CHAPTER ONE

      DR. KASEY CARMICHAEL typed clinical data into the medical record on the hypertensive patient she’d just seen. When finished, she sent his prescriptions electronically to the in-house pharmacy of the Rivendell Medical Center.

      Knocking on the open door, Dr. Jonathan Douglas stuck his blond head into the exam room. The pretty-boy doctor flashed baby blues and a row of pearly white teeth that had women swooning all over northern Kentucky. “You got a minute?”

      Kasey shot a coolly professional smile at the physician she’d worked with for two years.

      “I’ll be right there.” She hit “Save” and closed her patient’s file. Standing, she smoothed the crisp lines of the unbuttoned white lab coat she wore over her navy slacks and linen blouse.

      She loved her job in the ambulatory clinic of the large multispecialty Rivendell Medical Center. Loved that it provided the opportunity to give back to the community, to help others the way she’d once been helped.

      Rivendell’s sheer size gave her the opportunity to achieve the professional and personal success she craved. Success that dangled within her reach.

      When Dr. Herbert stepped down from the board, Kasey was a shoo-in to replace him. Everyone said so.

      Smiling, she stepped into the clinic’s hallway to see what Dr. Douglas was up to this time. Although an excellent doctor, he’d never held any appeal. Probably due to his tomcat ways reminding her of the men who’d constantly come in and out of her childhood in the form of her mother’s latest loser.

      “What can I do for you, Dr. Doug—?” Her voice stalled, stuck in her rapidly tightening throat. Her gaze froze on the man standing with her colleague.

      The room spun.

      Please let her be hallucinating.

      “Eric?” Her one-and-only-ever one-night stand stared at her with similar shock. Her pulse hit a rapid, brain-frying boil. “What—? How—? Why are you here?” she sputtered.

      “Hello, Kasey.” Quickly recovering from his surprise at seeing her, his dark eyes glistened as if he’d stumbled upon the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. A huge smile split his handsome face.

      A smile that stole Kasey’s ability to breathe just as it had on the night they’d met.

      She took a step back, placed her hand on the door frame to steady her wobbly, turned-to-water legs.

      “What are you doing here?” she asked again, feeling hazy.

      “Funny, I was just going to ask you the same thing,” Eric answered in that smooth-as-silk voice that had whispered sweet praise to her two months ago. Recalling what else they’d done, Kasey struggled to remain on her feet. Her body threatened to slide to the floor in a gooey, deoxygenated pile of shocked, blue mush.

      “You two know each other?” Dr. Douglas took a step back, his gaze flicking from Kasey to Eric.

      “We’ve met.” Eric’s eyes narrowed as he regarded her, a mixture of suspicion and pleasure in his eyes.

      “I’ve never heard either of you mention the other,” Dr. Douglas mused. For all his playboy ways, no one could accuse him of being slow on the uptake. No doubt her colleague had already worked out just how well she and Eric had known each other.

      Probably because even though her brain was in embarrassed denial of Eric being here, her libido was dancing a happy jig of remembered pleasure.

      Kasey wished the tiled floor would open up and swallow her. Anything to escape Eric’s predatory male look. Anything to escape Dr. Douglas’s knowing curiosity.

      If word got out she’d had a one-night stand, the news would hurt her chances of being asked to join the clinic’s medical board. The older board members would look unfavorably on a potential member behaving in such a feckless manner. Even if her lapse of judgment had been on the night of her mother’s funeral.

      Hadn’t she learned how