Maybe it was. Dani frowned inwardly. How was it possible Ren didn’t know how fascinatingly unique she was? How intriguing, how…amazing. Right at that moment she wished she could gather her close and whisper some of that to her. Instead, she held her gaze and said emphatically, “I do.”

  “You don’t mind that I don’t have a lot of practice at this.”

  Dani shook her head. “All I care about is that you’re enjoying yourself. I hope as much as I am.”

  “Oh, I am.”

  “Good. Me too.”

  The drinks came, and Dani asked, “How’s the little boy with the kidney transplant doing?”

  “Oh, Leo, with appendicitis. He did great. He went home this morning.”

  “That was a nice case.”

  “I was glad I got to scrub on it. I haven’t done a lot of endoscopic surgery. I’m going to have to make up for that this year.” She shook her head. “Along with a lot of other things.”

  “I guess you got thrown into things out of the blue, huh,” Dani said as she made room for Vickie to put their food down.

  Ren sipped her drink. “Oh, I like this one. Definitely add it to my favorite drink list. There are now two.”

  “So noted.”

  “I was surprised to be moved out of the lab so suddenly, but”—Ren sighed—“I knew it was coming. My research project is nearly completed, and we’ve had a couple of papers published. It was time. I just thought that Quinn—Dr. Maguire—would give me a little more of a heads-up.”

  “You’re catching up fast,” Dani said.

  “Maybe—but it’s more than just the number of cases I can manage to do. I need to make connections and learn how to direct a team. Inside the OR and out. You’re way ahead of me there.”

  Dani nodded. “You’re obviously capable of doing anything you set out to do, so I wouldn’t worry.”

  Ren tilted her head with a curious expression. “Based on what?”

  “You mean my opinion?”

  “Yes.”

  “Everything about you—you’re supersmart, goes without saying, but being smart isn’t enough to accomplish all the things you have even if you didn’t have to deal with the challenges of being accelerated.”

  “I…well, thank you,” Ren said quietly.

  “You’re welcome.”

  Ren smiled shyly. “So, how is your project coming along?”

  “The case studies?” Dani shrugged. “I’m getting there.”

  “Are you enjoying it at all?”

  “Sometimes, yeah, I can see the appeal. And I like thinking that maybe something I dig out is going to help someone treating some kid somewhere.” Dani shook her head. “It’s not exactly what my parents had in mind for me…Hell, I don’t know, maybe it’ll mean something to them.”

  “What do you mean?” Ren asked.

  “Oh, family stuff.” Dani considered changing the topic again. She didn’t talk about private stuff with girls on dates. Except, Ren wasn’t any girl. And this wasn’t the usual encounter. And if she didn’t tell her, how many other things would she never tell her. And then what would they end up with? “I told you my family are all research scientists, right?”

  Ren nodded. “Possibly an understatement?”

  “True. It’s kind of the lifeblood of our family. Genetically predetermined. Somehow, I didn’t get the genes.”

  “Oh, but you’re a doctor, a surgeon, so you got some of the science genes.”

  “Yes, but not the intellectual ones, at least not from where my family sees it.”

  “Families,” Ren muttered. “I’m sorry, that’s hard. So they pressure you?”

  Dani laughed. Telling Ren just that little bit of the story took a little of the bitterness away. “Yeah, you could say that. Oh, not so much when I was growing up, because they just expected that I would follow along like everyone else in the family. But when it became apparent that I was diverging, then the subtle and eventually not-so-subtle pressure started.” She lifted her shoulder. “Now, my mother calls every few weeks with suggestions for research positions that I might consider.”

  “So,” Ren said, sounding as if she’d been turning something over in her mind and reached a deduction, “the Franklin. That’s why you’re doing a research project in your last year.”

  “Yeah,” Dani said.

  “You’ve certainly got the clinical background, and that’s a very strong position.”

  “Stronger than having published a few research articles in Circulation and The Journal of Cardiology?” Dani said quietly.

  Ren put down her fork. “Should I ask how you know that?”

  “Easy. Medline. I looked you up.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you impressed me, and I wanted to know more about you.”

  “So you looked up the journal articles I’ve written? Dani, you’re weird.”

  “Hey, I thought that was supposed to be my line.”

  Ren stared until they were both laughing.

  “Maybe we should agree to table work for the rest of the night,” Dani said, “and get back to the more important things.”

  “You mean like monogamy and sex?”

  “Oh, so you haven’t forgotten.”

  Ren tugged her lower lip between her teeth for an instant, the way she did when she was thinking seriously about something. The little tell made Dani’s stomach clench. They really needed to finish eating soon.

  “Yes, I’ve definitely been thinking about it,” Ren said. “I think probably the sex should come first, and then the rest of the discussion.”

  Dani sucked in a breath. “Ren, you’re seriously killing me here.”

  “I told you I didn’t know the order of things.”

  “Oh no, you’re doing just great.”

  “So we can start with sex?” Ren tilted her head. “The talking part, I guess?”

  “We can start with any part you want.” Dani held her breath. If she didn’t at least get to kiss her again, she might not be able to make it home without incurring bodily damage.

  “I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I live in the neighborhood,” Ren said. “About five minutes from here.”

  “Are you two interested in dessert?” Vickie asked brightly as she stopped by the table.

  Dani asked, “Ren?”

  She thought she might have sounded in pain.

  “No, thank you,” Ren said to Vickie. “Everything was wonderful.”

  “I’ll bring your check,” Vickie said.

  “So, your place then,” Dani said, still watching Ren.

  “Yes.” Ren pulled out a credit card and handed it to Dani. “For my half. And Dani?”

  “Yes?”

  “I do have one rule.”

  “Let’s hear it,” Dani said softly.

  “You have to trust me to know what I want.”

  “From what I know about you,” Dani said, “you always have.”

  Ren smiled. “Then you already know me better than almost anyone in my life.”

  “Good. Because that’s what I want.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “My place is on the far side of the park,” Ren said. “I usually walk home past the duck pond. It’s still light enough out if you want to go that way.”

  “Sure.” Dani slowed a little. “One thing before we get there. No expectations. I just wanted to say that.”

  Ren glanced at Dani. “You mean you have no expectations. I might possibly have all kinds of expectations.” She grinned. “No pressure, though.”

  Dani looked startled, then amused. Then something else passed over her face. Something that looked a lot like hunger. “Ren, I’m trying to think slow. But you don’t make it easy.”

  Ren smiled inwardly. Dani had said she was good at seduction, but she was pretty sure Dani was teasing. She was very certain she didn’t know the slightest thing about seduction. She didn’t have any experience at all with what she thought they would be doing. If not tonight, soon, if they kept seeing each other. And she hoped they would. Reading people was another of her undeveloped skills, but Dani—unlike anyone else she’d ever met—was open and undisguised with her feelings.

  Ren might be inexperienced, but she wasn’t naive, and she recognized what she saw in Dani’s eyes. And she knew what she felt in her body. Dani looked at her and thought about sex. And when she looked back, she felt it too, a reflection of that desire. A tingling deep inside that was at once warm and exciting. An ache that worried at her concentration and made her forget about all the things that always seemed so important. She hadn’t thought about the lab or her career or what she needed to do to be competitive for the best fellowship in the country in hours. Those things were always on her mind. Those were her goals. Those were the things that defined her. She should be worried that she’d lost sight of those things. But at this moment?

  Dani’s kiss had consumed her awareness, an instant so light and fleeting that if she didn’t still feel it in the featherlight vibration in her lips, she could almost believe she’d imagined it. But she hadn’t. The heat left behind still haunted her.

  Her breath, when she drew it, shuddered into her depths to some place just coming to life, opening with equal parts joy and ferocity. Oh, she had much more than expectations—she trembled with urges that defied anything so simple.

  “I agree. We should abandon expectations. I think we’ll do better,” Ren said, “if we don’t have any.”

  “I’m not sure if I should be disappointed or optimistic,” Dani said.

  Ren reached for Dani’s hand as they turned into the park and traveled toward the duck pond down a gravel path between patches of oak and evergreens. Taking Dani’s hand would have been unfathomable a week before. She had not known then how intriguing the sensation of another’s touch—the subtle texture of skin, the strength of bone and flesh—could be when intimately pressed to hers. Dani’s hand was a thing of wonder. How that hand would feel moving over her body in other ways, in other places, was still a mystery, but one she wanted—yearned—to discover. “I was thinking that without expectations, anything could happen. No automatic stops.”

  “That definitely leans in the optimistic direction.”

  Ren squeezed Dani’s hand. “Maybe that’s not the direction you were going, though.”

  “Remember I said I was working on the idea of slow? That’s my head talking.” She laughed a bit hoarsely. “I can’t say the rest of me is totally on board with that concept. But pulling out the stops—metaphorically—could be risky. Some things take on a life of their own, and a pace of their own. I’m not saying I wouldn’t stop the minute you said to. You don’t have to worry about that. But if you don’t, I might not.”

  “Let’s agree that we’ll both be responsible for what we do, and then you don’t have to worry.”

  “I’m not worried,” Dani said quickly.

  “Aren’t you? Because I get the sense you think you might need to protect me from something I don’t understand. I like that you think about that and care about my feelings, but you’re not responsible for my comfort or my safety.” Ren shook Dani’s hand playfully and brought it to her lips, kissing the knuckles where Dani’s fingers curled over hers. Dani gasped, and an entirely foreign and sharply exciting thrill coursed through her. “I’m inexperienced, but I’m not uninformed. I haven’t been living in a bubble my whole life. I know what sex is about. I even know what sex feels like, under some circumstances.”

  Dani closed her eyes and emitted a soft groan. “Okay. That’s it. I’m dying now.”

  Ren laughed, the sound cut short when Dani released her hand and unexpectedly swung an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. The move was so assured, and so possessive, and so completely natural for all its newness, all Ren could do was go with it. And enjoy it. Dani’s body was warm and firm, and this close, she smelled even more wonderful than Ren remembered. She’d seen couples walk this way, of course, but never stopped to wonder why. What message they were sending through the simple act of walking that they couldn’t communicate some other way. Now she knew. A visceral sensation of being claimed, even as she claimed. An awareness of belonging, of fitting, that was at once amazing and effortless. The fluttering in her midsection grew heavy, and a thousand butterflies settled down into the pit of her stomach, leaving an ache at once sweet and insistent.

  “This feels nice.”

  “Yeah.” Dani kissed her temple and breathed in softly. “You smell like…lilacs?”

  Ren laughed softly. “Close enough.”

  “I never thought you were naive,” Dani murmured as they began walking again.

  “Good. I like how careful and caring you are. But I don’t need to be taken care of.”

  “I get that.”

  Ren followed Dani’s lead and tightened her arm around Dani’s waist. She’d never been as close to another woman in her life. Every place they touched turned electric. “I love the way your body feels.”

  “Do you?” Dani asked, her voice low and husky.

  “Yes.” She let her hand slide down Dani’s flank and over the curve of her hip until her fingertips rested on the crest of Dani’s hipbone. “So strong and sleek.”

  “You realize when you touch me like that, it turns me on,” Dani said.

  “Does it.” Ren repeated the motion. “Is the effect cumulative?”

  Dani’s laugh came fast and strong. “Oh, it is. How much farther is it to your house?”

  “Just opposite the park. Three minutes.”

  “Then maybe you should just keep your hand still until we get there.”

  “You know if you tell me not to do something, it’s just going to make me more curious. But all right. I’ll wait.”

  They were alone on the short path out of the park, and Dani stopped abruptly, turned Ren toward her, and kissed her again. This kiss went on much longer than the brief one they’d shared on the way to the restaurant. Dani’s arms were around her waist, holding her close to Dani’s body. Dani’s mouth sealed to hers, soft and firm and warm. The tip of Dani’s tongue skirted across the surface of her lower lip, and the churning deep inside her grew heavier, lower, with a pounding ache that was both pleasure and urgency. Ren wrapped her arms around Dani’s shoulders even more tightly against her, fitting her breasts to Dani’s chest. The pressure against her nipples created a sweet aching she’d never imagined. She moaned very softly, and the sound astounded her.

  Dani drew her mouth away and rested her forehead against Ren’s. “You’re so sexy. I could kiss you like that all night.”

  “I think if you did…” Ren struggled to catch her breath. “I think it might drive me crazy.”

  “You want to find out?” Dani asked.

  Ren gripped Dani’s shoulders and kissed her back. “Yes.”

  * * *

  Ren stopped in front of a narrow, three-story, pale yellow Victorian single with green and red scrolls along the roof lines and eaves, that sat behind a wrought-iron fence and a small yard bisected by a flagstone walk. The first floor windows were nearly as tall as a person, and white lace curtains fluttered behind them.

  “Nice place,” Dani said, turning to look over her shoulder at the park and the faint glimmer as the setting sun turned the pond to gold. On any other night she might have suggested they sit for a few minutes on the wide stone steps and just breathe air that didn’t carry the ever-present scent of tragedy while they watched the sun set. But not tonight. Not when she’d already accepted she had no way to rein in the need Ren had set off within her.

  “I was lucky to get it,” Ren said, pulling keys from her backpack. “A lot of the staff live here. Quinn and Honor are three doors down. Quinn let me know about the opening.”

  “You’re friends with them, aren’t you?” Dani asked as she followed Ren across the wide mahogany wood porch to the ornate filigreed doors.

  “I know them, through my sister Sax. She and Quinn worked together in Manhattan. But I don’t socialize with them, if that’s what you mean. I don’t really socialize, actually.”

  “Why not?”

  Ren shrugged. “The usual reasons. No time. And then there’s the other thing. The acceleration problem.”

  “I think I’m starting to get that,” Dani said. “Your not being at the same place as everyone else a lot of the time.”

  “It was a bigger problem when I was younger.”

  Ren’s flat tone suggested she didn’t want to give the topic any more consideration, so Dani let it drop. But she wouldn’t forget it.

  Ren pushed the doors wide and held them open. Dani looked past her down the parquet floor to a staircase ascending to the next level and rooms opening off either side.

  “This isn’t an apartment.”

  “No, it’s a house.”

  “The whole house. Wow.”

  “It seemed simpler,” Ren said, dropping her backpack on a parson’s bench that sat beneath a tall, ornately framed mirror.

  “How do you mean?” Dani asked, placing her backpack next to Ren’s.

  “I’m not all that comfortable with roommates,” Ren said. Or them with me. Dani didn’t seem to find that odd, and Ren added quickly, “I bought some beer.”

  “I thought you didn’t like it,” Dani said.

  “I don’t. The store owner said it was similar to the one you ordered.”

  “Thank you. For thinking of that.” Dani cupped Ren’s nape and drew her gently closer so she could kiss her. They were alone in a gorgeous house, and Ren had thought to buy beer for her. Ren had been thinking about her visiting. Just the idea was enough to stoke the fire that had been simmering in her for what felt like days. When Ren threaded her arms around her shoulders, Dani sensed the remnants of her restraint pulling loose and falling free. She tugged Ren closer, edging her thigh between Ren’s, and slid a hand down Ren’s back to the hollow at the base of her spine. Ren made that little sound she’d heard once before, not quite a moan, but close enough to make Dani’s head pound.

 

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