THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

all-but-audible surge of it in her veins…
    Damn, maybe he should call Eli.
    Her head snapped up. “Don’t even suggest it!”
    What the hell? “Pardon me?”
    “Don’t you dare offer Eli for me to use as some kind of security blanket.” She dashed tears away with the back of her hand.
    By all the saints, she’d done it again! Deduced his thoughts as though she’d plucked them straight from his head. Just like the other time, when he’d gone out to find Webber. He scowled. And drew a shield tight around his thoughts.
    “There you go again, thinking you can read my mind. For your information, Nurse Crawford, I was not about to offer Eli’s services, in that or any other respect.” Hearing his own words, Delano could almost credit them. He hoped she would, too. “Believe it or not, there are one or two things I can do for myself without resorting to a proxy.” Pray God this was one of them. He took her hand and pulled her toward him. “Now, come here. My shoulder is quite up to the job, I assure you.”
    He expected an argument. Wariness. At the very least, he expected to have to reassure her that such intimate contact was perfectly safe. That having fed mere moments ago, he was unlikely to be overcome with lust. But she turned into his arms with a choked sob, making it unnecessary for him to utter yet another lie.
    “I’m sorry.” The words were mumbled against his shirt. “I never do this. Really. I’m always the one who holds it together.”
    “Hush, Ainsley. I know. Don’t worry about it.”
    His arms closed awkwardly around her, and her arms gripped back as though he were a lifeline. Her breath warmed his chest through his shirt, and he felt a fine tremor shudder through her. And oh Jesus God, it was good to feel the touch of another human, let alone the press of a woman’s flesh against his own. How long had it been?
    Very quickly, the steady thudding of her heart impinged on his awareness, distracting him from the simple comfort of warm contact. He felt the pumping of her heart as distinctly as his own. At this range, the muted surge and whisper of her blood became a roaring in his ears. To his heightened senses, her body felt like a blazing furnace, even through the layers of clothing they wore, and her heated scent rose to tantalize his nostrils.
    He tried to keep a lid on things, reminding himself that she was distraught. She needed his comfort, not his lust. Even now her tears burned him through the fine cotton of his shirt, and sobs wracked her body.
    Despite his best efforts, a sensory image of how she would taste — her lips, her skin, her blood — flooded his senses…
    Jesus, Bowen. Get hold of yourself!
    He fixed on her heart sounds, imagining the corresponding functions. Better.
    Right atrium contracting. Now, the right ventricle. Back surge as the blood tried to flow back into the right atrium. Both right and left atrioventricular valves closing.
    Lub.
    Pressure building, blood squeezing out of the right ventricle, through the pulmonary semilunar valve, and into the pulmonary artery. Pulmonary semilunar valve and the aortic semilunar valve closing.
    Dub.
    Lub, dub. Lub, dub. Lub, dub.
    No, no, no. Not good. Tune it out. Think of something else!
    He found himself stroking her hair, though he had no conscious memory of lifting his hand to her head. Lord, it was like spun silk, fine and warm and fragrant and straighter even than his own. His fingers itched to pull out the clasp that trapped it in that twist at her nape, but that would never do. Such actions were for lovers. And he would never — could never — be that.
    For to taste her might be to die.
    His blood cooled fractionally.
    At the same moment, she pulled back, wiping her eyes. “Oh, God, I’m sorry. That was … embarrassing.”
    Delano stepped back. Thank God. Space. Layers of air between them. He could breathe again.
    “No, that was merely human, Ainsley. In the last week, you’ve had to absorb more than most people could cope with and still keep their sanity. I think a few tears are allowed.”
    She laughed, daubing at her eyes again. “Well, that was more than a few tears, but thank you. I guess everything just sort of caught up with me.”
    He nodded. “Exactly so. And if you don’t feel like returning to work under the circumstances, I will understand entirely. Of course, whether you attend the clinics or not, I will see that your salary is deposited.”
    Her chin came up. Her violet eyes, washed