Lucy was swimming, up, up into the bright world, surfacing from a heavy and sensual dream, where she was being kissed like nobody’s business, kissed so hard her lungs burned. She tried to embrace her dream lover, but her arms felt too cumbersome to move, so she just angled her mouth to better accommodate his kiss.

“The ambulance is here, so you can stop making out with her, Theo.”

That voice sounded like fingernails on glass.

“Lucy? Miss Cunningham? Can you hear me?”

That voice was sooo much nicer.

Then it came back to her, and Lucy opened one eye to see the face of Theo Redmond hovering above. He had exquisite soft blue eyes framed in dark brown lashes and brows. He had smooth but strong lips. He was stroking her cheek.

“Welcome back.”

Lucy closed her eyes tight and tried to melt into the plush carpeting of the cardio room floor. The paramedics rushed in. Their voices were hurried as they took her blood pressure, asked her what medicines she was taking, and-could this possibly get any worse?- heaved her onto a stretcher, wheeled her out through the busy Palm Club, to the elevator, the model and the trainer hurrying along at her side.

“We’re taking you to the hospital, where-”

“No.” Lucy’s eyes snapped open. She glared at the paramedic.

“Just to be on the safe side,” he said.

“I’m fine.”

As Gia Altamonte signed autographs for the ambulance crew crammed in the elevator, Theo leaned down close to Lucy’s face.

“Do it for me, OK, Lucy?” One side of his mouth hitched up, and he winked at her. “When a woman loses consciousness on our first date, I have to wonder-is it my antiperspirant? My mouthwash?”

“It was my Milk Duds.”

“Those things will kill you, you know.” He let his little grin explode into a blazing smile.