Total Exposure

“Good thing you didn’t say you had an appointment.” Natalie couldn’t help a wry smile, although she felt cold and wet, and her day had taken an even steeper nosedive when she’d agreed to this particular call.

He absently scratched the back of his neck near the neat line of his dark brown hair. “Did we have an appointment today?”

A clacking sound caught Natalie’s attention, and she gasped as something brushed against her bare knee. She looked down at the white dog with huge black spots all over him. “Don’t tell me,” she said. “This must be Spot.”

Dan slid his fingers into the dog’s chain-link collar and pulled him back. “Actually, it’s Spike.”

Natalie blinked at him.

Dan grinned. “His grandfather was Spot.”

“Ah,” she said, not quite sure how to react to the information or the warm grin that came along with it. She tried to look over Dan’s shoulder, then glanced around him instead at the mammoth red ladder truck glistening in the shaft of light. A moment later the light disappeared and dark gloom settled in once again, a steady rain pelting the station roof.

“Looks like this storm’s not going anywhere for a while.”

Natalie glanced at the ominous purple clouds. Were they really talking about the weather? It had rained for the past seven days straight. “It is the rainy season in Southern Cal.”

He seemed to consider her. “That it is.”

“Where do you want to do this?” Natalie asked.

Dan’s eyes widened slightly. “Do what?”

“If you’re in that much of a rush, we could do it right here.”

“Here?”

“The examination.” She tightened her fingers around the black bag she held along with her umbrella, not comfortable with the other possibilities that came to mind. Why did she feel so drawn to this man, reading sexual innuendo into a simple comment?

But Dan was too much like Charles—so not what she wanted or needed right now. Nor anytime in the foreseeable future.

“Oh.” He looked around, as if realizing where they were for the first time. “We could go to my office.”

“That’ll work.”

He started walking away, then glanced over his shoulder. “Will this take long?”

“Depends.”

He slowed his steps, nearly causing her to plow into him. “On what?”

Natalie tried not to look at the way the denim of his jeans hugged his backside. “Have you had any problems since the injury? I mean, aside from the normal healing process?”

He shook his head. “No problems.”

“No soreness, tightness, sharp pains?”

He seemed to hesitate for a moment. “Nope. None of that.”

“Well, then, this shouldn’t take any time at all,” Natalie said, hoping fervently that was the case. She didn’t like the way she felt when she was around Dan Egan. His presence…did things to her. Short-circuited her mental wiring. Kicked up her heartbeat. Reminded her that she was a woman who hadn’t been with a man in a long time.

Today would have been your wedding anniversary, a small voice whispered to her.

Charles is gone, another said.

“Are you okay?”

They had stopped outside an office Natalie guessed was his. “That’s funny,” she said with a small smile. “I thought I was supposed to be the one asking that question.”

His gaze skimmed over her face, but he didn’t say anything.

Once again Natalie felt that heightened awareness of Dan as a man. She put her bag down on the cluttered desktop and opened it up. “Take off your jacket and shirt,” she said in her most professional tone.

“Pardon me?”

His voice held a slight Southern drawl. Natalie had forgotten that Dan hailed from Turning Point, Texas. And though a long time had passed since he’d actually lived there, his voice, his mannerisms, and yes, even his charm, were decidedly Texan.

“I can’t examine you through your clothes, Dan,” she said quietly.

“Oh.”

He obviously wasn’t looking forward to this any more than she was. Just being near him again made Natalie remember how affected she’d been by him three months ago. When he was brought in to the emergency room, unconscious, after the warehouse explosion, she’d noticed how strikingly handsome he was. How powerful looking. When she’d peeled back the sheet to examine the blistered skin on his side, he’d blinked open those pale blue eyes, and she’d felt the shock of connection.

Immediately she’d repressed her response and focused on the job she had to do. But she hadn’t forgotten….

“Dan, I really need you to—”

“Okay—”

An earsplitting alarm went off and at the same time the cadence of the heavily falling rain intensified against the station roof.

Spike barked and wove circles around their legs even as Dan straightened his jacket and headed through the open doorway without so much as an explanation or apologetic glance.

Natalie gathered her bag and umbrella and followed after him, not about to be put off again. If she had to conduct this examination while he was putting out a fire, by God, she was going to do it.

DAN CLIMBED BEHIND the wheel of his service Jeep, allowed Spike to climb up over him and into the back seat, then switched on the siren. He was about to put the vehicle into gear when the passenger door opened and Natalie slid in next to him.

His gaze fell on the way her skirt hiked up from the climb, revealing her slender legs. She seemed to realize what he was looking at and immediately remedied the situation, tugging her hem down to cover her knees.

Ladder truck #1 blew its horn some twenty feet away as it pulled out of the bay and onto the street, siren blaring, redirecting Dan’s attention.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he demanded of Natalie, a hairbreadth away from reaching over her to open the door and shove the lady doc out.

“With you, of course.” She crossed her arms in a maddening way that emphasized the gentle curves beneath her rain slicker and blouse. “I’m going to close the case on you today, no matter what it takes.”

Dan stared at her. There weren’t very many people who could stand up to his scowl, and he focused it on Natalie full force.

To her credit—or stupidity—she didn’t even blink. Instead, her delicate chin came up a little higher and those mocha eyes held a challenge he’d previously seen in fellow combatants’ eyes.