Flirting with the Society Doctor

Because he acted as if they were no more than colleagues. She hadn’t expected him to continue to pursue her, but she hadn’t expected such a drastic change from their pre-wedding weekend either.

Thank goodness she’d gotten her period, that an unplanned pregnancy hadn’t resulted from her weekend of foolish fantasy.

Despite the additional time she had at home with Yoda, time she’d desperately wanted, she wasn’t happy, was actually quite miserable.

Was actually quite lonely.

She missed Vale.

All the extra hours she’d put in had never seemed like work because she’d been with him.

Now work was a drudgery. She had to force herself to go in each morning. To know that if she saw Vale, it would only be a glimpse, would only be from a distance, because he avoided her, acted as if she had the plague.

Even Kay commented on the change in the relationship between and Vale, asking Faith if she was okay. Everyone else in the office had either not noticed or failed to comment, probably the latter.

“Faith?” Kay beeped Faith’s office. “Sharon Wakefield Woodard is on the phone for you. She called in on Vale’s private line. Do you want to take the call or shall I take a message?”

“Faith Fogarty,” she said into the phone, confused why Vale’s cousin would be calling her. Surely she’d only just returned from her honeymoon?

Sharon didn’t bother with pleasantries, actually sounded a bit perturbed. “We need to do lunch.”

Do lunch? Faith glanced over her schedule for the day, saw that she was booked full with patients, including a follow-up with Mr. Anderson. Except for lunch, of course. Ha. “I’m not sure I can get away today,” she hedged, not sure how Vale would feel about her having lunch with his cousin.

“Nonsense. Of course you can meet me for lunch.” Sharon dismissed her objections in pure Wakefield expectation of the world bending to their will. “You’re a brain doctor, so that means you’re smart, right?”

“Uh, right,” Faith said slowly, wondering where Sharon was going with her question.

“Steve had an affair,” Sharon confessed, her tone going up several octaves. “Vale says I should just forget it, that the affair happened in the past, but I can’t forget something like that, can I? Steve cheated on me. What’s to say he wouldn’t again? How can I ever trust him?”

Unbelievable. And yet another example of a marriage gone wrong. Another reason Faith should stay far away from men. Eventually they all ended up proving they were…well, men.

“I need someone really smart to talk to and Vale’s

who I usually go to, but he’s all man on this subject. Plus, he’s family. Please, Faith.”

Feeling herself weaken, Faith took a deep breath. “Perhaps we could meet somewhere close to the office around noon?”

“Where have you been?” Vale demanded, shutting the door behind him with a loud thud as he entered Faith’s office.

Wearing a boring gray suit and her glasses, she glanced up from the computer screen she was studying, eyed him as if he had no right to be in her personal space. As if she’d been on the computer for hours rather than only a few minutes. He knew that because he’d been listening for her return.

Should he remind her he owned the office? The whole building, for that matter?

“At lunch. Remember, that thing you insisted I take?” she pointed out with a sarcasm that didn’t become her.

Fighting the wave of frustration he’d felt at Kay’s news that Faith had called to say she was taking a long lunch, he placed his hands on his hips. “Insisting you take lunch did not entail your patients having to be rescheduled due to you deciding to take longer than the allotted time.”

Caught off guard at his announcement, she blinked. Her mouth opened, then closed. “Since when did I start punching a time clock?” Her voice sounded as irritated as his.

“Who were you with, Faith?”

Because he couldn’t stand not knowing. Not that it was any of his business, but Kay had led him to believe Faith had gone to lunch with a man. The man she’d been seeing prior to their weekend? A man she hadn’t slept with up to that point, but what about now? Was she spreading those lush thighs and…? No, he wouldn’t let his mind go there.

But, hell, if fire didn’t burn in the pit of his stomach at the thought of another man touching her…

Regarding him with narrowed eyes, she unnecessarily adjusted her glasses. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I had lunch with Sharon.”

Sharon?