Page 14

He sensed all eyes on them, swinging from one to the other, waiting to witness who would blink first in this battle of wills.

Issa’s fingers drummed against the dais, those astral-wild eyes of hers penetrating through him, heating him, scorching him all over.

She smiled, not with anger, condescension, or even disdain, just a slight upturn of those lush lips.

Then she shrugged like shelethim win.

That pissed him off more than if she kept arguing.

‘Tis your call as Head of Surgery,’ she demurred, shutting down her holo presentation. ‘I’ll work with the surgical autobot.’

Ki’Remi clenched his jaw and sucked his teeth, eyes on her as she resumed her seat, that damn knowing smile still on her lips.

Issa eased into her chair and flipped a golden curl over her shoulder.

He lifted a chin to the administrator to continue the meeting and returned to his rear position, haunted by a gut-wrenching suspicion.

Twas surreal.

Hell, he couldn’t describe what she was making him feel.

He’d won the argument, hadn’t he?

So why the fokk didn’t it appear like a victory?

Ki’Remi was starting to think the universe had it out for him.

Every corner he turned on the Perseus Prime, all the hallways he crossed, each damned sector of this floating hospital, Issa Elaris was present.

Not in the subtle, pass-by-you kind of way.

Nada,twasin his face, or so it appeared.

She was everywhere.

In his estimation, what was worse was that she was infuriatingly appealing while driving him up the proverbial wall on so many levels.

Take, for example, patient-doctor relations.

Ki’Remi believed he was better focused when less emotional with his patients.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t polite, gentle, and assuaging of their fears.

He even made jokes.

What he didn’t do was play cards with them, sit around shooting the breeze, or challenge them to wheelchair races down corridors.

Issa Elaris did all of this and more.

He caught glimpses of her in the wards.

Once, crouched beside a wide-eyed child with bandages enveloping their small form, speaking in a hushed, honeyed tone that had them giggling through the pain.

The child lifted the tiny hand to Issa’s face and lobes, where she played with the doctor’s earrings. The woman in his purview beamed at her patient with such an open and warm smile that Ki’Remi felt a foreign tightness in his chest.

He sliced his gaze and strode away before she spotted him.

In another instance, he glimpsed her in the crew lounge, half-draped over one oversized chair. Bare feet tucked under her, sipping on some atrocious sugary concoction. At the same time, trading playful barbs with a table of nurses and medics.