Priceless(38)

“I thought it would be more embarrassing if you missed being notified of an emergency.”

“If it had been an emergency, someone would have beeped me,” she said.

“Never thought of that.” He nodded in the direction in which Jason had gone. “He sounded a little miffed to find me there. Something going on between you two that I should know about? Until this morning I had the impression you were just friends.”

She could claim there was and put an end to things with Mack right here and now, but then he’d wonder about what kind of woman she was to sleep with him while she had some sort of relationship with Jason. She might accept that there wasn’t ever going to be anything more between her and Mack, but she didn’t want him to think badly of her. She had too much self-respect to leave him with an impression like that, as convenient as it might be at the moment.

“Jason is a friend,” she confirmed finally. “If he implied it was anything more, it was only because he’s worried that I’m in over my head with you.”

“It wasn’t anything he said,” Mack admitted. “Just something in his tone. He sounded possessive.”

Something in Mack’s tone sounded a wee bit possessive, as well. Beth studied his expression for a minute before it sank in what was going on in his head. He was jealous. At least for one tiny fraction of a second Mighty Mack Carlton, of the date-a-night gossip, was actually jealous that there might be another man in her life. She had to fight to keep from chuckling aloud. This was definitely a twist she hadn’t anticipated.

Unfortunately, the twist felt a little too welcome, especially after she had spent most of the morning warning herself to cut Mack out of her life before she got burned. Heck, she was sitting here downing chocolate before lunch to forget about him.

“Jason and I have known each other since med school. He’s protective, not possessive. There’s a difference.”

“He thinks you need protection from me?”

She grinned at his vaguely incredulous expression. “Don’t you?”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said sharply.

Beth leveled a look straight into his eyes. “Too late,” she said quietly.

Then, before he could react, she stood up and headed for the nearest exit at a clip that few people could keep up with. Mack, of course, could have caught her in a few long strides had he wanted to. That he didn’t even try told her all she needed to know.

Or at least she thought the message was pretty plain, until she walked into her office an hour later and found a little mound of candy bars in the middle of her desk. She recognized them as the ones she’d left behind in her haste to leave the cafeteria. More disconcerting was the sight of Mack sprawled out on the sofa where she caught catnaps on the nights she couldn’t get away from the hospital. He had an open medical journal on his chest, but his eyes were shut tight. The steady rise and fall of his chest suggested he was sound asleep.

Beth stood there staring at him in consternation. The memory of waking in his arms just a few hours ago was still a little too fresh in her mind. A part of her wanted to crawl onto that sofa with him and recapture that amazing feeling.

Because of that, she deliberately walked behind her desk and sat down, cursing the loud creaking in her old chair. Mack’s eyes promptly snapped open.

“Ah, you’re back,” he said, “I figured you’d turn up here sooner or later.”

“Good guess, since it is my office,” she said tartly. “What are you doing here?”

He gave her an oddly bemused look that made her heart flip over.

“Not sure entirely,” he admitted.

“That must be a first.”

“It is,” he said. He met her gaze. “You confuse me.”

She found his honesty a little too charming. Maybe it was part of some game he played. “I’m a fairly straightforward kind of woman.”

“I get that,” he said.

“You are not a straightforward kind of man,” she added bluntly.

“I’m trying to be, at least with you.”

“Why?” she asked.

“I wish to hell I knew. I sat there after you’d left the house this morning and tried to figure it out, but I still don’t entirely get it.”

Beth lost patience. She was in over her head with Mack and she didn’t like it. That she’d slept with him at all was probably a huge mistake. That she wanted to do it again was pure insanity. Hearing that he was beset with uncertainties was not reassuring. One of them surely needed to know what the hell they were doing.

“Well, since it’s such an obvious struggle for you to figure it out, maybe you should just stop trying,” she said. “We spent one night together, Mack. We didn’t make a commitment. You don’t do commitment. From what I’ve read in the paper, you don’t even go out with the same woman twice. I get that. My time is up.”