The Best Of The Year - Medical Romance. Carol Marinelli
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gondola ride is a lot of fun. And there’s only room for two in each car.”
A sultry voice came from just over his left shoulder. Not Mira’s, since she was still over by the stretcher.
He turned around and found a brunette with darkly penciled brows that matched the carefully modulated tones of her voice. Overdone. Whispering of desperation. And when the woman smiled, nothing happened to the skin around her eyes.
Botox.
He’d thought of Mira as a professional snow bunny when he’d first met her, but her sparkling eyes and sunny disposition had dashed his suspicions away. This woman, however...
Swallowing, he nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.”
She took a step closer, her jacket pulling tight across her breasts. “Did I overhear someone say that you’re a doctor?”
Oh, Lord. Not what he wanted to deal with right now.
Why was it that a quick fling with Mira appealed to him, despite its dangers, while the thought of spending the night with this woman just left him cold? He didn’t want to hurt her feelings—if they hadn’t already been paralyzed by the overzealous needle of her surgeon.
“I am. Just here for a couple of days’ R&R.” Okay, a couple of days was on the verge of being a lie, since he still had three weeks left of his vacation.
“That’s enough time to squeeze in a fun activity or two, isn’t it? It’ll be a tight fit, but it would be well worth the effort.”
She said the words with a completely straight face, but she had to know how they sounded.
Hell. He was surprised she wasn’t listed on that flier as one of the lodge’s alternate activities, along with her name, phone number, and measurements. And that she promised a tight fit.
“Well—”
Mira suddenly appeared beside them, looking from one to the other. “I wondered where you went.” She glanced at the advertisement and then the phone in his hand. “Planning something fun?”
“Thinking about it. Did Marilyn get off okay?”
“She’s on her way to the hospital right now.”
The brunette quirked a brow. Wow, maybe there wasn’t as much happy juice in her face as he’d thought. “Girlfriend?” she asked, her voice not quite as sultry as it had been.
He wanted to say yes, just to get rid of her without having to be rude. Would Mira kill him? He could always explain later.
“She’s—”
“Definitely a girlfriend. And you are?” Mira wrapped her hands around his right bicep, giving it a quick squeeze as if to say she knew he was in a tight spot.
Squeeze. Tight spot. Well the woman might not have done anything for him with those words, but Mira’s touch was definitely doing something to his gut. It clenched, one muscle group at a time, until his whole abdomen was a mass of tension.
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” The brunette tossed her head.
Mira’s hand ventured from his arm, sliding low across his back until it curved around his left side. She left a trail of heat in her wake that he felt even through his coat. “He’s too nice. Women get the wrong idea all the time.”
Evidently she didn’t have any of the same reservations about hurting the woman’s feelings as he did, because she continued. “So did you get the number for that sleigh-ride company, Jack, or what?”
“I was just doing that.”
“Good.” Her glance shot to the brunette. “Thanks for keeping him company for me. I’ve got it from here.”
With a strangled sound the woman wheeled around and then jerked open the door to the lodge before disappearing inside.
The breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding whistled out through his teeth as relief swept over him. “How did you know?”
She let go of his side and lifted her hand to pat his cheek. “Your face is about as red as the walls in the dining hall.” She laughed. “And she’s a regular. She comes on to all the men.”
There was a bitter edge to her words.
So much for thinking she’d singled him out. Ouch. The punch to his ego stung.
“So I wasn’t in any real danger.”
“I didn’t say that. She’s dangerous all right.”
As much as he tried to school his face into a blank slate, a smile crept up from somewhere inside him. “How do you know I don’t thrive on danger?”
“Do you? I didn’t take you for the type.”
There it was again. That quick one-two to his pride. “I might surprise you.”
“Really? In that case, I think you owe me a sleigh ride. For bailing you out of what could have been an awkward situation. Especially if her husband had found out.”
“She’s married?” Maybe he did owe her something.
“Aren’t they all?”
He wouldn’t know. He hadn’t been on the dating circuit since he’d met Paula. “I guess you wouldn’t accept a simple thank-you.”
“I would, but I couldn’t promise I’d bail you out a second time. If her being married doesn’t stop her, do you really think me saying I’m your girlfriend is going to scare her off? But if she knows you not only have a girlfriend but that you’re happy with that girlfriend, she’ll probably leave you alone.”
Jack’s head was spinning, partly at the audacity of married women propositioning men who were taken and partly just because of the clean crisp scent of the woman at his side. It reminded him of frosty days and mocha-filled nights. He leaned in closer. “Did you just have coffee?”
Why he asked that he had no idea.
She blinked at him in surprise. She could match that look and raise it. His face heated again.
“I just ate a coffee-flavored candy.”
“Sorry. I think my brain is misfiring over what just happened.”
“You’ve never been propositioned by a married woman before?” Her voice was shocked, like it was something that happened all the time.
“Never. If you were married, would you do it? Proposition someone who wasn’t your husband?”
“Oh, but I’m not married.” Although light and delivered with a smile, her words contained a hint of darkness. Because of her ex? Had he slept with Mrs. Botox or something?
He decided to change the subject entirely. “So this sleigh ride. Is it worth going on alone?”
“Um, yeah, but if she finds out you’re planning on going solo, she’s going to show up and invite herself along for the ride.”
He glanced through the glass to see that the brunette in question was indeed eyeing them while sipping on something boozy that looked like it had a tiny plastic ski sticking out of it. He guessed ski resorts didn’t want little umbrellas reminding people they could be in a tropical paradise instead. “As much as I never thought I’d say it, would you mind going with me? To ward off trouble...” He wasn’t sure that “warding off” trouble was the right way to put it. Because it sure felt like he was busy cultivating it at the moment.
“No problem. I haven’t been on a sleigh ride in ages, actually.”
So her ex hadn’t taken her on one? Maybe they’d had fun in other ways.
Something that made his jaw tense.
She grabbed his hand. “And now for my last good deed until our