An Irresistible Temptation (14 page)

“Freddie,” Sophie interrupted him, “would you
please escort Carling home? It’s only a street away.”

Carling started to protest, but Sophie
interrupted, “Dearest, I would feel so much better knowing you were
home safely. Anyway, I’m going to eat this lovely meal you’ve made
me and then go straight to sleep.”

Carling frowned.

“I’m happy to do it,” Freddie offered.

“Please,” Sophie said, “I don’t want to worry
about you.”

“All right. If you insist. I’ll let this
handsome gentleman
escort
me home.”

“Better not tell Egbert,” Sophie teased.

“Oh, tell me all about Egbert,” Freddie said
as he closed the door behind them, leaving Sophie alone.

She sat with her thoughts and ate a little,
feeling beyond distracted. She hadn’t yet told her family about
“the little incident,” as she’d come to think of it. She didn’t
want to upset her mother or Reed. Besides, the man who took her
purse probably needed the money more than she did, and she should
count herself lucky that she didn’t have to share the fate of the
red-jacketed women who worked for Gold-Tooth.

Besides, she could always go home and live in
the lap of luxury if all else failed, but she didn’t want to fail.
She wanted to be successful. She wanted to play piano and make
people happy simply by hearing her.

Sighing, Sophie pushed her plate away,
standing up, wishing it were a few hours earlier and light out so
she could go for a long walk.

“Blast it,” she swore aloud. She had never
felt fearful before and she was sure this feeling would pass, but
her bandage was a reminder of how everything could change in an
instant. She might as well go to bed and read, though without
Carling, it would take her ages to get out of her—

Another knock. She froze, then relaxed.
Stop being ridiculous!
A criminal wouldn’t knock.

Still, she lifted the curtain and peered
cautiously out the window onto the step. Riley!

Her heart started hammering.

He knocked again. She took a deep breath and
opened the door, thinking he might be more dangerous than a
criminal.

His eyes seemed to take all of her in with
one sweeping glance before fixing on her own dark blue gaze.
“Sophie, good evening. I was . . .,” he stopped short. “I was going
to say that I was in the area, but I can’t lie to you. You are the
one person with whom I feel compelled to be utterly stripped, so to
speak.”

“That’s quite a greeting,” she said. Never
mind that he was already five kinds of inappropriate.

“May I come in?” He held up his doctor’s bag.
“Official medical visit.”

“Then I guess you may,” Sophie said, stepping
aside to let him in. When she turned, she realized two things in
short order: One, that he filled the room. This wasn’t like
Charlotte’s homestead where she could run down the hall to the
kitchen to try to gain a little distance from her involuntary
attraction. This was a small apartment and Riley Dalcourt was not a
small man. And two, he had the remnants of a split lip and a black
eye.

“What in God’s name happened to you?”

He had the gall to shrug as if walking around
looking like a thug were an everyday occurrence. “I’m fine.”

“That’s not what I asked. I can see that
you’ll live. Tell me, how did you get your face in that condition?”
She glanced over the rest of him, to see if he had any other
injuries, and noticed that the knuckles of his right hand, curled
around his bag, were scraped.

“You were in a fight.”

“Apparently.”

“Are you going to tell me or do I have to
keep asking? Remember, you said you can’t lie to me.”

“I paid a visit to Alonso.”

She frowned, and then it dawned on her.
“Gold-Tooth?” She felt scared all over again. And yet Riley stood
in front of her, whole and safe. “You went to that awful
place?”

“It’s not that awful in broad daylight, at
least if you’re a man.”

“Why? What could you possibly hope to
accomplish?”

“Justice.”

“Oh, please. That’s for a court of law. You
went for revenge.”

“Payback, then.” He smiled. “And it felt
great.”

“You shouldn’t have gone there. It’s not your
place to defend me.”

“Who then? Does your brother even know about
your hand?

She didn’t answer him. The fact that she
hadn’t yet written to her family was not his business. “Tell me
what happened. How did you escape alive?”

“Have a little faith, woman. I didn’t just
walk in and ask to wrestle with Carlos Alonso and his gooneys.”

“Gooneys?” Was that what he called the
prostitutes?

“Yes, those big guys who guard the
doors.”

She was sure her face had gone three shades
whiter, and immediately, she had to sit, which she did, pulling out
one of her kitchen chairs, as there was no place else to sit other
than the bed. The thought of Riley up against three men,
particularly those three dangerous men, made her blood run
cold.

At the look on her face, his own expression
became sheepish. “Sophie, I’m fine. I merely wanted to make sure
that Alonso understood that he’d made a mistake. I informed him
that you are a lady.”

“And?” Her voice sounded strange to her
ears.

“And when he didn’t apologize, I punched him
in the mouth. Split my hand open on his stupid gold tooth.”

She winced.

“Then one of his men tried to grab me from
behind, but I was quicker. I kicked Alonso in the stomach and then
the face before I turned to address the other two.”

“I’m not sure I need a blow-by-blow report.”
In fact, she knew she didn’t. “Just tell me how it is you’re still
alive.”

He grinned. “Honestly?”

“Yes, please.”

“One of the guys was about to take my head
off with his fist, when a customer came in. He was distracted long
enough for me to get my hands around his neck and squeeze.”

“Squeeze?”

“Yes, I cut off the blood supply to his head
by pressing here and here.” He pointed to his own neck. “He got a
strange look on his face and dropped like a stone. Then the other
guy spun me around and socked me in the eye before I could knock
him out with a blow to his chin, which I did. If you land your fist
right here,” he pointed under his chin, “you can knock ’em out
almost every time.”

“Good to know,” she murmured, thinking she
could easily be sick, thinking of Riley in the middle of such an
altercation.

“That left Alonso, who held his hands up in
surrender, the coward. I’m actually a little surprised that he
didn’t have a gun.”

She felt a little faint at the idea.

“What about your lip?”

He shrugged again. “One of the whores did it.
Caught me by surprise. At that point, I decided I’d done
enough.”

“More than enough.” She looked at her
bandaged hand and held it up to him. “And look—I’m all healed.” She
ought to be grateful instead of sarcastic, but the thought of what
could have happened to him . . . “Oh, no, wait.” She looked
pointedly at her hand. “I’m not. In fact, now you’re injured, too.
Men!” she said with disgust.

“I know, I know.” He smiled ruefully. “But
maybe he’ll think twice before he grabs a woman off the
street.”

“Perhaps, but I bet he’ll forget about me and
you in the time it takes his face to heal.”

“I think losing this will remind him.” He
reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out something small.
Holding his left hand out to her, he uncurled his fingers. Lying on
his palm was a gold tooth.

Sophie gasped, then her eyes flashed up to
Riley’s twinkling gaze.

“Sweet mother,” she exclaimed. “How did you
get that?”

“Came out when I kicked him in the face. It
went in a perfect arc over my head and I caught it and pocketed it,
right before I had to put my hands around the gooney’s throat.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I’m glad you went.”
She couldn’t help grinning. “You are my hero,” she said, and she
meant it. “But don’t do anything like that again.”

“That’s what
I’m
telling
you
,
Sophie. No more forays like that one.”

“I promise.” Suddenly, the room had closed in
again. With her sitting and him standing over her, she felt the
unwelcome desire to kiss him. She watched him place the tooth on
her table.

“A memento,” he said, his voice gone quietly
serious.

“Is that why you came? To give me his head on
a platter, so to speak?”

He gestured to his medical bag again.

“Oh, right. You said this was a medical
visit?”

He nodded. “Doctor Finley said you’d have to
go back for a follow-up visit and I thought to save you a
trip.”

She stood up again, wanting to be on even
ground with him, though all this did was bring her closer to
him.

“Are house calls standard procedure for
medical students?” Now, why had her voice gone all husky?

“No.”

She cleared her throat with a little cough
before she asked, “And did you ask me if I wanted you to save me a
trip?”

“No, but—”

“It’s not like I have much else to do right
now,” Sophie added, feeling as though she needed to keep her tone
practical and even a little cold. Riley was in her room. At night.
They were alone. Every nerve ending in her body was clamoring. “The
hospital was rather an exciting place. And I think it might take me
three trolley car changes to reach it.”

“Only two, in fact,” he said. “Look, I’m
sorry.” He gazed directly into her eyes and seemed to shrink the
room again. “I overstepped my bounds coming here. I’ll leave.
Doctor Finley will want to see you in the next day or so. His nurse
will look in your eyes—stunningly gorgeous eyes, by the way—and
listen to your heart. Doctor Finley will examine the bump on your
head. That type of thing. They won’t touch your hand, Sophie. Not
yet.”

He turned to leave, and all she could think
was how she loved to hear him say her name. He had the slightest of
drawls and her name sounded nothing like it did on the lips of any
man on the east coast.

“So this
is
purely a medical visit?”
She didn’t know why she pushed him to admit anything. He was almost
out the door. She’d nearly escaped this wildly perilous situation
unscathed. Yet somehow, she’d looked him in the eyes and asked him
a question, the answer to which could make their circumstances end
badly.

He looked down at his shoes, at his bag, at
the wall behind her head, then finally back at her. “I really can’t
lie to you.”

She stared at him, frozen. He stepped closer,
putting the bag on the floor before taking her face in his hands
and looking ever so deeply into her eyes. “But I am going to look
into your lovely eyes, like this.” She swallowed.

“And I’m going to listen to your steady warm
heart, like this.” Shockingly, he bent low and turned his face,
pressing his ear to her chest in which she knew her heart was
thumping like a trapped rabbit. He stayed like that a moment, while
she barely breathed, then he raised his head.

“And I’m going to give you my best
diagnosis.”

She waited.

“I’m a man who desperately needs to kiss
you.”

She very nearly laughed. He had diagnosed
himself instead of her. She was grateful, for he could have said it
the other way and he would have been right—she was a woman who
desperately needed him to kiss her—but to hear him say it would
have been a tad embarrassing. Instead, she was downright terrified.
Sarah was not going to barge in and stop them, and Carling was
safely back at her own apartment.

There were only the two of them and neither
of them had proved to be very good at restraint.

He took her composure as encouragement, she
supposed, for he tilted up her chin. She breathed in his scent of
vanilla soap for a moment. As his lips touched hers, his kiss sent
a surge of warmth all the way down to her toes. She let him
explore, reveled in feeling his tongue slip between her lips to
touch hers. It was wicked and blissful, and she didn’t want him to
stop.

But stop he must.

With her good hand, she pressed against his
suit coat, in the vicinity of his chest. Straightaway, he released
her.

“You can’t keep doing that,” she told him
exasperatedly. Her legs felt wobbly and her lips were tingling.

“You didn’t tell me not to,” he pointed
out.

“I shouldn’t have to tell you. You’re
engaged. Are you going to marry Eliza Prentice?”

“Yes,” he ground out.

“You have to leave. I’m not going to be your
chere amie
.”

“My what?”

“Fancy term for someone to warm your bed
after you’re married.”

He cringed. “That wasn’t what I
intended.”

“What did you intend?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m an
ass.”

“Agreed.”

He grinned.

“Don’t smile at me like that. You’re a doctor
and a good one from what I saw in Spring City. How can you be so
good at that and not have it carry into other areas of your
life?”

“I don’t follow you.”

“Just be a faithful fiancé and, after that, a
supportive husband.”

“To a woman who has no real feeling for me,
nor I her.”

“Then you shouldn’t marry.”

“I have to.”

“Yes, you said that before. You owe her, I
believe. Medical school tuition, is that it?”

“More than that.”

“Do you want to tell me?” Sophie sat down at
her table, now that the present danger had passed.

He sighed. “She convinced her father not to
take my parents’ house and land when they couldn’t pay. I never
even explained to my father why the threatening letters from the
bank stopped.”

“And why did Eliza do that for you?” Sophie
could imagine the payment she might extract from Riley, and she
looked at his firm generous mouth and his long lean body. Yes,
payment wouldn’t be so hard to accept.