Julie Garwood - The Ideal Man

Was it a different woman every night? She didn’t have the nerve to ask.

“What about you?” he asked. “Are you involved with anyone?”

“No.”

“How come?”

“No time,” she said. And no desire in a long while… until you came along, she silently added.

“That’s an excuse, not a reason,” he told her. “What about friends with benefits… you know… casual sex?”

The question surprised her. “No, so far not interested. Some of my friends have sex with friends, and they tell me it releases a lot of stress. It just seems a little too cold and clinical to me.”

The rest of the ride home was quiet, but she wasn’t uncomfortable with the silence. Ellie kept thinking about her answers to his questions. No sex, no friends with benefits, no involvement… My God, she’d made herself sound like a female eunuch. And a bore.

Max parked in front of her building and walked inside with her. He insisted on checking her apartment to make sure it was safe, which Ellie appreciated. It took as long as a hiccup. She waited by her door as he looked around. Soft light from a single lamp illuminated the living room.

“Would you like something to drink?” she asked as he walked toward her.

“No, I’m good.”

He was inches away. She swallowed and said, “I have to tell you…”

“What?” he asked as he planted his hands against the door on either side of her.

“I liked the date portion of the evening much better than the serious talk.”

“The date portion isn’t over yet.”

And with that he leaned down and kissed her. His lips on hers felt sweet. It was a soft kiss until her mouth opened under his and she moved into him. She sighed when his tongue swept inside and rubbed against hers. His touch was electrifying.

And that was only the beginning.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up against him as his mouth slanted over hers again and again.

“Damn, you taste good.” His voice was raspy. He kissed the side of her neck and felt her shiver.

She put her arms around his neck and her fingers tugged on his hair to get him to kiss her again. She had wondered what it would feel like to be kissed by him, but no fantasy could match the reality. He overwhelmed her, and it was wonderful. He kissed her again, a hot, wet, openmouthed kiss that made her want much, much more, and when he pulled back she felt dazed.

“Do you want me to stay or leave?” he asked.

She kissed the pulse at the base of his neck. “I guess I can try casual,” she whispered, shocked by how ragged her own voice sounded.

“Sweetheart, if I stay, it isn’t gonna be casual.”

He tilted her chin up with his thumb, needing to see her eyes and hear her say the words before he started tearing his clothes off and then hers.

His cell phone rang a scant second before Ellie’s phone beeped.

Max took a deep breath, then reluctantly pulled away from her to answer the call. Ellie found her phone in her purse and read the text.

“I’m on my way,” he said into his phone. He ended the call and looked up to see Ellie opening the door.

“There’s been a shooting at the hospital.”

At the same time she said, “I’ve been called in to surgery.”

Ellie thought she should drive herself to the hospital, but Max disagreed. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sight until he knew what in thunder was going on. Ignoring her protests, he grabbed her keys, locked the dead bolts, and pulled her along to his car.

“I could be in surgery all night,” she pointed out.

“I’ll wait and drive you home.”

“But that could be hours…”

“I’ll wait.”

She stopped arguing. The set of his jaw indicated he was going to be stubborn. She gave him directions to a shortcut crossing over the highway, and then she called Wendy, the ER nurse, to find out what she was going to be walking into.

“It’s another pileup on I-70,” Wendy said. “We’ve got mangled bodies on their way in. Dr. Westfield wants you here now.”

“I’m on my way,” she said. “I heard there was a shooting.”

“Yes, there was, and right inside the emergency room doors. Gangs are becoming more accommodating. They’re shooting each other right where they know they can get help. Pretty soon they’ll be shooting it out in front of the OR doors. Cuts out the middleman, you know-the ambulance driver, the paramedic. I’m telling you, Ellie, it’s a war zone in the ER now.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

She disconnected the call and turned to Max to repeat what Wendy had told her.

“It’s a little surprising it hasn’t happened before now,” she said. “Even with security, the number of weapons confiscated from gangs when they’re brought into the hospital is shocking. It was only a matter of time before one of those weapons was overlooked.”

“The hospital should spring for more security. Triple it,” he said. “Only way to control it.”

She agreed. “Who called you about the shooting?”

“Ben.”

“He was at the hospital this late?”

“He was heading back to check on Sean when he heard there were shots in the hospital. He should be there by now. We need to find out what’s going on, to make sure Sean wasn’t the target. We’ve got an agent watching out for him.”

“Do you think the Landrys would send someone to…”

“Better safe than sorry.”

Max took the entrance to the hospital on two wheels and screeched to a stop near the emergency room doors.

“If you can’t find me on the surgical floor, look in Sean’s room,” he told her.

The emergency room looked like a set for a disaster movie. Each bay was packed. Doctors and nurses rushed from one to the other tending to victims of the highway accident. Mixed in among them were a few gang members, some handcuffed to their gurneys, also waiting to be treated for their wounds. Policemen were stationed around the area.

Most of the accident victims were dazed and quiet, but the gang members were not so compliant. Some were screaming for drugs while others shouted obscenities and threats because they weren’t getting priority attention. It was loud and chaotic.

Ben was waiting just inside the doors. “It’s bedlam in here.”

He was right. They had to shout to be heard.

Ellie realized she was gripping her phone and didn’t have her purse or a pocket to put it in. Without a thought as to what she was doing, she handed the phone to Max. He already had her keys. He might as well hold her phone, too.

Max and Ben stayed right behind her as she made her way around gurneys and supply carts.

“How’s Sean?” Max asked immediately.

“He’s doing okay. There’s someone with him now.”

“What’s the word on the shooting?”

“From what I’ve gathered, a rookie cop was watching the ER doors. A guy walked in, and when his jacket fell open, the cop spotted a gun in his pocket. The cop pulled his weapon and told the guy to hand over his gun, but he drew on him. The rookie had no choice but to fire, shot him in the chest. There were enough witnesses to prove it was self-defense. The doctors tried to resuscitate the shooter, but it was too late. The police claim there’s a gang war going on.”

Ellie heard him. “It seems there always is,” she said.

“One of the officers told me there was a real bloodbath tonight at some deserted warehouse. An ambush,” he added. “Two dead, six injured. Most are thinking the shooter was here on a vendetta, but a couple of people I talked to said he didn’t fit the gangbanger profile.”

“No ID?” Max asked.

“No,” Ben answered. “Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for us to follow up on this.”

“We don’t usually see this crowd until the middle of the night,” Ellie remarked as she pushed a gurney aside so they could pass.

Max noticed that she was oblivious to the catcalls and the crude compliments shouted at her from various gurneys. One skinhead yelled something so obscene Max wanted to grab him by the neck, but Ellie didn’t seem the least affected.

“Hey, wait up, Ellie,” Ben said. “You passed the elevators.”

“We’re taking the stairs,” Max told him.

“Okay,” he said, not comprehending why anyone would run up three flights when there were perfectly good elevators just steps away.

Max climbed the stairs ahead of them and opened the door on the fourth floor. With a parting nod, Ellie ran to the locker room to change into scrubs. A seventy-year-old man was waiting on the operating table for her. His car had been sandwiched between a semi and a moving van on the highway, and he had suffered a ruptured kidney. It would take her the next few hours to complete the partial nephrectomy.

She didn’t see Max again until almost one in the morning. Just as he had said, he was in Sean’s room. He was sprawled in a chair watching one of the news channels. The sound was so low she didn’t know how he could hear it. Ben was there, too. He was sound asleep in a chair on the other side the bed. There was an agent sitting in a chair outside of Sean’s door.

Ben woke up when she brushed past him. Startled, he jumped to his feet, realized where he was, and stepped back so Ellie could get to Sean.

Yawning, he whispered, “Good night,” and quietly left the room.

Ellie had already changed back into street clothes. Since she was in his room, she decided to check Sean’s incision. She slipped on a pair of gloves and gently pulled the hospital gown down. Sean slept through her inspection. When she turned around, Max was waiting for her by the door. His hair was tousled, and she thought he looked incredibly sexy.

Can anyone be too tired for sex? She was dead on her feet, but she still wanted to jump his bones. Good thing he wasn’t a mind reader.

As they walked down the corridor, he commented, “It’s the middle of the night. How come you look so good?”

She had glanced at herself in the mirror when she was changing, and she knew she looked like hell. “You need glasses.”

He smiled. “No, I don’t.”

They took their time descending the stairs. Ellie was used to running everywhere, but she didn’t mind the slow pace. In fact, she fought the urge to lean into him.

“So what happens now?” she asked.

“I take you home,” he answered.

“I mean with the Landry case.”

“Tomorrow-or rather, today-after you’ve had some sleep, you’ll need to go to the police station and look at some photos. Agent Hughes will be there.”

“And you?”

“Ben and I will be doing some paperwork, and then we fly back to Honolulu.”

All thoughts of tearing his clothes off and having mind-blowing sex came to a screeching halt. It would have been an amazing night, she knew, but it would have been just one night. Recreational sex came with a price… especially for her. She wasn’t the sophisticated and experienced sort who could have sex with a man and forget about him the next morning. Max was leaving for good, and she would never see him again, so it would be best if they said their good-byes and went their separate ways.

Decision made, she relaxed.

Max’s cell phone rang. Ben was on the line.

“I thought you were on your way back to the hotel,” Max said.

“I’m in the ER,” Ben said. “We’ve got a situation here. A police officer requested some help with a kid, and I suggested you. Mind stopping by?”

“Yeah, all right.”

As Ellie and Max cut through the emergency room area, they noticed how quiet it was compared with the earlier scene. The hallways were empty, and they didn’t have to zigzag around the gurneys.

Then they turned the corner and spotted Ben. He stood in front of a door with his arms folded, blocking access. A young policeman, a middle-aged man, and a hospital aide were standing in front of him arguing. The aide had a set of keys and wanted Ben to move so he could unlock the door. Ben wasn’t budging.

“Get out of the way and I’ll just shoot the lock,” the older man suggested. He pulled a small handgun from his pocket. “Move out of my way. I’ll-”

Ben reacted with lightning speed. Before the man could blink, he’d confiscated the gun. He handed it to the officer.

The policeman glared at the man. “How did you get in the hospital with that gun, Gorman? And what are you doing with it anyway? You’re a social worker-and a damned poor one at that. You should find another line of work.”

“I’ve got a permit to carry,” Gorman boasted. “I work in a bad part of town. I need protection. Now give me my gun back.”

“Security here sucks,” the officer muttered to Ben.

“I want to see your permit,” Ben demanded.

“It’s in my glove compartment.”

“What’s going on?’ Max asked.

Ben nodded to the social worker and said, “Things got out of hand.”

“Yeah? What’s the problem?”