The Fertility Factor

“Your perfume. I never smelled it before.”

He’d never been this close before. Every morning she dabbed a touch of perfume behind her ears to make her feel feminine while wearing scrubs. With the turn of his head, his breath heated her face. Even in the dark, she knew his mouth was closer to hers. Or was she imagining everything?

Lightly his lips brushed hers like a subtle caress.

Oh, Lord. She wasn’t imagining anything. Her eyes fluttered, her lips parted for his. Slowly, almost savoringly he deepened the pressure. Gently his lips moved over hers. Wanting to feel more, she leaned closer, pressed her breasts into him to absorb the heat, the solidness of his body.

His kiss was everything she’d imagined. No. It was more. A long, pleasurable shiver swept through her. Eyes closed, she savored the sweet firmness of his mouth, the beat of his heart, the warmth of his body. With a kiss, he was making her feel more than she’d expected. In that instant, she knew this wouldn’t be enough. She’d want more with him. Much more.

As she clung, he seemed to loosen his embrace. A touch dazed, she took a moment before she realized that he was pulling back. Why was he? Don’t stop. Keep kissing me.

“Damn,” he murmured in a voice that sounded huskier than usual.

Lara forced herself to open her eyes, heard his pager then. Kiss me again, she wanted to yell.

Chapter Three

D erek groped for the pager hooked on his belt and swore silently for a lot of reasons, including a need unfulfilled. One second more, and he’d have forgotten where they were.

Beneath the mantle of darkness, he peered at her face, at the hooded eyes, the soft mouth slightly parted. Her breath fluttered on his face and made him yearn for the sweetness of her mouth. Her scent stirred his senses. A heaviness still filled his loins.

In the dark he squinted to read the number on his pager. His emergency number meant Lindsey Collier was ready to deliver. She’d been admitted to the hospital yesterday for her safety and that of her quadruplets.

“The hospital?” Lara asked.

“I’ve got to get out of here.” Now. Urgency controlled him. He hated feeling so helpless about their situation. People claimed he was a control freak. He took no offense. In the operating room, he wanted to be in command. Lives depended on his leadership, skill and discipline.

“It’s Lindsey Collier, isn’t it?” Lara asked in the dark.

“Yes.” It took effort to think clearly. Even now he touched her arm and visualized the creamy softness of her breasts.

“Dr. Cross!” Frank’s voice sounded loud. Derek assumed he was crouched close to the elevator door. “Maintenance is here, working on the problem. Can you hear me?”

“I hear you. We need to get out now.” He still felt the tug-of-war inside him. Emotional overload, he assured himself. “I have an emergency.”

“A few minutes, Dr. Cross. We’ll—” Frank stopped. No more words were needed. The light flashed on in the elevator. They heard a creak, a groan, then the elevator jerked and moved. Within seconds the doors swooshed open.

“Thanks, Frank.” With a nod to the security man, he cupped a hand under Lara’s elbow to urge her out of the elevator. A test of sorts to see if he could touch her casually.

“The storm knocked out power. We got everything running but the elevators. Sorry, Dr. Cross. We didn’t know anyone was still in the building.”

“No problem,” Derek assured both men. Except he almost made a move on his nurse, except she made him hungry. He knew about her crush. He’d have had to be dumb not to have noticed her unusual nervousness whenever they were alone. Only a jerk pursued a woman who wanted everything that he could never offer. “Lara, I have to get over to Lennox Hill.”

“I’m going with you to the hospital,” she said, falling in step with him toward the stairs.

Another nurse would have gone home. He liked her caring way that went beyond what was expected. “Lindsey Collier will like seeing you,” he said honestly because her bright disposition would help. If he only lusted for her, he knew that he could deal with it, but he liked her. Just thinking about her made him smile. How did he ignore that feeling?

Lennox Hill Hospital occupied a prominent place on the Upper East Side. Lara stood outside one of the labor rooms at the nurses’ station. One by one the newborns were wheeled out of the room and down to the nursery. In blue scrubs, his mask hanging at his throat, Derek wandered down to the nursery.

Donning a mask, Lara followed him. “RDS?” she asked when Derek was listening to one of the baby’s lungs with his stethoscope. The respiratory distress syndrome was sometimes a common complication for a baby born preterm.

“No, he sounds good. He’ll need an oxygen hood for a while.”

She released a big sigh.

“Who’s the pediatrician on record, Lara?”

She made herself meet his gaze. Trapped by it, she felt her pulse quicken. “Dr. Bryman.”

“He’s good.” He straightened, looked so tired but smiled at her. With a look, he skittered sensation through her. “When is he supposed to show up?”

“His service said he was on his way,” she answered, striving for an all-business tone.

“How are the Halverson triplets doing?” He ambled toward one of the cribs containing a newborn who was wearing a pink cap.

“Wonderful.” Lara knew what he was doing. He was stalling, checking on the others while he waited for Dennis Bryman to arrive. “I’ll say good-night, then.” They’d been too busy for either of them to mention the near kiss. But she knew she wouldn’t.

At the elevator she looked back. His deep-set eyes locked on her again. Her heart beat harder. Was he remembering the kiss? She hoped so.

Derek figured fate had taken control, thrown him and Lara together last night. If they hadn’t been stuck in the elevator, he wouldn’t have kissed her.

“It’s not too hot to go, is it, Daddy?” Joey asked, grabbing his attention.

It was miserable outside. New York was caught in an unbearable heat wave. High temperatures had hung around for days. Humidity burdened the air. “To go where?” he asked, trying not to think about Lara. He poured cereal, then milk into a bowl for his son.

Joey pushed several of the chocolate, doughnut-shaped cereal pieces around in the milk. “The zoo.”

“That’s up to Dorothy.” A widow in her midsixties, she was ample-figured with salt-and-pepper-colored hair and a dimpled smile. Unsure if the heat might bother her, he suggested. “Why don’t you wait until my day off, and I’ll take you then, Joey?”

Derek slapped a minimum of butter on a slice of toast. Could he rush his son? He’d been running late since he’d awakened. He felt out of step this morning. That was Lara’s fault. Inch by inch, tension had crept through his body during that kiss. He’d wanted to devour her. Why her? he wondered now.

The differences between them might be why he felt the attraction. They had different backgrounds, different outlooks. No, there was more. He liked her smile, the quickness of it. He liked her walk, the sound of her laughter and her conversations that went on nonstop sometimes.

“Daddy, Dorothy said we could go see that new movie. It’s really good. Everyone says so.”

Derek focused on them. “Everyone” probably meant Joey’s best friend, Austin and Rylyn, the femme fatale of kindergarten. “Okay. We’ll go to the zoo on my day off.” Derek drained the last of the coffee in his cup and left Joey and Dorothy talking about the movie.

In passing he shut the kitchen drawer and grinned. He’d never look at a turkey baster the same way again.

After a scheduled caesarian at the hospital, Derek strode toward the doctors’ lounge. He changed into a black polo shirt and charcoal-colored slacks, then grabbed a cup of coffee. He was draining the last of it when he heard footsteps behind him.

“I’ve been looking for you.” Rose’s gray eyes smiled at him, but he felt nothing for his ex-wife except affection for a good friend. Trim, at forty she still had All-American cheerleader looks.

“New hairstyle? It looks good.”

She settled on a chair across from him and threaded fingers through the light-brown hair cut to just below chin length. “Thank you. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for days, but when I stopped by last night to pick up Joey for his sleepover with me, you weren’t home.”

“I was stuck in an elevator.”

Amusement danced in her eyes. “Be serious.”

“I am.”

“Alone?”

Why would she ask that? “What does that matter?”

“Were you alone?”

“No, my nurse and I left late and got stuck. And don’t make anything of it. I could have been stuck in there with the janitor.”

“Well, she’s certainly a lot more interesting.”

Unbelievably so. “Joey tells me you’re dating,” he said to distract her from more questions about him and Lara waiting for rescue in the elevator.

“No one you know.” A serious, almost worried look settled on her face. “Derek, I need to tell you something.”

Instinctively his stomach tightened. She wasn’t smiling.

“I’m leaving.”

He’d never liked surprises. He liked this one even less than most, he decided as she explained herself.

“To spend time at the Paris Institute will be a marvelous opportunity for me.”

He knew it must be or she wouldn’t go. “What about Joey?” he asked while he dealt with a mixture of emotions: pride, annoyance and disbelief.

“I’m not worried about him. You’re a wonderful father.”

“But you won’t be here when he needs you.”

She turned a sad look on him.

Don’t look at me like that. She didn’t have to say anything. He knew what she was thinking. Because he’d had a rotten childhood, he believed Joey might have one if she wasn’t around for a while.

He’d already broken a promise he’d made to himself when his son was born. He’d vowed Joey wouldn’t go through what he had as a child. So much for promises. He and Rose had divorced, shattered their son’s family.

“Derek, Joey is well adjusted. And this will be good for him in one way. He’ll only be living in one residence for a while.” Rose gave him a weak smile. “I’ll tell him when it’s almost time for me to leave.”

Joey deserved better than what they were giving him.

Derek couldn’t get that thought out of his head. He left the hospital and crossed the street. He had a three-o’clock appointment at Manhattan Multiples with a woman who’d recently received the news she was expecting three or maybe four babies.

Inside the center, he rode the elevator to the third floor. Rose would explain to Joey what was happening. A simplistic solution. Nothing was that simple. If Joey was upset, he’d come to Derek for answers. And children were resilient. At an early age hadn’t he learned how to handle disappointment?

“Dr. Cross, you have a call on line two,” the appointment clerk said as he strode by.

With a nod, he hurried into his office and grabbed the telephone from his desk. “Derek, it’s your father.”

Annoyance rose within him in a flash. What could his father possibly want?

“I’ll be in town for a few days. I thought we could meet.”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m in Acapulco.”

He’d thought his father was in Europe with wife number four. Alone? Derek wanted to ask, but why bother? He’d never really known his father’s last wife.

“I’ll call you when I get in,” his father added before hanging up.

Brief, to the point. All of their conversations were the same. Why the stopover in New York? It had been years since they’d seen each other.

Even before his mother had died, he’d never known the love and affection from his parents that Lara felt from hers. Maybe that was why envy had fluttered inside him when she’d talked about her family. Dumb thinking, he decided. His family was Joey now. His son was all he needed.

The moment Lara entered the center, Josie and Carrie cornered her. “We have a plan.”

“For you,” Carrie said, pointing a finger at her.

Lara stopped at the front desk to scan the next hour’s appointments. Oh, great. “What plan?”

“For your problem. You know about—” Nearby footsteps silenced her.

Derek nodded his head in their direction, then settled at a counter nearby and scribbled notations on a patient’s chart. Few could decipher his chicken scratch. Lara numbered among those few.

Carrie whispered, “I’ve talked to several of the nurses who work at the center and the hospital and friends you have here. We’ve decided your problem is real.”

Lara slanted a look at Derek. She’d swear the edge of his lips had twitched in a grin at that announcement.

“So we’ll help.”

“Help?” Lara decided she’d better concentrate on Carrie. “Help how?” If standing on a street corner and wearing one of those signs that would advertise for a husband was part of their plan, she was refusing.

She was thankful Derek had chosen that moment to leave. He stood at the end of the hallway, talking to his ex-wife. Possibly he still had feelings for her. Perhaps that’s why he’d avoided involvement with other women.

“We’re all—”

“How many of you are there?” Lara asked Carrie.

“Eight. We’re going to hunt among friends—male friends—and our relatives to help you find your Mr. Right.”

“Wait—” What was she going to say? Don’t do this. Why? This was exactly what she needed if she was serious about having a baby. She’d depleted her own resources for an interesting man, someone she’d want to spend the rest of her life with. Because despite the urgency she felt about having children, she wouldn’t act impulsively. Mancinis married for keeps.

On the stairwell, they joined Allison Baker. “Eloise announced she’s going to throw a small fund-raiser this month for Manhattan Multiples.”

“I don’t understand how the mayor can even consider cutting funds to us,” Carrie said as they entered the staff lounge.

Lara agreed. The center provided prenatal care, counseling service, fertility specialists, day care, yoga classes and meditation for mothers-to-be. While Lara liked the mayor, she wondered if Bill Harper’s motives for making Eloise’s life miserable weren’t personal. She’d heard gossip that they had had a past. Lara didn’t know if that was true.

“I’d love to go to the fund-raiser,” Carrie said.

Josie shook her head. “I doubt we’d provide the kind of donations Eloise is looking for.”

“Too bad,” Carrie murmured. “It would be an excuse to buy a new black dress.”

Josie shrugged. “I don’t own one.”

“You look wonderful in what you do wear,” Lara said because Josie leaned toward denim everything.

Josie beamed back.

Inside the staff lounge, a crowd had gathered around a small television screen in a corner.

The mayor was being interviewed by a local news station reporter. A tall, lanky man with salt-and-pepper hair, Bill Harper had the bluest eyes Lara had ever seen. He smiled slowly. “If Eloise Vale really believes I’m doing this to her center for personal reasons, we need to talk. If she has the courage to face me,” he said smiling.

“Eloise won’t be pleased,” Allison said, suddenly, joining them. “That was as good as a dare.” Allison’s chin-length, auburn hair swung with the shake of her head. “I feel so badly for her.” People all over the city are poking fun at the feud between Eloise and the mayor.”

Lara stared at the television. The mayor and Eloise put on their happy faces for the public, but Lara couldn’t help wondering if there wasn’t more behind the feud.

After leaving them, Lara returned to the second floor and slipped a patient folder into the slot on the door outside an examining room, then strolled back to another room.

The mother-to-be wasn’t showing yet. Still slender, she offered a weak smile, though she looked pasty. “I’m told the nausea will pass soon.”

Lara touched her arm. “It will.”

While the woman wandered down a corridor toward an exit, Lara went into the examining room. She hadn’t expected to see Derek still there. She prayed for no awkward moments between them.

“She needs iron supplements,” he said without looking up from the sheet of paper before him. He yawned, then cast a grin her way.

“You’re tired?” Her voice wasn’t quite steady even to her own ears.

“Late delivery last night. I’m used to no sleep.”

To avoid meeting his eyes or seeing that grin, she stared at his hands, strong yet gentle. She’d seen them touch with care, caress a baby’s head, bring new life into this world. She’d felt their strength and tenderness. “You’d have more time if you didn’t spend so much time at Manhattan Multiples,” she said to focus on something else.

“So would you.”

Leaning back in the chair, he looked so comfortable with the moment between them. She wasn’t. An undercurrent of awareness rippled through her whenever she looked into those eyes. “The center is so vital to the community.” She wondered if he felt an inkling of anything when he looked at her. “I hate the idea that they might cut funds to it.” She believed a woman in a high-risk pregnancy with twins or higher-order multiples needed the special attention the multifaceted center offered.

“Too bad you and I can’t convince the powers that be.” He made another notation on the chart before him. “What’s new with the husband hunt?”

“You won’t believe what happened.” Get busy, quit staring at him, she told herself and turned away to pull at the used paper sheet on the examining table. “I can hardly believe what they’re doing. Carrie and Josie talked to friends of mine at the hospital.” Lara tore off the sheet, balled it and tossed it into a receptacle. “They’ve decided to help me find Mr. Right, fix me up with dates.”

His silence made her look up. “Is that okay with you?”

Don’t think about sneaky jolts of desire. “I think it’s really nice that they’re doing this.”

He frowned as if he didn’t think it sounded too wonderful.

She laughed to make light of the plan. “When Carrie said she knows someone who’s free tonight, I said yes before I chickened out. Her number-one candidate is a lawyer with the district attorney’s office. How can I turn them down? Maybe I’ll find Mr. Right with a little help from my friends.”

He didn’t return her smile. “Is that a traditional way your family would approve of?”

“Oh, sure. In Italy that’s all there used to be. Prearranged marriages.”

“When you first started here, I thought you were seeing someone.”

She was surprised that he knew that about her. “I was.” She’d wasted three years on James. “He was a stockbroker. We didn’t do well.” Like James, Derek came from a different world.

Pushing back from his desk, Derek stood and grabbed the patient’s chart. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not,” she said easily and truthfully. “He was all wrong for me.”

“It’s good you realized that before it was too late.”

As his breath whispered across her face, her throat went dry. “I didn’t.” She paused, took a breath to soothe her nerves. “He did.”

Unexpectedly he leaned forward, touched a strand of her hair near her cheek. The touch, though casual, was like a caress. “He was a fool.”

Sensation rippled through her. He had only to lower his head. Heart pounding, she told herself not to make too much of what might have been nothing more than a comforting gesture from him. Of course, it was more, she mused. Light, tender, it had felt like a caress. “We have one more appointment?” She made herself step back. “After, I’d like to leave right away for a date.” She started to turn away, but stopped herself. “You never mentioned the kiss.”

“Impulse,” he said simply. “Sorry.”

Was this his way of telling her the kiss had been a mistake?

“Have fun on the date.”

She frowned. “Thank you,” she said breezily to give the impression she was looking forward to the evening ahead. But she already wished it was over. The man she wanted to be with was standing right in front of her.

Chapter Four

T he date was terrible.

To relieve stress, Lara awoke early the next morning and stopped at a dance studio near her home. Though she’d given up her acting career, she’d never abandoned her practice routines because dancing was a love, a joy in her life. She stretched, warmed up, then rushed through a routine she’d seen in the movie Flashdance until she was breathless. After a cooling down period, she headed home to shower and dress for work at the center.

If only last night’s date, Zack Benner, had quickened her pulse. What she wanted most was to find someone special to build a life with, to raise children with, to love. Zack was not that man.

So who was she looking for? She didn’t expect the man to be perfect. Handsome would be nice, but just attractive would do. She’d known a male model who couldn’t pass a store window without stopping to preen.

She would like someone with a nice sense of humor, who laughed at himself, who was amused by small things in everyday life. But she’d never been keen about a practical joker.

She wouldn’t turn away from a charmer, someone who sent flowers, took her to romantic candlelit restaurants, but she’d favor more someone who was steady and responsible and paid the bills.

Derek fit her idea of perfect. He was drop-dead gorgeous, had a wonderful sense of humor, possessed all of the social graces and had money, to boot. He even thrilled her with a look.

Nearly at the entrance doors of Manhattan Multiples, Lara slowed her pace in response to the ring of her cell phone. Before saying hello, she’d guessed who was calling. Only her family tracked her down before eight-thirty in the morning.

Her sister Angela rushed a quick, airy hello, one that put Lara on the defensive instinctively. Angie’s previous matchmaking efforts had been disastrous. “I called to learn if you bought a new dress for Danny’s wedding,” she said.

Lara didn’t dare admit that she’d forgotten about her cousin’s wedding. “Not yet.” More important to her was who she’d take with her. “How is the baby?” she asked as she left the elevator.

“That tooth came through this morning.”

“Oh, how wonderful. How many does that make?” Lara asked and paused next to the nurses’ station to finish the conversation.

“Six. He has six. He bit Tom yesterday. What does your doctor say about biting?”

“My doctor isn’t a children’s doctor.” She resumed walking toward the staff lounge. “He’s an ob/gyn.”

“That’s right. Why do I keep forgetting that?”

Because it’s your way of mentioning him.

“I couldn’t believe how handsome he is.”

Lara remembered. Her sister had sat gaping when Derek had walked by their table during one of their sisterly lunches. “I know.” Lara tucked her shoulder bag into a locker. “You told me.”

“And he’s still unattached?”

“Still unattached.”

“Lara, I’d be happy to cook lasagna or my chicken primavera or anything you’d want. You could invite him here for dinner and—”

“Angie, thanks but no.” She left the staff lounge. “He’s not interested.”

“In you? Is he blind? Why wouldn’t he be interested in you?”

“In anyone here,” Lara said, hoping that would end the conversation.

“Oh. Why didn’t you say so right away?”

Lara knew she was getting the wrong idea, but it was easier to say nothing. “I have to go now. I’ll call you later this week,” she said at Carrie’s approach.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Carrie asked in a loud whispery voice.

“Tell you what?”

“That you were stuck in the elevator with him.”

Mentally Lara groaned.

“Everyone is talking about it.”

“When the lights went out,” Lara said with a casualness she didn’t feel, “it was a little creepy for a while.”

Carrie smiled. “The lights went out?”

This was getting worse. “Carrie—”