CHAPTER ONE

      “I’M A DOCTOR, you know.” No, the flight attendant didn’t know, but Natalie Sterling was determined to make it on time to her presentation.

      She’d heard of airlines overbooking flights, but it had never affected her. Until now.

      “A pediatric heart surgeon,” she added, hoping to gain empathy. Natalie couldn’t recall having pulled that card before, but she wasn’t one to no-show a speaking commitment if she could help it. “Bumping me to a later flight doesn’t work.”

      The stewardess shook her head. “There’s nothing I can do. It was in the agreement when you purchased your ticket that if the plane is overbooked you would have to take a later flight.”

      Taking a deep breath, Natalie stared at the pretty thirty-something blonde in her crisp uniform. It wasn’t the woman’s fault.

      “It’s urgent I go on this flight.” She heard the almost pleading tone, but was beyond caring. She needed to get to Miami this afternoon.

      “We’re sorry for any inconvenience, but you’re going to have to exit the plane.” The forced smile on the attendant’s face warned that further argument was futile and the woman was losing her patience.

      If only Natalie could have kept her flight the evening before, instead of having to delay her departure. Still, she’d been needed for an emergency surgery, and her patients came first. Always.

      “What if I refuse to give up my seat?”

      The attendant’s obligatory smile disappeared. “I would be forced to call Security.” Her tone warned Natalie would regret such a decision. “They would escort you off the plane. Are you refusing?”

      Visions of herself being dragged off the plane, kicking and screaming that they had the wrong person, had Natalie cringing. Yeah, that splattered all over the news wouldn’t impress Memphis Children’s Hospital’s board.

      Feeling much like she was being punished for a crime she hadn’t committed, Natalie closed her laptop, unclasped her seatbelt and pulled her case out from under the seat in front of her. “I’m not refusing, I just wondered if it was an option.”

      “It’s not,” she was assured, the stewardess’s eyes still narrowed.

      “Fine.” Not really, but apparently she had no choice. “But you have to get me to Miami this afternoon.”

      She gathered her things and pulled her carry-on bag back out from the overhead compartment.

      Seeing that Natalie wasn’t going to give them any further trouble, the flight attendant’s obligatory smile returned. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll do all we can to get you to your destination as quickly as possible.”

      As she was passing through the first-class section, a man glanced up from his phone. He turned his head toward her about the time she registered who he was, and Natalie’s gaze collided with his.

      Her breath caught. Just as it had done when their gazes had met in the airport waiting area.

      No matter how she’d tried, she hadn’t been able to keep from glancing his way and they’d made eye contact several times. She’d felt an instant attraction, had thought that if her best friends were there they’d have pushed her to cross the room and strike up a conversation because they thought she needed a vacation fling. Natalie being Natalie, she hadn’t done anything more than fight to keep her focus on her upcoming presentation rather than on the intriguingly handsome man.

      She bet he never got bumped from his flight.

      No one would dare.

      There was something dark and dangerous in those ice-blue eyes. Maybe it was his inky black hair and tan skin that contrasted so dramatically with those frosty blues that gave him such a startlingly handsome look, like he belonged in some paranormal movie where he’d shape-shift into a sexy mythical being who preyed on unsuspecting women who were powerless to resist his allure.

      Natalie felt his pull, felt his power, and a sexual intensity flashed through her mind. No doubt, he’d have looked into the flight attendant’s eyes and told her to go pick someone else and she’d have answered, Yes, sir, and can I get you anything else with that?

      Just like Jonathan.

      Bleh. She wasn’t going to think about her boyfriend.

      Ex-boyfriend.

      The lying, cheating scumbag.

      Literally.

      Casting one last look at Mr. Dark and Dangerous, who was watching her with the same expression with which one might watch an accident unfold, probably wondering if she was going to cause a ruckus and delay his flight, she sighed. Not a good start to her little mini-vacation wrapped up in teaching a workshop at a medical conference. As long as she got to Miami in time to give her presentation, everything would be fine.

      Despite rushing through Miami Airport and hiring a taxi driver who’d taken her request to get her to her hotel as fast as possible, literally, Natalie missed the time of her presentation.

      Frazzled from the delay, then the mad dash, she’d dropped her bags with the bellhop, then quietly snuck into the auditorium and slid into the back row to catch the end of what they’d filled her spot with. Settling into her seat, she glanced to the front of the auditorium and almost fell out of her chair.

      No way.

      Not even possible.

      She was hallucinating.

      Maybe she’d fallen during her jaunt through the airport, bumped her head and was in a coma, about to have a fantastic fantasy.

      Must be, because the speaker at the front of the room was him.

      Mr. Dark and Dangerous from the plane.

      He would be a fantastic fantasy.

      But why was he teaching her class? And smiling and charming the crowd as if he were a natural-born motivational speaker rather than the dark, sexy overlord she’d painted him out to be on the plane? Seriously, the man was discussing heart deformities and yet you’d think he was revealing the secret of longevity by the way the attendees were on the edge of their seats.

      Even as passionate as she was about surgical neonatal heart disease treatment modalities, she didn’t think it was the topic that was mesmerizing the crowd.

      It was him.

      As he spoke, his gaze met with hers and recognition flashed in those unusual ice-blue eyes that somehow didn’t fit with his pleasant expression. Probably because she’d pegged him as shadowy and menacing, not smiling and charming.

      He was smiling. And charming. And had a voice that should be reading the books she downloaded to her smartphone from time to time to listen to at night. What a way to fall asleep.

      Dark and dangerous or smiling and charming, the man oozed sex. She wasn’t a woman who got hot and bothered from just looking at a guy. Or even hot and bothered from a whole lot of guy effort, but this man made her think S-E-X.

      Hot, sweaty, body-slapping, can’t-catch-your-breath sex.

      Which was quite disturbing because Jonathan hadn’t affected her this potently. Ever. Sex had been good, pleasurable, but just the thought of it hadn’t set her nerve-endings on fire.

      His presentation didn’t pause, but his gaze lingered on hers, flashing with an awareness that made her nerve-endings burn. Hot, out-of-control burn.