Trouble In Tourmaline

David frowned. “He didn’t learn the first time, I take it.”

“Not all marriages are bad. Mari’s a great gal. They suit each other like you wouldn’t believe.”

“So you do believe in marriage as an institution.”

She nodded. “For some people. Not for me. I’m happier single.”

“I agree with that philosophy. Totally.”

“Ground rules for friends,” Amy said.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Maybe we ought to set a few others while we’re at it.”

He grinned at her. “Ones we can keep like the first rule or ones we can’t?”

She shook her head at him. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah—fatal attraction.”

“It’s chemistry,” she sputtered. “Hormones. Pheromones.”

“All of the above. But how does that stop me from wanting to pull over and haul you into my arms right now?”

He watched her start to bristle, then deliberately take a deep breath before speaking. “If we’re able to ignore it, the temptation will eventually fade.” Her tone was cool.

That raised his eyebrows. “If you believe that, I don’t know how you ever got to be a psychologist.”

“I can do anything I make my mind up to do,” she said coolly. “Including ignoring.”

She’d just laid down a challenge. David smiled. He hadn’t felt like taking up any challenges for more than a year, but he sure as hell meant to run with this one.

Chapter Four

A s the week passed, Amy found she was having a hard time controlling her impulse to go outside and talk to David during her lunch break. By noon Friday she broke down and found him in the side yard, washing off with the hose.

“Just wondering how the kittens are doing,” she said, trying not to be affected by all those water droplets glistening on his bare torso. Good grief, did she really feel an urge to lick them off one by one?

“Growing. Even Sheba.”

Putting any crazy thought of temptation firmly aside, she decided to zero in on his conviction the runt was a female. “If you mean the little black one, how do you know it’s a she?”

He shrugged.

“Well,” she said, “I guess Sheba’s no stranger name for a male than Hobo for a female. Actually, if you look you can tell.”

“I did. They all look alike to me back there.”

“Female anatomy in kittens sort of resembles an exclamation point.”

“You could come over tonight and show me.”

Not to his apartment, not at night. Bad idea. “How about tomorrow instead?”

“Whatever. Then we can—explore.” His smile was devilish.

“The countryside, you mean?” she said quickly. “Okay, but not up quite so high this time.”

“That’s what friends are for—to take you to the heights.”

“We’ve been there.” She put a pinch of tartness in her tone.

“So now you expect the depths? How about Sutro’s Tunnel? That’s ground level and a tad below.”

“Never heard of it.”

“How about the V&T Railroad?”

She shook her head.

“Virginia City?”

“That I’ve heard about from my little nephew. He claims camels live in Virginia City.”

“He’s right, but only during the annual camel races. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad still runs between Virginia City and Gold Hill. Want to take a ride on the rails with a genuine steam engine pulling the cars?”

She smiled. “Why not? If I survived the sailplane, the V&T ought to be child’s play.”

“There’s a tunnel along the way, with an interesting tradition to go with it.”

Analyzing the teasing light in his eyes, she said, “Maybe I don’t want to follow tradition.”

“Where’s your when-in-Rome spirit?”

Left behind long ago, she almost told him. Along with my spirit of adventure. “I’ll come by tomorrow about ten,” she said. “That way you won’t have to pick me up or drop me off. See you then.”

She turned from his mocking gaze and returned to the house. He could make fun of her wanting her own transportation all he wanted to, but she was determined to play it safe. At least until this nearly irresistible urge to touch and be touched by him wore itself out from lack of fuel.

If she wanted to help David face his denial, she certainly couldn’t afford to be caught up in a sizzling affair with him. Even if she wasn’t trying to act as a covert therapist, getting intimate with the nephew of the psychiatrist who was monitoring her last six months of pre-licensure would be a mistake, to say the least. Besides, she had no intention of becoming involved with any man at this stage in her life. Maybe once she had that license in her hot little hands she’d feel differently. After all, what was wrong with having an affair with an eligible man if the circumstances were right?