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She nearly stammered the response, fighting hard to tear her eyes away from his smooth skin. She prayed he hadn’t noticed the staring and internally bemoaned what that discovery might have brought about.
A tingling sensation coasted across Kenna’s cheeks as she made the short trek down the hall to the command desk. An older nurse with curly, graying hair offered a tight smile that was poised to crack her wrinkled face.
“Could I get a couple of towels for 319?”
“Sure, hun. Wait here,” she said before disappearing around the corner.
Her heart lunged into her throat and her stomach bottomed out when she spotted Professor Scott approaching from the wing’s entrance.
This was bound to be awkward. She could have sprinted to Dr. Merino’s room and hidden in the cramped closet, could’ve run around the opposite side of the command desk and crouched until the unexpected visitor had left.
She did neither. Worry consumed her like an infectious disease, feasting on every cell in her body.
He beheld her with an air of suspicion as he approached, tone brimming with inquisition. “Kenna?”
“Hey, Professor Scott.”
Conjuring an illusion of casualness required all of her energy. She knew this run-in wouldn’t be great for her mentor’s reputation. Maybe he’d ruined that on his own.
“Are you here to see Dr. Merino?”
“Yeah. How long have you been here?”
She came up empty with a reply that wouldn’t result in the theorization of a scandal. The truth would have to suffice.
To hell with the consequences.
“I haven’t left. Well, I went to my apartment to take a shower once he came out of post-op. Other than that, I’ve been here the whole time.”
The candid explanation absolved her fear. If Professor Scott thought something was going on between Dr. Merino and herself, that was his problem.
“Here you are.” The nurse returned with a neatly folded stack of towels, handing them to Kenna, and Professor Scott rubbed his eyelids at the exchange.
“He’s uh, in the shower. It’s a few rooms down.”
Had Dr. Merino known he was on the way? Assigning her this errand that was perfectly primed for embarrassment. The shower was still running as they approached Room 319.
“You know what? I’ll give these to him.” Professor Scott seized the towels. “Why don’t you give us a minute?”
“Sure thing.”
Kenna had never felt a greater flush of relief as she walked away from her former professor, her mentor, and the messy predicament in which she’d found herself.
The hot and cold valves screeched as Dayton terminated the waterflow. Before cleansing himself, he had smelled of forest rot mingled with a malodor that was unmistakably male; and yet Kenna stayed by his side like a thirst-stricken doe who’d at last come across a stream.
A jerk of the shower curtain revealed Nathan, head cocked and a perturbed look ironed onto his face.
“Jesus,” he breathed.
Dayton yanked a towel from the lopsided stack on the sink’s ledge and wrapped it around his bottom half. Had Kenna been the one lurking on the other side of the curtain, he wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to cover up.
“What the fuck ever happened to knocking?”
“Do you mind telling me what the hell is going on with you and Kerrygold?” Nathan snapped.
A tightness guarded his eyes, restraint working overtime. He always thought Dayton was up to no good. Usually, he was right.
And, oh, how he wished the accusation had any merit.
