THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

with a level one of his own, letting her see the soldier beneath the nurse persona. “Whatever he needs me to do.”
    She suppressed a shiver. He meant what he said. And he intended her to know it. Her mind reeled. A soldier who’d left the service of his country to lay his fealty at Delano Bowen’s feet… Who was this Dr. Bowen to command such devotion?
    “And now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to draw just a wee bit of blood so we can check on a few things.”
    She stopped breathing, watching as he prepared to draw blood from the vein in her left arm. “You’d be able to detect it already?”
    He’d moved away from the bed for a moment, returning with a tray of blood collection tubes. “Detect what?”
    “Whether or not I’ve been infected.”
    He looked up from the task or organizing the tubes by their color-coded stoppers, no doubt arranging them by order of draw. Which color was for the vampirism test?
    “Infected?” he echoed, surprise clearly etched on his face. “You mean, with HIV or hepatitis?”
    “With the vampire virus.”
    “Ah, no.” He cleared his throat. “No, nothing like that at this stage. Just the standard stuff you’d look for after such a massive transfusion. You know, hemostatic abnormalities, citrate toxicity, acid-base changes, that kind of thing.”
    Of course. Talk about getting ahead of herself. At this stage, they were just guarding against post-transfusion complications. “Sorry. Go right ahead.”
    Again, his touch was deft as he worked.
    “That’s it for now,” he announced. “I’ll be back at frequent intervals to check on you, but if you need anything at any time, you can page me with this.” He drew a small device from his pocket and placed it on the bed table within easy reach. “Just push the button if you need me, and I’ll be here in under a minute.”
    “Eli?”
    He was halfway to the door with his cargo of blood-filled tubes, and turned. “Yes?”
    “The catheter…”
    He smiled ruefully. “Can’t take it out yet, I’m afraid. But very soon.”
    “That’s not the issue. I know you’ll need to monitor my output for a while. But I was just wondering … did you … I mean, who—”
    Fortunately, he deduced her question before she had to stutter the rest of it out.
    He smiled. “Yeah, it was me. Dr. Bowen called ahead, so I was here and ready for you when you arrived. He did help me get those wet clothes off you and get you into that dry gown and wrapped in some heated blankets, but I did the rest. He may be the MD, but he knows we nurses are the experts at this stuff.”
    She smiled back, unaccountably relieved that it hadn’t been the intense doctor who’d touched her so intimately, if clinically.
    “Thank you.”
    “No problem.”
    “Eli, can I ask you one more question?”
    “Sure.”
    “I know he went out after that vampire who attacked me. He said he’d come back safely, but I know how freakishly strong that creature was. What do you think? Will he come back?”
    If she hadn’t been studying his expression carefully, she might have missed the brief flash of surprise in that flat, handsome face.
    “You don’t miss much, do you, Ms. Crawford?”
    “Ainsley,” she corrected. “And I try not to.”
    “Well, here are two more tidbits you should know about Dr. Bowen. First, if he says he’ll do something, he’ll find a way to do it. And second, he can handle himself very well.”
    On that note, he exited the room with samples in hand, leaving Ainsley alone with her thoughts.
    Her thoughts immediately turned bleak.
    Lucy, I messed up. I messed up so bad. I’m sorry.
    Fortunately, exhaustion overtook her before she could berate herself anymore.
     
     

 
    Chapter 3
     
    DELANO’S PULSE pounded as he strode down the darkened street. Not from exertion, and certainly not from fear. His pulse pounded because he couldn’t get that picture of Ainsley Crawford out of his mind.
    He’d watched her writhe in her sleep, knowing her dreams were sex-drenched. Watched for long minutes as she touched her breasts and arched her body, until decency finally reasserted itself. He’d been about to wake her when the monitor alarm had gone off, saving him the trouble.
    And saving her some face, no doubt.
    Had he woken her himself, there’d have been no hiding his awareness of her arousal. In which case he would’ve had to explain her state was literally a chemical by-product of her vampire encounter. Powerful, inescapable, but