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Authors: Joyful Devastation

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BOOK: Erin M. Leaf
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Gideon noted that Theo’s eyes were
fixated on her backside. “You snooze, you lose,” he said, wondering briefly
what it would be like to share a bed with the two of them. He pictured Theo,
nude, rising up over Dr. Sexy’s delicious curves, then cleared his throat,
getting his imagination under control before his dick got any ideas. The last
thing he needed was an erection in the ER.
Talk about awkward,
he
thought. “Let’s go,” he said aloud. “I’m starving. Dinner’s on me.”

Theo glanced at him in surprise. “You’re
paying?”

Gideon nodded, mentally smacking
himself for being such a sucker. “Yeah. I feel sorry for you.”

“You should. I’ve been punctured.
It was horrible. I’m going to be scarred for life,” Theo said melodramatically
as he walked down the corridor. He didn’t notice the nurse behind the desk
check him out.

Gideon sighed. Theo had no idea how
hot he was. “I feel sorrier for myself,” he muttered under his breath as he
followed Theo out of the chaos.

****

Dr. Bea Morgan walked out of the
hospital wanting two things: a good burger and her bed. She’d been at work for
over twelve hours and she was ready to collapse, especially after the incident
with the mental patient. She sighed, wishing she could go straight home to
sleep, but her refrigerator was empty.
Or maybe not quite empty,
she
thought, snorting softly on the way to her car.
I think I have some ketchup
in there.

She unlocked her doors and ditched
her bag, stuffing her wallet and cellphone in her jacket pocket. It was a
lovely spring evening. Walking across the street to buy some takeout at the
little cafe next door wouldn’t take long. She locked her car and headed for the
street.

The office complex boasted a slew
of doctor’s offices, some small businesses, a bank, and the best burgers in
town. Of course, it was on the fourth floor of the largest building and she
sighed as she walked in, heading straight for the elevators. She wasn’t up to
taking the stairs, no matter how much she tried to tell herself that exercise
was good for her. She eyed herself in the polished brass doors and grimaced.
She needed to lose about thirty pounds.
Nothing I can do about it tonight,
she mused, rubbing her face. She slipped her hair out of its ponytail and
massaged her scalp.

When the doors opened, she got on
automatically, only looking up when a familiar voice spoke her name.

“Dr. Morgan! What a surprise,”
Detective Gray said, smiling at her. His friend Gideon was with him, also
smiling.

She blinked, staring at the man she’d
treated in her ER not even a half-hour ago. “Detective Gray?” She couldn’t be
dreaming. She wasn’t
that
tired, was she?

He nodded and gave her a slight bow.
“The one and only.”

His friend rolled his eyes.

Bea chuckled. The two of them were
handsome and funny, a lethal combination. “What are you doing here?”

Gideon sighed, loud and theatrical.
“Theo pushed the wrong button. Instead of going up to Burger Central, we went
down. And then down some more. And
then
we came back up.”

Detective Gray scowled. “You
willingly got on the elevator with me and didn’t say anything. You could’ve
mentioned that we would be going down.”

“I didn’t notice until we were
already on it.” He made a mournful face at Bea. “We went all the way down to
the parking garage in the third sub-basement.”

“Oh please, it’s not the end of the
world,” Detective Gray argued.

“It feels like it. I’m starving,”
Gideon replied. “And we’ve been up all night. So I’m especially cranky.”

“You were up all night?” she asked.

“Stakeout,” they replied at the
same time.

Bea laughed. “I know how that
feels.”

“Where are you headed?” Detective
Gray asked, fingers poised over the bank of number buttons.

She grinned. “Burger Central,
please, Detective Gray.” She glanced at his friend. “I’m starving, too.” She
couldn’t help but be pleased that she’d run into the two men again. Theo was
tall, dark, and handsome. His brown hair and eyes were to die for, and his body
was model-perfect. She should know. She’d seen most of it close up. She thought
about his cock, standing straight up in the hospital and felt herself flush.

Stop thinking about that!
she admonished herself.
You’re a professional. Or supposed to be.
She looked at his friend instead, trying to get the image of a half-naked Detective
Gray out of her head, but Gideon wasn’t particularly helpful at distracting her
libido. On the contrary, he was just as much eye-candy as the other man. He had
dark red hair and piercing blue eyes. He was shorter, but just as fit, and he
always looked like he was smiling to himself about something. She’d
instinctively liked him when she met him. Upon closer examination, she liked
him even more. Dammit.

“Call me Theo, Doc,” Detective Gray
said, pushing the button for the correct floor. “Detective Gray sounds too
formal after where your hands have been,” he teased.

Bea blushed harder. “Theo. You’re a
terrible man.”

He grinned as the elevator lurched
to a start. Even the crappy fluorescent lighting didn’t detract from his good
looks.

She shook her head at him. “Call me
Bea, then, if we’re going to do away with titles.” She made a face. “Yes, it’s
short for Beatrice. No, I don’t want to talk about it.”

Gideon laughed. “Our parents do the
damnedest things to us, don’t they?”

She agreed wholeheartedly. “They
sure do. My sister’s name was Bernice, though, so on the whole, I think I got
the better deal.”

“Bernice?” Gideon said, sounding
aghast. “Why?”

She sighed. “My mom read too many
historical romance novels.”

 
“I’m sorry, but I think Bernice is actually
worse than my name.” He grinned.

She raised her eyebrows at him.

His eyes twinkled. “Gideon
Cearvall, at your service.” He held out his hand.

“That’s not a bad name.” She took
his hand, but instead of shaking hers, he bent down and gently kissed the back
of her fingers.
Oh my,
she thought as he looked up at her through his
eyelashes, lips warm on her hand. The blue of his eyes made her insides melt a
little.

“Stop that, Gideon. Let her be. I
saw her first,” Theo said peevishly. “You are impossible.”

Gideon kissed her again and slowly
stood up, all debonair gentleman. “Like I said before, you snooze, you lose.”

Theo glared at his friend, somehow
looking gorgeous even with the disgruntled expression on his face.

Bea laughed, suddenly not nearly as
tired as she’d been just a few minutes ago. She really liked these two men. It
had been years since anyone had flirted with her so relentlessly. She wasn’t
sure if it was her job or her weight that pushed guys away, but she’d been
lonely a long time. To have two handsome men pay such close attention to her
more than made up for the rest of her unpleasant Monday. “The two of you are so
cute,” she said, wanting to tease them back.

Theo switched his glare to her. “Cute?
Are you serious? I carry a gun, you know.”

“So do I,” Gideon chimed in.

She lifted a shoulder. “You don’t
scare me.” She made a show of looking them up and down. “And where are these
so-called weapons of yours?” It wasn’t until the words left her mouth that she
realized how suggestive she sounded. Her face went hot and she clapped a hand
over her mouth.

Gideon grinned full-out. Theo’s
fake frown melted away as his eyes went bright and he opened his mouth. Just as
he was about to speak, the elevator lurched to a halt. Bea almost fell,
grabbing onto the brass railing on the side of the car to keep her balance. The
three of them turned to the door, waiting for it to open. It stayed closed.

“That was a bit of a rough stop,”
Gideon finally said, no longer laughing.

“Shit.” Theo reached for the
emergency button on the panel, but the lights went out before he could press
anything.

“Hang on, the emergency lights
should come on,” Gideon said calmly.

They waited, but nothing happened.

“I don’t think the lights are
coming on, boys,” Bea said, digging her cellphone out of her jacket pocket. She
slid her finger across the screen and frowned when nothing happened. “Something’s
wrong with my phone. No reception.” As she watched, the screen went dead. “What
the—?” She tried rebooting, but it didn’t work. “Damn. It’s dead.” She looked
up, but it was so dark in the elevator, she couldn’t see the two men at all,
not even a little. She gripped the brass railing behind her as she stuffed her
phone back into her jacket. Suddenly she didn’t feel like laughing anymore.

“Hang on, let me check mine,” Theo
said.

She heard rustling, then he cursed
softly under his breath.

“Mine’s dead too,” Gideon said, not
even a hint of laughter in his voice now.

“I don’t understand what’s
happening,” Bea said worriedly.

“Neither do I. It’s unlikely that
all our phones would die at the same time,” Theo muttered. “Unless we were all
out in subzero weather…”

“Which we weren’t,” Gideon added.
“It’s not the batteries.”

Bea heard more rustling, then one of
them began hitting the buttons on the panel. Nothing happened.

“The emergency light should’ve come
on.” Gideon’s voice was closer to her now.

It must be Theo pushing on the
buttons,
she thought, closing her eyes. There had to be something they could do. She
wished she had her purse with her, but she’d left it in the car. She had a
miniature flashlight in it, which did her no good at all right now.
Ugh.

“Okay, wait, I think I can pry off
the panel,” Theo said.

“Why would you do that?” Gideon
asked.

“Maybe there’s something wrong with
the wiring.”

“Are you kidding? You’re going to
electrocute yourself because you can’t see,” Gideon told him.

“If the power is out, he’ll
probably be all right,” Bea offered.

Someone put a hand on her right arm
and she fought not to jump.

“Easy, it’s just me,” Gideon said,
sliding his hand down to her fingers.

When he clasped her palm, she
gripped him tightly. She didn’t know him very well, but it felt good to have
some connection in this blackness. She knew he was a cop, and good-natured, and
he cared about his friend enough to come get him at the hospital. That was good
enough for her.
And I’ve always been an
excellent judge of character,
she told herself. He squeezed her hand
lightly.

“It’ll be okay,” he murmured. “We’ll
find a way out.”

She squeezed back. “Okay.” There
were worse things than being trapped in an elevator with two hot guys.

“Got it off,” Theo said. “I can’t
see a damn thing, though. No light coming through. Damn.”

“Let’s wait for a few minutes, see
if someone comes to rescue us. This is a popular building. They’ll have noticed
the power going out,” Gideon said.

Bea nodded. “Even at night there
are always a few people heading over for burgers from the hospital. They don’t
close until one a.m.”

Theo sighed irritably. “Fine.”

Bea listened to him walk around the
elevator until he bumped into her.

“Sorry,” he whispered, leaning
against the wall right next to her.

“It’s okay,” she whispered back,
still not letting go of Gideon’s hand.

No one said anything for a while.
Bea thought about work. She thought about how nice Gideon’s warm palm felt. She
tipped her head back and tried to see something. Anything. The absolute black
was beginning to morph into starburst patterns as her eyes began to play tricks
on her. Just when she was afraid she was going to lose it, Theo leaned close
enough that she felt his breath on her ear.

“Bea, this is going to sound crazy,
but I’d really like to kiss you,” he murmured, warm breath on her hair.

She stopped breathing as Gideon
went totally still on her right side. “Um, what?” she asked stupidly, trying to
buy some time to think. The moment he’d said the word “kiss” her entire body went
rigid. She remembered his warm brown eyes and full lips—
and don’t forget his lovely cock,
her brain supplied helpfully—and
couldn’t figure out what to say.

“I wanted to ask you to dinner in
the hospital, but I chickened out,” Theo murmured, not moving away.

Gideon tried to let go of her hand,
obviously hearing what his friend was saying, but Bea tightened her fingers.
God help her, but she wanted them both. In the silent darkness, that actually
seemed like a viable option.

“Please,” Theo whispered, lips
brushing her skin.

She shivered, then nodded. She had
to clear her throat before she could get her voice to work. “Okay,” she said,
then grabbed hold of her courage. “But I want a kiss from Gideon, too.”

BOOK: Erin M. Leaf
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