Free Too hot to sleep by Stephanie Bond

staff.”
    If he’d stopped for a breath, she would’ve defended herself. By the time he finished his tirade, however, she simply apologized and promised that the episode would not happen again.
    “If it does,” he warned, the end of his nose moving, “you will be fired on the spot.”
    His eyes qualified his threat—no severance, no letter of recommendation and no farewell party. He turned on his heel and marched away with clicking strides. Georgia swallowed hard. Second chances in this industry were rare, and she wouldn’t blow it. At the moment, she resented Officer Medlock intensely for getting her involved with the mongrel—and for popping into her head last night while she and Rob were having…fun.
    The memory warmed her still. Maybe Rob was the man with whom she could explore her fantasies, all of them. She smiled as she prepared the meds for rounds. Imagine—a man who, much like herself, presented a stoic face to the world, when deep down, he, too, was probably looking for someone to unlock his passions.
    How remarkable that they’d found each other. Shekept smiling and nodding to herself, trying to ignore the nagging image of Ken Medlock’s face inches from hers after he’d wrapped his big arms around her and squeezed a hunk of bread from her throat. So the man was…obliging. Big deal. Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am. So he’d saved a dog’s life and hers in the space of a few hours. Wasn’t that the man’s job, for heaven’s sake? She saved lives every day in the E.R., so if Officer Ken thought she owed him something for that pedestrian procedure he’d performed in the mall, he had another think coming, assuming there was much thinking going on between the big man’s ears. She set her jaw and forced his face from her mind.
    Thank goodness the day passed with relative ease. Especially nice since she’d be volunteering at the blood drive until late in the evening. She’d be ready to relax with Rob on the phone by the time she arrived home. A wonderful by-product of their sensual sessions was the great sleep afterward, despite the suffocating temperature in her apartment.
    Georgia left the hospital around three in the afternoon, emerging in heat so oppressive, she was instantly worried about the turnout for the blood drive. Most people wanted to give, but many looked for a reason to “wait until next time.” The heat was keeping people indoors under air conditioners, which had overburdened the power plants to the point of brown-outs all over the city. An increasing number of the E.R. patient ailments were heat-related.
    She fanned herself with a small notebook she found in her purse, conceding that hormones also rose with the temperature. That might explain why a straightlaced New Englander like herself was behaving strangely, having phone sex with one man while fantasizing about another. If it weren’t a felony, it was, at the very least, an extravagant sin.
    She aimed for her normal seat on the end of the bus stop bench, but halted in her tracks at the sight of a flapping yellow flyer on the post of a nearby sign. Lost dog. Mixed breed, male, long multicolored hair. Answers to the name Tralfaz. Georgia made a face. Tralfaz? No wonder the poor dog ran away.
    After writing down the number listed at the bottom of the flyer, she pursed her mouth when a thought came to her. The police station was only a block or so away from the municipal building. Maybe she would drop the number off with Officer Medlock on the way. He’d probably taken the dog to an animal shelter, but she could at least make an effort—but only for the rather cute dog’s sake, she told herself during the cramped bus ride.
    She had never been inside a police precinct before. Amazing how the mere presence of so many uniformed officers could make one feel so conspicuous, as if within these halls, one’s transgressions were as apparent as a swallowed coin in an x-ray. (Her sister had warned her, but she had to try it anyway.)
    Inside,