Rafael's One Night Bombshell. Tina Beckett

want to join an actual cloister or abandon the human race entirely, but couldn’t she turn her heart into one? She’d let one man in and it had been a disaster. One she didn’t want to repeat. If she could figure out how to fashion her life into an impenetrable fortress, she could stand in its turret and rain arrows down on any man who ventured too close.

      Like Rafe?

      No, he’d been a one-night stand, a fling, nothing more, nothing less.

      Liar, liar...

      Rafe’s amused words during their meeting in the conference room came back to haunt her.

      She may have been lying about her name, but she wasn’t lying about the one-night-stand part. This man was dangerous. The less she had to do with him, the better.

      Maybe she should make things as plain as she could for him—and for her—to make sure his references to “next time” were just idle talk. Especially if the Zika thing was actually a “thing” and they really did need to work together more than this one time.

      She hesitated.

      Come on, Cassie. Embarrassment is a small price to pay to make sure things don’t get more awkward than they already are.

      “Can I say something?”

      He glanced up, the baby still tucked close. “Of course.”

      “That night at the bar was... Well, I wasn’t myself. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I’m not looking for a relationship.”

      A frown appeared. “You made that pretty obvious when you came in with an engagement ring and handed me a fake name. But, just for the record, I agree with you. It was a one-time thing. Not to be repeated.”

      The quick stab of pain was unexpected, but necessary. So were her next words. “As long as we’re both clear. And I’d appreciate your keeping what happened between us.”

      “I wasn’t planning on writing any journal articles or using you as a reference on my résumé, if that’s what you’re worried about.” This time his voice was a little harder than it had been. She ignored it.

      “Great. It sounds like we’re on the same page. Now, I’ll take the baby, if you’re done examining him.”

      As he handed Renato back to her, Cassie breathed an inner oath to herself. As of this moment she was going to stay true to her word and watch her Ps and Qs with this man.

      Although, if she were very, very lucky, there would be no more Zika cases at her hospital, and no reason to see a certain epidemiologist ever, ever again.