Royal Seduction by Donna Clayton Page B

your thoughts? You were positively lost.”
    He wasn’t sure how to answer the question. He’d taken Catherine out last night, shown her a bit of Portland. Their evening together had even been referred to as a date. But it wasn’t as if this…thing between them was going anywhere.
    Faye shoved her heavy glasses up on her nose. “Ah, so it’s a woman.”
    Female intuition never ceased to amaze him.
    They turned a corner in the maze of the hospital and headed for the main lobby. “It’s nothing,” he muttered. She shot him a dubious look, and he asserted, “Really.”
    They walked in silence for several seconds.
    Faye said, “What do you think about the way Dr. Graham is pushing to get this testing started?”
    â€œI don’t like it. If it’s rushed, mistakes are bound to be made.”
    The expression on her face told him she agreed.
    â€œIf we’re going to do the testing here,” he continued, “we should get our best toxicologists on it. We should leave this to the experts. And Dr. Richie really should be involved even if it’s only as a consultant.”
    She nodded.
    Sunlight streamed though the glass-enclosed lobby. Faye’s steps slowed.
    â€œI have to run downstairs to the cafeteria to order sandwiches.”
    Riley gritted his teeth. “That shouldn’t be your job.”
    Faye waved away his concern. “I don’t mind. And someone’s got to do it.”
    He caught and held her gaze. “Someday,” he said, “you’re going to get full credit for all you do.”
    Her cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment, and Riley silently surmised that she’d be a very attractive woman if she’d loosen those tight fasteners from her hair and unmask herself from those enormous eyeglasses.
    But he quickly curbed the thought. Faye Lassen was an excellent doctor and an inordinately organized and efficient administrator. That in itself should be enough.
    He offered, “Do you want me to get the receptionists started on rearranging your afternoon appointments?”
    â€œNo, thanks. I’ll call them on my cell on my way to the cafeteria.”
    â€œOkay, then, I’ll see you back in the meeting in twenty.”
    They separated, and then Riley turned back and called out to her. “Do you have any idea which session Catherine Houston was going to attend this morning? I was supposed to have lunch with her today, so I need to cancel.”
    Faye’s face brightened. “Is Catherine the woman who had you so engrossed all morning?”
    His mouth drew into a line of warning.
    â€œOkay, okay,” she said, chuckling. “It’s none of my business. It’s just that she and I have become kind of chatty. She’s a sweet person, Riley. We’re going out this weekend, as a matter of fact. She asked me to show her the best shops.
    â€œAnyway,” Faye continued, “Catherine told me she was looking for a fun workshop. So she chose that popular one on self-control. Um…” Faye thought a second. “Oh, yes. Mind over Manicotti, it’s called. I’m sure that’s where you’ll find her.”
    â€œThanks.”
    Riley walked out into the sunshine, hardly aware of the glorious day.
    So Catherine had chosen to attend a session on self-control, he thought. Funny, last night at the restaurant she’d chosen a simple salad and a meatless pasta sauce. She hardly seemed to have a lack of self-control. Well, where food had been concerned, she hadn’t. However, if flirtation were chocolate syrup, she’d have drowned in the rich confection last night. Her verbal play had been enticing, to say the least.
    She’d made him feel some powerful physical urges. She’d stirred a hunger in him. A hunger so deep it had been awesome to experience, and nearly impossible to quell. If he hadn’t witnessed those extremely vulnerable moments—the raw pain