Georgie's Heart (10 page)

He had linked the two of them together into a couple. Georgeanne's cheeks reddened yet again. “You're going to have about as much free time as I will these next few weeks. Are you sure you want to buy a book you won't have time to read?”

Zane chuckled and reached for another slice of pizza. “Far be it from me to deprive an author of her royalties.”

“Good for you,” Denise said. “Believe me, Fritzi Field deserves support. You can mark my words, lots of women are going to owe their marriages to her.”

Naturally, this statement provoked another argument over whether or not a man could detect a woman's deceit in intimacy. Georgeanne maintained silence. Not for anything was she going to get involved in that again.

To her increasing discomfort, Zane listened to the argument eddying around them and watched her face. No doubt he had never seen a woman before whose complexion registered her thoughts so clearly. He had to realize Fritzi Field's book embarrassed the living daylights out of her for some reason. Now he intended to read the book and find out why.

Georgeanne wondered, with a sinking heart, what he would think if he ever found out the truth. If, that is, he stuck around long enough to find out the truth.

*

Georgeanne spent the next day in a haze of happiness. Zane lost no opportunity to let everyone know she was his, and to her surprise, everyone connected with the clinic accepted the situation without surprise. In fact, her friends seemed to think Zane just might be worthy of her. It provided Georgeanne with a whole new outlook on herself as a desirable woman.

Zane hadn't cared who had been watching when he walked her outside to her vehicle the night before. Around them, the other volunteers were climbing into their cars and preparing to leave, but Georgeanne might as well have been alone with Zane for all the notice either took of their surroundings.

“You're tired, whether you know it or not,” Zane had said. “I'll call you to make sure you get home okay, then I want you going straight to bed. Doctor's orders.”

“Far be it from me to ignore a doctor's orders,” Georgeanne had replied lightly.

Her heart beat rapidly in a manner totally unlike itself. Georgeanne wondered what was wrong with her. Perhaps she was developing an arrhythmia.

Zane laid one large hand on her shoulder and let his fingertips caress her neck. “That's what I like to see, a patient who knows when the doctor has her best interests at heart.” He brought his hand around, cupping her neck lightly while his index fingertip stroked her full mouth and outlined her lips. “But you're looking at a doctor with a problem,” he added.

Georgeanne's breath was almost gone. Who could breathe while having the tender edge of her lips teased by an expert finger?

“What,” she halted a moment to savor the sensation, “seems to be the problem, Doctor?”

“I need a kiss.”

What remained of Georgeanne's breath left in a hiss. “You do?”

“I do. Do you think you could oblige?” He smiled the smile of a dark angel who offered temptation in a most enticing package.

Georgeanne stared into his eyes, mesmerized. “I could try.”

“I have a feeling you're the cure to any problem I've got.” Zane slipped his arms around her waist. “Georgie, you're so beautiful.”

Georgeanne started to deny any claim to beauty, but Zane's mouth covered hers before she could speak. She forgot her beauty, or lack thereof, in testing the warm silky texture of his hair and the hard feel of the muscles in his neck.

Zane's tongue stroked hers, encouraging her to explore his mouth the way he explored hers, and his big hands molded her against his body. She felt his desire for her and trembled. The amazing thing was, she liked knowing he wanted her, and she wanted to satisfy that desire.

Georgeanne broke away from the spell cast by his mouth, blinking with dismay. She'd never wanted to satisfy a man's desire before. She had feared that desire, because she knew she lacked what it took to satisfy it.

“What's wrong, Georgie?” Zane touched her face gently. “Am I scaring you?”

Georgeanne looked away. “Nothing is wrong, Zane. It's just that I — that I — I guess it's been a long time since I've been kissed. I don't quite know how to behave.”

“You're doing beautifully, Georgie. You're perfect.” Zane proved it with another gentle kiss. “This is between us. You and me. No ghosts, and no regrets. Okay?”

She swallowed, breathing hard. “Okay.”

His words registered at last. Zane thought her hesitation lay in memories of her marriage. In a way it did, but not the way he thought. She would have groaned aloud if his mouth hadn't covered hers in another tender kiss.

“Now get home and get to bed, or the doctor will have to write you out a stronger prescription.”

Georgeanne had done as he instructed, largely because she was too bemused to do anything else. Zane was used to giving orders and having them obeyed. The problem was, Georgeanne liked obeying orders from him a lot more than she should, especially when she knew she would see him again on Sunday.

*

Georgeanne glanced around, well pleased, at the Sunday afternoon activities. While the other volunteers finished painting the inside of the clinic, Zane had brought a stack of ropes and saws and worked steadily at removing the crop of fast-growing tallow trees that had sprung up around the building and encroached on the edges of the small shell-covered parking lot.

Georgeanne joined him outside, where she scraped and painted the woodwork around the windows. The beautiful late spring weather held, and the sun shone brightly, bringing out the bright green of the tree leaves surrounding them.

Georgeanne enjoyed watching Zane silhouetted against the sky as he stood on the clinic's flat roof and worked an electric power saw. He removed limb after limb from the trees that grew beside the roof, then began work on one big limb that stretched across the roof.

Georgeanne tried not to stare at him. He wore a blue T-shirt that accentuated the powerful muscles of his shoulders and arms and made his smoky eyes look blue. The rippling motion of those muscles as he worked the saw and the ropes fascinated Georgeanne. She forced herself to concentrate on her paintbrush.

“Would you mind calling one of the men out to help me with this, Georgie,” Zane called.

Georgeanne glanced up. He had hooked a complicated series of ropes to the limb and was prepared to saw it through. “What do you need?”

“I need a man to pull this rope to swing the limb away from the roof when it starts to fall. Not you, Georgie.”

“Be reasonable, Zane. I'm taller than both the men present, and probably stronger. Throw me that rope.”

Zane scowled down at her. “I will not. Call Dr. Baghri or Dr. Gant.”

“Now, Zane, if you weren't present, I'd be sawing those trees down myself. Throw me that rope.” She laughed up at him, enjoying the way he tried to take care of her, even though anyone could see she didn't need it.

“Georgie, you're about to witness some of my unreasonable behavior brought about by your failure to follow my orders.”

“What is it with doctors? They seem to have a problem with thinking they can snap orders at people when they aren't in a medical setting.”

“This is a clinic, isn't it?”

“It won't be a clinic until the dedication ceremony one week from today.” Georgeanne gazed up and marveled again at the picture he presented.

“This was a medical clinic, and it is about to be a medical clinic again. This is a medical setting, and I am a medical doctor. I have the degrees and the years of penal servitude to prove it. Therefore, when I speak, underlings such as yourself should hop to obey.”

“Sez who?” Georgeanne put her hands on her hips and came to stand directly beneath him, grinning.

Zane seized a pair of ropes that were slung over tree limbs in his large hands and grinned back at her. “Sez me. Punishment for this insubordination awaits. Look out below.”

To Georgeanne's astonishment, he used the ropes to rappel down from the roof as he spoke. The next instant, he was beside her on the ground. He let go the ropes and grabbed for her.

Georgeanne did the only thing that occurred to her. She broke and ran, laughing with newfound joy and excitement.

Zane followed on her heels. Georgeanne soon realized that he was letting her escape capture long enough to reach a secluded spot among a grove of tallow trees lining one of the rice fields. The moment she was out of sight of the clinic, Zane's big hands closed around her waist and he jerked her off her feet.

Georgeanne shrieked with surprise. She was no lightweight, but Zane didn't appear to know that. No man had ever actually lifted her off her feet before. It was a novel sensation, to say the least. The next thing she knew, she lay full length on a grassy area behind the trees, with Zane stretched out beside her.

The afternoon sun behind his head cast a halo and made him look like a particularly handsome angel. The dark angel, she decided dizzily, as she stared, mesmerized, into his smoky eyes. She saw the promise of pleasure there, along with a raw, masculine power that was all too human.

His pupils had dilated and he was gazing at her in a way Georgeanne instinctively responded to. Her breathing quickened and every muscle she had tightened with excitement, because the man she desired found her desirable.

Zane gazed on her as if she was the most beautiful woman in the world. That excited her further, and she bent one knee to turn more fully toward him. Her breasts rose and fell with her rapid breathing, breathing that accelerated when he leaned toward her and cupped her chin with one hand.

“I've been wanting this for the past week,” he said, “ever since I first saw you. Almost from the first letter you wrote me. Georgie, kiss me.”

Georgeanne wouldn't have dreamed of not kissing him. She reached for him automatically, bringing his face down. His lips touched hers, and he made a strangled sound before his tongue thrust into her mouth, claiming her. She wrapped her arms around his neck to bring him closer during the deep, searching kiss they exchanged.

The feel of Zane's big body against hers did something to Georgeanne. She reacted in a way totally unlike herself, but she was too involved in sensation to be shocked at her own behavior. She arched her back, mutely encouraging him to explore her with his hands while he kissed her.

Zane wasted no time in answering her unspoken desire. He ran his hands down her sides then back up to cup her breasts. The wildly passionate sound she made shocked her, although it seemed to encourage Zane. He stroked his thumbs over the cloth covering her nipples and she felt them tingle with delightful sensations.

She had too many clothes on, she realized. No doctor could examine a patient who insisted upon remaining fully clothed. When Zane thrust his hands beneath the oversized blouse she wore and reached behind her for the clasp of her brassiere, she lifted to help him. The bra gave way and Zane covered her breasts with his palms.

Georgeanne gasped when she felt Zane's hands on her bare breasts. When his thumbs caressed her nipples, and his fingers joined in to learn their size and shape, she moaned aloud. He shoved her blouse up and gazed down on her, and Georgeanne recognized in his face all the emotions she experienced.

Desire this intense was foreign to her. She had never felt anything like it. She thought she was actually being drawn out of her body when she felt the warm, drawing suction of his mouth on her. The cool air on the moistened area when his mouth left one breast to taste the other created another erotic sensation that made her gasp aloud.

“You have a perfect body.” Zane gazed on her with rapt attention. “I'm going to buy you one of those skimpy bikinis, and you're going to wear it. At home, for me.”

Ordinarily, the thought of a bikini would have made Georgeanne think of diets and suffering. With Zane staring at her as if he couldn't get enough, she could hardly wait to put on the bikini.

“I'd love to see you in one of those thongs,” she whispered.

Zane's passionate gray gaze rose to her face. “For you, I'd wear one, Georgie.”

He kissed her again, teasing her mercilessly with his tongue, and then touching her breasts with little licks and nibbles. Georgeanne knew she was going out of her head. Dimly, somewhere in the back of her alleged mind, she knew that there was work to be done and that she was shirking, and that, furthermore, she was lying out in the open air letting a man who looked like a movie star undress her.
But what a way to go
, her body cried.

For once, Georgeanne was in no condition to listen to her head. She listened to her body and was lost.

Georgeanne knew something incredible was about to happen. Something she'd only dreamed about, and had once prayed to feel even a glimmering of in a man's embrace. She trembled in Zane's arms, incapable of thinking. All she could do was feel.

To her anguish, Zane stilled.

She murmured a protest and sought to pull him closer, but Zane refused to cooperate.

“Don't, Georgie. I can't wait to make love to you. But not here, and not now, where anybody could walk up on us. Someone from the clinic is liable to come looking for us at any moment.”

Georgeanne's eyes flew open with dismay. She had been literally lost to the world, something that had never happened to her before. What was wrong with her?

“Besides, I don't think you're quite ready to go this far.” Zane stroked her hair back from her face in a soothing motion. “I never meant to let things get out of hand like this, but you go to my head more powerfully than bourbon.”

Georgeanne's thoughts tumbled through her bemused brain like pebbles in a polisher.

All these years —

So this was what —

And it hadn't been like this with —

But with Zane —

She had never wanted, never craved like —