Part 2 (1/2)
She didn't say anything else to Drew, but it was obvious by the next day that she'd already said too much. The first thing he did when he came in that morning was to give her a black164.
glare and read her the riot act about the condition of the waiting room.
”Those magazines are two years old,” he said shortly. ”Throw them all out and get subscriptions to new ones. Meanwhile, buy some at the drugstore.”
”Yes, sir,” she said, and resisted the urge to salute.
He sighed angrily. ”And do something about that stupid rubber plant in the corner. It's dying.”
”You'd die, too, if little boys dumped gummy worms and old soft drinks and used bubble gum on you,” she murmured.
”Fertilize the thing and keep it watered or get rid of it,” he muttered. ”And your desk...”
”It looks better than yours,” she snapped right back, losing her temper. ”At least I don't save year-old sale papers from variety stores and parking tickets that I don't pay!”
He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again and marched off down the hall so loudly that Nurse Turner came out of the filing room and stared after him.
From that point on, the day deteriorated. Grown-up people who came in for minor complaints got lectures, children went away sulky, Nurse Turner finally hid in the bathroom and 165.
Kitty was thinking seriously of sitting under her desk until quitting time.
The telephone rang noisily and she answered it, painfully aware that Dr. Morris was standing nearby, visibly hoping for someone he could attack on the other end.
”It's Coltrain,” came the deep voice over the line. ”Are the closets full yet?” he added with faint amus.e.m.e.nt.
”Every one,” Kitty said. ”Not to mention the bathroom.”
”Let me talk to him while there's still time.”
She handed the receiver over smartly. Drew came to stand beside her, far too close, while he spoke tersely to Dr. Coltrain. One hand was in his pocket, moving his car keys and loose change around. His arm in its lab coat brushed against Kitty's with the movement, and she felt odd sensations all over her body. It disturbed her. She tried to move away, but there was nowhere to go. She was already wedged against the desk.
Drew asked Dr. Coltrain something and then listened. While he was listening, he happened to glance down at Kitty and his black eyes met her searching, uneasy green ones with an impact that stopped her breath. It felt166a little like asthma, when the air got trapped in her lungs and she couldn't get it out again.
He didn't look away, and neither did she. The sudden tension in the office was almost tangible. She saw muscles move in his jaw as his teeth clenched. His eyes began to glitter faintly, and she became aware of him as she never had been before.
”What?” he murmured into the telephone, because he hadn't heard a word Coltrain was saying. He blinked and managed to look away from Kitty's eyes. Odd, how he felt, as if he'd stuck his fingers in an electric socket. It made him angry, that he should feel such things today of all days. ”Yes, I'll meet you at the restaurant,” he said. There was a pause and he glanced at Kitty as if he suddenly hated her. ”No, I don't want to bring anyone,” he said deliberately.
Kitty dropped her eyes and didn't move. He was still too close and she didn't trust her voice, either. She wanted to get up and run away.
”Yes, I'll do that,” Drew finished. He hung up the telephone and abruptly bent, jerking Kitty's chin up so that he could search her eyes. ”Have you been talking to Lou?”
Her breath fluttered in her throat. ”Dr.
167.
Lou?” she faltered. ”I...I haven't seen her since Christmas.”
”I don't need the Coltrains to play Cupid for me, and I don't want you as a dinner date,” he said flatly. His eyes ran over her angrily, noting the rise and fall of her firm b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the increase of her breath. She was aware of him, and he knew it, and hated it. ”I don't want you, period. You're an employee. Nothing more. You make that clear to the Col-trains.”
”I'll do that very thing,” she said, losing her own temper. ”And for your information, I am not interested in you in any respect at all. I don't date people who are married to ghosts!”
He glared at her even more as the sound of footsteps coming along the hall diverted him. He realized that he was holding Kitty's soft little chin in his long fingers and he dropped his hand abruptly before Nurse Turner came into Kitty's office.
”Doesn't anybody work around here?” he demanded when he saw his nurse standing behind him.
”It's lunchtime, Doctor,” Nurse Turner stammered.
”Then why the h.e.l.l don't you both go and eat something?” he demanded. He stormed off168.
back to his own office, leaving Kitty and Nurse Turner and the last patient of the morning openmouthed.
It didn't get any better after lunch. There were three small emergencies that held up office hours, so that it was after seven when they ushered the last patient back to Dr. Morris.
”Run for it,” Nurse Turner advised, grabbing her sweater and purse. ”When he comes out of there with no patients as buffers, you're going to need an asbestos s.h.i.+eld.”
”I can't,” Kitty groaned, ”I have to put everything away.”
”I'll pray for you,” Nurse Turner said sincerely, glanced down the hall from which an audible roar could be heard and shot out the front door.
The patient, middle-aged Mr. James, came rus.h.i.+ng down the hall despite his painful arthritis, grasping a scribbled charge slip.
”Here,” he said, thrusting it to Kitty with a quick glance over his shoulder, like a drowning man expecting an imminent shark attack. ”I'm to stop smoking, lose thirty pounds and move the building five feet to the left,” he added with grim amus.e.m.e.nt. ”I'll send a check right along, and you can give me another appointment for my arthritis in three 169.
months on whichever day you think he might be in a good mood!” He turned and fled for his life. ”On second thought, I'll phone you about that appointment!” he called as he left.
He went out the door just as Drew came into the hall, and it seemed to Kitty as if flames were following right behind him. He paused at her desk, his black eyes glittering at her as if all his problems were her fault.
There was only one thing to do. She stood up, sighed and held her hands high over her head as if she were an escaped prisoner trying to give up while there was still time.
He started to say something and suddenly burst out laughing. ”My G.o.d, is it that bad?” he asked.
”Mrs. Turner left skid marks. She offered to pray for me,” she informed him. ”And I wouldn't bet good money that Mr. James will ever come back.”
He let out a weary sigh and leaned against the door facing, checking his watch. ”I'm late for dinner, to boot.” He glanced at her almost sheepishly, for him. ”Go home.”
”Post haste,” she promised, grabbing her jacket and purse. Her hands were all thumbs as she tried to mate b.u.t.tons. She was out of breath, not only due to Drew's bad temper. It170.171.
was hard to make her lungs work. The pollen count had been extremely high.
”Good G.o.d, Kitty, you're hopeless,” he said impatiently. He took the purse from her nerveless fingers, put it down on the chair and pulled her close. He slowly fastened the b.u.t.tons, his mouth just inches from her forehead. She could feel his warm breath there, his knuckles moving gently against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and her legs trembled under her.
Drew was feeling something equally powerful and trying with all his might to resist it. This was the day, the anniversary of his beloved Eve's death. He felt guilty that he was attracted to Kitty at all. It had made him irritable and impatient all day.
He looked down at her soft mouth and his hands stilled as he wondered how it would feel to kiss her. He hadn't kissed a woman, touched a woman, since his wife's lingering death. He was hungry and alone and miserable.
His fingers slid up to Kitty's face and cradled it, lifting it slowly. His eyes lingered on her lips while he fought his own need, and hers.
Inevitably he bent those few inches, drawn like a puppet on a string, and he heard her soft intake of breath as his mouth pushed verygently at her set lips. His fingers tightened to hold her there; unnecessarily, because she couldn't have drawn away to save her own life.
He made a rough sound and his mouth pushed down against hers with years of hunger behind it, grinding her lips under his. He moaned out loud, his arms dropping, enfolding her, lifting her to the length of his hard, fit body.