Out of Character Read Free Page B

convinced him that she was exactly the kind of woman he needed, slightly timid, pretty but not hot enough to attract universal male attention. The kind of woman an accountant would like. So he’d signed up for Jillian’s class, taken the chairlift in front of her, and made sure she’d run into him. After that, it had been easy.
    The outside door opened, admitting two men and a woman. Mark slid his hand underneath his sport coat and grabbed his gun. He didn’t recognize any of the trio, and they went directly to the hostess without sparing him a glance.
    Jillian certainly hadn’t turned out to be the sweet, fragile type her appearance implied. She was an ER doctor at Denver County Hospital, for God’s sake, a place that treated the kind of guys who ended up in his business. He’d only offered to help her so she’d ski with him outside of class, which had given him freedom to look for his friend. Even though she wasn’t at all his type, he’d enjoyed talking to her much more than he’d anticipated. He’d figured he could safely take her to a crowded restaurant, have a few hours of intelligent conversation, and a decent meal, then send her on her way.
    The glass door opened again. He stuck his hand under his sport coat then relaxed when Jillian stepped inside. She’d left her blond hair loose tonight and with her small frame and wide, pale blue eyes, she looked more like a preschool teacher than an ER doctor. Then again, he knew firsthand how deceiving appearances could be.
    He smiled and stepped toward her.
    * * * *
    Jillian slipped from the frigid outside air into the restaurant’s aromatic warmth. Mark stood against the wall right inside the entrance, wearing a gray tweed sport coat over his black jeans and shirt. He smiled, and her relief—and increased temperature and heart rate—proved Kristen had been right about the first date jitters. Of course she was nervous. She hadn’t been close to a man without her stethoscope in more than six months.
    After she checked her ski jacket, the hostess appeared, one of those beautiful, sexy twenty-something women even more prevalent in ski areas than SUV’s. She led them through the restaurant’s dimly lit, sophisticated décor, past tables filled with diners dressed from casual to semi-formal. The hostess spent the entire walk flirting with Mark then left Jillian with a menu and him with a suggestive smile.
    To his credit, Mark didn’t watch her saunter away. He helped Jillian into a black and taupe chair then sat down on her right. They spent several minutes studying the menus and ordering.
    “Did you always want to be a doctor?” Mark asked.
    “When I was a kid I actually wanted to own a pet store,” Jillian admitted. “Mostly because I wanted a dog, and my mom refused to get one.”
    “Why did you give up on the pet store idea?”
    She wrinkled her nose. “I worked in one during high school. Although I still want a dog. I’m getting one as soon as I pay off enough school loans that I can afford to rent a place with a yard.”
    “What made you pick ER medicine?” Mark lips curved slightly. “I’d think an admitted control freak would choose something more predictable.”
    A familiar question. “I grew up in a Chicago neighborhood where nobody went to a doctor unless they had to. ER doctors were the only ones anyone ever saw. Besides, ER’s are usually a lot calmer than on TV, and we’re trained to keep control when things go wild.”
    Their waitress delivered a glass of cabernet to Jillian and a beer to Mark.
    Mark sipped his beer then set the glass on the table. “Chicago’s a great city. Is your family still there?”
    Jillian shook her head. “My parents are both dead, and my only brother’s in Philadelphia. What about your family?”
    “Everyone lives in Connecticut.” He grinned. “Which is close enough to New York for all of us, even though we get along. Have you ever been married?”
    “Never. What about you?”
    “I was. My wife