Mind Games Read Online Free PDF Page B

in a turban-style towel and stepped under the shower’s spray. The pulsating water eased her bunched muscles. She didn’t linger. She didn’t want to keep Derrick waiting. The hot shower and change of clothes renewed her self-confidence, and her nose worked better, too.
    Time for her checkup and interrogation. She took a deep breath then opened her mouth and released the gust of air. Would he ask her about the dead girl in the ocean?
    How’d I end up outside? Where’d she come from?
    She retraced her steps from last night. She had been lying on the floor in corpse pose and thinking about the color blue. Blue. She had focused on that color, imagining herself floating away on the ocean’s surface.
    That’s right. Think, Sparrow, think. Why did you go outside?
    “Sparrow, everything okay? I heard the water stop.” His voice broke through the closed door.
    She didn’t have time to piece together the mystery. “I’ll be right out.” She pressed her ear against the bathroom door and waited to hear his footsteps creaking across the floor. Her body flushed with heat. She dabbed her face with a damp washcloth and then applied a thin coat of tinted moisturizer, mascara, and lip gloss. The time needed to complete the mundane routine helped her mentally prep for the exam. She massaged a glob of orange-scented lotion between her palms, rubbed the excess against her thighs, and then turned the handle on the bathroom door.
    Derrick pulled the Velcro from the blood pressure cuff. Her nerves splintered and continued to shred at the other apparatus he fiddled with, placing his doctor’s tools on the dining room table. She swiped her forehead with her forearm and sucked in another deep breath. Going to the doctor was not her idea of a good time, even if it was Dr. Derrick Sloan.
    “How about you sit in this chair?” He slid the upholstered chair away from the dining room table. Steeling herself for the inevitable, she braced her hands against the arms of the chair and loudly inhaled then exhaled a deep, cleansing breath.
    “Sparrow, if you don’t want me to do this I won’t. But I’ll insist on taking you to the ER.”
    Hospital? What? No! No! No! She wouldn’t go to a hospital. Her dad had taken her to the hospital with him as part of a “take your kids to work” outing, and the sounds of sickness disturbed her to this day. She doubted her peers had the pleasure of being admitted for a full physical and psychological evaluation. Her heart thudded against her chest. She had to calm down before he insisted on taking her to the hospital. She inhaled and exhaled, focusing on her breathing. She didn’t make the humming sound she did when practicing yoga, but imagining it helped her relax.
    “I’m ready, doctor.”
    He wrapped the BP cuff around her narrow arm. The cuff inflated and deflated with a whoosh of air. “110 over 70. That’s great.” He peeled back the Velcro from the BP cuff and caressed her arm. “I’m sorry if that felt tight.” His serious doctor’s eyes softened. Desire clouded his professional concern.
    He brushed the hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear, and then stepped to the side of her and gently inserted a slender scope into her right ear and then her left. “Your ears are a little red. Let’s check your throat. Open wide for me.”
    Talk about embarrassing. She stretched her mouth open, and he pushed a tongue depressor against her tongue. “Say aaahhhhh.”
    The “aaahhhhh” sounded more like gagging coming from the base of her stomach.
    “A little red.” He cupped his hands over his mouth, warming them with his breath. She sank back against the chair. He placed his hands around her throat. His fingers gently pressed under her chin, behind her ears, and down her neck. His serious doctor’s face and professional attitude returned. That didn’t matter to her. His touch managed to arouse her feminine instincts.
    She shifted her eyes to a lock of sandy hair curling behind his ear.