something.
“That was wrong.
Tess watched him, her hair in wild disarray from the stroke of his hand. Her eyes were troubled. “Why did you stop?” she asked, and then laughed something soft and shaky. She lifted a hand and wiped a tear off her cheek. “You weren’t doing anything wrong. I wanted you to kiss me. Actually, I
“You might have wanted me to, but I stepped over the line.”
She smiled, the tears drying on her face. “What’s the matter? Didn’t you like it?”
“It’s not a matter of me liking it or not. I’m your doctor. I need to maintain a professional distance and I forgot that for a minute. I can’t treat you one minute and then kiss you the next. It’s totally unethical.”
She shook her head. “We already discussed this. I’m not looking for a doctor. There was nothing wrong with us kissing. Other than the fact that it was too short.”
Ryan didn’t want to argue. He knew in her confused state, Tess wouldn’t understand. Besides, it wasn’t her responsibility to keep the line between them clearly defined. That was his job, and he’d failed.
He quickly cleaned up the supplies he’d used, leaving the antiseptic on the small table near the bathroom in case she needed it in the morning. He tried desperately to regain control of the emotions raging inside him.
He would not forget his role again. No matter how vulnerable or beautiful Tess was, she could not be subjected to him trying to fulfill his own needs at her expense. This was about her getting better, not him satisfying his desires.
Tomorrow he needed to find someone else willing to treat her. Someone who could help her overcome her memory loss and help her heal. But he knew that person wasn’t going to be him. It was too dangerous for the both of them.
Somehow, Tess had touched a chord within him, unleashing feelings he hadn’t realized existed. She’d brought out something in his own psyche that had pushed him over the edge, allowing him to break a sacred trust between doctor and patient. It would never happen again.
TESS WOKE. One minute she was sound asleep and the next her eyes were open and she was wide-awake. She was disorientated for a minute, unsure where she was other than in a bed and it was dark. But a few seconds later, the light filtering in from the bathroom told her she was in Ryan Donovan’s house.
Rolling over onto her back, she listened, wondering what had woken her up. The tiniest of warning bells was going off inside her head. Something wasn’t right.
A light breeze, warm with a summer’s taste to it, ruffled the curtains and drifted across the room to brush her face. Outside, she could hear the crickets chirping, their sound comforting.
She refocused her attention on the inside of the house. No sounds from the direction of Ryan’s room. But that didn’t surprise her. He’d retreated pretty quickly after kissing her last night, telling her he’d close his bedroom door to keep Jung from jumping onto her bed and snuggling up with her during the night. She grinned in the darkness. Something told her it wasn’t Jung he was afraid would come visiting during the night.
She tightened her shoulders. Damn, she needed to stop thinking like that. Her survival relied on her senses being sharp, tuned in. She didn’t need to be thinking about what it would feel like to make love to Ryan Donovan. He’d been pretty clear that he wasn’t going to let that happen.
She shifted her attention to the downstairs. The steady tick of the clock in the living room and the hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen. Nothing else. She rolled up on her side and snuggled deeper into the pillow. She needed to get some sleep.
Her eyes closed and she started to drift. And then, right when she was on the thinnest edge of sleep, she heard it. The soft scrape of metal on metal. Barely audible, but out of place in the natural rhythm of the night.
The crickets abruptly stopped chirping. They had heard it, too. Tess lifted her head, straining to hear. Her breath stalled in the back of her throat.
The sound had come from downstairs. It was the sound of the back patio door sliding open on its metal track.
She waited. Nothing-as if someone else was waiting, too.
Tess sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.
Every nerve in her body tingled with anticipation. Someone was trying to get into the house. No, they were already inside. Tess knew they were here for her.
There was a scurry of movement in the downstairs hall, muffled footsteps and whispered voices. More than one person. She needed to get out. Too much of a risk to stay and fight.
She considered running down the hall to Ryan’s room, of making a stand with him at her side. But she could already hear them on the stairs.
No time. She shoved her feet into the shoes sitting at the side of the bed and headed for the window.
Down the hall, she heard Jung give a warning bark. Good boy, he was on patrol even though Ryan had barricaded him in his room. She slid the window open and started to throw a leg over the sill.
That’s when it hit her. A mind-jolting blast of pain right between her shoulder blades.
Tess dropped, falling over backward. Her limbs, arms and legs, twitched and jittered uselessly.
She landed on her back. Her vision clouded. Damn, someone had hit her with a Taser. Her brain yawned and then seemed to scramble, every thought going in a million different directions at once.
She tried to focus. Tried to make her muscles do what she wanted them to do. But they couldn’t cooperate. She was a defenseless infant, sprawled on the floor.
From the corner of her vision, she could see them moving toward her. Two dark shapes. But she was too scrambled, too confused to see any specifics.
She couldn’t move, couldn’t defend herself.
She was completely at their mercy.
SOMETHING COLD AND WET poked Ryan in the face.
“Jeez, Jung, get down,” he grumbled, pushing the dog’s wet nose out of the way. He lifted his head and listened, but the heavy hum of the air conditioner was the only sound. “Go back to sleep,” he ordered as his head dropped back down onto his pillow.
Jung whimpered and stuck his nose right back in his face.
Ryan sat up.
Frantic, Jung ran to the door, scratching and barking wildly.
“Okay, okay, I get the message. You need to go out.” He got up. “You better not be using this as a ploy to get into Tess’s room.” He leaned down to scratch Jung’s ear. “You’re as enamored with her as I am, aren’t you boy.”
The dog ignored him and barked again.
Ryan opened the door and was practically knocked aside as the dog charged down the hall, headed directly for Tess’s room.
Concerned, Ryan ran after him.
Two strange men, dressed entirely in black and wearing hoods, stood in her room. One of them had Tess in his arms. Her eyes were open, but she wasn’t moving. Her body was limp.
“What the hell-” Ryan yelled.
Jung was already tearing at the arm of one of the men, growling and snarling, his powerful jaws clamped onto the man’s wrist. The man appeared to have a gun clasped in his hand, but Ryan couldn’t be sure.
The other man turned toward Ryan. “We’re just here for the woman,” he said. “Call your damn dog off and we’ll leave.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Ryan said, circling to the left. “Put her down.”
“Can’t do that, buddy.” The man moved closer to the window. “Just let us take the woman and you can walk away. It doesn’t have to concern you.”
“Not going to happen,” Ryan said, moving closer.
The guy backed up more, his eyes focused on Ryan’s face. As Ryan passed the vanity table, he palmed the bottle of antiseptic.
