Read Online Flirting with the Society Doctor / When One Night Isn't Enough by Janice Lynn / Wendy S. Marcus - Free Book Online Page A

around ten, claiming they were too tired to sit up with the younger women and reminding Sharon to be sure to get her beauty sleep so she wouldn’t have bags under her eyes.
    The men had gone out for drinks and Steve’s bachelor party, Vale included. Each second that ticked by brought his return closer. And when he returned they’d be expected to share a bedroom. Did Vale sleep in pajamas? Or would he slide between the sheets in nothing more than he’d brought into the world?
    “Tell us,” Francis cried after downing a shot of something bright red and grabbing Faith’s hand, pulling her from her meanderings. “What’s it like, dating Very Scrumptious Vale?”
    She didn’t want to lie, but what could she say? “Mostly, we just work together.”
    “Honey, we all saw that kiss down on the beach.” Francis fanned her face with exaggeration. “If you were on the clock, sign me up for medical school.”
    Faith’s face burned. Okay, so the groom’s little sister had a point. But how did she explain what she didn’t understand herself?
    “It’s complicated.”
    “Love always is,” Sharon sighed.
    “We’re not in love,” Faith quickly denied, unwilling to perpetuate the misconception.
    “I saw the way Vale looks at you.” At Faith’s raised eyebrow, Sharon went on. “He looked at you as if you’re the only woman in the world, as if he would have liked to push you down in the sand and made love to you right there, the world be damned.” She smiled, taking on a dreamylook. “I know love. It’s exactly the same way Steve looks at me.”
    “You’re mistaken.” Vale had looked at her with lust because she was convenient, because they were at a wedding and people did stupid things at weddings. Like get married and believe in happily ever after.
    “I know Vale,” Sharon boasted. “He wants you.”
    Yes, he’d told her that. And, truth was, just having Vale desire her was so much more than she’d ever dreamed possible. So why had she said no?
    He hadn’t said the words out loud, but essentially he’d been asking her to have an affair with him. A fling that would last the weekend and be done when they left the magic of the beach.
    But she couldn’t say yes, not when she’d be expected to work side by side with him as if nothing had happened.
    Lord, how was she going to work with him night after late night now that she knew his kisses tasted of ambrosia?
    “Oh,” Sharon cooed, “you’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
    Faith opened her mouth, ready to deny his cousin’s claim, but nothing came out. Nothing at all, because she didn’t know how she felt about Vale. Not any more. From before they’d met, she’d admired him professionally, had known she wanted to work with him, had used every resource within her repertoire to arrange an interview. When they’d met, she’d been thunderstruck by emotion so potent the magnitude had almost blinded her.
    She admired Vale, professionally and personally, although she’d hesitate to admit the latter to anyone other than herself. Physically she wanted him, but what heterosexual woman wouldn’t?
    This weekend she had the opportunity to be with himand was too scared to accept the risk that chance would change everything between them. Bok. Bok.
    Only sometimes change was inevitable, and inevitably her relationship with Vale had undergone a change she couldn’t undo even if she wanted to.
    Taking that chance would strip her soul bare, would let him see into her heart, and therein lay the problem.
    She didn’t want to give Vale that power over her future. Didn’t want to become her mother, settling for whoever came along because she’d tasted love and couldn’t hold on to it, forever searching to feed a hunger that couldn’t be satisfied.
    No, she didn’t love Vale and would never, ever allow herself to be that foolish.

CHAPTER FIVE
    F AITH tossed and turned in the enormous bed in the giant bedroom their suitcases had been placed in. How could she