The Fertility Factor

As she clung, he seemed to loosen his embrace. A touch dazed, she took a moment before she realized that he was pulling back. Why was he? Don’t stop. Keep kissing me.

“Damn,” he murmured in a voice that sounded huskier than usual.

Lara forced herself to open her eyes, heard his pager then. Kiss me again, she wanted to yell.

Chapter Three

D erek groped for the pager hooked on his belt and swore silently for a lot of reasons, including a need unfulfilled. One second more, and he’d have forgotten where they were.

Beneath the mantle of darkness, he peered at her face, at the hooded eyes, the soft mouth slightly parted. Her breath fluttered on his face and made him yearn for the sweetness of her mouth. Her scent stirred his senses. A heaviness still filled his loins.

In the dark he squinted to read the number on his pager. His emergency number meant Lindsey Collier was ready to deliver. She’d been admitted to the hospital yesterday for her safety and that of her quadruplets.

“The hospital?” Lara asked.

“I’ve got to get out of here.” Now. Urgency controlled him. He hated feeling so helpless about their situation. People claimed he was a control freak. He took no offense. In the operating room, he wanted to be in command. Lives depended on his leadership, skill and discipline.

“It’s Lindsey Collier, isn’t it?” Lara asked in the dark.

“Yes.” It took effort to think clearly. Even now he touched her arm and visualized the creamy softness of her breasts.

“Dr. Cross!” Frank’s voice sounded loud. Derek assumed he was crouched close to the elevator door. “Maintenance is here, working on the problem. Can you hear me?”

“I hear you. We need to get out now.” He still felt the tug-of-war inside him. Emotional overload, he assured himself. “I have an emergency.”

“A few minutes, Dr. Cross. We’ll—” Frank stopped. No more words were needed. The light flashed on in the elevator. They heard a creak, a groan, then the elevator jerked and moved. Within seconds the doors swooshed open.

“Thanks, Frank.” With a nod to the security man, he cupped a hand under Lara’s elbow to urge her out of the elevator. A test of sorts to see if he could touch her casually.

“The storm knocked out power. We got everything running but the elevators. Sorry, Dr. Cross. We didn’t know anyone was still in the building.”

“No problem,” Derek assured both men. Except he almost made a move on his nurse, except she made him hungry. He knew about her crush. He’d have had to be dumb not to have noticed her unusual nervousness whenever they were alone. Only a jerk pursued a woman who wanted everything that he could never offer. “Lara, I have to get over to Lennox Hill.”

“I’m going with you to the hospital,” she said, falling in step with him toward the stairs.

Another nurse would have gone home. He liked her caring way that went beyond what was expected. “Lindsey Collier will like seeing you,” he said honestly because her bright disposition would help. If he only lusted for her, he knew that he could deal with it, but he liked her. Just thinking about her made him smile. How did he ignore that feeling?

Lennox Hill Hospital occupied a prominent place on the Upper East Side. Lara stood outside one of the labor rooms at the nurses’ station. One by one the newborns were wheeled out of the room and down to the nursery. In blue scrubs, his mask hanging at his throat, Derek wandered down to the nursery.

Donning a mask, Lara followed him. “RDS?” she asked when Derek was listening to one of the baby’s lungs with his stethoscope. The respiratory distress syndrome was sometimes a common complication for a baby born preterm.

“No, he sounds good. He’ll need an oxygen hood for a while.”

She released a big sigh.

“Who’s the pediatrician on record, Lara?”

She made herself meet his gaze. Trapped by it, she felt her pulse quicken. “Dr. Bryman.”

“He’s good.” He straightened, looked so tired but smiled at her. With a look, he skittered sensation through her. “When is he supposed to show up?”

“His service said he was on his way,” she answered, striving for an all-business tone.

“How are the Halverson triplets doing?” He ambled toward one of the cribs containing a newborn who was wearing a pink cap.

“Wonderful.” Lara knew what he was doing. He was stalling, checking on the others while he waited for Dennis Bryman to arrive. “I’ll say good-night, then.” They’d been too busy for either of them to mention the near kiss. But she knew she wouldn’t.

At the elevator she looked back. His deep-set eyes locked on her again. Her heart beat harder. Was he remembering the kiss? She hoped so.

Derek figured fate had taken control, thrown him and Lara together last night. If they hadn’t been stuck in the elevator, he wouldn’t have kissed her.

“It’s not too hot to go, is it, Daddy?” Joey asked, grabbing his attention.

It was miserable outside. New York was caught in an unbearable heat wave. High temperatures had hung around for days. Humidity burdened the air. “To go where?” he asked, trying not to think about Lara. He poured cereal, then milk into a bowl for his son.

Joey pushed several of the chocolate, doughnut-shaped cereal pieces around in the milk. “The zoo.”

“That’s up to Dorothy.” A widow in her midsixties, she was ample-figured with salt-and-pepper-colored hair and a dimpled smile. Unsure if the heat might bother her, he suggested. “Why don’t you wait until my day off, and I’ll take you then, Joey?”

Derek slapped a minimum of butter on a slice of toast. Could he rush his son? He’d been running late since he’d awakened. He felt out of step this morning. That was Lara’s fault. Inch by inch, tension had crept through his body during that kiss. He’d wanted to devour her. Why her? he wondered now.

The differences between them might be why he felt the attraction. They had different backgrounds, different outlooks. No, there was more. He liked her smile, the quickness of it. He liked her walk, the sound of her laughter and her conversations that went on nonstop sometimes.

“Daddy, Dorothy said we could go see that new movie. It’s really good. Everyone says so.”

Derek focused on them. “Everyone” probably meant Joey’s best friend, Austin and Rylyn, the femme fatale of kindergarten. “Okay. We’ll go to the zoo on my day off.” Derek drained the last of the coffee in his cup and left Joey and Dorothy talking about the movie.

In passing he shut the kitchen drawer and grinned. He’d never look at a turkey baster the same way again.

After a scheduled caesarian at the hospital, Derek strode toward the doctors’ lounge. He changed into a black polo shirt and charcoal-colored slacks, then grabbed a cup of coffee. He was draining the last of it when he heard footsteps behind him.

“I’ve been looking for you.” Rose’s gray eyes smiled at him, but he felt nothing for his ex-wife except affection for a good friend. Trim, at forty she still had All-American cheerleader looks.

“New hairstyle? It looks good.”

She settled on a chair across from him and threaded fingers through the light-brown hair cut to just below chin length. “Thank you. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for days, but when I stopped by last night to pick up Joey for his sleepover with me, you weren’t home.”

“I was stuck in an elevator.”

Amusement danced in her eyes. “Be serious.”

“I am.”

“Alone?”

Why would she ask that? “What does that matter?”

“Were you alone?”