Damn, he hated being alone.
As he took a step backward—a very slow step backward—he realized he simply could not let Prudence go without making one last effort to win her over.
“So you’ll be getting off at eleven tonight, right?” he asked smoothly. “Still time to enjoy a romantic evening with someone you love.”
She smiled seductively at his suggestion, then nodded slowly, temptingly, as she unfolded her fingers over the center of his chest. At her unexpected, not-so-subtle acquiescence, Seth’s heart began to hammer hard in his chest, his body heat shot up into triple figures, and his libido hummed with anticipation. Wow. This was going to be easier than he thought.
“You know,” she said in a low, throaty voice, “you’re right. I will have time to spend the evening with someone I love. And I know just the guy I’d like to spend it with.”
Seth’s heart took flight at the look in her eyes. Finally she was coming around. Finally she would admit what he’d known all along. Finally she was going to accept the fact that the two of them were meant for each other. At least for one delirious evening.
“Do you now?” he asked.
She nodded that slow, seductive nod again, smiled that tempting little smile. “Oh, yeah. He’s gorgeous, smart, fun to be around…”
“Yes?” Seth prodded.
“He’s someone I’m looking forward to spending, not just the evening, but the entire night with.”
“Do tell.”
“And not just tonight, either, but every night.”
“Yes?”
“For a long, long time.”
“Oh, Prudence,” Seth murmured low, for her ears only. “It’s about time you accepted the unavoidable fact of what’s happening between us.”
He was reaching up to cover her hand with his when her charming smile turned menacing. Before he realized what was happening, she flattened her palm fiercely and shoved him backward. Hard. He righted himself just before toppling backward onto his…his…pride, but could do nothing about the heat of embarrassment that flamed inside him as he watched her move easily away.
“My son,” she tossed over her shoulder as she went. “I plan to spend this evening, and every other evening I have available, with Tanner.” And with that, she spun around and left the break room, without a backward glance.
You idiot, Seth chastised himself as he watched her go. When would he learn? Prudence Holloway had never, did never, would never, want him. Why couldn’t he just leave it alone? Why did he keep going back for more, when it was abundantly clear that his efforts were pointless?
Because he just couldn’t stay away, he answered himself immediately. That was why. She was Nurse Irresistible. And besides, there was a hint of something…something indefinable…in her eyes whenever she looked at him. He couldn’t quite say for sure what it was, but it was there whenever he drew close enough to see it. And it was that something indefinable that held Seth in thrall. Until he could find out exactly what it was that bound the two of them—because there was most definitely something binding them—he couldn’t let it go.
He told himself that it was the heat of two dozen eyes on his back—and not because Prudence had shoved him aside—that made him lose his appetite. He spun around as quickly as she had, only to find everyone else in the room dropping their gazes hastily to their plates. Sheepishly he tugged his necktie to straighten it, then rolled his shoulders as if totally unconcerned.
Then, to the room at large, he said, “She wants me. You know she wants me. It’s obvious. I’m—almost—sure of it.”
As he had known it would, a ripple of laughter lightened the mood, and Seth punctuated it with a dashing smile of his own. It was widely known at Seton General that he and Prudence indulged in such antics frequently. Everyone knew it was all in fun. Everyone knew it was all in jest. Everyone knew that Seth wasn’t really as crazy about Prudence as he let on. And everyone knew that Prudence was being a good sport about it all.
Everyone knew that.
Everyone except Seth. And maybe, just maybe, Prudence. He only wished he knew what to do about clarifying it all for the two of them. And he only wished he could put whatever it was burning between them to rest, once and for all.
Two
Even after detouring through the women’s room on her way, by the time Pru sat down at the nurses’ station in neurology, she still hadn’t quite recovered from her little…whatever it had been…with Dr. Mahoney. Her heart was still hammering hard in her chest, her blood was still fizzing at light speed through her veins, the strings of her heart were still zinging to beat the band, and her brain was a muddled mass of confusion and—dammit—desire.
Worse than all that, however, her stomach was grumbling hungrily in protest of the fact that it had been anticipating a plate full of cookies by now. Hey, too bad, Pru told her noisy belly. There was nothing to be done for it. No way would she go back to that break room as long as Seth Mahoney was still in the building. Or still in the state of New Jersey, for that matter.
Boy, she’d really been looking forward to scarfing up a few of those springerlies, too, broken, burned bottoms and all. She’d had to miss lunch today, because Tanner had been clingy and fretful, and she just hadn’t had it in her to disregard his demands.
He was such a great kid, after all, and normally made surprisingly few demands on her. Usually he was a pretty free-wheeling, independent little guy, which had made his moodiness today all the more distressing. And since he’d been so unwilling to part with Pru at the hospital’s day care center, she’d used up what little time she had left before her shift to play with him and read to him, in the hope that it would make his transition a little easier.
Ultimately that plan had worked out nicely. By the time she’d left him in the care of her good buddy, Teresa, the little guy was cooing and laughing and having a great time. But then Pru had been cranky and out of sorts, thanks to being so hungry. She’d planned on eating enough cookies to tide her over until her 6:30 dinner break. But she wasn’t about to return to the neurology department’s engagement party for Renee, with Dr. Mahoney on the make.
Then again, she thought dryly, when was Seth Mahoney not on the make? He was the biggest lurer of women to come along since a snake unwound itself from around an apple tree. And she did not want to find herself the object of his temptation. Again. It had been hard enough to resist him the first time he’d tried tempting her—which had been about thirty seconds after starting his first shift at Seton General two years ago. The second time he had tried tempting her had been even more difficult—and had been about forty-five seconds after starting his first shift at Seton General two years ago. Not to mention the third time—sixty seconds after starting his first shift. And the fourth time, at two minutes. And the…
Well, it just never got any easier, that was all. And just how dumb did that make her, wanting to succumb to a man like him, even if she had been successful—so far—in keeping her distance? Seth Mahoney was the very last kind of man Pru needed in her life. He was incorrigible. Immature. Impulsive. Even if he was Dr. Irresistible.
Which, fine, she conceded, was a suitable enough nickname for him, because he was sort of…you know…irresistible. But that was only because he was charming and cute and, okay, a little adorable, too, in a blond, blue-eyed, all-American-boy kind of way. And, okay, so maybe there were times—not that many, though—when Pru caught herself ogling him as he strode down a hallway or when she ran into him in the cafeteria or some such thing.
And yeah, yeah, sure, okay, he showed up in her dreams on occasion, in a fashion that was anything but professional—mainly because he was undressed and the two of them were…well, never