The Lady Vanishes (12 page)

It was a lovely gift. Thoughtful. Clever. And too personal. How had he known that she rode her bike for pleasure as well as a means of transportation?

Setting the gloves and light back in the box, Regina held the box loosely in her lap, wondering why she suddenly felt like crying. It didn’t make any sense. It was a gift from a man who wanted to get in her pants, nothing more, but it felt like a gift from someone who knew her well. She hadn’t gotten a gift like that in a long time, not since her grandmother was alive. Setting the box in her locker, she shrugged aside the odd feeling and went to take a shower. She had work to do today.

Despite her best efforts, Regina had a hard time focusing as she made her rounds and completed the endless documentation that was part of being a doctor. The switch to the new software system seemed to have gone well—the developers at Accendo had made the switch early that morning, and the nurses had been working with the new system while they were still running tests. Regina had spent the morning checking her records to make sure there were no glitches or errors. There was a mandatory refresher training tomorrow afternoon for all the staff who’d been trained on the test system. Between that and seeing everyone walking around in those mustaches, she couldn’t get Milton Shaw out of her head. When she lost track of a conversation with another doctor for the third time, she took a break, and went by herself to the café inside the hospital. Usually she ordered a bowl of soup and a salad, maybe a sandwich, but today she ordered an enormous chocolate chip cookie as well. It had been a chocolate chip cookie kind of day.

When Milton Shaw took a seat across from her, his handsome face inscrutable, she sighed. Every time she saw him, he looked more alluring. Dressed in jeans and a muscle-clinging, long-sleeved T-shirt with the name of a local beer on the chest, he smiled at her as he sat down. He had on a fedora and the same mustache and glasses that he’d sent over to the hospital. She’d left hers in her office. Regina glanced around the café, hoping no one had noticed that he’d joined her, but she wasn’t that lucky. Several nurses had glanced their way, their eyes curious.
Great. Now everyone will be asking me about the gorgeous man who ate lunch with me.

He hadn’t said anything, not even “Hi,” but when she turned back to him, he was staring at her with heat in his gaze.

“Mr. Shaw,” she began, but then she smelled him, the clean scent of freshly showered man combined with that strange burnt match smell that always accompanied him. She wanted to curl up against his chest and let him touch her with those clever fingers, longed for it so much that she slumped a little and didn’t finish what she was going to say.

“Bad day?” he asked, and produced an apple from somewhere, although Regina hadn’t really seen him move. He took a bite with sharp white teeth. Regina felt a sharp tug of awareness low in her belly. She’d dreamed of him using his teeth to untie her, and then using them elsewhere.

“You could say that,” Regina conceded, too tired to fight the strange attraction she felt for this man.

“Can I help?” he offered. “What do you need? Ask me for anything.”

It was tempting, so tempting. Here was a man with unlimited resources, a man who was clearly attracted to her, at least for the time being, and he was willing to get her anything she wanted. “You already gave me a gift today. Clearly too expensive, but I liked it. Thank you.”

He reached over and gripped her fingers with his. “It was my pleasure. Please ask me for something else, anything. I want to take you home with me.”

Regina studied the hand that held hers; the tips of his fingers were callused, his skin rough, different from anything she’d expect from a software developer, a nerd who spent his days writing code, though she supposed he was wealthy enough at this point that he didn’t have to bother.

“You don’t have much of a filter, do you?”

“No,” he agreed, “not much.”

More people were looking curiously at them, people who knew her. Two of the nurses had even paused, interest gleaming in their eyes as they not-so-subtly glanced in their direction.

Gathering up her trash, Regina stood. “Listen, I’m flattered that you’re attracted to me—” she whispered harshly.

“Attracted to you,” he half laughed, interrupting her. “I wish I was just attracted to you. I want to tie you up so you can’t get away and taste every inch of you.”

He spoke softly, lowly, but Regina felt every word in her core. Tie her up so she couldn’t get away . . . She should have found the idea offensive, disturbing, but instead a delicious heat spread through her, making her shiver.

She swallowed and straightened, clutching the trash in her hand a little too tightly. “Do you always suggest tying up women you just met?”

He grinned again. “You’re the first.”

“Lucky me.” She’d meant that sarcastically, but it didn’t quite come out that way.

He leaned forward. “Go on a bike ride with me this weekend. We can take the Minuteman Bikeway.”

The Minuteman Bikeway was an expert path that ran along an inactive railroad and basically followed the ride of Paul Revere. “It’ll be covered in snow.”

“No, it won’t.”

He looked so pleased with himself that Regina couldn’t help but smile a little. “You’re going to have someone plow a little-used bikeway in the middle of winter just to take a ride with me?”

“If that’s what it takes.”

This man was dangerous. He was sitting there, practically vibrating with eagerness, blue eyes gleaming at her from behind the fake lenses. Standing, Regina shook her head. “I can’t, Mr. Shaw. I just can’t. Thank you for the gloves, but I’m not going out with you.”

She left, a strange reluctance dragging at her ankles, and she wished she didn’t feel like she was running away.

THAT AFTERNOON,
Milton walked beside three hospital administrators, one woman and two men, only half his attention on their faintly obsequious comments as they strolled down the hallway decorated with bright yellow sunflowers. He was technically there representing Accendo and the new software they’d help develop for the hospital, but he’d also discussed his plan to host a magic show and benefit for the children, and so far their comments had been decidedly enthusiastic. The hospital’s chief operating officer, Dr. Bill Jensen, a tall black man with a distracted air about him, kept repeating, “I think the kids will just love that, not to mention the doctors.”

“I just want to say again that it was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Shaw,” said the CEO, Miranda something, a sharp-faced woman with hard eyes.

Milton nodded, still not really listening, as two nurses walked toward them wearing pink scrubs and cheerful smiles. As the two women drew closer, their eyes widened at the four people in expensive suits, lingering on Milton. He noticed them, even recognized one of them, but he didn’t think she knew him. He looked away just in case. His weekly visits to this hospital had always been his secret, but he didn’t think he would be able to keep it long, not if he was hosting a public benefit.

This was why he usually let Roland handle the public face of the company—so that Milton could continue to visit in relative anonymity. Right now only the head nurse, Jackie, knew his real identity. Everyone else knew him as “Shaw the Magician.” Jackie had cleared the way for him to perform at the hospital without revealing his name to everyone. He’d known her since he was kid, since he’d come to the hospital with his family.

“Thank you,” Milton replied. “I’m glad you’re happy with the implementation of the software so far, and that you support the idea of a benefit.”

Milton knew he sounded stiff and awkward and couldn’t bring himself to care. His fingers twitched against the dark brown wool of his coat. He’d considered changing into a suit—it’s what they expected, but had decided not to bother. He’d hung around with a couple of the kids until the meeting and then strolled over to the administrative offices. They had no idea that he was very familiar with the place and didn’t require a tour.

As they passed by enormous glass windows, he glanced to his left into the patient entertainment room. That was where he’d met Regina for the first time, and that was where he hoped to see her again tomorrow, on the stage. He wished she’d just give him a chance.

And then, as if he’d conjured her, she was there, walking down the hall with her head bent to look at a chart, her dark hair pulled neatly into a bun at the nape of her neck. Dr. Regina Burke, the sexiest woman he’d ever seen wearing scrubs. The sexiest woman he’d ever seen . . . period, and he wasn’t exaggerating.

“Dr. Burke,” the administrator to his left—the CFO, a paunchy man with an underbite—called out to her. “I’d like you to meet one of our most generous benefactors.” The man sounded a little too eager to talk to her, his voice rising an octave.

She glanced up and met Milton’s gaze. He felt like he had the time he’d tried that trick with the electric eels, as though every cell in his body were dancing in place, eager to do something. How could she deny a connection like that? Frustration and mild irritation flashed briefly over her face as they drew nearer. He liked that she didn’t hide her thoughts. Most people—not some of the developers he worked with, but most people—tried to maintain a polite, socially acceptable mask. He wasn’t able to—had never been able to, but he’d bet that she knew how and didn’t bother.

He started to say something and found himself caught by a killing look from her dark, almond-shaped eyes. She had a pert little nose and lushly curved lips that looked as if a sculptor had carved them. If that mouth made her look vulnerable, or the small gap between her teeth charming, then the scar on her lip and her flat stare disabused anyone of the notion that she was weak or out to charm.

The mere sight of her made him want to smile.

She lowered the clipboard to her side and waited for them to reach her. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes narrowed on Milton as they approached. A small line appeared between her brows, and he tensed.

“Dr. Burke, this is Milton Shaw. He and his business partners have been very generous to the hospital over the years.”

Regina Burke looked less than impressed, and the small frown remained between her eyes. “Yes, I’ve met Mr. Shaw.” She held out a hand for him to shake. “Thank you for all you’ve done for the hospital.”

She’d thanked him for the gifts earlier, and she was thanking him now . . . almost as impersonally. But she was fair. However she felt about him as a person, she gave credit where credit was due. Her tone was grudging, but seemed sincere. She shook his hand firmly but released it immediately, as if she didn’t want to touch him any more than necessary. It didn’t matter; he still wanted to drag her to his limo and this time actually sink himself inside that lush little body.

“You’re welcome,” he replied quietly, after a brief pause to gather his thoughts. He’d almost said, “Fuck, I want you.” The words had been there, on the tip of his tongue, ready to tumble out. It had taken years . . . years . . . to learn how to not say every word in his head, at least not where it would elicit stares. He didn’t mind letting his thoughts tumble out around her, but he had to rein it in around the hospital staff.

His tone must have sounded strange or wrong somehow, anyway, because she gave him a warning look.

“Mr. Shaw has requested that you help him with a benefit he’s hosting for the hospital, Dr. Burke,” the CFO said with a kind of questioning lilt at the end, as if he was asking her why she was singled out.

“Did he?” she said, and if possible her gaze narrowed further. “Well, I’m sure Mr. Shaw can find someone to take my place. As you all know, I’m very busy. If you’ll excuse me . . .”

She brushed by them before they could respond, and Milton turned around to watch her walk away. The view was the only upside to her march away from him.

The CEO, flustered by her comment, rushed to reassure Milton. “I’m sorry about that, Mr. Shaw. I’ll speak to her, of course. The benefit will help the hospital—and the children—enormously. She can’t be thinking clearly.”

Milton thought she was probably thinking clearly enough. She just didn’t like being manipulated. He’d intended to talk to her about the benefit at lunch earlier, when he’d caught her in the café, but he’d gotten distracted again and now she was pissed. Milton felt his lips twitching again. She was kind of ferocious. Like a gorgeous bird of prey.

“No, it’s all right,” Milton said into the awkward silence.
I want her to come home with me.
When they just stared at him, astonished, he froze, thinking he’d voiced those thoughts aloud, but then he realized he was grinning broadly and rubbing his fingers together as if he were about to perform a trick. He took a deep breath and eased himself back down.
Shit. Get out. Get out now.

“She was the top of her class at Harvard Medical School—a brilliant doctor, if a bit . . . touchy at times. Of course, she’s had quite a lot to overcome,” Miranda spoke, perhaps trying to make up for Regina’s lack of interest.

Milton looked at the CEO, and she blinked, easing slightly away from him. “Overcome what?”