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Feeling edgy at his closeness and how he looked at her, she bit her lower lip.
“Tell me about the battery Cardico developed,” she said to cover her nervousness. As long as she kept things businesslike between them, she’d be fine. Right. “I know it’s supposed to last longer, but this is the first pacemaker to make use of it. Why did we opt to go with the CRT first?”
His gaze slowly lifted. His blue eyes pinning her, he shrugged. “It’s a good fit, I suppose. The CRT is designed to give improved quality of life and the patient not having to go back into surgery for eight years rather than six is a definite improvement.”
His words were all business, but the way he said them came out seductive. Or perhaps that was just her overactive imagination. Or the way his eyes said totally different things, like that he’d made note of her gnawing on her lower lip.
“The battery was originally tested at Boston Memorial Hospital?” Kimberly gulped.
“With an Ivy League college so close and the teaching environment of the hospital, doing research here comes naturally.” He leaned near, clicked on the mouse, dragging the arrow to the box to turn off the video feed. His arm brushed her shoulder in the process and she bit back a squeak. Whether from his touch or the yummy way he smelled wasn’t clear and didn’t matter. Business conversations weren’t supposed to be so…hot.
“I don’t think,” he continued, still close enough she could feel his body heat warming her, “I’d like practicing at a facility that didn’t stay at the cutting edge of technology.”
“No, I suppose not,” she agreed, shooting a quick look at his thoughtful expression. “But trying new things, that’s risky, too. If your research is wrong, people die.”
“All good things come with risk. If one isn’t willing to push the boundaries, to try new things, one has to accept the current state as the best one can ever be.”
She could almost believe he spoke about more than medical research. Almost.
“I’m very proud of you, Daniel.” The words came out soft, sincere but held the impact of fingernails scraped across a blackboard.
Or, better yet, a bucket of ice that quenched the flames flickering between them.
Because there was nothing warm about the way Daniel’s eyes looked when he spoke.
“Your sentiments are meaningless to me.”
CHAPTER FOUR
AFTER his continued good humor during the morning and his sexually-charged looks, Daniel’s sharp words caught Kimberly off guard.
Had their truce gone up in smoke so quickly?
Gritting her teeth, she stared at the screen without seeing anything. She knew he didn’t care, but to have him so bluntly cut her to the quick opened a gaping wound in her heart.
Tears blurred her vision, but she fought them, refusing to let them fall, to let him see how his words had hurt.
How dare he be all nice and then hit her when her defenses were down?
“Come on,” he ordered in a gruff tone that left her uncertain if he was upset with her or with himself. “You have a lot to learn in a short amount of time.”
Without looking at him, she nodded. “Fine. I’m ready.”
Not really, but the sooner she learned all about the CRT, the sooner she could go home. To Ryan.
That had her gaze shooting to Daniel, almost as if she expected him to have heard her thoughts, to know she’d given birth to their beautiful son.
“What?” he asked, staring at her.
She shook her head and followed him out of his office to make his hospital rounds.
They stopped by the nurses’ station and Daniel introduced her to a couple of nurses who seemed friendly enough, if slightly disinterested in her. However, their eyes ate Daniel up.
She had no right to be jealous, she reminded herself. No right.
She wasn’t jealous.
She was hurt. Hurt he’d so easily dismissed her pride in him. Although silly, she felt a stake in his success. After all, she’d given up what might have been so he could live out his dream.
