Crossing the Line. Lori Wilde

him?”

      “I had a good view of his backside while you had him tucked under your arm.” Dante took the fawn from her and held him in his lap with a firm grip.

      His hand grazed hers.

      The breath knotted tight in Elle’s chest, unable to find a way out. Hand tingling, she ducked her head and got up to retrieve the second bottle.

      Together they sat side by side on the muddy forest floor, raindrops dotting their skin as they nourished an orphaned baby buck.

      Her estimation of Dante Nash shot up a notch. She could tell he was a good doctor by the considerate way he held the deer. Gentle but firm. It was the kind of touch that would make any patient feel safe in his hands. She slanted a sideways glance at his face and discovered he was looking at her.

      Their eyes met.

      He winked.

      A hot flush of sexual excitement raced through her. To Elle there was nothing sexier than a nurturing man. Quickly she dropped her gaze. No, no, she didn’t want this feeling. She did not want to like him. To want him. She’d just come out of a miserable divorce. This wasn’t the time for a relationship, and he, as one of her ex-husband’s friends, was not someone she should choose.

      “You’re going to have to take him to the animal rescue center,” Dante said.

      “I know.” Elle stroked the baby’s fur.

      “Yet you’re getting attached anyway.”

      She shrugged. “A fault of mine. Getting attached when I shouldn’t.”

      “It’s not a fault. Just means you care.”

      “Yeah well, it makes for a frequently broken heart.”

      A long silence stretched between them, interrupted only by the sounds of the baby deer suckling. He finished one bottle and Elle started the famished youngster on another.

      “Why’d you marry Mark?” he asked.

      “What?” His question caught her off guard. She raised her head, stared at him again. “What do you mean?”

      “Don’t get offended,” Dante said. “It’s just that you’re not Mark’s usual type.”

      “No?” Of course not, Elle thought. Cassandra was Mark’s usual type—blond, beautiful and busty. Elle stared down at her own average-sized 34B bosom.

      “You’re too smart for him.”

      “You don’t even know me. How can you say that?”

      “You have lively eyes.”

      Elle snorted, but his words brought a heated rush of pleasure to her cheeks.

      “Let me guess, you put Mark through medical school. Worked a full-time job, paid the bills and helped him with his homework.”

      Dante was so right it hurt. “You know what?” Elle said. “That’s none of your business.”

      “Touché,” Dante said. “He’s through.”

      “Who? Mark?”

      “No, the fawn.”

      Indeed, the baby had sucked the bottle dry. Feeling an odd strangeness she couldn’t quite identify, Elle got to her feet and swiped at the mud on the knees of her scrubs. “My lunch hour is over. They’ll be wondering where I am.”

      Dante stood up, the fawn cradled in his arms. “What are we going to do with him?”

      Elle reached out for the baby. “I’ll call my sister-in-law. She’s interning for the vet at the end of the road. She’ll know who to call about disposing of the fawn’s mother and what to do about this little guy.”

      Dante transferred the deer to her arms, their fingers brushing again in the process. Suddenly her heart was in her throat and she had no excuse for it.

      “So tell me,” she said. “Did you satisfy your curiosity? Or are you still bored?”

      He lowered his eyelids and gave her a sultry look. He raked his gaze over the length of her body, then went back to stare at her lips. He looked like a man whose appetite had just been whetted.

      Then he said in low, provocative voice, “Not by a long shot.”

      The baby kicked and she almost dropped him. Elle tightened her grip on the fawn and told her silly heart to stop beating so fast. The look Dante was giving her meant absolutely nothing.

       Chapter 3

      HALF AN HOUR LATER, the animal control people came to haul away the mother deer’s carcass, while Elle’s sister-in-law, Charlotte, arrived in a van to pick up the fawn.

      Elle stood at the back entrance to the hospital cradling the trembling animal in her arms, Dante at her side. She wondered why he was sticking around, but she didn’t ask.

      “Ooh, Elle,” said her sister-in-law’s assistant, Linda when she spied the baby. Linda was a middle-aged woman with a welcoming smile, dimples in both cheeks and dog hair all over her lab jacket. “Look what you’ve got there.”

      The receptionist looked from the fawn to Elle and then to Dante, and then an appreciative gleam came into her eyes. The look on Linda’s face proved Elle’s suspicion that the man attracted feminine attention wherever he went.

      Charlotte came around to the front of the van where Elle, Dante and Linda were standing. Elle’s sister-in-law wore her dark-brown hair in a short, stylish cut that accentuated her gamine features. Underneath her lab jacket she wore jeans, a yellow T-shirt and scuffed cowboy boots. She was wiry and petite. Elle had a hard time imagining her wrangling large farm animals.

      Charlotte immediately zeroed in on the fawn. “What happened?”

      “His mom got hit by a car. Animal control came for her.”

      Charlotte sighed. “Poor little guy.” She turned to Dante. “Hi.” She stuck out a hand. “My name’s Charlotte. I’m married to Elle’s younger brother, Tom.”

      “Dante Nash,” he said and shook Charlotte’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

      “Dante’s the new surgeon at Confidential Rejuvenations,” Elle explained. “He was with me when I found the fawn.”

      “Oh really?” Charlotte got that matchmaking look in her eyes. Ever since she’d married Tom, Charlotte was relentless about trying to hook up her single friends and family members. She was still in the starry-eyed honeymoon phase, convinced that marriage was the solution to everyone’s problems. “So tell me, are you married, Dr. Nash?”

      “I’m not.”

      “No?” Charlotte glanced at Elle and wriggled her eyebrows suggestively.

      “Dante was Mark’s best friend in college,” Elle said and sent Charlotte a look that said forget about fixing me up.

      “Not best friends,” Dante corrected. “Mark and I were just roommates and football teammates.”

      “There you go,” Charlotte said. “Clearly he knows Mark’s true colors if he’s not claiming him as a friend. Score one for Dante.”

      “Char,” Elle said through gritted teeth. “This fawn is getting heavy.”

      “Oh yeah, sorry. Right this way.” She led them to the back of the van where she opened up the double doors, and Elle settled the fawn down on the floor.

      Dante stood behind Elle, silently watching the proceedings. Elle felt weird having him hang out with her, especially after what Charlotte had just said, and she wondered what on earth he must be thinking.

      “I gave him some baby formula from the hospital nursery,” Elle said.

      Charlotte looked up, a serious