CarnalHealing (4 page)

Afraid to make another U-turn, she noticed an open doorway
to her right. A sign over the door said Visitors Lounge. She darted inside.

The room was diagonally across the hall from Lucy’s, and had
a television, a few comfortable-looking chairs, and a table with a partially
completed jigsaw puzzle. At the moment, Leonore had it all to herself. She
positioned herself so that she could just see the door to Lucy’s room, and
caught her breath when Lucy’s parents, accompanied by her lover, entered the
room only moments later.

God, he’s gorgeous. And I hadn’t realized how tall he is.
As soon as the thought popped into her mind, she chastised herself. It was no
time to be thinking about that now. She needed to get out of here while he was
busy with his patient.

But they hadn’t closed the door. Surely they would all be
facing the bed, not the open doorway.

Not necessarily. Lucy would still be asleep. Maybe they
wouldn’t want to wake her up, and would come right back out of the room again.
If someone else would just come down the hall in the direction of the
elevators, she could walk alongside them, positioning herself so that they were
between her and the open doorway to Lucy’s room.

Any other time, the hall would be full of nurses, orderlies,
doctors and visitors. But now that Leonore wanted someone to come, they
wouldn’t. Oh well, she’d just have to gut it out.

She looked down at her jacket, badge and clipboard. She
hated to abandon them—the clipboard would be easy to replace, but it had been a
lot of work making a badge that looked just right, and also finding a jacket in
this style. She put the clipboard on a chair, removed the badge and slipped it
into her pocket. The jacket she folded and tucked under her arm. If probably
looked awkward, but it was better than wearing it. No one would stop her on the
way out—it was only those arriving who were likely to come under scrutiny.

Taking a deep breath, she headed for the door, but just as
she stepped into the hall, four people almost ran into her on their way in.

“Oh, excuse me,” said an elderly woman, and Leonore had to
step sideways in order to let the group pass. They moved excruciatingly slowly.

Finally they we out of her way, and she took a few brisk
steps toward escape, turning her head away from Lucy’s room.

And he stepped into the hall, directly in her path. She
swerved, but was unable to avoid brushing his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention to—” He
stopped, his eyes widening in recognition. “
You!
What on earth are you
doing here?”

“I’m-I’m dropping off some books. My book club donates books
and-and sometimes we leave them in the waiting rooms.” Feeling ridiculous,
Leonore gestured vaguely in the direction of the visitors lounge, then flushed
when she realized she was using the hand that was carrying the incriminating
jacket.

He didn’t notice. His eyes were riveted on hers.

“I didn’t think I would ever see you again,” he said. “You
didn’t even tell me your name.”

Leonore suddenly became aware of where they were standing.
Lucy might already be awake and might call to her or point her out. She took a
few steps toward the nurses’ station, relieved when he followed.

“No,” she said. “No, I didn’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t think it
mattered.”

“It mattered,” he said. “It does matter. I—” He lowered his
voice. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about last night.”

“Neither have I,” she said, then gulped.
Did I really
just say that?

“So what is it? Tell me your name.”

Leonore had a sudden sensation of falling—of letting go.
“Leonore,” she said. “My name is Leonore.”

“Leonore,” he repeated. He put out a hand. “Pleased to meet
you. My name’s Jeff. Doctor Jeff Carson.”

Dazed, Leonore took the hand, which was warm and dry.

“Dr. Carson?” The woman, presumably Lucy’s mother, had come
into the hall. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but you said there would be more
tests this afternoon?”

Jeff seemed to have a hard time pulling his eyes from
Leonore’s. “Don’t go anywhere. Promise?”

She nodded wordlessly. Moments ago she had only been able to
think of escape. Now…what? What was she feeling? Something unfamiliar.

Jeff had turned his focus to the other woman. “Yes, and we
probably won’t have results until the morning. Shall we meet again then, and go
over them?”

As Jeff made arrangements for a meeting with Lucy’s parents,
Leonore tried to figure out what was going on. How long had it been since she
had told a lover her name? Or had anything at all to do with one, once she’d
gotten what she needed? She could almost hear Ludmilla laughing.

As Jeff turned back to her, his conversation concluded, she
swallowed nervously. He took her arm and turned her toward the elevator. “I
want to talk to you,” he said. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“Yes,” Leonore surprised herself by saying. It would have
been easy to claim she was late for an appointment or something. So why hadn’t
she?

“I have an office on another floor,” he said. “Or, sort of.
I’m a resident, so I share one.“

“Oh.” Leonore didn’t know what to say. She mentally kicked
herself for her inability to articulate. She was always confident with men,
completely in charge. Just what the hell was going on here?

The elevator was crowded, which gave her a few moments to
compose herself. When the doors opened on a lower floor, Jeff again took her
arm and lightly steered her in the right direction. “It’s just down this way,”
he said.

Run
! said Leonore’s head. But the rest of her body
disagreed. And so did something else. She was startled to realize it was her
magic. It was stirring and coiling in her body, drawn to the spot where Jeff
touched her arm like a bolt to a lightning rod. She pulled her arm away before
power could flow into him as it had the night before.
What in hell is going
on here?

He gave her a questioning look, but he had been holding her
so lightly that she hadn’t had to jerk her arm free, and she was still walking
with him.

“No one else should be in here right now,” he said, opening
a door. It was dark, so he turned on a light. Leonore went in first and looked
around the room without really seeing it. She realized her arms were crossed
over her chest, such a clichéd stance of nervousness that it annoyed her. She
forced herself into a more relaxed position. She wished Jeff would sit down,
because it would mean she could.

He closed the door then, making sure she was looking,
clicked the lock. “First,” he said, “I’m going to kiss you.” Before Leonore
could protest, she was in his arms.

Her magic, which had not gone completely dormant with the
loss of his touch, surged up with a vengeance. She knew she should stop it,
should exert her will and take control of it. But that would require thinking.

And how could she think when he was making her feel this
way? As his lips closed over hers, the heat of desire combined with the rushing
flow of Leonorean power and the two ignited like embers that had been hit by a
fresh breeze. Startled, Leonore broke from the kiss before the power could
surge into him like water from a fire hose.

She was almost in time.

“That’s not normal,” he said. He was still holding her, and
power still tingled wherever they touched, and although it was not the flood
that had almost poured through the kiss, she knew he could sense something. She
should break completely away, but she didn’t want to. Yet she needed to know
how much he had felt.

“What isn’t normal?” she asked.

“When I kiss you.” His eyes seemed as blue as the arc from a
welding torch, so intense was his gaze. “It’s…different.”

His head dipped, and he would have kissed her again, but she
put her hands on his chest, holding him back. She needed a few moments to
collect herself.

“You said you wanted to talk to me.” She took a tentative
step backward. Her thighs hit the desk, giving her no room to retreat.

To Leonore’s relief, Jeff released her and moved back a few
inches. “So I did.” He seemed to give himself a mental shake. He glanced at a
clock mounted on the wall. “It’s the middle of my shift, and I don’t really get
a lunch break. So…” He moved toward her again, smiling. “We should go on a
date.”

“A date?” she repeated stupidly. Leonore did
not
go
on dates.

“Yeah, you know. Two single people meet at a previously
agreed upon location, maybe share a meal, have a little conversation. It’s done
all the time.” His brow furrowed as if with a new thought. “You
are
single, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, you’re single? Or yes, you’ll go on a date with me?”
He lifted an eyebrow. Had he gotten closer? Her greedy magic seemed to sense
his proximity and her skin prickled. Gooseflesh rose on her arms.

“I’m single,” she said.

“And? What about the date?” He was definitely closer.
Leonore could feel his breath on her face. It made her want to put her mouth
over his and inhale.

“Yes,” she said before she could change her mind. “Yes, I’ll
go out with you.”

“Tomorrow night?”

Leonore actually gulped. “Tomorrow night.”

“Good.” He opened a desk draw and searched through it, then
handed her a business card. “Now you have all my numbers. Do you have a card?”

“Yes. I mean, no, not on me.”

“Then write them down here.” Jeff lifted a pad from the
desk, and handed it to her, along with a pen. Wordlessly, Leonore wrote her
home number.
Why did I just do that?

“Excellent,” Jeff said, tearing the top sheet off the pad,
then folding it and slipping it into his pocket. “You can come to my place—I’ll
call you with directions—and I’ll cook for you. Now, before I go back to work…”
He closed the last few inches between them and their lips met in a rush of heat
and power. It poured from her center to her limbs, and she didn’t even try to
keep it from rushing into him. He groaned.

Take him
, whispered the power.
You need to replace
what you gave to the child.

Oh, why not?
She already knew how good he felt inside
her. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her body against the hardness
of his chest.

Jeff reached around and pulled her up so that she sat on the
desk, then reached down and lifted the edge of her skirt, slipping his hands
underneath.

“Ah,” he lifted his mouth from hers just long enough to breathe,
“I see you don’t always go around without underwear.”

As his fingers slipped under the edge of her panties, she
lifted herself from the desk so he could pull them down. Breaking contact, he
stepped back and dragged them all the way off, leaving her pumps in place. He
spread her legs and stepped between them.

“You didn’t give me a chance to do anything last night,” he
said, running one hand along the inside of her leg while the other reached
around to pull her toward the edge of the desk. Then he sank lower until he was
smiling up from between her thighs. “I never got a chance to try…this.”

Spreading the curls of her pubic hair with his thumbs, he
leaned in and slipped his tongue along the slick opening of her pussy. “Mmmm.”
The tongue traveled up in a long stroke, subtly catching on the bud of her
clit. He used the pressure of his tongue to push it lightly against his upper
teeth.

Every muscle in Leonore’s ass tensed, lifting her higher on
the desk. She gave a little moan of pleasure, and Jeff drew back.

“Like that, do you?” Not waiting for an answer, he plunged
back in with another long, excruciating stroke.

Pleasure and magic warred in Leonore. Her cunt spasmed and
she felt a warm surge as her own fluids filled her. Despite her many lovers,
she had become so perfunctory about sex that she seldom took time for real
foreplay. And this man was a master. His tongue and teeth and lips darted and
dipped like a hummingbird pulling nectar from a flower. She shuddered and
writhed, but did not pull away. Magic hummed through her body, buzzing in her
ears and making her scalp tingle.

He slipped a finger between the folds of her pussy, moving
it in and out in counterpoint rhythm with his tongue.
Yes
, said the
magic.
This is what we need.

Her orgasm started like a point of flame where he again had
her clit caught between his tongue and his teeth, and then spread to where his
finger probed and danced. She moaned aloud and her pussy clenched.

He responded to her body’s signals by simultaneously sucking
and lightly biting the throbbing bud, and increasing the rhythm of his fingers
to a frenzied pace. Leonore panted, trying not to scream, mindful of their
surroundings.

“Oh…oh!” She managed to keep her voice to a hoarse whisper
as the point of flame licked and spread outward. She shuddered, digging her
fingers into his shoulders. She climaxed like an explosion, struggling to stay
quiet. Jeff released her clit from his teeth and kissed it, then the inside of
each thigh. When he withdrew his fingers, she opened her eyes and saw him
smiling up at her.

“You’re delicious,” he said, rising to his feet. “Taste.” He
kissed her, and Leonore tasted her own juices on his lips. It was more pleasant
than she thought it would be, and sexy as hell to think how he’d come to have
that flavor on his mouth.

She felt his cock pressing against her, hard enough to cut
diamonds. God, he’d given her all that pleasure and she hadn’t even touched him
yet. She reached out to caress it, then pulled on the drawstring at the waist
of his scrubs. In a moment her hand was inside, stroking him through his
underwear.

Something on the desk buzzed, making Leonore jump. A tinny
voice said, “Dr. Carson, you’re needed in exam six.”

Jeff groaned and put a hand on Leonore’s, removing it gently
from his pants. With his other hand, he held down a button on the intercom. “Be
right there,” he said, a little hoarsely.