I wet my lips, watching the flutter of his pulse at his throat, just above his collar. “Maybe next time,” I said softly, “you’ll be willing to share some of your thoughts with me, Carter.”
Legs parted, he said nothing, but I couldn’t help noticing how the cotton strained against his muscular thighs. They looked hard. All of him did.
A knock on the door tore me from my straying thoughts, and I peered past his shoulder to see Nurse Anna smiling. “Are you ready for your next patient?”
I frowned at the stray lock of hair that had escaped her bun. She noticed and reached up self-consciously, then lowered her hand as a flush spread across her freckled cheeks.
Clearing my throat, I glanced at the young man and then gestured to Anna to bring me the next patient’s file. She entered, her skirt dancing around her thighs as she handed me the paperwork.
She gave me a quick update, but I was only half-listening—too aware of the young man’s eyes on me. I could’ve sworn he smirked, just barely, before his gaze dropped to Anna’s shapely legs the moment she bent to explain the handwritten notes.
I slammed the file closed so hard she jumped, then rose to my feet.
“A word in private, Nurse.”
“Of course,” she replied, following me out of the room.
I closed the door behind us. “Your hair is out of place.”
“One of the patients was placed in solitary confinement for refusing their medication this morning,” she said. “Things got . . . rough.”
“We have a dress code, Anna. I expect you to adhere to it and set a good example.”
“Yes, sir. Of course, sir. It won’t happen again.”
“Good,” I said, and she wasted no time taking her leave.
As she walked away, I glared at her bare legs and defined calves. My eye twitched, and I reached up to pinch the bridge of my nose. A headache was blooming.
Pebbles crunched underfoot on my way to the car, and a crow cawed in the distance while rain pattered softly on my umbrella. Earlier that day, the gardener had come by to mow the vast lawn despite the wet weather, probably for the last time that season. Fall was in full swing, as evidenced by the chill in the breeze, and now the scent of freshly cut grass lingered in the air. Grass and decaying wet leaves.
I tightened my trench coat to ward off the cold just as footsteps sounded behind me.
“Wait up,” Anna called, wobbling in her heels.
I batted away the edge of my knitted scarf when a gust of wind smacked it against my face.
She beamed, brushing a lock of hair from her lips. “Busy day, right?”
Anna, one of our newer recruits, was beautiful in a youthful way, with fresh hazel eyes and full lips that always seemedto smile. I glanced at the gray building behind her, looming dreary in the dying light. A row of crows huddled on the roof, unbothered by the persistent rain.
Nothing could erase the Devil’s touch, not even God’s loving presence.
When a gust of wind threatened to rip the umbrella from my grip, the spindly fir trees lining the estate shifted in the breeze. They were dying, slowly but surely, now barren of leaves except at the top, where the crown still clung to life. If I craned my neck, I could just make out their twigs rustling.
Anna would soon be as washed out as our surroundings. This place, with its buried roots, had a way of sucking the life out of everything it touched.
When I didn’t respond, she shifted on her feet, her red silk scarf whipping around her slender neck.
“Anyway, I should get going. It’ll be dark soon. Besides, that winding road is a nightmare to drive in the daytime, never mind the . . .”
She trailed off as she tightened her jacket and glanced back at the crows on the roof.
Their insistent cawing echoed around us.
“You don’t want to be out here after dark,” I said, and she snapped her head back around to look at me.
I shook out my umbrella, then fished the car key from my pocket. Anna still hadn’t moved, and when I tossed the umbrella into the trunk, she shifted on her feet.
