Sara just smiled triumphantly. "All part of the mystique"

"All part of the irritation," Nik corrected, but he didn't look annoyed, only bemused, like someone facing a six hundred piece jigsaw puzzle of Samoyed puppies lost in a blizzard.

His irritation she could easily handle. It was the other part that she couldn't. The part where he told her that he liked her. He wasn't talking about friendship, that much she could see in his eyes. " "

Then why "

Nik framed her face, his long fingers curving about her cheeks.

"Because I do like you, Sara. A great deal. I don't completely understand what's going on here myself. When I figure it out, I'll let you know. But until I do, I intend to go on exploring it. That means I'm going to be seeing you a lot."

She felt her pulse throbbing in her throat like a b.u.t.terfly caught in a hunter's net. She wasn't sure how she managed to get any words past it. "Lucky me."

":qqMaybe; He leaned over more. Gently his lips justly brushed against hers. It felt like brushing against qen, she thought. " Or maybe we'll both get lucky. " q the resistance that had been so strong only a moment ago qqelt as lax as overcooked spaghetti now. Sara sighed deeply. u'qqAll right, I guess I could use some help tomorrow." She :qnced at the date that was on the bottom right corner of qqe computer screen. Something occurred to her. don't qyou work on Sat.u.r.days? " q He'd been working seven days a week for a long time. It q the to let go a little. Starting now. If nothing else, if he burned out he'd lose his creative edge, and running Sinqir 's meant constant change, constant revamping of menus and alteration of tried-and-true recipes.

"I'm learning to be flexible. Jennifer says it's good for my health and for business." Nik rose to his feet. Time to get back before Chris started another fire in the kitchen. "What time do you want me to pick you up tomorrow? "

She thought for a moment. "Eleven, I guess. He's supposed to be discharged before noon " She looked up at Nik still uncertain about the wisdom of being around him any more than she had to. "Are you sure...

He looked down into her eyes. The pull was there, hard and strong.

There was no use denying it. "I'm sure."

Sara felt her stomach flipping over and tying itself in a knot all over again. afraid that he'd see more than she wanted him to, Sara turned her chair back to the computer screen.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," she murmured under her breath.

But he heard her.

She was agitated. He could tell by the way she was sitting next to him in the car. Perched as if she expected the seat to explode under her at any moment. But, for a change, he didn't think her state had anything to do with him. She'd been friendly when he'd arrived and their conversation had been pleasant enough, revolving around work, Jennifer and Brom.

Yet there was something in her manner that convinced him she was edgy.

She didn't want to be doing this, Nik thought. She didn't want to be going to the hospital to pick up her father.

He realized that, in all this time, she hadn't said all that much about the man. Nik made up his mind to give Brom a call and find out some of the missing pieces to this puzzle.

But he didn't want to wait until tonight. He wanted Sara to tell him.

He wanted Sara to trust him. "Do you and your father get along?" Nik saw her shoulders stiffen just a little

Sara stared straight ahead as they took the off ramp from the freeway.

She could see the hospital looming on the horizon just ahead. "I haven't been around him long enough to get along."

Nik eased down on the brake as they came to a red light. Renovating construction was going on to the right, giving the old streets a new face.

He raised his voice to be heard above the jackhammer. "Why's that?"

Sara shot him a look. "You're prying again," she shouted.

He shifted his foot to the gas pedal as the light turned green. "Yes, I am."

She should have gone by herself, as she had first intended It was just that she'd suddenly wanted a buffer between her and her father on the ride home. This was what she got for being a coward. "look, just because you're driving me to the hospital doesn't mean that I have to answer all your questions."

He was definitely calling Brom tonight. "Settle down: To reinforce his words, he placed a gentling hand on her arm, the way he would with an animal that had been spooked. " I'm just curious. "

She wished he'd stop touching her. Her skin felt warm just beneath his fingers and she could feel herself wanting things she knew were bad for her. Bad because they would lead to other wants, other desires that couldn't be fulfilled.

~. q: Sheshifted, moving closer to the window. "You know :qivvhat they said about the cat...."

Nick s.h.a.gged as he turned right at the light. "That means I've got nine lives to work with." He glanced at her and qnned. "I'll risk it." His voice grew serious. "After you were out on your own, why didn't you visit your father?"

Sara held on to her purse and stared straight ahead, like a hostile witness on the stand. "I never go where I'm not wanted."

"He said that?" Entering the hospital grounds, Nik guided the car slowly toward the admissions and discharge area. He felt incensed on her behalf. " " He told you that you weren't welcome? "

No, he'd never said anything at all. That was the trouble. In all those years he'd never sought her out to talk. "Words aren't everything, Nik."

"Then how did you know he didn't want to see you?"

"I don't want to talk about it anymore, okay?" Talking only aggravated the situation and brought back the pain she had never managed to put to rest or work through. Only lock away.

Nik parked the car near the entrance in a s.p.a.ce reserved for compact cars. For a moment Sara didn't move. She sat as if she was bracing herself to face down a demon. Maybe -she was he thought.

Sara turned to look at him. "Do you want to stay here and think of more ways to a.n.a.lyze me while I go- "

Iqe wasn't about to let her face this alone, not the way she felt.

"We'll both go." Nik got out, then rounded the hood and waited for her to join him. "I have a feeling that you need the moral support."

She shrugged indifferently, but inside, she was rebelling against his words. She didn't want or need anyone's help. The day she admitted that she did, she knew she would be in trouble. Because no one stayed for the duration. Her father had proved that to her.

"If it helps you to fill out some good deed requirement list, you can come along to give me moral support. But I can manage perfectly well on my own, so don't think-"

"Sara?" His tone cut through the sea of words like a shark's fin gliding through the crowded waters off a beach.

"That you have to-what?" she demanded finally.

Nik pointed toward the hospital's electronic gla.s.s doors. "Shut up and walk."

He made her so mad that she could spit. "You know, just because you pay my salary doesn't mean that you can just order me around like that."

" " My paying your salary has nothing to do with it. Ever think of running for the Senate? They say that filibusters are really popular there. "

She said nothing as she pa.s.sed him and walked into the hospital lobby.

But he could guess what she was thinking.

Nik grinned to himself.

Raymond was sitting on the edge of his bed, dressed and waiting for her when Sara arrived. His room was small and neatly arranged, a carbon copy of twenty more just like it on the floor. Sara had barely even noticed it in her two previous visits. Each time she had left almost as soon as she had arrived, murmuring that she was on her lunch break and had to be getting back.

Coming to see him had a.s.suaged her conscience. Leaving quickly had helped her cope.