A Most Desirable M.D.

He didn’t say anything. He wanted to beg her not to cut it, to tell her that hair like that was every man’s fantasy, that he could imagine wrapping himself in that gorgeous mane, could see it streaming around him while—

What the hell was he thinking? This was Allison, for God’s sake. His co-worker. His friend, if he could call her that. His confidante.

“Kane?” She was eyeing him curiously, the emerald eyes that were one of her most striking features wide with concern. “Are you okay?” She put her hand on his arm and patted gently, comfortingly. “The Simonds’ baby didn’t make it, did she?”

Her hand was warm on his arm, drawing him back to the present and he shook his head silently as the reasons for his lack of concentration returned.

“You did everything you could, you know.” She continued touching his arm now, a light, soothing stroke. “I knew if she survived the week it would be a miracle.” She sighed. “And let’s face it, with the number of premature infants we see with serious problems, miracles don’t come along often enough.”

“It still tears me apart,” he admitted quietly, the regret he still felt at losing the baby welling within him again.

She tilted her head and smiled sympathetically at him. “That’s not a bad thing, you know. It’s one of the reasons you’re the best doctor on this staff. You care.”

He shook his head. “Too much, sometimes.” He lifted a hand and scrubbed it over his face, massaging his temple. “I’m whipped. I was up almost all night with that case, and I’ve got rounds in a few hours. I’m going to try to grab some sleep.”

She nodded. “My shift just ended at seven. I’m headed home, too.” She stepped back, hesitated, then lifted her hand again and briefly squeezed his shoulder. “Get some rest. And try not to feel so badly. She was lucky to have had you for a doctor.”

And with one last smile, she climbed into a little red Mazda and backed out of the parking space, giving him a long study of her classical profile before she drove away.

Kane stood there, watching until she was out of sight. A red sports car. If he’d ever considered what kind of car she drove, he’d have guessed a sensible compact or a small sedan in a dark color that wouldn’t attract a lot of notice. It was a shock, although he didn’t quite know why. Just like the hair. Maybe Allison wasn’t as sensible and passionless as the image she projected.

When he realized he was massaging the shoulder she’d touched, he dropped his hand and grimaced. God, he must be tired. He’d never been an indiscriminate skirt-chaser and he didn’t usually get the hots for quiet little nurses, but here he stood, wondering what Allison Preston would look like lying beneath him with all that glorious hair spread across the pillow.

Probably damned good. He was a male, after all. He’d noticed the trim little butt beneath her uniform pants and he’d eyed her breasts from time to time, wondering if they looked so full because her waist was so small or her uniform top was loose…or because they were full and round and delicious. But he’d always stopped himself from finding out with the reminder that a good friend was a hard commodity to come by. Allison was one of the few women he knew who didn’t seem to want anything from him. Most women, even if they didn’t know about his family connections, wanted either sex or marriage or both. The rest simply added money and prestige to that list.

But Allison wasn’t like the women who sought him out on a near-daily basis, and he found his interest level rising. She was gentle and soft and if he were honest, he’d admit that he’d wondered if she’d be that gentle and soft in bed, or if he could get her to turn into a demanding wildcat beneath his hands.

Stop it, he told himself. Allison would be mortified if she knew what you were thinking.

Banishing the images teasing his mind, he walked on across the lot to his car and drove out to his mother’s villa in Kingston Estates, not far from the hospital. It was one of the newest communities in San Antonio, an enclave of indecent wealth, and his mother’s home was no exception. The sight of her sprawling Mediterranean-style villa always took him aback for an instant no matter how many times he came by.

He’d grown up in modest circumstances—modest, ha! That was an understatement. His mother had barely been able to keep a roof over her children’s heads for most of his life. He’d worked his butt off in school to keep his grades high, knowing that his only chance at med school was on scholarships and loans. Then, six years ago, his sister had discovered that their mother hadn’t been entirely truthful with her children.

He and Gabrielle always had assumed she had no family…which was laughable now that they knew the truth. Miranda had family in spades, though she’d been estranged from them after a fight with her father years before Kane’s birth.

Although Kane’s mother had resisted the idea of reconciliation at first, his sister Gabrielle had badgered her until finally Miranda had softened. The father with whom she’d always clashed had passed away, and Miranda’s brother Ryan had welcomed her back into the family fold—the family that had turned out to be one of the wealthiest clans in Texas, the Fortunes.

When his mother had decided to reclaim the Fortune name, everything had changed. They’d gone from being a threesome to being part of a…a tribe. True, the tribe had been uniformly warm and welcoming, but it was still overwhelming to have a hundred relatives instead of two.

To Kane’s shock and surprise, that welcome had included sharing his grandfather’s extremely large estate with Miranda. His mother, a woman who had elevated scrimping and saving to an art form, now was one of the most well-to-do heiresses in the country.

Kane still wasn’t sure how he felt about the Fortune money. He didn’t begrudge his mother her welcome back to the life into which she’d been born. She deserved to take it easy after all the rough years.

One thing he was sure of, though—he didn’t want it. He’d gotten used to forging his own path and he didn’t intend to let anyone tell him what to do. Accepting money, even family money that his mother insisted was due him, felt too much like charity. He was used to working for what he wanted and he preferred to keep it that way. And there was another reason he shied away from his inheritance, his heritage. That money was an obligation. It didn’t come free, but with many, many strings to the people who made up his mother’s family. He’d learned early that people who gave you something usually wanted something in return, and he suspected the Fortunes were no different, though none of them had proven his theory. Yet.

So far the only thing he’d allowed the Fortunes to give him was their name. And that was only because he liked bearing the name of the slimeball who’d abandoned his mother even less.

As he pulled the Explorer to a halt in the circular drive fronting the red-roofed stucco house, the deep melancholy that had plagued him returned. He dragged himself from the car and used the house key his mother had given him for situations just like this, letting himself into the cool house and heading for the kitchen.

“Kane!” As he passed the dining room, his mother glanced up and saw him, and her blue eyes crinkled into a warm smile as she rose. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

He stopped in the doorway. “I wasn’t expecting me, either. But I only have a few hours until rounds, and home was too far away.”

Even this early in the morning, with no makeup and her blond hair caught back in a loose, low knot, Miranda Fortune was still a beautiful woman. Though she’d worked like a dog during his childhood to eke out a decent life for him and Gabrielle, she’d retained the striking good looks possessed by so many of the Fortune clan.

His clan. His family. The same characteristics that looked at him in the mirror every morning. Or evening. Or whenever the hell he had time to shave.

The thought reminded him of how wiped out he was. “Do you mind if I crash here for a while?”

“Of course not.” She came toward him, stretching up to kiss him on the cheek. “Go. Find a bed. You look exhausted.”

He did, stopping only to snag a plateful of leftover chicken and cucumber salad from the cook, which he inhaled standing up while the small Mexican woman chattered a stream of Spanish at him warning him of the dire consequences of gobbling his meal. Five minutes later, he was pulling off his boots and sinking into the firm king mattress in the bedroom he customarily took when he visited his mother.

He was in a deep, dreamless sleep when the ringing of the telephone near his bed jerked him from slumber. Startled, too sleepy to be coherent, he shot out a hand and grabbed the receiver, holding it to his ear to marshal his thoughts before speaking. It was probably a page from the hospital.

But before he could speak, the sound of a man’s voice caught his attention.

“…thought you’d be glad to hear from me, honey. After all, I am the father of your children. Some of ’em, at least.”

“It’s only eight-thirty in the morning. What do you want?” His mother’s voice was thin and quavering, totally unlike her normal tones.

“Figured I’d catch you before you started your daily socialite routine.” There was a wheedling note in the man’s tone. “I only want a little teeny-tiny somethin’ that you have enough of not to miss.”

“Money.” Miranda’s tone was stronger, flat with disgust. “I should have known it would take money to bring you out of the woodwork, Lloyd.”

Lloyd…! It was his father. Lloyd Wayne Carter. The man whose surname he’d had the misfortune to bear most of his life even though the man himself had taken off without a backward glance before his second child was even born.

“I got a letter from our little daughter Gabrielle, y’know. Looked me up and wanted to let me know I was a grand-daddy. Surprised the heck out of me to find out that my little Randi’s rollin’ in money, I can tell you. How come you never shared any of that money with me when we were married?”

“That’s not your business.” Miranda tried to inject assurance into her tone. “You took yourself out of my life almost thirty years ago. I don’t want you back in it now.”

“Well, that’s a real shame, ’cause our little girl wants me. Invited me to come and visit, see my grandbaby. Wasn’t that sweet?” Carter spoke in a sugary tone that made Kane grit his teeth. Then a sound in the background caught his attention. It sounded like a woman, furiously whispering. But he couldn’t make out the words.

“Don’t you dare come here! You stay away from me and my children! You didn’t have a thing to do with raising them, you—you—”

“Now, Randi, calm down—”

“I will not calm down—”

“Or this conversation ends and I go straight to—”

“No. No! Please don’t tell him.”

“Then ante up, sweetheart. He lives right there in San Antonio, y’ know.” Kane definitely heard a woman’s voice this time, but the sound was drowned out as his mother sucked in an anguished breath.

“I’ve kept your little secret for a long time, and I deserve something for it, don’t you think?”

“How much?” Kane had never heard his mother’s voice sound so dull and lifeless. “How much do you want, Lloyd, to get out of my family’s life again for good?”