He watched a moment more, enjoying the way his big body wrapped around her pet.i.te, feminine frame, then something in the mirror caught his eye. He moved his hand a little and there-tattooed on a pale, perfect globe-was the tiny image of a pink b.u.t.terfly.

It was her wicked secret, he realized and the knowledge released something primitive inside him.

"I've got to have you," he said, kissing her fiercely as he lifted her into his arms and strode toward the bedroom, determined to satisfy this need he couldn't explain. "I have to have you now." She clung to his shoulders as he settled her on the mattress and started to unzip his jeans.

When Autumn looked up at him, he couldn't miss the panic in her eyes. "What...what are we doing?"

"Something both of us seem to want very badly." Worried she was about to bolt, he leaned down and kissed her, taking his time, stirring the pa.s.sion he knew was there. When she was pliant in his arms, he finally let her go, kicked off his shoes and stepped out of his jeans and the rest of his clothes.

She was staring at his erection, gaping as if she had never seen a man with a hard-on before, when the phone next to the bed began to ring.

His body clenched so hard he shook and Ben foully cursed.

The line rang again before Autumn jerked her gaze away and reached for the receiver.

She raked back her thick auburn hair with a shaky hand. "h.e.l.lo...Myra is that you?" She sat bolt upright. "Slow down. Tell me what's wrong." There was conversation on the other end of the line. "Is he going to be all right? Yes, yes, I know you'll stay with him. I'm on my way. I'll get there as quickly as I can."

Her eyes were huge green pools as she hung up the phone and looked up at him. "My dad had a heart attack. I have to go." She shot off the bed and raced into the living room, frantically searching for her clothes.

His own clothes were scattered all over the floor. He pulled on his boxers and jeans, then found and put on the rest of his garments. Autumn was dressed and searching for her car keys by the time he finished.

She grabbed her purse and picked the keys up off the kitchen counter.

"I'm sorry, Ben...about everything. I don't know what happened, I just..." She shook her head. "I have to go."

Ben reached out and plucked the keys from her fingers. "You're in no shape to drive. Get your jacket and I'll drive you to the hospital."

"You don't have to do that-I'm fine. Besides, I've already made a mess of the evening. There's no need for you to-"

"Bulls.h.i.t. You didn't make a mess of anything. Sooner or later, we'll finish what we started here tonight, but for now you've got more important matters on your mind. Now get your jacket and let's go."

For a moment, he thought she would argue. Instead, she hurried over to the closet, dragged a lightweight jacket off a hanger and started for the door. They took her car, since his was still parked at his apartment. Some of her climbing gear was in the pa.s.senger seat. She tossed it into the back with the rest of the stuff she carried and threw their jackets in the backseat.

Ben took the wheel and they headed out of town. He drove the little red SUV up on the Interstate and headed north. The roads were fairly easy to travel this time of night; it was a little over an hour's drive to Burlington. Autumn sat statue-still all the way, her eyes focused on the white line appearing ahead of them. It was clear she wouldn't be dreaming about Molly tonight. They'd be lucky if either of them got any sleep.

Under different circ.u.mstances, Ben might have smiled. He would have kept her up late anyway, making slow, pa.s.sionate love to her.

That wasn't going to happen tonight.

Worse yet, there was something in Autumn's expression that made him suspect it never would.

Thirteen.

Autumn directed Ben to take the 230 Exit off Interstate 5 toward Burlington, then they headed up the North Cascades Highway to United General Hospital.

"You go on in," Ben said as they pulled into the parking lot. "I'll take care of the car and find you."

She nodded, cracked open the car door and took off for the entrance at a run. The woman at the reception desk pointed her toward the door of the emergency waiting room, where she found Myra Hammond, her father's long-time girlfriend, pacing impatiently just outside the entrance.

"Autumn! Thank G.o.d you're here!" A woman in her late fifties with silver hair tinted blond, Myra was slightly overweight but always well dressed and attractive. "Your father's inside but they won't let me in because I'm not a member of his immediate family."

"Is he going to be all right?" Autumn asked just as Ben joined them.

"I think so. The doctor came out a little while ago and said he was doing okay, but I'm still worried."

Autumn introduced Ben to Myra as a friend from Seattle, the person who had driven her up, making it sound as if they were only distantly acquainted. As if she hadn't been half naked with him a little over an hour ago, hadn't been on the verge of having wild, erotic s.e.x with him-would have if the phone hadn't rung, saving her from the consequences of her wild, unbridled l.u.s.t.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Well, he started having these pains in his chest and then he couldn't seem to catch his breath. I got scared and called 911. I think he was worried too, because he really didn't argue all that much. The ambulance brought him here and they've been running tests on him ever since."

"So you were over at his house when it happened?"

"We had an early supper and watched a little TV."

"Do you have any idea what might have caused this? Was he doing something overly stressful?"

Myra looked away, then down at her feet. "Well...I guess you could say that. You see, there wasn't anything good on TV and after a while...well, things got started between us and we wound up in bed, then your dad's chest started hurting and he couldn't seem to breathe and...well, you know the rest."

Autumn stared at Myra as if she had never seen the woman before. "Are you telling me you and my father were having s.e.x when this happened?" Her voice rose a notch. It was ridiculous. Her father was an adult. He and Myra had been seeing each other for years. Her father could certainly have s.e.x with the woman if he wanted.

"It isn't a crime, you know."

From the corner of her eye, she saw amus.e.m.e.nt curve Ben's lips.

Autumn kept her attention fixed on Myra. "But his heart...Dad has a heart condition, for heaven's sake. He isn't supposed to overexert himself."

Myra's silver-blond eyebrows went up. "He's supposed to get plenty of exercise, isn't he?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"He isn't supposed to drink, but he likes a gla.s.s of whiskey in the evenings and you don't seem to mind that."

"I do mind, but you know how stubborn he is."

Myra nodded sagely. "Well, there's something he likes even more than his gla.s.s of Jack."

Autumn's eyes widened.

"So how's he doing?" Ben interjected diplomatically, ending what was becoming a very disturbing conversation.

"Like I said, I think he's going to be okay. The doctor says he's feeling much better but they want to do a few more tests."

Ben turned to Autumn. "Why don't you go see what you can find out and Myra and I will wait for you here."

"Good idea." She should have done that already, she realized as she made her way through the doors into the emergency room waiting area, but she wasn't thinking all that clearly-hadn't been all evening, she reminded herself.

The emergency room doctor joined her at the front desk, a young-looking, dark-haired man wearing tortoise-sh.e.l.l gla.s.ses. His name was Leonard Jackson.

"Mr. Sommers is doing very well," Dr. Jackson said. "I think he may have suffered a case of acute indigestion. That combined with bit of overexertion brought on what appeared to be a heart attack. We'll keep him a day or two for observation just to make sure, but I think he's going to be fine."

She nearly sagged with relief.

"You can see him for a few minutes but don't stay too long."

Ignoring the antiseptic hospital smell she had always hated, Autumn went into a curtained enclosure in the middle of a row of six others. She found her father awake and grumbling.

"I told her it was nothing. Can't believe she went and called you too." He wasn't a tall man but his shoulders and legs were muscled from climbing for so many years and he didn't have the usual sixty-year-old's paunch. His high blood pressure and two-hundred-seventy-plus cholesterol had come as a surprise, linked to a bad gene somewhere in the family, the doctors said. So far Max had refused to take any of the prescription medications available, certain the drugs were worse than the high cholesterol.

Autumn wasn't sure she disagreed. "Myra was worried about you, Dad. She cares for you a very great deal."

He looked her straight in the face. "Ought to marry her, I guess. Make an honest woman of her."

Surprise jolted through her. Had Max just said the M word? Autumn couldn't believe it. His marriage to her mother had been a total disaster. Max Sommers had sworn he would never remarry and was constantly sending her e-mails with those dumb jokes about married men. Though he'd been seeing Myra for years, it never occurred to her that he might actually marry the woman.

Autumn looked at him lying there, paler than usual, his salt-and-pepper hair hanging over his forehead. "You aren't serious, are you? About marrying Myra, I mean?"

He gave a faint shrug. "At least she could have come in here with me. I mean, h.e.l.l, we're almost living together."

He was serious. She couldn't believe it. She took a steadying breath. "I realize you have your own life, Dad. Whatever you decide is fine with me, but there is one thing you need to consider."

"What's that?"

"Your heart, Dad. You really think you and Myra should be...well...behaving the way you were with your high blood pressure and all?"

He grunted. "If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. Till that happens, I'm gonna live. You might try a little of that yourself."

She stiffened. Max was always pressing her to live her life, not be afraid of it. He had never pressured her to get married, but he believed she should experience life the way he always had. The way he had done when her mother had been alive.

One thing was certain. Max Sommers had been a rounder.

And he had never been faithful.

If she were honest with herself, she would have to admit her father's casual relationships with women was one of the reasons she kept men at a distance. She was afraid of what would happen if she fell in love with a man and wasn't woman enough to keep him from straying. Exactly what had happened with Steve.

Going up a mountain, she wasn't afraid, she was in control. But where men were concerned...

She thought about the way she had lost control tonight with Ben and felt her face heating up. How could she criticize her father when she and Ben had been doing the exact same thing?

"All right," she said to Max, "we'll leave the subject alone for now. I just don't want anything to happen to you."

Whatever problems her dad had with women, to her he'd been the best father in the world and Autumn loved him deeply.

He reached over and caught her hand. "Doc says I'm gonna be fine so there's no need for you to worry. I want you to send Myra home and go on back home yourself."

"You know very well that isn't going to happen. Myra won't leave and neither will I."

He didn't look pleased. "You drive down by yourself?"

"No...I...a friend drove me down."

"Josh?"

"No, a man named Ben McKenzie."

One of her father's bushy salt and pepper eyebrows went up. "McKenzie? Not the sporting-goods guy?"

She nodded, her mouth feeling suddenly dry. "He's a student in one of my climbing cla.s.ses."

"That so? How long you been seein' him?"

"We aren't dating, Dad. We're just friends."

He frowned. "Another one of your man friends? From what it looks like in the papers, McKenzie doesn't have women friends." Max studied her hard. "You be careful with that fella, you hear?" Then the corners of his mouth curled up. "On the other hand, maybe it's time you were a little less careful. Maybe you ought to get rid of that bunch of neutered males you hang around with and find yourself a real man. Take a lesson from me and Myra."

Autumn's cheeks were burning. Her father's eyes closed for a moment and he relaxed against the pillow. It was obvious the events of the evening and all the talking had worn him out. A nurse appeared and shooed her out of the curtained-off area, telling her that in the next couple of hours Max would be moved into a private room. Dr. Jackson suggested that she and Myra go home but Autumn refused.

"We're staying," she said, certain Myra would agree.

"Suit yourself," said the doctor. "But visiting hours don't start till eight in the morning."

She returned to the waiting room and relayed to Myra the conversation she'd had with her dad. "He wants us to go home, Myra, but-"

"I'm staying right here," the older woman said firmly. "At least till I see him in the morning."

That became the plan and to her surprise, Ben seemed not to mind. He stretched out on a couple of chairs in the waiting room and fell asleep. He didn't wake up until morning.

Autumn couldn't help thinking that at least she was safe from Ben-and herself-for one more night.

"I want to meet him," her father grumbled. "He brought you down here, didn't he? Stayed up half the night just 'cause you were too stubborn to leave. Least you can do is introduce us."

Autumn bit back a frustrated curse. Since there was no talking Max out of it, she led Ben into the hospital room. His dark hair was mussed, a shadow of beard shaded his jaw and his clothes were rumpled.

"So you're Ben McKenzie."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Sommers. Glad you're feeling better."

Her father eyed him warily. "Bought some gear from your store down in Seattle," he said. "Good quality merchandise. Still works just like new."

"We only carry the best. I'm glad you approve."

"My daughter says she's teaching you to climb," Max said.