Free Flirting with the Society Doctor by Janice Lynn Page B

she continue to work with him when he moved on to another woman. To do so would be torture of the cruelest kind.
    She considered herself a modern woman, but she didn’t do casual sex. She didn’t do sex at all.
    She flopped back on her pillow with a sleepy sigh.
    â€œNot a morning person?” he teased, placing the tray on the bed. “I brought you breakfast.”
    She glanced down at the tray. Fresh fruit, yogurt, bagels with peanut butter, juice, milk, a pot of coffee, and…she lifted a metal lid off a plate…eggs, bacon, sausage links, and toast with butter and jelly.
    â€œYou don’t really expect me to eat all this?”
    His gaze raked down her bare arms, instantly covering her with goose-bumps of awareness. She was in his bed . Could he see how her nipples strained toward him? She hoped not.
    â€œWouldn’t hurt you if you did,” he assured her, “but I thought you might share.”
    Not waiting for her to respond, he climbed into the bed beside her. Faith grabbed for the tray, certain the contents would topple, but it didn’t budge. What kind of mattress was this anyway? A very expensive one, she decided, trying to ignore Vale’s long frame stretched out beside her, fluffing pillows behind his back. Trying to ignore that now every cell in her body strained toward him as if she were metal and he the most powerful of magnets.
    Mr. Magnetism pulled back a plastic wrap and spread cream cheese on a bagel, offering the pastry to her. “Have fun with the girls last night?”
    Reaching for the bagel, she nodded. “You have a lovely family, Vale.”
    â€œLovely?” He curled his nose, preparing a plate of food for himself. “They’ve snookered you.”
    â€œAnd you?” she asked, popping a bite of the bagel into her mouth. “Did you have fun with the boys, doing all those wild bachelor party things men do?”
    She’d meant her question to be teasing, casual, but when he turned to her there was nothing teasing in his eyes, nothing casual in the way her heart mimicked a space-shuttle launch.
    â€œI’d rather have been with you.”
    Â 
    Vale watched Faith’s eyes darken to a deep green at his admission. He wasn’t accustomed to things spoutingout of his mouth that he hadn’t planned to say. But his words were true.
    He would much rather have been here with Faith than at Steve’s bachelor party.
    Several of the groom’s football buddies had apparently thrown him a huge bachelor party in Philadelphia the weekend before so last night’s had been more about tradition than one last yahoo on the town.
    The entire time Vale had wondered what Faith was doing, how she was getting on with his family.
    He wondered that a lot these days. He’d be sitting at home and would glance at his watch and wonder if she’d still be awake and, if so, what she was doing. Sometimes he wondered if Faith wasn’t why he worked so many hours, just so he’d have an excuse to see her.
    Which was crazy. If he wanted to see her outside work, all he had to do was ask her out.
    But something in the way her green eyes darkened and her bagel stopped halfway to her mouth told him maybe that wasn’t all he had to do.
    Which was perhaps why he’d never asked her out.
    That and the fact she had a bright career ahead of her at the clinic and didn’t need personal issues muddying the waters. He didn’t need personal issues muddying the waters. Other women were disposable in his life, but he enjoyed working with Faith. Enjoyed the constant she provided.
    â€œWas Steve’s party not a success?” Her gaze didn’t quite meet his.
    â€œBachelor parties aren’t my thing.” Did she have any idea how beautiful she was this morning? He’d wondered about her hair—now he knew. The long tousled-from-sleep golden strands looked like extensions of thesunbeams streaming in through the windows,