Fortune Read Online Free PDF Page A

find your way. I know this.” She pulled away and smiled down at Kat with a twinkle in her eye. “You know I do know, zaika .”
    “Did your crystal ball tell you?”
    “My heart tells me, you impossible brat. Now you rest. You get better, Katyusha mine.”
    * * * * *
     
    Later, after Ryan’s last surgery, he went to her floor and checked in at the nurses’ station. “Ekaterina Argounov,” he said, repeating the exotic name he’d learned from her chart. She had pronounced her mother’s name “ma ma ,” with the accent on the second syllable. Her ethnicity fascinated him, like everything else about her.
    His last surgery had run over, although it was ultimately successful. He hated to admit how antsy he’d gotten at the end, how impatient he was to see her—the girl he definitely didn’t want to get messed up with. But things were feeling messier than ever right now. He fought with himself as he walked down the quiet, sterile hallway. Why was he here when he had no intention of getting tangled up with her?
    He stopped outside the door, looking through the window. The ma ma was sitting in Kat’s room by the bed. Kat was sitting up too, alert and awake. Her eyes flitted to his over her mother’s shoulder, her beautiful eyes that made him forget everything. Elena turned and saw him too.
    “Dr. Ryan McCarthy! You come in.” Not would you like to come in? Not why don’t you join us? It was an order as emphatic as any he’d received as a child. He pushed the door open slowly as Kat stared daggers at him.
    “I know you’re tired. I won’t stay. I just came by to—”
    “Come in and sit,” Elena ordered, getting up. “I have to go to…gift shop. You stay here, you sit with her. You stay, yes? While I am gone?”
    He was pretty sure the gift shop was closed, but he sat in the chair Elena shoved him toward and watched her sail out the door.
    He studied Kat. Good, she looked better. Some part of him had feared a hidden pocket, a slow bleed. He worried all day about being paged for emergency surgery. He couldn’t have done it, not on her.
    “You don’t have to stay,” she said at the same time he asked, “How are you feeling?”
    They both paused. “I’m feeling okay,” Kat finally said. “Less groggy. I’m sorry about my mother, she’s a little—”
    “Never apologize for your mother,” he said in a chiding tone that doubtlessly annoyed her. She stopped talking and stared at her hands. The awkward silence was stultifying. Just leave, you idiot. “So no pain? No visual disturbances?” Okay, that’s not leaving.
    “No bad pain. Just the bruises. And the twenty stitches along the back of my head,” she added ruefully.
    “Maybe I should just take a look while I’m here.” Idiot. Not your job! Leave now, before you touch her. If you touch her… She leaned forward and he put one hand on her hair even though he didn’t need to. He felt guilty, like one of those doctors who fondled patients on the sly. Her curls were as thick and soft as he imagined. He ran a thumb across her nape as he lifted the gauze to check the stitches. When she shivered a little he almost came undone. He replaced the bandage quickly and stepped back.
    “They look good, Kat. And any scar won’t show unless you pull your hair up. I’d say you’re a very lucky lady to come away with just a scar, considering the fall you took. But you’ll need to take things easy for a while. No late nights and bar hopping. No tabletop dancing.”
    She looked at him with that shuttered, slanted glance, and again he thought, Go, just go. Get out of here. This wasn’t the wanton tease from the club. This was a real girl and he felt even more strongly for her. Forget messing with her stitches, the medical small talk. He wanted to take her in his arms. Why this strange pull, this connection? Yesterday it had been all about the amazing body, the challenge of the frown. Now, he realized, it was about something more. She looked back down at