Perfect Stranger (Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the other end. And maybe some women could handle it. Hell, if certain females had left his bed before he woke up he’d have been one happy man, not that he’d tempted fate by letting them stay. He knew better than to set up expectations. And maybe that’s why he felt so crappy now. One-night stand or not, he liked her enough to see her again. Clearly she didn’t feel the same and that sucked.
    “Hey. I’m serious. Who is it? Obviously she got to you, and if I know her, maybe I can help.” Sawyer hopped up on the counter.
    Now that Sawyer realized Luke was really bothered, he’dcut the bullshit. And that was the friend Luke would talk to. “Alexa Collins,” Luke finally said.
    Sawyer’s mouth opened wide. “No shit? The doctor?”
    “One and the same.”
    His friend let out a slow whistle. “You don’t mess round. Class all the way. No wonder she got to you.”
    Luke downed half the bottle of vitaminwater and let it stand as his answer. Sawyer was right. Alexa
had
gotten to him and he didn’t know what to do about it. “Do you know her?”
    “Her dad’s my father’s doctor and he spent a lot of time with my old man over the past couple of months. When I was around, I picked up some things.”
    “Like?” He propped a hip against the counter and waited.
    “She’s an all work, no play kind of woman. Doesn’t seem like you’d have much in common there.” Sawyer raised an eyebrow.
    “Then you’d be wrong.” They’d hit it off. Everything about her interested him. “From her perspective it sounded more like her father had pushed her in the career direction she took. It’s expected of her but I’m not sure she’s that happy with the end result.”
    “Her old man says she’s taking over as chief of staff at University Hospital when he retires. She’s a shoo-in with the board. And to keep herself there, she has no playtime. Hell, man. I don’t think she knows how to play.”
    “Oh, she knows how,” Luke muttered.
    Sawyer laughed hard at that. “I take it you would know.”
    “Not goin’ there,” Luke repeated.
    “Yeah, protective and silent. She got to you. So what are you going to do about it?”
    Luke tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling. “If I were smart? Nothing.”
    “Why the hell not?”
    “I live in Texas, man. She’s from here. I ought to leave it as a one-night stand.” The thought made him want to puke. That right there was a sign.
    “But you won’t.”
    Luke shook his head. “No, I won’t.”
    “Got a plan?”
    Only what had been kicking around in his head since Sawyer told him Alexa was known as an all work, no play kind of woman. Luke shrugged and replied, “I’m gonna teach her how to have fun.”
    *   *   *
    A fter the night she spent with Luke, Alexa bounced through her rounds of patients in the morning and her meetings after, and she was still bouncing on a high when her father caught up with her right before lunch. Her body still tingled in all the best places. Long-neglected places. Places that were now happy and thanking a certain football player for making them come alive.
    “Alexa, what’s this I hear about you treating children at the youth center downtown?” Alan Collins was a good-looking man, with dark brown hair that had only a hint of silver, and distinguished features. Unfortunately his perpetual scowl and all-business attitude turned many people off and prevented them from seeing some of his finer qualities.
    He’d raised her alone and though he’d directed her life, she’d never doubted that he loved her. She’d certainly seen those qualities when she was a child; she just hadn’t been the recipient of them recently. Her father had lost his ability to enjoy life, something else he was trying hard to pass onto his daughter.
    “Well?” he asked, when she didn’t answer right away.
    She placed the stack of folders down on the top of the counter at the nurses’ station.
    She should have known he’d get word of her