The Doctor's Damsel in Distress

He laughed out loud. “Let me know if you do. That I’d like to see.”

“Men.” She rolled her eyes heavenward. “I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” she warned, wondering if her ribs would break from the excited pressure blossoming within her.

“But I think I’d enjoy holding your breath, Madison,” he said in a low voice, dropping his gaze to her mouth. “I think I’d enjoy that a lot.”

He leaned over, placed his lips against hers and took her breath. Literally.

She wasn’t quite sure how he’d done it, but while their mouths were locked in a kiss he’d inhaled, stealing her breath. Leaning back, his deep chocolate eyes held hers while he held his breath.

Her breath, she corrected.

Oh, dear heavens. There was something so erotic, so carnal, so surreal about Levi taking her life breath and holding it inside his body that she ached with need.

Surely her ribcage really was going to explode into a million pieces to let free her burgeoning emotions.

She leaned in, planning to kiss him. All over.

But he held back, shaking his head and waggling his finger at her. Still, he hadn’t exhaled. Any moment she expected him to turn blue. But he just smiled, then when she least expected it, he pressed his lips back to hers and gave her breath back. His breath.

Holding the precious air tightly inside her lungs, she fell against the blanket, staring up at the bright blue sky, dazed. Full of desire. Wondering what kind of game Levi was playing with her, wondering if she had the strength to stop him even if he was just toying with her heart, wondering if she even had the strength to tell herself all this was okay because she knew going in it wouldn’t last.

Yeah, right.

She might as well forget that little fantasy. Her heart was in serious jeopardy.

Very easily she could fall head over heels for him. She was pretty close to already being there despite her mental protests. How could she not be when he was so much more than any man she’d ever known?

And they’d only had two dates. Truth was, how many dates they’d had didn’t matter. Despite her player pledge, she’d been close to falling before she’d even known he knew her name.

Then he’d gone and saved her life, unhooked her, and taken her breath. What a man!

Lungs protesting, she opened her mouth and let the air go, sucked in fresh, but already missed the air he’d given her, his breath.

Too easily she could pull him down to her, beg him to make love to her. Which would do one of two things. Scare him away completely or give him exactly what he was angling for, and then he’d leave because he’d have gotten what he wanted.

Either way, she was going to have to play it cool, not let on how he affected her, that she wasn’t really as carefree as she pretended.

Only how was she supposed to do that when she really liked the way he’d kissed her, the way he’d taken her breath away?

Never in her life had she been kissed like that. As if she was something fragile, precious. He’d kissed her with a reverence that had made her insides melt.

Practice certainly made perfect.

Ugh. She shouldn’t be thinking about all the practice he’d had to earn that level of kissing ability. A lot, no doubt. The man was a genius at kissing. Could write books on the subject. Give seminars. Do webcasts.

She sighed. How was she supposed to play it cool when she wanted him to kiss her again? And again?

To demonstrate that little breath-stealing trick again, too.

Yeah, she’d let him take her breath any time he wanted and that’s what scared her most.

The following afternoon, Madison hummed her way through another chorus of “Walking on Sunshine”.

“You’re mighty perky today,” Karen pointed out as she assisted Madison in turning the elderly woman in Room 218. The woman had been admitted to the hospital in hypercapneic respiratory failure, had spent a week in ICU, and had fortunately recovered enough to be taken off the ventilator and be transferred to the medical floor. However, Mrs. Cline was still weak, hypoxic, and needed assistance with changing position in bed.

Still, she had a wonderful outlook, had been teasing Madison earlier about the sparkle in her eyes. Madison had just smiled. And sparkled all the more.

“Yes, I am.” Madison winked conspiratorially at their obese patient, who glanced back and forth between the two nurses. The woman grinned as if she was in on a secret. “The sun is shining, and life is good.”