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sighed and set her food aside. “Look, let’s not play this game. You’re obviously in pain. I would really feel a lot better if you took your medication.”
    “I told you I’m fine.”
    The words had no more left his lips than he bolted from the table and headed for the short corridor beyond the kitchen that led to the laundry room and downstairs bathroom.
    Instinctively, Elizabeth followed. His violentheaves told on him before she caught sight of him kneeling at the toilet.
    He’d been pushing the limits ever since he regained his equilibrium after anesthesia. This was bound to happen.
    Ignoring the unpleasant sounds she moved to the wash basin next to him and moistened a washcloth. When he’d flushed the toilet and managed to get to his feet, she passed the damp cloth to him.
    “I think you should be in bed.”
    “You know what, Doc? I think you’re right.”
    Unbelievable. What was most incredible was that he didn’t try to turn her words into something lewd or suggestive.
    She followed him up the stairs and into the room he’d used the night before. He climbed between the sheets without putting up a fuss. To her surprise he even took the other pain pill she offered without argument.
    “Thanks,” he mumbled, his eyes closed.
    When Elizabeth would have moved away from the bed his fingers curled around her wrist and held on. “What’s the rush, Doc?” He tugged her down onto the side of the bed next to him.
    She tried to relax but couldn’t. “You should rest.”
    “I’m lying flat on my back. I’ve taken the pills. At least give me this.”
    If he hadn’t looked at her so pleadingly, she might have been able to refuse. But there was that glimmer of vulnerability again and she just couldn’t do it.
    “What is it that you want, Agent Hennessey?”
    “First.” He moistened those full lips. Strange, she considered, his lips were awfully full for a man’s. There hadn’t been a lot she could do about that. The best they could hope for was that no one would notice. “I’d like you to stop calling me Agent Hennessey. Call me Joe.”
    His fingers still hung around her wrist, more loosely now, but the contact was there. Pulling away would have been a simple matter but he was her patient and she needed him to relax. So she didn’t pull away.
    “All right, Joe,” she complied. “I suppose then that you should call me Elizabeth.” Most anything was preferable to Doc. Although she did have to admit that he somehow made it sound sexy.
    He licked his lips and said her name, “Elizabeth. It suits you.”
    She wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment or not, but she decided not to ask.
    “Talk to me,” he urged, the fingers around her wrist somehow slipping down to entwine with hers.“Tell me about your relationship with Maddox. What attracted you to him?”
    They were supposed to do this. That’s why she was here, beyond the surgery that is. She was supposed to make sure he knew about David’s personal life—at least as much as she knew. He needed to get the voice down pat and the mannerisms. Practice would accomplish both. But the details were another matter. She had to give him the details just in case David discussed his private life with someone Hennessey—Joe, she amended—might come in contact with during the course of this undercover operation.
    Elizabeth saw no point in putting off the inevitable. Getting on with it was the best way.
    “He was nice,” she said. And it was true. She hadn’t known what to expect out of a CIA handler and his being nice was the first thing she was drawn to. All extraneous assets utilized by the CIA were assigned handlers as a go-between. She didn’t say because he certainly knew this already.
    “Ouch. Maybe you don’t know this, honey, but nice is not a man’s favorite adjective.”
    “Elizabeth,” she corrected, feeling even more awkward with his use of the endearment though she felt confident he didn’t mean it as an actual