Jill Shalvis - Luke

Then she got to his eye level and shot him a jaw-dropping view of white bikini panties with pink hearts on them.

"Forget you saw these," she said, still climbing.

He concentrated on not swallowing his tongue. "The bunny slippers or the hearts?"

"Oh, damn. Close your eyes!"

Yeah, right. He had them wide open. He'd never met a woman like her; so adorable he wanted to gobble her up, and so naturally, wildly sensual at the same time. "Faith, get back down here. I can-"

"Almost got them." She reached out, then her hand wavered, in tune to the utter loss of color from her cheeks. "Oh, damn," she whispered again.

"Faith-" But she wasn't listening and she was going to fall, so he did what any man would have done, he wrapped his arms around her thighs, pressed his face to her butt and pulled her away from the shelves.

The box of checks came tumbling down.

So did the two of them, though Luke managed to cushion her fall for her-with his body.

"Ouch," he said from flat on his back, with her sprawled over top of him.

She turned over to face him. "You didn't have to play He-man. I told you, I almost had them."

"You were going to fall."

"No, I wasn't. At least not until you reminded me I was wearing bunny slippers."

"And panties with hearts on them," he pointed out.

Faith ignored that and wondered why it felt so good to be sprawled over top of him. "I should have just gotten the ladder myself. And worn heels. Then I could have reached the checks."

"What if you'd known I was coming? What would you have worn then?" Visions of lace and silk danced in his head.

"Armor."

Face-to-face, body-to-body, he lifted his head off the floor and searched her expression for a clue to her thoughts. "The bunnies are as much a turn on as the heels would have been."

She eyed him as if he were an alien.

He laughed with the woman he wanted to take to bed-a first. Feeling good, feeling sure of himself, he slid his hands down her body to her hips. "Really."

Her lips quirked as she studied his face. "You're a sick man, Luke Walker."

Tugging her a little off balance so that more of her was sprawled over more of him, he buried his face in her hair. "Did you mean it, Faith?"

"Did I mean what?"

Gently he lifted her head to look into her eyes. "About being together."

She didn't play coy and ask what that meant exactly. She knew. "I, uh, meant it at the time."

"At the time?"

"Yeah." She backed off him, sat cross-legged on the floor and clasped her fingers together, staring down at the chewed-to-the-quick nails. "Ever since I said it, I've been telling myself it was silly, you couldn't really want me. That I'd been too bold, that I'd scared you off. That you were afraid of me. Or didn't know how to reject me kindly. Or maybe-"

He shut her up with his mouth.

With a little squeak of surprise, then a moan of acquiescence that nearly killed him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. "Are we insane?" she asked.

"Without a doubt," he assured her, and leaned in.

Only to jerk back at the pounding on the clinic door. They both leapt to their feet.

"I'll get it," Luke said, pushing her behind him. "You stay here."

"Don't be ridiculous. This is my clinic, I'm going-"

"It's dangerous," he said, thinking of the hospital, and how they'd had a rash of crazy punks trying to get drugs from the lockup late at night. At least there they had an armed guard, but here Faith had no one to protect her. "Just let me go see-"

"No." She grabbed a doctor's white lab coat from a hanger and shrugged into it, covering that hot little bod except for those silly slippers. "Say another word about these slippers and you're dead meat."

And with that, she was gone.

When Faith saw who was at the clinic door, she ran toward it, hauling it open. One of her patients, Ally Freestead, fell into her arms sobbing in relief.

"Oh, thank God," she cried. "I need to sit down."

No wonder, she was nine months pregnant. Faith looked around to grab a chair, but Luke was already there, supporting the now panting Ally.

"How long have you been having pains?" he asked, putting his hand on her big belly and looking at his watch.

"Since the day I slept with the no good son-of-a-bitch who got me this way." Ally scrunched up her face and whimpered through the contraction.

"Hospital?" Luke asked Faith, seating Ally into a chair.

Ally panted. "No! I want Faith to deliver my baby here. Damn, this hurts! Give me a shot or something!"

Faith reached for her hand. "Do you remember the breathing exercises we've been doing?"

"Screw the exercises. I want drugs! Now! Oh God, now my legs are cramping, too!"

Faith dropped to her knees beside Ally and started rubbing her legs.

"Are those… bunny slippers?" Ally panted.

"You're hallucinating. Keep breathing," Faith said.

"Drugs!" Ally screamed.

"Ally, you wanted to do this naturally, remember? Now if we just breathe together-"

"Faith-" Ally grunted through the last of the pain and let out a lusty breath of relief when the contraction passed. "I don't mean to be rude, but this sucks far worse than you said it would."

"I know, but we can do this-"

"Oh, God, here comes another!"

Luke looked at Faith and shook his head. "We need to get her into a room."

"No, don't move me!"

"Ally-"

"I have to push!"

An hour later, Ally was sleeping peacefully, and Luke was holding a squalling, red-faced, furious little boy who'd been brought into the world in less than fifteen minutes and two pushes.

A miracle, he thought, staring raptly down as the infant waved a fist wildly, his lungs in fine and full working order. "Who in the world are you so pissed at already?" he murmured, laughing softly when the infant hushed, startled, at the sound of Luke's voice.

"You okay?"

Turning, he found Faith in the doorway watching him. Was he okay? He'd just watched her, as he had over and over again now, get thoroughly engrossed in her work. She'd panted alongside Ally, sweated and laughed and cried with her as well, giving, as she always did, one hundred and ten percent to every single patient she had.

God, he loved that about her.

"Want me to take him?" she asked, holding her arms out for the baby.

"I'm fine. He just came out hungry."

"Ally wants to try to put him to her breast. I thought I'd check his diaper first-"

"I already did."

She blinked. "Really?"

"Aren't doctors allowed to do that?"

"Well, yes, but-"

He stroked the soft, downy head of the little boy who was slowly winding up for another temper tantrum. "Because in case you haven't noticed, this patient and I are having a deep discussion on life's meaning."

She laughed. "It's just that M.D.s don't usually-" At his raised eyebrow, she stopped. "Okay, I have to admit, you're not the typical doctor."

Now that caught his attention. "There's a 'typical' doctor?"

"Yeah, at least from a nurse's perspective there is. They're egotistical, arrogant, impolite… just to mention a few character flaws."

"I have all those traits," he said quietly. "Just ask anyone I've ever worked with."

"Well, you've worked with me," she said just as quietly, moving closer, her eyes on his face. "And I have to say, I don't see it."

"Are you forgetting what landed me here in the first place?"

He stared at her, almost believing that. He hadn't realized there was anything wrong with his life before. Living for work had been all that mattered. Living for his patients.

But since he'd come here…

"You're the most compassionate man I've ever met," she whispered, putting her hand on his arm. "You're warm and giving, and-"