The next half hour remained busy for Trisha. One of the human male secretaries of Homeland’s director had accidentally sliced open his palm with a kitchen knife while attempting to make dinner. Trisha cleaned the wound, gave him ten stitches, and bandaged the injury. She gave him pain medication and a tetanus shot. The medical center had its own fully stocked drug cabinet and she just dispensed what medicines he needed. She watched him leave.
Paul finished cleaning up. “You do nice work, Trisha. I doubt he’ll have much of a scar.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ve got this. You go on home. I’ll do the paperwork. You’re off.”
“Sorry I didn’t answer my phone. I was taking a shower.”
Paul grinned. “I see. You need to comb your hair. It’s kind of in clumpy, damp curls.”
“Good night,” she sighed, walking outside.
Relief hit her when she didn’t see Slade anywhere. She walked about ten feet before she sensed him. She stopped and turned to watch him stride down the sidewalk, moving right for her. He smiled as their gazes met.
“Ready for me to escort you?”
“I can find my own way, thanks. I’m thirty years old. I have mastered getting home.”
“You can’t be too careful these days, Doc. You never know what kind of animals are wandering around.”
She shot him a look. Like you? She didn’t say it out loud but was tempted to. She kept walking. He stayed beside her this time. She had to move quickly to keep up with his longer legs.
They reached her yard and Trisha turned to study the man who peered down at her. She unlocked her front door and opened it only wide enough for her body to fit through. She turned, faced Slade, and backed into the safety of her home.
“Don’t ever walk into my house again. What would you have done if I’d still been in the shower?”
He grinned. “Walked in there to tell you they needed you at the center and handed you a smaller towel than you had on. Maybe a hand towel.” His gaze roamed her body slowly and he smiled wider. “Or a washcloth.”
She tensed. “You enjoy needling me, don’t you?”
He just shrugged, still smiling.
“Is there any particular reason or am I just special?”
His smile faded. “Maybe I’m interested to see how our two species breed too.”
“Well, find someone else to harass.”
He shrugged. “Fine by me. If you aren’t interested, you just aren’t. I was just looking for a sex partner but I won’t bother you again. You should have taken me up on it, Doc.” His eyes narrowed. “I just wanted a few hours to answers all those questions you have. You’re pretty enough that I thought it might be worth my time. Night, Doc.” He turned away and started to leave the porch. He was halfway to her sidewalk when she opened her mouth.
“Only a few hours, huh? And pretty? Last time you kept calling me a beauty.” Trisha allowed her anger to flow. “Last time you offered to have sex with me for days, 215. Should I feel insulted?”
He spun around. She knew shock when she saw it and it etched his handsome features. That answered her question. He really didn’t remember her. She glared at him.
“I think I liked you better when you were recovering in my hospital. You were more appealing half dead than you are fully healthy. That’s really sad.”
She slammed the door closed the second he took a step toward her. She twisted the locks, slamming the bolt into place.
“Doc? Open up the door.” He growled the words from the other side of the door.
“Good night, Mr. Slade.”
He twisted the doorknob but the lock held. She heard keys jingle. He would try to unlock her door? She bit her lip.
“I’m calling security,” she threatened. “Remember them? They were good at stopping you before even though you said no one would come to save me last time.”
He uttered a soft curse. “You’re the doc from the hospital, aren’t you?”
“Oh, so you do remember me.” She leaned against the door.
“Your hair is different.”
She touched her damp hair. She’d tried her hand at being a redhead the previous year when she’d worked at the hospital where they’d met. Now she was back to her normal color, a honey blonde. “This is the real me. I decided I didn’t want to dye it red anymore.”
“Open up the door and talk to me.” He growled the order.
“Why? So you can insult me more? Be a bigger ass?”
Trisha tensed when only silence answered her question. Would he try to get inside her house another way? Why would he even care if she were the same woman he’d accosted a year before? She listened but didn’t hear a thing on the other side of the door.
“Mr. Slade?”
He didn’t answer. Trisha finally moved from the door to rush around the house to make sure all the windows were locked. She relaxed certain that he had gone, and didn’t plan to bother her. She entered her bedroom and clicked off the light. She slept wearing sweats just in case he returned and decided to surprise her with another unannounced visit.
* * * * *
Slade pressed his forehead against the door, his eyes closed, and listened to the doctor move away. Shock still gripped him that the woman he’d just insulted and angered was the same woman who haunted him on a nightly basis since he’d been freed.
Dr. Trisha Norbit had changed her hair color, had grown it longer. He’d been pretty drugged when he’d awoken inside the human hospital but he should have recognized her scent or placed those beautiful blue eyes of hers when he’d seen them again. The memory of them made him want to kick his own ass for not making the connection. Had their drugs really affected him that badly?In his defense, he’d never learned the name of the woman he’d pinned under him on the small hospital bed but everything else about her remained intact. Her plush body pinned under his, the taste of her skin on this tongue, and the scent of her arousal tormenting him. He’d been sure no one would save her, that she’d be his for the taking, and he’d relished the idea of making her want him as much as he wanted her. Then it had turned to hell. Humans had rushed inside the room, drugged him, and taken her away.
He bit back a snarl. He’d royally screwed up. Late in the night before he drifted to sleep, he always thought of her, his sexy redhead. He pushed away from the cool wood, snapped open his eyes, and glared at the house she hid inside. He’d fantasized about finding her, getting her under him again, and finishing what they’d started. He’d planned out how he’d charm her, had studied human romantic tactics, in hopes of winning her over if that day ever came.
Dr. Trisha Norbit hated him. He couldn’t blame her either. He’d purposely been an ass to her for the most part. It had irritated him that he was drawn to her despite having a fantasy woman stuck inside his head. It had almost seemed as if he’d been cheating on the memory of his redheaded fantasy woman every time his body responded to Doc Norbit.
The cosmic joke was on him since they were one and the same. He stomped off into the darkness. He’d just lost all hope of ever having her in his bed.
He paused to glance back at her house. His anger faded into sadness. Fantasies are for fools. Learn a lesson and stay the hell away from her.
Chapter Two
Tense. That’s how Trisha would describe her new relationship with the NSO officer. Slade patrolled the human section of Homeland, the area she lived and worked in, and she had to deal with him. Since that night they’d hardly spoken. When they did, both of them seemed to come to the mutual agreement not to mention anything personal. Two months had passed that way.
The guy was likable but she wished he weren’t. Slade had a quick smile, a keen sense of humor, and every time she’d had to deal with him, he’d gotten her to smile. He’d made certain they were never alone since the night she’d told him just who she was. She was mostly grateful for that fact.
Sometimes when she walked home at night she would catch a glimpse of him on the dark street. She could sense his stare and knew he shadowed her to make sure she arrived safely. It is his job, she reminded herself. She regretted what she’d blurted to him but she’d lost her temper.
There was something wrong with her. She mentally kicked herself over being angry with a guy for the reasons that she was, knowing it just wasn’t right. She’d felt insulted that he’d forgotten her. Just over a year before he’d wanted to keep her for days, he’d called her beauty, and now… She sighed. He just thought she was pretty and offered her some cheesy one-night stand. Not even a night. He only wants me for a few hours.
“Stupid,” she muttered.
“What is?” A deep voice spoke softly from behind her.
Trisha started and spun in her seat to gawk at Slade. She grabbed her heart. “Don’t sneak up on me that way again. Would it kill you to make some noise when you move?”
His eyebrows arched as a smile curved his full lips. “Then I wouldn’t get to watch you react that way.”
She sighed. “I’m glad you at least find it amusing. I sure don’t.”
She glanced around the room, realized no one else was there, and instantly tensed. Uh-oh. This was the first time she could remember them being totally alone since that night he’d walked her home. They’d had some interaction when there’d been some problems between the human, Ellie Brower, and her New Species husband. Fury had been shot during a press conference that had been infiltrated by a few members of a hate group and during his recovery a nurse had drugged him, trying to drive him insane. They’d seen each other during that time but had kept it professional.