Priceless

Eventually his gaze made its way to Beth’s eyes, which were regarding him with a perplexed expression. He blinked and looked away guiltily.

“I thought you’d want to know that it’s okay to go back in to see Tony now,” she said.

“Thanks.”

Richard looked from Beth to Mack and back again, then shrugged. “Dr. Browning, I’m Mack’s brother Richard. He seems to have lost his tongue. It happens sometimes. I can understand it in your case. I imagine you render him speechless a lot.”

Beth gave Richard a startled look and a blush tinted her cheeks. “Not that I’ve noticed.”

Richard grinned at Mack. “Then it must be something I said.”

Before Richard could explain that remark and further embarrass him, Mack clapped his brother on the back a little more forcefully than necessary. “Thanks for stopping by to pass on the message,” he said. “I know how busy you are, though, so feel free to take off. Give Melanie a kiss for me. Go win over a few voters or raise a few million for your campaign. You’re going to need it, since I intend to vote for whoever runs against you.”

Richard barely managed to contain a laugh at the brush-off. “If it comes down to one vote costing me the election, I didn’t deserve to win in the first place,” his brother said, unperturbed. “And I’m in no hurry. I can hang here awhile.”

“No you can’t,” Mack said, his voice a little tighter. “I’ll walk you out.”

He spun Richard around and aimed him toward the door. As they were leaving, he called back to Beth. “Let Tony know I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Sure,” she said, staring after them with a puzzled expression.

Not until they were in the elevator did Mack face his brother, staring him down with a look meant to intimidate. “Don’t get any ideas, big brother. None, you hear me?”

Richard returned his glare with a look of pure innocence. “I can’t imagine what you’re talking about. I just wanted to get to know your new friend.”

“You say that as if you’d caught me on the playground with some girl in pigtails,” Mack grumbled.

“Believe me, I am well aware that you’re past being infatuated with a kid. Those are definitely grown-up sparks flying between you and the doc.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I don’t think so,” Richard said. “Maybe I’ll have Melanie give her a call and set up dinner.”

“You do and you’re a dead man,” Mack said fiercely. He didn’t want his brother, his aunt or anyone else messing with Beth’s head—or his, for that matter. “Leave it alone. This is not like that. Beth and I chat from time to time. We have coffee. It’s no big deal, and I don’t want to turn it into one.”

Richard’s gaze narrowed. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

“What was your first clue?” Mack retorted.

To his consternation, Richard burst out laughing. “I’ll be damned,” he said. “Destiny’s done it again.”

“Destiny hasn’t done a thing,” Mack shouted after him as Richard strolled off.

Unfortunately, it was evident that his protest hadn’t done a thing to convince his brother. Heck, he wasn’t so sure he was buying it himself anymore.

4

After his disconcerting encounter with his brother, Mack realized that he hadn’t been out on anything that qualified as a real date in several weeks. Maybe that was why he was feeling so edgy and out of sorts. Maybe that was why he was spending so much time seeking out Beth for a few minutes of female companionship at the end of the day.

Beth was quiet and undemanding and most definitely female. Seeing her casually at the hospital was a comfortable pattern to have fallen into. In fact, her total lack of personal interest in him was a relief after the pressure of too many feminine expectations and after his own misguided attempts to live up to the public perception that he was some sort of football-celebrity playboy. There had been a time when he hadn’t minded being labeled that way, but it had grown old recently. Very recently. In fact, it had happened when he’d realized it had shaped Beth’s view of him.

Consoled by the notion that his attentions toward Beth had nothing to do with an interest in the doctor herself, he vowed to rectify the situation as quickly as possible before anyone other than Richard started getting ideas. It would be especially bad if Destiny got wind of his nightly chats with the doc.

Rather than going directly back inside the hospital, Mack pulled out his cell phone in the parking lot and called an attractive stockbroker with whom he’d done a little professional business and a whole lot of off-the-clock deal-making of a personal nature.

Ten minutes later he’d scheduled a dinner date for later in the evening at her place. Given their usual pattern, they’d spend most of their time concentrating on dessert.

Satisfied with the proof that Richard was dead wrong about Mack’s interest in Beth, he went back to Tony’s room to play a few quick video games before his date. When he opened the door, though, he caught Beth with the hand-held computer, a little furrow of concentration on her brow as she tried to master the fast-paced game. His heart seemed to do an odd little stutter at the sight. He had no idea why.

“Come on, Dr. Beth,” Tony encouraged. “It’s not that hard.”

“Tell it to someone who’ll buy it,” she grumbled, not taking her eyes off of the small screen. “You hustled me, kid. You told me this was easy.”

Tony laughed. “It is,” he insisted, his gaze moving to Mack, who stood frozen in the doorway still trying to understand his unexpected reaction. “Show her, Mack.”

“I don’t need his help,” Beth retorted.

Tony rolled his eyes. “She keeps getting killed at level one.”

“Uh-oh, that’s not good,” Mack said, shaking off the disconcerting mood and moving across the room to stand behind her.

He leaned down to whisper a few tips in her ear, but the scent of a faintly sexy, musky perfume caught him by surprise. He was pretty sure she usually smelled of antiseptic and something vaguely flowery. This was something new. He wasn’t sure he liked it. It made his thoughts stray directly toward rumpled sheets and pillow talk. He mentally cursed his brother for planting that idea in his head.

“Go away,” Beth said, not even glancing at him. “I can do this.”

Mack chuckled at the display of independence. “If you say so,” he said, moving to sit on the edge of Tony’s bed. He glanced at the boy, who was grinning broadly.

“Women,” Mack said with a hint of exasperation. “You can’t tell them anything. That’s a lesson you need to learn at an early age, Tony.”

Beth did look up then, and the hand-held computer beeped and whistled as she went down in an apparent burst of video flames. She glared at it, then scowled at Mack.

“Tony, do not listen to a thing this man tells you about women,” she lectured primly.

“How come?” Tony asked. “Have you seen the babes he dates?”

At Beth’s sour expression, Mack bit back the chuckle that crept up his throat. He sensed that now was not a good time to reinforce Tony’s enthusiasm for Mack’s well-publicized social life. Nor was a denial that he had a stable of “babes” likely to be believed by either of them.

“I think what the doctor is trying to say is that I might not be the best example for you to follow when it comes to matters of the heart,” Mack said.

Tony stared at him. “Huh?”

Mack tried to control a grin and failed. “Yeah, I don’t get it, either, but women are funny about things like this. We’ll have a man-to-man talk on the subject another time.”

“Not on my watch,” Beth said grimly. “Tony, you need to get some rest.”

“But I’m not tired,” Tony protested.

“I think she wants to get me alone,” Mack explained to him. “She probably wants to chew me out for being a bad influence.”

“Oh, give it a rest,” Beth muttered. “This isn’t about you. It’s about Tony not getting overly tired.”

“Hey, Doc, you were the one in here playing video games. I just got here,” Mack reminded her.

Frowning at him, Beth marched to the door and held it open, giving Mack a pointed look until he finally shrugged. He bent down to ruffle Tony’s hair, promised he’d be back tomorrow, then followed her from the room.

“Mind telling me what that was all about?” he inquired, regarding her with amusement. “Are you just a sore loser?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Jealous?” he suggested, surprisingly intrigued by that particular scenario.

She gave him a look that could have melted steel. “I don’t think so.”

“There must be some reason you don’t want me talking to Tony about women.”

“How about the fact that it’s inappropriate? It’s not your place. Besides that, he’s twelve, for goodness’ sakes. He doesn’t need to start thinking about girls in that way for a while.”

“I had a girlfriend when I was twelve,” Mack said, recalling the blue-eyed imp with curly hair rather fondly.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Beth responded irritably.

Mack smothered a laugh. “Something tells me you were not dating at twelve.”

“I wasn’t dating at twenty,” she snapped. “That’s hardly the point.”

“Then what is the point?” He studied her closely. “And why did you wait so long to date? You’re not bad-looking.” He deliberately chose the massive understatement just to see the flags of color brighten her pale-as-cream cheeks.

She opened her mouth to respond, then snapped it shut again.

“Not sure?” he taunted.

The fire in her eyes died slowly. She regarded him with a vaguely chagrined expression. “Not entirely, no.”

“Yeah, that happens to me sometimes, too. I lose track of what point I was trying to make. Of course, it usually only happens when a really sexy woman catches me off guard. Is that what happened here? I got to you in there, the adrenaline started rushing around, and you kinda lost track of things?”

The fire came back with a vengeance then. “In your dreams, bud.”

She whirled around and stalked off, leaving Mack to stare after, oddly aroused by the whole exchange.

“Hey, you didn’t tell me why you were such a late bloomer,” he called after her.

She pointedly ignored him, her spine rigid as she rounded a corner and disappeared from view. Only when she was out of sight did he stop and question exactly which one of them had actually won this latest little skirmish. Since he was standing here all hot and bothered, he had a feeling Beth had triumphed without even realizing the game they were playing.

* * *

Every positive point Mack had accumulated in recent days flew out the window as Beth walked away from his taunting gaze. The man was maddening. He was an immature, skirt-chasing rogue. Worse, he prided himself on it.

Giving Tony advice on women? Please! What was he thinking? If Maria Vitale heard about that, she’d probably ban Mack from ever seeing her son again.

Then, again, maybe she wouldn’t, Beth concluded with a sigh. Mack was good for Tony, inappropriate remarks and all. He made the boy laugh, and under current circumstances, even Beth could forgive him a lot for accomplishing that miracle.

That didn’t mean she had to like Mack or spend another minute in his company. She’d simply steer clear of him. It shouldn’t be that difficult. It wasn’t as if he was underfoot at the hospital all day long.

He had a job, an important job in the view of some people, even if she wasn’t among them. He had a family, even if at least one member of that family was in part responsible for pushing Mack into Beth’s life. He had a lot of community obligations. And, goodness knows, he had a social life. Given all that, it was astonishing that he spent any time at all at the hospital. Avoiding him should be a breeze.

Satisfied with her plan, Beth had barely made it back to her office when Mack appeared in the doorway.

“You!” she muttered, not sure whether she was more annoyed at him or at herself for not anticipating that he’d be right on her heels.

Mack chuckled. “You didn’t actually think we’d finished talking, did you?”

“I had high hopes that we had,” she told him. “Don’t you have a date or something?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” he responded. “But I have time for this.”

“For what?” Beth asked warily as he strode across her office.

“This,” he said, lowering his head to touch his lips to hers.

It began as a gentle, exploratory kiss, maybe meant to tease, maybe to shock. Beth reached up to shove him away, but instead found herself clutching his jacket just to hold herself upright. Her knees were suddenly unsteady, her heartbeat frantic. In some distant part of her brain, she heard herself saying that this was crazy, that it was stupid, that it was dangerous. The litany of warnings went on and on, as did the kiss until her brain shut off and her senses took over.

She heard a soft moan of pleasure and realized it came from her as Mack’s mouth plundered hers, making her blood sing and her head reel. This was bad. Really, really bad.

But oh, so good, she thought with a whimper of dismay as he slowly pulled away, one arm still firmly behind her back, one hand gently cupping her chin.

As her eyes fluttered open, she was looking into his steady, turbulent gaze. She couldn’t have looked away if her life depended on it.

“What the hell just happened here?” Mack murmured under his breath.

Beth had a hunch he was asking the question more of himself than of her. Even so, she was tempted to offer Destiny’s explanation of chemistry, which she was pretty sure she totally understood for the first time in her life. She wondered how Mack would react to the idea that she and his aunt had had a little tête-à-tête about sexual attraction. She had a hunch he’d be more stunned and exasperated than he already seemed to be.

“I’m actually asking,” he said, when Beth remained silent. “What just happened here?”

Something in his tone irked her even more than his assumption that he could walk into her office and kiss her senseless. “I would think a man of your worldliness and sophistication would recognize a kiss that got out of hand better than most,” she snapped, jerking away and moving to stand behind her desk. It wasn’t much of a defense, but she’d take anything she could get. “I think you should leave now.”

To her annoyance, Mack seemed vaguely amused by her response, or maybe by her actions.

“Retreating to a neutral corner, Doc?”

“No, trying to get some work done. I’ve already wasted enough time on you for one day.”

“A great kiss is never a waste of time,” he told her, his lips curving into a smile. “Especially for a woman who didn’t start dating till after she turned twenty. You have a lot of time to make up for.”

Great? He thought the kiss was great? Beth had certainly thought so herself, but as he’d just reminded her, she sure as heck didn’t have his level of expertise on the subject. How flattering was that? One of the region’s most eligible, sought-after bachelors thought she was a great kisser. It almost made her exasperation with him fade.

“Go away,” she said, because she was pretty certain that letting him stay another second was a bad idea. She just might be tempted to throw herself at him to see if the kissing could get even better.

Suddenly she recalled what Mack had said when he’d first entered her office. He had a date. The man had a date and he’d been kissing her. Maybe that was par for the course in his life, but not in hers. It seemed a little sleazy, in fact. No, a lot sleazy. She frowned at him.

“Go away,” she repeated more emphatically. “I wouldn’t want you to be late for your date.”

“Date?” he echoed blankly.

“You told me you had a date,” she said tightly.

He muttered an expletive and got out his cell phone.

“You can’t use that in the hospital,” she told him.

He muttered something else, then picked up her phone and dialed, punching in the numbers so hard the phone practically bounced on her desk.

With his gaze locked with Beth’s, he offered some sort of halfhearted excuse to whoever was on the other end of the line, then hung up.

Beth stared at him. “You broke your date?” she asked incredulously.

“I broke the damn date,” he said, not sounding especially happy about it.

“Why?”

“Because I’m taking you to dinner instead.”

She bristled at the assumption. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “I just broke a date for you. The least you can do is have dinner with me. You don’t want me to spend the evening alone, do you?”

Beth couldn’t decide which part of his recitation to react to first. “Okay, let’s get something straight,” she began. “You did not break that date for me. I didn’t ask you to do it.”

“No, but after that kiss we shared, you’d have been furious if I’d gone through with it,” he said.

“Furious? I don’t think so. I might have thought you a little sleazy,” she admitted, “but then I don’t have a very high opinion of you to begin with, so that shouldn’t be too worrisome for you.”

“Cute.”

“I’m not finished,” she said. “Whether or not you spend the evening alone or with a steady stream of willing women has nothing whatsoever to do with me.”

“I didn’t think so, either, at least not until a few minutes ago,” he agreed pleasantly.

“What happened a few minutes ago?” she asked cautiously.

“I kissed you and decided I’d rather take a chance on getting to do that again instead of going out with a sure thing.” He settled down in the chair beside her desk. “If you have things to do, I can wait.”

Beth sorted through his latest outrageous claim and tried to decide whether to be flattered. Since listening to flattery was dangerous around Mack, she concluded it was smarter to ignore it.

“I could be a long while,” she told him to test his determination. “A really long while.”

He picked up a medical journal from the corner of her desk. “Take your time. This doesn’t look like fast reading. It ought to keep me occupied for hours.”

She stared at him, thoroughly bemused. “You’re really not going to leave, are you?”

“Not without you,” he said, already flipping through the journal.

“I don’t understand you,” she said plaintively.

Mack looked up and met her gaze, looking almost as bemused as she felt. “To tell you the honest truth, Doc, I’m not real sure I understand what’s going on here, either.”

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