Page 9 of Heartbeats Amidst Chaos: Part 3

Rissa paused before answering. The smell of coffee had begun to drift from the kitchen, only a few feet away in the small cabin. Elio was waiting for her to go for a swim in the lake.

Whatever her confused feelings and fears, she suddenly desperately wanted a little more time to pretend that this was a carefree vacation, to simply be a little in love with the guy she had met only weeks before but who made her feel things she had never before felt. Real life would come crashing down soon enough. There was no reason not to put it off for a little while.

Biting her lip, she tapped her answer into the phone.

I’ll call you later. Give me a couple of hours.

She did not wait to see what Reagan’s outraged response would be to this put-off. Instead, she slipped into the bikini and the short, curve-hugging net dress and headed to the little cabin kitchen.

There was a mug of steaming black coffee waiting for her next to the single-serve coffee machine, along with a couple of little packets of creamer. The door to the deck was open, and Elio was outside, leaning on the railing and gazing down at the lake.

For a moment, Rissa took the opportunity to just watch him, still trying to sort out the feelings that blossomed in her every time she was in his presence or he crossed her thoughts. It wasn’t simply sexual attraction, although that was most definitely present. His personality attracted her too—he was funny and sweet and thoughtful. He made her laugh and feel safe and beautiful, even in the most unusual of circumstances. Everything about him felt right, despite the fact it seemed that her connection with him was turning her life on its head.

Maybe I wanted that to happen,she thought.Maybe I needed it to happen. The question is: Is there any going back?

It was a question she was far from ready to answer.

Elio reached up to rub absentmindedly at the sutures behind his ear, reminding Rissa of another purchase that should have been delivered with their clothes. Returning to the bedroom, she found the packaged pair of short, blunt-tipped suture scissors and carried them and her coffee out to join Elio on the deck.

The wooden planks prickled a bit beneath her bare feet, and she stepped carefully to avoid splinters. Elio turned as she reached him, a smile ready on his face. Rissa held up the scissors.

“You want me to take your stitches out before your swim?” she asked.

Elio shrugged. “Sure,” he said. “You want to do all of them?”

“Definitely the head wound,” she said. “Let me look at the ones on your abdomen.”

Without preamble, Elio shucked his shirt over his head and stepped closer, half sitting on the rail and lifting his arm away from the jagged ridge of sutures that crawled across his torso. Rissa ran her fingers gently along the line, pleasantly surprised to see that the wound had knit together quickly and smoothly. It would leave a dramatic scar, especially where the sutures had broken early on and been replaced by butterfly bandages, but the fact that it had healed so easily was remarkable.

“Yup, these can come out too,” she said. She set her coffee mug on the railing next to Elio and tore open the package holding her scissors.

“This won’t take long,” she said, glancing up to gauge Elio’s impatience to get on with his swim. He was gazing down at her, his expression uncharacteristically soft.

“No rush,” he said, his lips curling into an easy smile. “You’re still the hottest doctor I’ve ever had, by the way.”

Rissa rolled her eyes as if his words did not ignite a warm flame of delight within her.

“You’re also a reallygooddoctor,” Elio said quietly.

Rissa looked up at him again, surprised by his suddenly serious tone.

“I’m going to make sure helping me doesn’t ruin your career—or anything for you, Rissa,” he said.

Her hands stilled for a millisecond before she continued snipping away the tiny strands of his sutures. It was almost as if he had read her thoughts this morning. Great—now she had to add one more attractive characteristic to the list in her head:Perceptive.

“Well,youhave been an unusually trying patient,” she said, casting him a smile. “Now, if you can bring yourself to cooperate and sit in the chair over there so I can reach the sutures behind your ear . . .”

Elio nodded, the sparkle returning to his golden eyes as they stayed locked on hers.

“Whatever you say, Doc,” he drawled.

Chapter five

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Elio looked across the table at Rissa, momentarily distracted from her question by the surrealness of her beauty.

She had pinned up her hair for their dinner out, and it glowed in the dim radiance of the lanterns lighting the outdoor seating of the resort restaurant. The evening dress she ordered was simple, elegant, and immensely sexy; that seemed to be her go-to style, a fact he loved. It was a dark ruby, off-shoulder gown, long and lightly flowing but semitransparent with a deep slit that came almost to the top of her thigh. Long curlicue earrings dangled from her ears and her engagement ring kept catching his eye as it glittered on her finger.

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