler said, moving toward an empty room. “She’s helping get the new wing.”
“Smart, too. Hey, you want me to carry her?”
Tyler knew Bill was a player with the women. He felt a wave of protection for Jill as he set her down on the bed. “Keep your paws off her. This isn’t your specialty. You like to put people to sleep, remember.”
“Yes, but I also wake them up,” he said, poking out his chest.
“Hey, candy lady, where’d you go?” Tyler asked, and slid his stethoscope against her chest.
Jill blinked. “I don’t know. I just saw the—” Her slim eyebrows furrowed slightly and she looked away. “Maybe I was more tired than I thought. I never faint. I have never fainted in my life.”
“What did you eat for lunch?”
“A pack of crackers, but—”
Tyler frowned. “You need some food.”
“I’ll get you a burger,” Bill offered, stepping forward. “I’d like a rain check to take you someplace nicer when you’re feeling better, but—”
“Not in this century,” Tyler said, and sighed. “This is Dr. Bill Johnson. He puts people to sleep for a living.”
Bill scowled. “Not women.”
“He’s worse than I am.” He turned to Bill. “She doesn’t like flirts, Bill.”
“I’m not a flirt,” Bill said, his gaze fixed on Jill with the intensity of a hunter. “I am a man. At your service,” he added smoothly. “May I get you a burger?”
Tyler thought he might puke.
“Not unless it’s a veggie burger,” Jill said with a wry smile. “I don’t really eat beef.”
Tyler and Bill stared at each other, then roared with laughter.
“I missed the joke,” Jill said, sitting up.
“Your secret is safe with us, but since you’re in PR, you might want to remember you’re in Texas,” Tyler said. “Beef country.”
“You’re saying the Texas Rangers might come after me if I eat a veggie burger?”
“More likely the Cattlemen’s Association,” Bill said.
“Is a grilled cheese okay?”
“Done,” Bill said, and gave Tyler a competitor’s smile. “And you’d probably rather get a ride home with me, since Tyler drives a motorcycle.”
“The fresh air will do her good,” Tyler said.
“I can drive myself,” Jill said.
“No,” Tyler said at the same time Bill did. “Go get her grilled cheese,” he growled.
Forty-five minutes later she had eaten and was pacing the floor of his office. She batted his hands away when he lifted his stethoscope. “Leave me alone. I’m ready to go.”
“Okay, let’s get your coat.” He ditched his coat and grabbed his suede jacket.
“I really can drive myself,” she said firmly.
“There is no way in hell I’m letting you,” he said just as firmly. “And I’m bigger than you are, so just stop arguing.”
She made a sound of disgust and stomped out of his office. Tyler’s lips twitched. She was a strange combination. She looked so feminine and composed, a little too cool, as if nothing would shake her, but he’d watched her melt with TJ, and she was clearly embarrassed that she’d fainted. She looked as though she should be shaken and stirred, and he wouldn’t mind doing the job. He knew she wouldn’t take him too seriously, and that made her all the more appealing.
He escorted her to his bike in the parking lot, and she shook her head. “I’m not dressed for this.”
Idly noticing the mild temperature and starry night, he pulled a helmet onto his head. “You’re fine. You’re staying at the Winchester Condominiums, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
He stopped her protest by putting a helmet on her head. “It’s not far,” he said with a grin. “Just hold on tight.”
He helped her onto the motorcycle, then slid in front of her. He felt her gingerly put her hands on his back. Tyler pulled her slender hands under his coat and pressed them to his chest. “Trust me,” he said. “You’ll stay warmer this way.”
He felt the inside of her thighs spreading to accommodate his rear end, and a sensual image pulsed through him. Jill, with her silky thighs spreading to accommodate him in a totally different way. He felt a rush of heat and sucked in a breath of air. Then he started the engine.
He drove through the night to her condominium and helped her off the bike. She fumbled with the helmet and he took it off for her. He couldn’t explain it, but there was a hint of lost-girl look in her eyes. He’d seen flashes of that same look several times throughout the evening and he wondered what or who had caused it.
“Let me walk you to your door,” he said.
“That’s not—”
“Don’t waste your breath. My mother would never forgive me.”
“You can tell her I excused you,” Jill said in a long-suffering voice.
Tyler smiled and shook his head. “Not unless we’re planning to hold a séance.”
Jill whipped her head around to stare at him. “She’s dead?”
He nodded.
“I’m sorry. How long?”
“Too long,” he said, remembering the woman who had personified gentleness, humor and love in his life. “She died twenty-three years ago when my sister, Martina, was born.”
Jill stopped midstep on the sidewalk and placed her hand on his arm. “During childbirth. How terrible for all of you. Your sister, Martina? Did she survive?”
He nodded. “Yeah, and she’s pregnant. Not married,” he admitted with a sigh. “Whenever my brother and I ask her about the father, and believe me that is often, she insists the stork is responsible.”
“Do you worry about her?”
“Yes,” he said. “And no. Martina is no fragile flower. She’s tough, and she knows if she needs anything, anything at all, she can call Brock or me and we’ll come running.”
“Lucky lady?” she asked, walking to her doorstep.
“Maybe,” he said and cracked a half grin. “She might disagree with that on occasion.”
She slid her hand through her hair and met his gaze. “Thank you.”
“For catching you when you fell.”
She paused a moment, then nodded. “Yes. You were kind. Pushy,” she said, her lips tilting in a smile, “but kind.”
“Yeah, but my pushy is better than Bill’s pushy.” She looked bone weary. “What are you going to do now?”
“Turn my sound machine to ocean waves and head for the Mexican Riviera.”
“Take your rest. You earned it,” Tyler said. “You did some heart mending tonight with TJ.”
She shook her head and shrugged. “All I did was read to him.”
He lifted his hand to her cheek. “You know it was more. Maybe you weren’t heart mending. Heart stealing.”
She gave him a sideways glance. “I thought we’d decided you didn’t need to flirt with me.”
He chuckled, liking the softness of her skin against his fingers. “Your hair is perfect, your clothes classic. You look like a cool, controlled lady who knows exactly how to rule her world. I don’t know if I can resist the urge to mess your hair and rock your world.”
She dipped her head slightly, and her eyes, well, her eyes dared the devil in him. “Try,” she said, and left him staring at her door.
Jill leaned against the door and let the dark quiet of the condo seep into her. It would have been nice to be held right now. It would have been nice to feel strong arms around her and to hear reassuring words. A high-impact visual of Tyler flashed through her mind, and she tried to shake it off. He was tempting. He shouldn’t be, but he was.
She remembered the strength of his body during the short ride from the hospital, and the combination of fire and gentleness in his blue eyes. He was the kind of man who never let a woman forget she was a woman and he was a man.
In a weak moment, when her defenses were lowered, she could be susceptible.
She shook her head and pushed away his image. She took a few slow, deep breaths to clear the noise from her mind and waited for the other images she’d run from during the past four years….
Seven months pregnant, she’d been certain she looked like a beached whale, but she’d been too excited to care. Her baby was due in two months, and every kick she felt inside her made her smile. The ultrasound had revealed she was growing a boy; he was so active she’d called him “grasshopper.” Her husband of one year was eagerly anticipating their baby, too. The nursery was ready, she’d scheduled a long maternity leave, and she had never felt more complete in her life.
It was winter, and on her way home from work she drove the busy, slippery northern Virginia route with extra caution. When the truck careened over the median, headed directly for her, there was nowhere to go and nothing she could do.
Hours later she had awakened in the hospital. She remembered touching her stomach waiting for the kick of her baby inside her. She remembered how the anesthesia couldn’t dull the slice of fear and pain. Grasshopper. She must have cried out. The nurse and doctor came to her side, and she heard the fateful words. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hershey. We did everything we could, but we couldn’t save your baby. He was too young and lost too much blood.”
Jill had never felt so empty in her life. She cried like a child. She wanted to run home, to run away from her pain, but she had been too seriously injured, she was told. She had lost too much blood and had almost died, too. There were more than a few moments she’d wished she had died.
Her husband was remote. Jill blamed herself. She suspected her husband blamed her, too. If only she had left five minutes earlier. Or five minutes later. If only.
Jill felt the salty moisture from her eyes stream down her cheeks. She slid her hands down to her flat belly and remembered Grasshopper’s kick. The memory and the pain were different than she’d expected, perhaps sweeter because of the passing of time. Jill took a deep breath. Maybe the anticipation had been worse than the reality.
But fainting? She swiped her cheeks and rolled her eyes. She hadn’t fared well on her first test here in Fort Worth. She smiled wryly thinking, in that case, she had nowhere to go but up.
The following morning Jill took her sound machine and kava tea with her to the hospital. The goal was to surround herself with comfort to encourage creativity and peace.
Trina looked at her, perplexed. “Are you sure you don’t want a honey bun and some good strong coffee? Dr. Logan told me to make sure you get plenty of food today.”
Jill smiled. “Thank you. I already ate cereal.”
“But a midmorning snack—”
“Okay,” she said, sensing surrender would work better than protest. “I’ll eat a honey bun.” Comfort food, she told herself.
Trina sighed in relief. “Good. I don’t want Dr. Logan mad at me. Have you ever seen a doctor with a better backside?”
“I can’t say I’ve noticed his backside,” Jill said wryly, which wasn’t exactly true. She’d been up close and personal with Tyler’s legs and backside when she’d ridden home on his motorcycle.
“Well, it’s pretty darn terrific,” Trina said. “And if he smiles and squints his eyes at the same time, he gets a little dimple right here,” she said, pointing to the hollow of her jaw.
Jill tapped her pencil on her desk. If she heard much more about how wonderful Tyler was, she might be too nauseated to finish the honey bun. In Trina’s eyes, the man was nearly a god, certainly a hero. That thought stopped her, then her mind tumbled through a half-dozen scenarios.
“I’m bugging you, aren’t I?”
“No. You might be helping,” Jill said. “I’m just thinking of ways to get the wing.” She pinched a piece off the honey bun and put it in her mouth. “Maybe…” She closed her eyes, then opened them and smiled at her idea. “I’ve got it. An ad campaign featuring Tyler. We could take pictures in his scrubs and in his white jacket and invite people to donate funds to become members of Tyler’s heart menders’ posse.”
“Bumper stickers,” Trina said.
“Yes. Great,” Jill said. “I’d like you to call the on-site PR coordinator so I can bounce this off her as soon as possible and arrange for a photographer.”
Trina nodded. “And do you want me to call Dr. Logan, too?”
Jill shook her head. “Not until I take care of the groundwork.”
“But what if he won’t do it?” Trina asked. “Some men, even good-looking men are funny about getting their picture taken.”
Jill chuckled. Tyler’s picture wasn’t just going to be taken. If she had her way, the campaign would be plastered across all the local media along with a few billboards. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem with Tyler.” She thought about his Texas-size ego. “He’ll like this.”
“I don’t like this,” Tyler said late that afternoon when Jill told him her plan.
She did a double take. “Why? You’re handsome and appealing. I’m sure the camera will love you as will everyone who sees your pictures. We’ll get the funding for the wing in no time and you’ll probably get a few hundred decent and indecent proposals, too. You’ll be a hometown hero.”
He supposed he could feel flattered that Jill thought he was handsome. He wouldn’t mind her stroking more than his ego. At the moment, however, he felt more like a prize bull being readied for a parade around the stockyard. Uneasy, Tyler shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m not celebrity material.”
She cocked her head to one side, her eyes glinting with a curiosity that grabbed at his gut and shimmied down. “Don’t sell yourself short. Besides, this will be temporary.”
“Five minutes?” he asked dryly.
She smiled gently. “Two weeks intensive, two more weeks of follow-up.”
Tyler stifled an oath. “Don’t you have any other ideas?”
Her face puzzled, Jill stood. “Yes, but this one is the best.”
“This sounds an awful lot like that stupid bachelor calendar the Daughters of Texas put together every year,” he grumbled. “I hear most of the guys don’t wear much more than briefs and oil.”
Jill chuckled, then bit her lip as if she sensed he wasn’t amused. “You’ll be wearing the clothes you wear to work. I must confess oil had not entered my mind.”
He scratched his jaw. “I like my privacy. I’m not cut out to be a poster boy. All I want is to do my surgery, take care of my patients and lead my life the way I want. If I’d wanted a lot of attention, I would’ve chosen the rodeo.”
Jill shook her head. “I would have sworn you would do just about anything for this wing.”
He thought about the wing: how important it was to him and how important it would be to the patients. “I would,” he said slowly, the words torn from him. “If it’s absolutely necessary,” he added. “I’m surprised you want me to do the media. I’m not the most politically correct guy in the corral. Have you talked with Clarence?”
“No, but you don’t need to be totally politically correct. You’re passionate about what you do. With very little coaching, that passion will come through.”
Feeling trapped, Tyler swiped his hand over his face. “My brother will never let me live this down. What in hell made you come up with this idea?”
Her smooth, composed expression faltered, and her cheeks bloomed with color. “Just a side remark Trina made. It doesn’t really matter. It was just part of the creative process. The results are what matters.”
Her discomfort piqued his curiosity. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, well, since I’ve just been signed on to the Jill Hershey Modeling Agency, I’d like to know how it came about.”
She glanced away and waved her hand in a dismissing gesture. “It was just a silly remark. I’m sure you know Trina is a fan of yours.”
“What was the remark?”
She rearranged the location of a pencil holder on her desk. “Is this really necessary?”
“Yep.”
She looked up and sighed. “She said you had the best backside of any doctor she’d ever seen.”
“So you picked me for my butt. How shallow,” he said in an amused voice. “I’m surprised at you.”
“This is not about your butt,” she said. “I chose you because you will photograph well and you embody the image of a true Texan and the possibility, the dream of a hero.”
“It’s about image and press.”
She lifted her chin. “It’s about understanding what the public’s dreams are. I believe most people feel there has been a shortage of heroes. By using you, your image, and what you do we not only give people the dream of a hero, we offer them the opportunity to be heroes, too.” She paused a half beat and could have knocked him flat with the expression in her gaze. “I dare you.”
Silence followed, but Tyler felt as if a lightning bolt had cracked through him. Her passion, the same passion he felt, sparked from her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed with it. Her voice resonated with it. He felt an inexplicable promise of fulfillment, of a missing piece he hadn’t thought was missing. In that moment he craved her in every way a man could crave a woman, and he’d never felt that way before.
He bit back an oath and tried to cover his confusion with a chuckle. “Okay, when do I strip?”
She blinked, and the color in her cheeks intensified. “You won’t have to strip,” she said weakly.
“Now I know why they call you a sorceress,” he said.
“I’m not a sorceress,” she quickly denied. “I just get the job done.”
“No, you do more. You get people health care they need and give the contributors something they need. That’s more than getting the job done.” He held her gaze, the thread of connection drawing him while her eyes warned him off. “What about you, Jill? Who is your hero?”
The light in her eyes dimmed a little, but her posture remained erect. “I learned the hard way not to count on someone else to be my hero. I can be my own hero.”
He felt a strange stinging sensation and fought the strangest, craziest desire to be her hero. Pushing the insanity inside, he replaced it with another. “What are you doing for dinner?”
“It’s been a long day, but I’d like to sketch out some more ideas while they’re fresh in my head. I’m eating at home,” she said firmly.
I do not want to spend my evening with you, she might as well have said. Tyler got her message loud and clear. If he was the nice guy everyone thought he was, he would comply with her wishes; and if he told himself she wasn’t worth his time, he would leave her alone.
Jill’s doorbell rang at eight o’clock while she was listening to a classical music CD and writing potential ad slogans. Frowning, she glanced at the door and rose. Since she’d just arrived in Fort Worth a few days ago, she hadn’t really made any friends, so she couldn’t imagine who— She looked through the peephole and saw Tyler wearing a cocky grin and carrying a small brown paper bag.
She opened the door and blocked the doorway. She didn’t want him in her temporary home tonight. The man took up entirely too much space of every room he entered. He could make a wheat field feel crowded.
“Hi,” he said. “Since you fainted in my arms last night, I thought I should make sure you’re okay tonight. No relapses?”
“Thank you. None. I’m fine.”
“I forgot to tell you that TJ made it through the surgery today.”
She felt a softening inside her. “Thank you. I’m glad to hear that. I’ll have to go visit him.”
He lifted the bag. “Also brought some Blue Bell ice cream to share with you and find out more about my modeling assignment.”
Give up, Jill told herself. “Come in,” she said, unable to conceal her reticence.
He gave a bad-boy grin and sauntered inside. “You were going to let me stay out there all night.” He made a tsking sound. “I can see you need some exposure to our Texan hospitality. What made you let me in? My smile, charm or great butt?”
Just for fun, she was sorely tempted to say his great butt. “Ice cream,” she told him. “It’s one of my five basic food groups.”
He plastered a crestfallen expression on his face. “The ice cream was a bonus. I was supposed to be the main draw. I don’t know if my ego can take this.”
“Oh, I’m sure it can,” she said. “Isn’t it the biggest part of you?”
“Oh,” he said, giving a rough chuckle and shaking his head. He moved closer, crowding her. “That’s a terrible thing to say to a man. You know you’re asking for trouble, don’t you?”
Three
Uh-oh. Jill’s heart slammed into her rib cage at the seductively predatory look on Tyler’s face. She licked her lips. “I thought we decided you didn’t need to flirt with me.”
“You said that. Not me,” he said, moving closer.
She took a step backward. Her heart still racing, she struggled to remain rational. “This is silly. You have an entire hospital full of women interested in you. The only reason you’re doing this is because I’m not interested in you.”
“You’re not?” he said, his voice rippling over her nerve endings.
She took another step back. “I told you I’m here to do a job.”
“And you’re not at all attracted to me,” he said.
Jill took another step and felt the wall behind her. “You’re a flirt.”
He nodded. “You don’t like flirts.”
“I haven’t had good experience with flirts.”
He went still for a moment and stared into her, not at her, into her, and she could almost swear he could read her. “Your husband was a flirt,” he said, and gently lifted his hand to her cheek.
His touch made something inside her tumble free. She closed her eyes to fight the feeling.
“He was an idiot.”
“How do you know?” she whispered, appalled at the burning sensation behind her eyes.
“He had you forever, but he let you go,” he said, then his mouth touched hers.
His lips were warm and searching. She felt the same searching inside her. He brushed against her lips back and forth, coaxing, inviting. Jill opened, and he tasted her and she tasted him. She tugged gently on his bottom lip, and his groan vibrated in all her secret places. He pressed his chest against her and she immediately felt her nipples harden. His hand molded her jaw, caressing her. His tongue teased her, her brain clouded with his musky masculine scent, and she wanted more. She wanted his strong arms around her, his hard body pressed against hers. She wanted the rush and heat of passion. She wanted to make him lose his cocky control, and she wanted him to make her lose hers.
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Leanne Banks
Pediatric cardiologist Tyler Logan always rounded up what he wanted–such as Jill Hershey's fund-raising expertise to build a children's hospital wing. When she refused, he lassoed the sultry businesswoman with his stethoscope, daring her to help.But now something was daring him–to take a chance and break the curse that said Logans never won at love….Jill had tried to bury herself in her high-powered job–but it couldn't substitute for love and family. And now Tyler was touching her heart–and other Places–dangling what she yearned for most. Jill couldn't give her body and keep her heart. So maybe it was time to give both….
Tyler Looked Into Jill’s Eyes And
Felt An Odd Tug Inside Him.
“I like the way your eyes shine in the moonlight.”
Her lids slid downward, hiding her eyes from him. “Tyler,” she said in a husky, sexy voice that felt like a stroke over key erogenous zones.
Glancing down, he noticed her sandal strap was twisted. He knelt down and untwisted it. He wrapped his hand around her ankle and rubbed his thumb over her smooth skin.
“You have small ankles, too,” he said, skimming his hand up her calf, behind her knee to the inside of her thigh.
She stopped his wandering hand.
He met her gaze. “Does it bother you for me to touch you?”
“It’s distracting,” she said, her gaze smoky. “I know you’re a flirt. You’ve succeeded in arousing—” she urged him upward and rested her hand on his chest “—my curiosity. But I want to know what’s behind the flirt….”
Dear Reader,
Spring is in the air…and so is romance. Especially at Silhouette, where we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary throughout 2000! And Silhouette Desire promises you six powerful, passionate, provocative love stories every month.
Fabulous Anne McAllister offers an irresistible MAN OF THE MONTH with A Cowboy’s Secret. A rugged cowboy fears his darkest secret will separate him from the beauty he loves.
Bestselling author Leanne Banks continues her exciting miniseries LONE STAR FAMILIES: THE LOGANS with a sexy bachelor doctor in The Doctor Wore Spurs. In A Whole Lot of Love, Justine Davis tells the emotional story of a full-figured woman feeling worthy of love for the first time.
Kathryn Jensen returns to Desire with another wonderful fairy-tale romance, The Earl Takes a Bride. THE BABY BANK, a brand-new theme promotion in Desire in which love is found through sperm bank babies, debuts with The Pregnant Virgin by Anne Eames. And be sure to enjoy another BRIDAL BID story, which continues with Carol Devine’s Marriage for Sale, in which the hero “buys” the heroine at auction.
We hope you plan to usher in the spring season with all six of these supersensual romances, only from Silhouette Desire!
Enjoy!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
The Doctor Wore Spurs
Leanne Banks
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
LEANNE BANKS
is a national number-one bestselling author of romance. She lives in her native Virginia with her husband and son and daughter. Recognized for both her sensual and humorous writing with two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times Magazine, Leanne likes creating a story with a few grins, a generous kick of sensuality and characters that hang around after the book is finished. Leanne believes romance readers are the best readers in the world because they understand that love is the greatest miracle of all. You can write to her at P.O. Box 1442, Midlothian, VA 23113. A SASE for a reply would be greatly appreciated.
Four generations ago, the Logan family moved
west from Virginia and took a scrap of Texas land.
Despite droughts and floods, broken hearts and death,
the Logans now own one of the most successful
cattle ranches in Texas.
The Logans have power, brains and strength. Some
call their ongoing success a legacy. The Logans would
instead point to hard work, persistence and plain old
American ingenuity. When it comes to matters of the
heart, however, they refer to their inheritance as a curse.
The Logans face their greatest challenge in breaking
that curse, and finding a love that lasts forever….
This book is dedicated to all who have had the courage
to face their personal waterloo.
My gratitude to Millie Criswell
for the title and ten years of friendship.
Contents
Prologue (#ue47e8f15-df4f-56e7-82fe-d83f2fe1baf2)
Chapter One (#u5b82c4ba-59af-570a-8035-c11da89af4ff)
Chapter Two (#uc8540bf4-c06e-5e44-81d5-f65427597c97)
Chapter Three (#ua4f82738-228b-5868-b770-3a32a3cedb72)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue
“She has a reputation,” Clarence Gilmore said, his gaze on the same woman Tyler Logan was watching.
Idly aware of the intense schmooze factor of the Hospital Association’s convention, Tyler watched Jill Hershey the same way he’d been known to watch a buck during hunting season. The outer package was enough to merit a second glance: silky, warm-brown hair, intelligent green eyes and a compact but curvy body that was almost concealed by her conservative clothing. Another man might not notice the subtle swell of her breasts against the double-breasted black suit jacket or the enticing curve of her waist and hips, but Tyler always looked beneath the surface.
He just didn’t always let everyone else know he did. What held his attention about Jill Hershey, however, was the way she kept her gaze focused on whomever she was talking to. Even from twenty feet away he could sense the power of her focus.
“What do you know about her?” he asked Clarence.
“She’s a public relations miracle worker. That’s why she’s in demand. You wouldn’t believe what she did for the cancer treatment center in Minneapolis,” Clarence, the hospital administrator, said wistfully.
“Then get her,” Tyler said simply.
Clarence threw him a long-suffering glance. “You surgeons don’t understand anything about the business of health care.”
“Good thing, too,” Tyler said with a grin. “We’d have a lot more dead people, if surgeons were thinking about business instead of surgery.” He looked at Jill again. “If she’s the one we need to beef up our children’s treatment center, then get her.”
“There might be a few obstacles to that. One, she probably costs too much. Two, she’s probably already booked. Three, we might be too small.”
“Sounds like a bunch of mights and maybes. What’s the harm in asking?”
“I’ve requested information about her before,” Clarence said a shade defensively. “I was told she doesn’t do children’s projects.”
That stopped Tyler. He glanced at Clarence. “Really?”
“Yes,” Clarence said, pulling slightly on his collar.
“Well, maybe she needs a new challenge,” Tyler said.
“You’re not going to approach her,” Clarence said.
“Sure I am. Isn’t that why we’re at this convention? To gain some visibility for the new children’s cardiac wing.”
“Yes, but—”
Tyler shrugged. “You said she’s the one we need. So, I’ll go get her.”
The man with the cowboy hat waited patiently behind her former client, Mr. Waldron. Jill tried not to look at him, but it was difficult. He was taller than most men in the room, unabashedly Western, and, she concluded after a few moments passed, determined. He was a little too handsome for his own good, she thought. Just the way he stood, he exuded a gut-level kind of confidence most people never experienced. His searching gaze generated an odd ripple inside her.
Her former client must have felt the man’s presence because he glanced around quizzically.
The man immediately stepped forward. “Hello, I’m Dr. Tyler Logan from Fort Worth General Hospital. Pleased to meet you.”
“Bill Waldron of Cincinnati University Hospital. This is—”
“Jill Hershey, public relations sorceress,” Dr. Logan finished with enigmatic charm. He extended his hand and met her gaze with the direct impact of a two-by-four. “We need you.”
Jill blinked. Although her career success had grown quickly over the past three years, she wasn’t accustomed to this approach. Noticing the strength and size of his hand, she managed a smile. “I’m flattered,” she said. “I think.”
Mr. Waldron excused himself, and Jill retrieved her hand. “I wouldn’t call myself a sorceress.”
“You don’t have to. You have others who do it for you.”
She felt a surge of curiosity. She wondered what was behind his cowboy charm. “Dr. Logan,” she began.
“Call me Tyler,” he said.
Surprise seeped through her. Many of the doctors she’d met were very attached to their titles. “Tyler, what is your specialty?”
“Pediatric cardiology. Surgery.”
Jill’s stomach clenched. It took a moment to catch her breath, but with effort she produced a smile. “That’s an important field, but I must tell you I haven’t done much work with children’s projects.”
“Why not?”
His question took her off guard. “I always felt I was more effective with other specialties.”
“You don’t like kids?”
“No!” she immediately denied, and shook her head. “I… I do like children.” She shrugged, wanting to get away from this impertinent man who had unknowingly stabbed her in her most vulnerable area. “I told you I have always felt I was more effective with other specialties. Not only that,” she said, wishing her voice didn’t sound so tight with tension, “my latest projects have been with larger hospitals.”
“You wouldn’t want to get in a rut,” Tyler said.
Jill’s head began to pound. “A rut?” she repeated.
He nodded. “You look like a woman who needs a new challenge to keep you happy.”
She didn’t know what irritated her more, the fact that he was making a huge assumption or the fact that it was right. “Dr. Logan—”
“Tyler,” he corrected, his blue eyes glinting with masculine humor.
She stifled a sigh. “Tyler, I have to be honest. I usually accept assignments recommended by the president of my company. If you’re interested in our services, you can contact Jordan Grant. Our telephone and fax numbers are in the conference kit. It was nice meeting you.”
He nodded slowly, thoughtfully, as if he saw more than she wanted him to see. Jill turned away, both disturbed and relieved.
“I dare you,” she heard from behind her. His words brought her back around.
“Pardon?”
“I dare you to come to Fort Worth General and make a lot of children’s lives longer and better. You’ve got what it takes to do it.” He looked her directly in the eye, and she felt the heat and power of his passion. “I dare you.”
One
Jill could hold her own. She’d had years of practice, and she rarely played the fool. She was no coward, and she knew how to protect herself. The first week after Dr. Tyler Logan had audaciously delivered his challenge, she’d dismissed him and his hospital. She refused to be manipulated.
As much as she dismissed him, however, he kept popping up. He’d had no idea of the enormity of his dare. He’d had no idea that he was presenting her with the opportunity to conquer or be conquered by her greatest, most secret pain.
And that was why she was currently organizing her temporary office at Fort Worth General Hospital. She glanced out her window at “Cowtown’s” downtown area. A few blocks away stood the old stockyards, a statue of the legendary cowboy William Pickett, and Billy Bob’s bar, the largest saloon in Texas. Wherever Jill’s projects took her, she’d learned her job went much easier if she understood the natives. That meant she was going to have to be a temporary cowgirl. That might be challenging, considering she didn’t eat beef.
“It’s just temporary,” she whispered, trying to settle her nervous stomach. “Temporary insanity.” During her stay in Fort Worth, this office would be her safe haven, the place where she could close the door and take deep breaths, her island of peace and creativity. Her sanctuary.
A sharp rap sounded on her door, then it whooshed open. “Welcome to Cowtown.”
Jill’s stomach tightened again. That voice had haunted her during the past month. The man wasn’t important, she reminded herself. He was merely a door she would walk through to make peace with herself. She glanced up to meet his blue gaze. The incongruous combination of his white coat, a stethoscope with a tiny stuffed bear attached to it and his cowboy hat caught her off guard. Even though the man was tall with broad shoulders and dark good looks, that tiny stuffed bear should have deep-sixed his sexual appeal. It didn’t. “Thank you,” she finally said.
“What took you so long to get here?”
She gave a light laugh and relaxed slightly. “You were that sure I’d come.”
“If you followed your instincts,” he said, entering the room. “You’ll like it here.”
“It’s temporary,” she said more for herself than him.
“You didn’t answer my question. What took you so long?”
That Texas drawl and lanky stride were deceptive, Jill thought, hiding a grin. The man was impatient. Jill understood impatience. She’d just learned to conceal hers. “This may surprise you, but I was working on another project at the time. I needed to tie up some loose ends and make sure there was a smooth transition between me and the new rep. I couldn’t just snap my fingers.”
“Well, I am surprised,” Tyler said. “You’re supposed to be a sorceress, remember?”
She shot him a sideways glance. “I’m curious,” she said. “Is this how you usually get your way with people?”
He picked up a pencil holder. “How?”
“Oh, by using a combination of flattery and manipulation.”
He widened his eyes in mock innocence. “Flattery?” He shrugged. “I just tell the truth. And manipulation sounds mean. I’m not mean. I just do what it takes to get the job done. That makes some people nervous. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do I make you nervous?” he asked in a voice like black velvet.
Her heart jumped in her chest. “No,” she said, a half beat more quickly than she should.
“Good,” he said, “because you and I will be working together. I make the administration a little jumpy sometimes, but I get the job done.” His lips twitched. “You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Temporarily,” she emphasized.
His gaze swept over her. “Long enough,” he promised. “Why are you staring at Wild Cody?”
Jill blinked. “Wild Cody?”
“My bear. You remind me of one of my kids.”
She felt her cheeks heat. “I’m not used to seeing a bear on a stethoscope.”
“Distracting, isn’t it?” His lips twitched again when she nodded. “That’s the idea.” He took her hand and held it in his, then took her index finger between his fingers.
Feeling a strange, tumbling sensation in her stomach, she tried to pull back.
Tyler shook his head. “Hold on.” He pulled another tiny bear from his pocket and attached the little bear to her finger. “You are now officially a member of the heart menders’ wild posse.”
Why was her heart pounding? she wondered with a kick of exasperation. She glanced at the little stuffed bear and sighed. Oddly touched, she smiled. “Thank you. Do you give these to your patients?”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s not a bad idea. Maybe I could get them in bulk. I can see Clarence twitching over a purchase requisition for a hundred miniature bears.” He grinned and squeezed her hand. “There you go. A good idea and you haven’t even been here an entire day. I told you we needed you.”
Her stomach turned another somersault. “Ideas are the easy part. The hard part comes later,” she murmured, thinking he had no idea how hard this could become for her.
“You need a challenge,” he told her.
His assumption nettled her again. “Why do you say that? You don’t even know me.”
“I could say your reputation precedes you,” he said. “Or I could say we needed you at Fort Worth General because you’ve got great legs. Or I could just say I know a kindred spirit when I see one.”
“Is this a multiple-choice quiz?” she asked, her voice betraying her impatience.
He leaned closer and she could see the very devil in his blue eyes. “Check all of the above.”
A flirt, she concluded with disapproval. Her ex-husband had been charming, too confident and an outrageous flirt. She didn’t need to read that book again. “I don’t think—”
“Howdy!” a young, plump woman called from the doorway. Her gaze immediately latched on to Tyler. “Oh, hi, Dr. Logan,” she said in a breathy voice.
“Hi, Trina,” Tyler said. “This is our PR specialist, Jill Hershey.”
Her gaze weaving between Tyler and Jill, she said, “I’m Trina Hostetter and I’ll be your assistant while you’re here in Fort Worth.”
“Good job,” Tyler said as he moved toward the door. “Trina, you take good care of Jill. She’s going to do great things for us.” His gaze dipped to Jill’s legs for an audacious extra second, then he gave a half grin. “See you later.”
Jill watched Trina gaze longingly after Tyler. “I’d like to do great things for him,” Trina murmured under his breath.
Jill rolled her eyes. “He’s a flirt.”
Trina swerved her head around. “But not a mean flirt,” she quickly said. “He just knows how to make a woman feel good. He doesn’t break hearts.”
Jill raised her eyebrows doubtfully, but smiled. “Why do I think you might be a little prejudiced?”
“Oh. Just because it’s obvious that I’d like Tyler to park his boots under my bed anytime, you think I might be prejudiced.” Trina shook her head. “Just about every woman with any taste would like to have Tyler. What’s not to like? He’s handsome, but not pretty. He’s smart, funny, kind, and he likes kids. Sure, he dates a lot, but he doesn’t make promises he won’t keep. Everyone’s just trying to find a way to get him to make some of those promises.” She glanced at Jill’s finger. “Omigod, he gave you one of his bears. He must really like you,” she said with a trace of envy.
Jill immediately unfastened the bear from her finger and transferred it to a pencil. “Don’t worry. It has no romantic significance. The reason Tyler wants me here is because he believes I’m going to help him get something he wants—the new pediatric cardiology wing.”
Trina blinked. “Are you saying you don’t want him?”
Jill smiled. “Exactly. I would rather catch the flu than catch Tyler.”
“Are you married? Engaged?”
“No, just sane. Very sane when it comes to men. Believe me,” Jill said, feeling a rumbling of trepidation inside her. “I’m not here to get involved with Dr. Logan.”
A sharp rap sounded on Jill’s office door, startling her and breaking her concentration. The door opened and Tyler strode in. “Time for your tour,” he said.
Jill blinked in irritation. The man always seemed to catch her off guard. “Trina already took me on a tour of the hospital,” Jill told him. Trina had also given her an earful on just about every person they’d encountered.
“That was Trina’s tour. Mine is different.”
“Trina was very thorough,” Jill said.
“I’m sure she was,” Tyler said with a dry chuckle. “You probably felt like you’d walked through scripts for three soap operas by the time she finished.”
“It was—” she paused and her lips twitched “—colorful.”
“I can tell you’re in PR. My tour is different,” he said. “I want you to meet some of my patients.”
Jill’s stomach tightened. “Oh, well, you don’t have to do that.”
He met her gaze. “Sure I do. People put more on the line when it’s personal. If you meet some of these kids, it will be personal.”
She nodded slowly. “You’re right, but we don’t have to do it today. I’m sure you’ve had a long day, and I’m digesting all the information I’ve gathered today and—”
“Why don’t you want to meet them?”
Her breath stopped somewhere between her lungs and her mouth. How could she tell him that she wasn’t prepared to face her demons in that way today? She couldn’t. She carefully inhaled and exhaled. “I didn’t say I don’t want to meet them. I just thought there might be a better day.”
“Nope,” he said with a shrug.
She bit her lip and nodded. “Okay,” she said, resignation sinking into her as she walked out of her office with him.
“We have three recovering from surgery and four either in for testing or preparing for surgery,” he said as he led her with his long-legged stride through the white-tile corridor to the elevator.
“What age?” she asked, telling herself she could handle this.
“Infant through teenage.”
Infant. Jill steeled herself against the poke at her secret wound. Focus on something else, she told herself. “What made you choose your specialty?”
He nodded for her to enter the elevator. “I think it chose me. If my father had chosen, he would’ve kept me on the ranch. Thank goodness my oldest brother is the rancher.”
“Sounds like your family is big on tradition.”
He shrugged. “You could say that. We’ve been around West Texas for several generations now, we have a long-standing feud with our neighbor, and some say there’s a curse on the Logan name.”
“A curse?” she echoed, intrigued at the prospect that the cocky, charming Dr. Logan could suffer from a curse.
He rolled his eyes. “I never believed it, but the Logans have not been particularly lucky in the romance department. Their women don’t seem to hang around.”
“They leave?”
He shrugged again. “Or die.”
Her eyes widened and she swallowed a chuckle. “Oh, my. Is that why you haven’t married?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Nah, just haven’t met the right one.” He looked her over curiously. “What about you?”
“I thought I had, but I was wrong.”
“I thought someone would have tried to take you off the market. What did he do?”
“He left at the worst possible moment,” she said and smiled. “No fairy-tale ending, but I’m over it now.”
“Ready to go again?” he asked with a flicker of sexual challenge in his blue eyes.
“I like taking my time,” she returned, thinking he would be a tempting package for some other woman. She met his gaze. “I know it’s part of your style to flirt with women and to flatter. You don’t have to do that with me. My ego can handle the direct approach.”
He glanced at her mouth, then back to her eyes, and he gave a sensual grin. “What if I like flirting with you?”
“I think you should save it for the legions of women around here who want to—” she paused, then added Trina’s words “—lasso your heart.”
He roared with laughter. “You’ve been talking to Trina.”
“No. Trina’s been talking to me.”
“So you’re not gonna try to lasso me,” he said, rubbing his chin. “I wonder if my feelings should be hurt.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive,” she said in a dry voice. “No ropes, no chains. If I want your body or your face, it’ll be for a media photo op that will get you your new wing.”
“Some men might see that as a challenge,” he told her.
“I’m glad you’re too intelligent for that,” she said with far more assurance than she felt. Intelligence was one thing, the male ego another.
The elevator stopped. “We’ll see,” he said. “But right now you get to meet some of my kids. Hey, Betty,” he called to a nurse. “How’s TJ?”
“A little down. His mom might not be here until tomorrow morning.”
Tyler winced and swore under his breath. “TJ is seven and has six brothers and sisters. His family lives three hours away and his dad has a broken leg, so his mother is doing triple duty right now. He has surgery tomorrow to repair a hole in his heart. This is his room.”
“Hey, bud,” he said as he entered the room. “What’s up?”
TJ was thin, his face drawn and his eyes frightened. Jill’s heart immediately went out to him.
“My mom won’t be here until late tonight.”
“I heard,” Tyler said. “I’m sure she’ll be here as soon as she can. I need you to rest for surgery tomorrow.”
“Will I really be able to play baseball after the operation?”
“No reason from my end. Who knows? After you recover, the majors may be calling you.”
TJ smiled.
“Hey, I brought someone to meet you. Her name is Jill Hershey.”
“Hershey?” TJ repeated. “Like the candy?”
“Yeah, eye candy,” Tyler said and winked at her. “Like the kiss.”
“Is she your girlfriend?”
“No,” Jill quickly said. “I work at the hospital.”
TJ glanced at her street clothes in confusion. “You’re not gonna take any more of my blood or give me any more shots, are you?”
“Not me,” she assured him. “Dr. Logan tells me you have a lot of brothers and sisters. Are you the oldest?”
TJ shook his head. “I’m in the middle. I had to come early for surgery because one of my sisters got sick and they didn’t want me to get sick before the operation.”
“Oh,” Jill said. “It can be boring in the hospital.”
“Yeah.”
“Boring?” Tyler repeated indignantly. “Them’s fighting words.”
“Well, you get to do the interesting stuff like surgery,” Jill pointed out.
“And TJ gets to lie around and have people wait on him.”
“The food is gross,” TJ said.
“What do you like to do at home?” Jill asked.
“After I get my operation, I’m gonna run and run and never stop running,” TJ said, his words pulling at Jill’s heart. She could tell that was a dream Tyler would make come true. “I read a lot,” he said. “My mom reads to all of us every night.”
Jill glanced at the stack of books on his bedside stand. “Would you let me read one to you?”
TJ’s eyes lit up. “Sure!”
Jill felt Tyler’s hand on her shoulder. “You—” His pager went off and he glanced at it. “Another doctor. Probably needs a consult.” He looked at her with a mixture of approval and basic male interest that made her heart jump and her brain go uh-oh. “I’ll be back.”
Jill didn’t really want to like Tyler, but she was hard-pressed when she looked at TJ and knew he probably dreamed every night of running, and Tyler would make that dream a reality. Good press, she thought, and tried to compartmentalize as she picked up a book from the table.
Jill read several books to TJ, and much later Tyler appeared and removed the book she was currently reading from her hands. He pressed his finger to his lips and pointed at TJ, who was sleeping.
Taking her hand, he led her from the room. “I didn’t intend to put you to work tonight.”
She let go of his hand and waved hers in a dismissing gesture. “It was a small thing. I didn’t mind at all.”
He paused, studying her. “I think there’s more to you than meets the eye. You look cool, as if you are totally pulled together, as if no one could ruffle your feathers or get to you,” he said. “But TJ did. I thought you didn’t like kids.”
Jill stifled a sigh of frustration. “I never said I didn’t like kids. I just said I’ve been most effective working on projects for adults,” she said, then changed the subject. “How was your consult?”
“Two consults, and I checked in on another patient. That’s what took me so long. There’s one more thing I want you to see,” he said, and touched her back to guide her toward the elevator. “One floor up, then I’ll take you to dinner.”
“Dinner’s not necessary,” Jill said.
“Sure it is.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Sure it is,” he repeated. “Haven’t you ever heard you’re not supposed to argue with the doctor?”
“Is that one of the bits of fiction they teach you in med school?” she asked sweetly.
Tyler chuckled. “No respect. I get no respect.” The doors whisked open. “I can’t let you read to her,” he said as they rounded a corner, “but I thought you might like to see my youngest patient.” They stopped in front of a nursery window, and he pointed to a small baby off to the side. “Meet Annabelle Rogers. She’s three months old.”
Jill saw the nursery full of isolates with babies wrapped in blankets, and she broke into a cold sweat. The image of another hospital and another nursery swam before her eyes. Tyler was talking, but she couldn’t hear him. Instead, she heard another doctor’s voice from another time.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Hershey. We could not save your baby.”
The words echoed in her head, and everything went black.
Two
Tyler caught Jill as her body slumped in a faint. He swore under his breath. The woman was white as a sheet.
“Mr. Logan, do you have to do that in the hall?” an anesthesiologist, Bill Johnson, joked as he passed by. “Can’t you use the laundry closet like everyone else?”
Comedians. He was surrounded by comedians. “She fainted,” he said.
Bill’s eyes widened and he stopped. “Well, I guess she picked the right place. Let’s get her feet elevated. Oxygen.”
“No need,” Tyler said, watching Jill’s eyes flutter.
“She’s pretty. I haven’t seen her around. Who is she?”
“PR consultant,” Tyler said, moving toward an empty room. “She’s helping get the new wing.”
“Smart, too. Hey, you want me to carry her?”
Tyler knew Bill was a player with the women. He felt a wave of protection for Jill as he set her down on the bed. “Keep your paws off her. This isn’t your specialty. You like to put people to sleep, remember.”
“Yes, but I also wake them up,” he said, poking out his chest.
“Hey, candy lady, where’d you go?” Tyler asked, and slid his stethoscope against her chest.
Jill blinked. “I don’t know. I just saw the—” Her slim eyebrows furrowed slightly and she looked away. “Maybe I was more tired than I thought. I never faint. I have never fainted in my life.”
“What did you eat for lunch?”
“A pack of crackers, but—”
Tyler frowned. “You need some food.”
“I’ll get you a burger,” Bill offered, stepping forward. “I’d like a rain check to take you someplace nicer when you’re feeling better, but—”
“Not in this century,” Tyler said, and sighed. “This is Dr. Bill Johnson. He puts people to sleep for a living.”
Bill scowled. “Not women.”
“He’s worse than I am.” He turned to Bill. “She doesn’t like flirts, Bill.”
“I’m not a flirt,” Bill said, his gaze fixed on Jill with the intensity of a hunter. “I am a man. At your service,” he added smoothly. “May I get you a burger?”
Tyler thought he might puke.
“Not unless it’s a veggie burger,” Jill said with a wry smile. “I don’t really eat beef.”
Tyler and Bill stared at each other, then roared with laughter.
“I missed the joke,” Jill said, sitting up.
“Your secret is safe with us, but since you’re in PR, you might want to remember you’re in Texas,” Tyler said. “Beef country.”
“You’re saying the Texas Rangers might come after me if I eat a veggie burger?”
“More likely the Cattlemen’s Association,” Bill said.
“Is a grilled cheese okay?”
“Done,” Bill said, and gave Tyler a competitor’s smile. “And you’d probably rather get a ride home with me, since Tyler drives a motorcycle.”
“The fresh air will do her good,” Tyler said.
“I can drive myself,” Jill said.
“No,” Tyler said at the same time Bill did. “Go get her grilled cheese,” he growled.
Forty-five minutes later she had eaten and was pacing the floor of his office. She batted his hands away when he lifted his stethoscope. “Leave me alone. I’m ready to go.”
“Okay, let’s get your coat.” He ditched his coat and grabbed his suede jacket.
“I really can drive myself,” she said firmly.
“There is no way in hell I’m letting you,” he said just as firmly. “And I’m bigger than you are, so just stop arguing.”
She made a sound of disgust and stomped out of his office. Tyler’s lips twitched. She was a strange combination. She looked so feminine and composed, a little too cool, as if nothing would shake her, but he’d watched her melt with TJ, and she was clearly embarrassed that she’d fainted. She looked as though she should be shaken and stirred, and he wouldn’t mind doing the job. He knew she wouldn’t take him too seriously, and that made her all the more appealing.
He escorted her to his bike in the parking lot, and she shook her head. “I’m not dressed for this.”
Idly noticing the mild temperature and starry night, he pulled a helmet onto his head. “You’re fine. You’re staying at the Winchester Condominiums, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
He stopped her protest by putting a helmet on her head. “It’s not far,” he said with a grin. “Just hold on tight.”
He helped her onto the motorcycle, then slid in front of her. He felt her gingerly put her hands on his back. Tyler pulled her slender hands under his coat and pressed them to his chest. “Trust me,” he said. “You’ll stay warmer this way.”
He felt the inside of her thighs spreading to accommodate his rear end, and a sensual image pulsed through him. Jill, with her silky thighs spreading to accommodate him in a totally different way. He felt a rush of heat and sucked in a breath of air. Then he started the engine.
He drove through the night to her condominium and helped her off the bike. She fumbled with the helmet and he took it off for her. He couldn’t explain it, but there was a hint of lost-girl look in her eyes. He’d seen flashes of that same look several times throughout the evening and he wondered what or who had caused it.
“Let me walk you to your door,” he said.
“That’s not—”
“Don’t waste your breath. My mother would never forgive me.”
“You can tell her I excused you,” Jill said in a long-suffering voice.
Tyler smiled and shook his head. “Not unless we’re planning to hold a séance.”
Jill whipped her head around to stare at him. “She’s dead?”
He nodded.
“I’m sorry. How long?”
“Too long,” he said, remembering the woman who had personified gentleness, humor and love in his life. “She died twenty-three years ago when my sister, Martina, was born.”
Jill stopped midstep on the sidewalk and placed her hand on his arm. “During childbirth. How terrible for all of you. Your sister, Martina? Did she survive?”
He nodded. “Yeah, and she’s pregnant. Not married,” he admitted with a sigh. “Whenever my brother and I ask her about the father, and believe me that is often, she insists the stork is responsible.”
“Do you worry about her?”
“Yes,” he said. “And no. Martina is no fragile flower. She’s tough, and she knows if she needs anything, anything at all, she can call Brock or me and we’ll come running.”
“Lucky lady?” she asked, walking to her doorstep.
“Maybe,” he said and cracked a half grin. “She might disagree with that on occasion.”
She slid her hand through her hair and met his gaze. “Thank you.”
“For catching you when you fell.”
She paused a moment, then nodded. “Yes. You were kind. Pushy,” she said, her lips tilting in a smile, “but kind.”
“Yeah, but my pushy is better than Bill’s pushy.” She looked bone weary. “What are you going to do now?”
“Turn my sound machine to ocean waves and head for the Mexican Riviera.”
“Take your rest. You earned it,” Tyler said. “You did some heart mending tonight with TJ.”
She shook her head and shrugged. “All I did was read to him.”
He lifted his hand to her cheek. “You know it was more. Maybe you weren’t heart mending. Heart stealing.”
She gave him a sideways glance. “I thought we’d decided you didn’t need to flirt with me.”
He chuckled, liking the softness of her skin against his fingers. “Your hair is perfect, your clothes classic. You look like a cool, controlled lady who knows exactly how to rule her world. I don’t know if I can resist the urge to mess your hair and rock your world.”
She dipped her head slightly, and her eyes, well, her eyes dared the devil in him. “Try,” she said, and left him staring at her door.
Jill leaned against the door and let the dark quiet of the condo seep into her. It would have been nice to be held right now. It would have been nice to feel strong arms around her and to hear reassuring words. A high-impact visual of Tyler flashed through her mind, and she tried to shake it off. He was tempting. He shouldn’t be, but he was.
She remembered the strength of his body during the short ride from the hospital, and the combination of fire and gentleness in his blue eyes. He was the kind of man who never let a woman forget she was a woman and he was a man.
In a weak moment, when her defenses were lowered, she could be susceptible.
She shook her head and pushed away his image. She took a few slow, deep breaths to clear the noise from her mind and waited for the other images she’d run from during the past four years….
Seven months pregnant, she’d been certain she looked like a beached whale, but she’d been too excited to care. Her baby was due in two months, and every kick she felt inside her made her smile. The ultrasound had revealed she was growing a boy; he was so active she’d called him “grasshopper.” Her husband of one year was eagerly anticipating their baby, too. The nursery was ready, she’d scheduled a long maternity leave, and she had never felt more complete in her life.
It was winter, and on her way home from work she drove the busy, slippery northern Virginia route with extra caution. When the truck careened over the median, headed directly for her, there was nowhere to go and nothing she could do.
Hours later she had awakened in the hospital. She remembered touching her stomach waiting for the kick of her baby inside her. She remembered how the anesthesia couldn’t dull the slice of fear and pain. Grasshopper. She must have cried out. The nurse and doctor came to her side, and she heard the fateful words. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hershey. We did everything we could, but we couldn’t save your baby. He was too young and lost too much blood.”
Jill had never felt so empty in her life. She cried like a child. She wanted to run home, to run away from her pain, but she had been too seriously injured, she was told. She had lost too much blood and had almost died, too. There were more than a few moments she’d wished she had died.
Her husband was remote. Jill blamed herself. She suspected her husband blamed her, too. If only she had left five minutes earlier. Or five minutes later. If only.
Jill felt the salty moisture from her eyes stream down her cheeks. She slid her hands down to her flat belly and remembered Grasshopper’s kick. The memory and the pain were different than she’d expected, perhaps sweeter because of the passing of time. Jill took a deep breath. Maybe the anticipation had been worse than the reality.
But fainting? She swiped her cheeks and rolled her eyes. She hadn’t fared well on her first test here in Fort Worth. She smiled wryly thinking, in that case, she had nowhere to go but up.
The following morning Jill took her sound machine and kava tea with her to the hospital. The goal was to surround herself with comfort to encourage creativity and peace.
Trina looked at her, perplexed. “Are you sure you don’t want a honey bun and some good strong coffee? Dr. Logan told me to make sure you get plenty of food today.”
Jill smiled. “Thank you. I already ate cereal.”
“But a midmorning snack—”
“Okay,” she said, sensing surrender would work better than protest. “I’ll eat a honey bun.” Comfort food, she told herself.
Trina sighed in relief. “Good. I don’t want Dr. Logan mad at me. Have you ever seen a doctor with a better backside?”
“I can’t say I’ve noticed his backside,” Jill said wryly, which wasn’t exactly true. She’d been up close and personal with Tyler’s legs and backside when she’d ridden home on his motorcycle.
“Well, it’s pretty darn terrific,” Trina said. “And if he smiles and squints his eyes at the same time, he gets a little dimple right here,” she said, pointing to the hollow of her jaw.
Jill tapped her pencil on her desk. If she heard much more about how wonderful Tyler was, she might be too nauseated to finish the honey bun. In Trina’s eyes, the man was nearly a god, certainly a hero. That thought stopped her, then her mind tumbled through a half-dozen scenarios.
“I’m bugging you, aren’t I?”
“No. You might be helping,” Jill said. “I’m just thinking of ways to get the wing.” She pinched a piece off the honey bun and put it in her mouth. “Maybe…” She closed her eyes, then opened them and smiled at her idea. “I’ve got it. An ad campaign featuring Tyler. We could take pictures in his scrubs and in his white jacket and invite people to donate funds to become members of Tyler’s heart menders’ posse.”
“Bumper stickers,” Trina said.
“Yes. Great,” Jill said. “I’d like you to call the on-site PR coordinator so I can bounce this off her as soon as possible and arrange for a photographer.”
Trina nodded. “And do you want me to call Dr. Logan, too?”
Jill shook her head. “Not until I take care of the groundwork.”
“But what if he won’t do it?” Trina asked. “Some men, even good-looking men are funny about getting their picture taken.”
Jill chuckled. Tyler’s picture wasn’t just going to be taken. If she had her way, the campaign would be plastered across all the local media along with a few billboards. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem with Tyler.” She thought about his Texas-size ego. “He’ll like this.”
“I don’t like this,” Tyler said late that afternoon when Jill told him her plan.
She did a double take. “Why? You’re handsome and appealing. I’m sure the camera will love you as will everyone who sees your pictures. We’ll get the funding for the wing in no time and you’ll probably get a few hundred decent and indecent proposals, too. You’ll be a hometown hero.”
He supposed he could feel flattered that Jill thought he was handsome. He wouldn’t mind her stroking more than his ego. At the moment, however, he felt more like a prize bull being readied for a parade around the stockyard. Uneasy, Tyler shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m not celebrity material.”
She cocked her head to one side, her eyes glinting with a curiosity that grabbed at his gut and shimmied down. “Don’t sell yourself short. Besides, this will be temporary.”
“Five minutes?” he asked dryly.
She smiled gently. “Two weeks intensive, two more weeks of follow-up.”
Tyler stifled an oath. “Don’t you have any other ideas?”
Her face puzzled, Jill stood. “Yes, but this one is the best.”
“This sounds an awful lot like that stupid bachelor calendar the Daughters of Texas put together every year,” he grumbled. “I hear most of the guys don’t wear much more than briefs and oil.”
Jill chuckled, then bit her lip as if she sensed he wasn’t amused. “You’ll be wearing the clothes you wear to work. I must confess oil had not entered my mind.”
He scratched his jaw. “I like my privacy. I’m not cut out to be a poster boy. All I want is to do my surgery, take care of my patients and lead my life the way I want. If I’d wanted a lot of attention, I would’ve chosen the rodeo.”
Jill shook her head. “I would have sworn you would do just about anything for this wing.”
He thought about the wing: how important it was to him and how important it would be to the patients. “I would,” he said slowly, the words torn from him. “If it’s absolutely necessary,” he added. “I’m surprised you want me to do the media. I’m not the most politically correct guy in the corral. Have you talked with Clarence?”
“No, but you don’t need to be totally politically correct. You’re passionate about what you do. With very little coaching, that passion will come through.”
Feeling trapped, Tyler swiped his hand over his face. “My brother will never let me live this down. What in hell made you come up with this idea?”
Her smooth, composed expression faltered, and her cheeks bloomed with color. “Just a side remark Trina made. It doesn’t really matter. It was just part of the creative process. The results are what matters.”
Her discomfort piqued his curiosity. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, well, since I’ve just been signed on to the Jill Hershey Modeling Agency, I’d like to know how it came about.”
She glanced away and waved her hand in a dismissing gesture. “It was just a silly remark. I’m sure you know Trina is a fan of yours.”
“What was the remark?”
She rearranged the location of a pencil holder on her desk. “Is this really necessary?”
“Yep.”
She looked up and sighed. “She said you had the best backside of any doctor she’d ever seen.”
“So you picked me for my butt. How shallow,” he said in an amused voice. “I’m surprised at you.”
“This is not about your butt,” she said. “I chose you because you will photograph well and you embody the image of a true Texan and the possibility, the dream of a hero.”
“It’s about image and press.”
She lifted her chin. “It’s about understanding what the public’s dreams are. I believe most people feel there has been a shortage of heroes. By using you, your image, and what you do we not only give people the dream of a hero, we offer them the opportunity to be heroes, too.” She paused a half beat and could have knocked him flat with the expression in her gaze. “I dare you.”
Silence followed, but Tyler felt as if a lightning bolt had cracked through him. Her passion, the same passion he felt, sparked from her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed with it. Her voice resonated with it. He felt an inexplicable promise of fulfillment, of a missing piece he hadn’t thought was missing. In that moment he craved her in every way a man could crave a woman, and he’d never felt that way before.
He bit back an oath and tried to cover his confusion with a chuckle. “Okay, when do I strip?”
She blinked, and the color in her cheeks intensified. “You won’t have to strip,” she said weakly.
“Now I know why they call you a sorceress,” he said.
“I’m not a sorceress,” she quickly denied. “I just get the job done.”
“No, you do more. You get people health care they need and give the contributors something they need. That’s more than getting the job done.” He held her gaze, the thread of connection drawing him while her eyes warned him off. “What about you, Jill? Who is your hero?”
The light in her eyes dimmed a little, but her posture remained erect. “I learned the hard way not to count on someone else to be my hero. I can be my own hero.”
He felt a strange stinging sensation and fought the strangest, craziest desire to be her hero. Pushing the insanity inside, he replaced it with another. “What are you doing for dinner?”
“It’s been a long day, but I’d like to sketch out some more ideas while they’re fresh in my head. I’m eating at home,” she said firmly.
I do not want to spend my evening with you, she might as well have said. Tyler got her message loud and clear. If he was the nice guy everyone thought he was, he would comply with her wishes; and if he told himself she wasn’t worth his time, he would leave her alone.
Jill’s doorbell rang at eight o’clock while she was listening to a classical music CD and writing potential ad slogans. Frowning, she glanced at the door and rose. Since she’d just arrived in Fort Worth a few days ago, she hadn’t really made any friends, so she couldn’t imagine who— She looked through the peephole and saw Tyler wearing a cocky grin and carrying a small brown paper bag.
She opened the door and blocked the doorway. She didn’t want him in her temporary home tonight. The man took up entirely too much space of every room he entered. He could make a wheat field feel crowded.
“Hi,” he said. “Since you fainted in my arms last night, I thought I should make sure you’re okay tonight. No relapses?”
“Thank you. None. I’m fine.”
“I forgot to tell you that TJ made it through the surgery today.”
She felt a softening inside her. “Thank you. I’m glad to hear that. I’ll have to go visit him.”
He lifted the bag. “Also brought some Blue Bell ice cream to share with you and find out more about my modeling assignment.”
Give up, Jill told herself. “Come in,” she said, unable to conceal her reticence.
He gave a bad-boy grin and sauntered inside. “You were going to let me stay out there all night.” He made a tsking sound. “I can see you need some exposure to our Texan hospitality. What made you let me in? My smile, charm or great butt?”
Just for fun, she was sorely tempted to say his great butt. “Ice cream,” she told him. “It’s one of my five basic food groups.”
He plastered a crestfallen expression on his face. “The ice cream was a bonus. I was supposed to be the main draw. I don’t know if my ego can take this.”
“Oh, I’m sure it can,” she said. “Isn’t it the biggest part of you?”
“Oh,” he said, giving a rough chuckle and shaking his head. He moved closer, crowding her. “That’s a terrible thing to say to a man. You know you’re asking for trouble, don’t you?”
Three
Uh-oh. Jill’s heart slammed into her rib cage at the seductively predatory look on Tyler’s face. She licked her lips. “I thought we decided you didn’t need to flirt with me.”
“You said that. Not me,” he said, moving closer.
She took a step backward. Her heart still racing, she struggled to remain rational. “This is silly. You have an entire hospital full of women interested in you. The only reason you’re doing this is because I’m not interested in you.”
“You’re not?” he said, his voice rippling over her nerve endings.
She took another step back. “I told you I’m here to do a job.”
“And you’re not at all attracted to me,” he said.
Jill took another step and felt the wall behind her. “You’re a flirt.”
He nodded. “You don’t like flirts.”
“I haven’t had good experience with flirts.”
He went still for a moment and stared into her, not at her, into her, and she could almost swear he could read her. “Your husband was a flirt,” he said, and gently lifted his hand to her cheek.
His touch made something inside her tumble free. She closed her eyes to fight the feeling.
“He was an idiot.”
“How do you know?” she whispered, appalled at the burning sensation behind her eyes.
“He had you forever, but he let you go,” he said, then his mouth touched hers.
His lips were warm and searching. She felt the same searching inside her. He brushed against her lips back and forth, coaxing, inviting. Jill opened, and he tasted her and she tasted him. She tugged gently on his bottom lip, and his groan vibrated in all her secret places. He pressed his chest against her and she immediately felt her nipples harden. His hand molded her jaw, caressing her. His tongue teased her, her brain clouded with his musky masculine scent, and she wanted more. She wanted his strong arms around her, his hard body pressed against hers. She wanted the rush and heat of passion. She wanted to make him lose his cocky control, and she wanted him to make her lose hers.
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Leanne Banks
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: Pediatric cardiologist Tyler Logan always rounded up what he wanted–such as Jill Hershey′s fund-raising expertise to build a children′s hospital wing. When she refused, he lassoed the sultry businesswoman with his stethoscope, daring her to help.But now something was daring him–to take a chance and break the curse that said Logans never won at love….Jill had tried to bury herself in her high-powered job–but it couldn′t substitute for love and family. And now Tyler was touching her heart–and other Places–dangling what she yearned for most. Jill couldn′t give her body and keep her heart. So maybe it was time to give both….