Free Badland Bride (Book 2 - Dakota Hearts) by Lisa Mondello Page B

him.
    “Stay.”
    “What?”
    “Finish out your week and then just stay. You said you have vacation. So take a vacation right here. You don’t have to run off to another town, do you?”
    “Well, no.”
    “Where do you go when you leave a town you’ve been working in?”
    “I have a simple apartment in Chicago. By simple, I mean utilitarian. It looks a lot like my motel room except it has a small kitchen. I’m not there very often. I’m sure once I get home Mike will find another town for me to go to. He usually keeps me busy.”
    Keith leaned against the counter as she finished rinsing the last dish and put it in the strainer to dry. She turned off the water and dried her hands before looking at Keith again.
    When she did, she saw emotion in his eyes that she’d never seen. Not even when they’d made love. A thump of emotion formed in her throat that she couldn’t swallow down.
    “Stay,” he said in a soft voice that was almost pleading. Her bottom lip began to quiver and she clamped it down with her teeth to keep it steady.
    “This isn’t something we should talk about this morning.”
    He looked at her for a lingering moment as if studying the lines on her face.
    “Okay, we’ll talk about it tonight then.”
    She nodded and reached up to kiss him. He tasted of coffee and smelled like the cinnamon bagels they’d had for breakfast. His tongue brushed against her lips and she gasped. The hand at the small of her back flexed, pressing her closer to him as he tilted his head, deepening the kiss until she was lost in him again.
    Everything that had been circling in her head since last night vanished. All she thought about was the way it felt when this incredible man kissed her. He’d turned her world inside out. And yet all that disappeared when she was in Keith’s arms. There was absolutely no confusion about the way his mouth felt against hers, the way his lips moved, how his tongue teased at the seam of her mouth. She had no doubts about whether or not she wanted him to keep kissing her, about how right it felt to have him holding her.
    When they finally broke apart, their breath was coming in pants and she could feel Keith's heart beating as furiously as her own. He kept his arms around her and looked down at her.
    “I’ll see you tonight,” he said with a smile.
    And for the first time in the past two weeks, Regis dreaded it.
    # # #
     

Chapter Eight
     
    “This is the second time I’ve caught you daydreaming,” Nancy said, standing in the doorway to Hawk’s office.
    “I’m not daydreaming,” he said.
    “Yeah? Well whatever it is, if you don’t snap out of it, I’ll be forced to do something drastic.”
    “Like what?”
    “Call your mother.” She chuckled at the look he gave her, and then tapped her fingers on the doorjamb. “Seriously, you’ve got a patient in examining room one who is waiting for you.”
    “I’ll be right there.”
    Ever since Regis left his house yesterday morning, he knew she was pulling away from him. She told him she was going to be finished with her work in Rudolph by the end of the week. But Hawk didn’t think she’d avoid him before she had to leave. But then, just as he was expecting her to come to his house last night after work, she’d called and said she had too much paperwork, and thought it was better for her to stay at the motel.
    He’d spent many nights alone in that big log cabin since he’d come back to Rudolph after med school. But last night was the first night in over two weeks that he’d spent the night without Regis snuggled up, warm, and naked next to him. And he didn’t like it one bit.
    He got up from behind his desk and walked the few strides to the examining room, pulling the folder from the wall file and checking the contents. Concerned, he knocked on the door and went inside.
    Ian McKinnon sat in a chair by the window instead of the examining table. And he didn’t look happy, which was great concern to Hawk.
    “I didn’t