Harmony entered the room and closed the door with a click. Her dark hair was pulled back and pinned up in an elegant knot; her crisp white lab coat covered most of her body. She glanced at the clock placed on the counter and set her examination bag beside it. She gave only brief acknowledgement to the patient seated on the examination table as she arranged her tools: sphygmomanometer, opthalmoscope; eye chart, cotton swaps, reflex hammer, tuning fork.  She slung her stethoscope around her neck and turned back to the man, giving him a warm, bright smile. “Hello, my name is Harmony Peterson.” She poured a bit of antibacterial gel into her palms and rubbed them together before she extended her hand to shake his. “I’m going to be performing a general screening physical on you today. Before I begin, I want to let you know that what we do in this room stays in this room; it will not be discussed with anyone unless I have reason to believe that you may be a danger to yourself or to someone else. Is that all right with you?”

+*+*+

Keegan Grant couldn’t help the smile that came to his face as he regarded the young woman; her eyes so serious, her manner so brisk and professional. As he sat before her, clad only in a thin white paper gown and his usual boxer briefs, he made an internal vow. He was going to try to stay serious too, but he couldn’t promise that he wasn’t a danger to her, or to himself. “That’s fine with me.”

“Okay, then shall we get started?”

Keegan nodded and Harmony grabbed the sphygmomanometer from the countertop and wrapped the cuff around his right arm. She placed the buds of her stethoscope into her ears and measured his blood pressure, eyes fixed on the gauge as the needle dropped. Keegan watched the needle for a few seconds but then decided to focus instead on Harmony’s lips – plump, slightly parted and stained with a cranberry-colored gloss. Damn, they looked delicious.

Harmony’s eyes flickered up to Keegan’s and she quickly snatched the cuff from his arm. “Okay, your blood pressure is normal. May I see your other arm?”

Keegan extended his left arm and Harmony pressed her fingers to both of his wrists. She held them for a few seconds, made what sounded like an appreciative hum and released his left wrist as she bent his right arm across his chest. Keegan counted his breaths as she stood before him. In her black pumps, she stood tall enough for their eyes to be at an even level but she seemed to be determined to avoid his gaze. He watched her glance at his shoulders, his chest, her wristwatch…everywhere but at him. He didn’t let it bother him. She’d have to look at his face eventually. After a minute, or maybe five, she settled his arm back onto his lap.

“I’m going to be touching you and pressing into some parts of your arms. Let me know if you feel any discomfort.”

Keegan smiled. “I will.”

+*+*+

Harmony ran her hands down Keegan’s arms. Was his skin always this warm or was he running a fever? She inspected his hands, noting that his fingernails and fingertips showed no signs of abnormality. Up his arms she went, squeezing his muscles, palpating the side of his elbows for the epitrochlear lymph nodes and digging deep into his armpits for the axillary nodes. She cleansed her hands with gel again before moving ahead, firmly pressing the pads of her fingers up and down his collarbones, his neck, along his jaw and in front of and behind his ears.  She silently named each group of lymph nodes as she palpated, making sure to assess them all. When she sank her fingers into his thick, soft hair to feel for the suboccipital nodes at the back of his head, a low moan broke the silence. Harmony dropped her hands immediately. “Did I hurt you?”

“Not at all.” Keegan said. “That felt good.”

Harmony swallowed and cleared her throat.  “Okay, I’ll move on then.” She did a cursory check for any trauma to his head and patches of hair loss and then took a deep breath. This was the section of the exam where she made the most mistakes. “Please take off your glasses and look directly into my eyes.”

+*+*+

Keegan’s lips quirked into a sly smile. He removed his glasses and stared into Harmony’s eyes, just as she had asked, and began to imagine himself unbuttoning her starched white coat and peeling it from her body. His smile grew when he felt the slight tremble in her fingertips when she touched his face.

“Look down,” she commanded.

As she pulled at his eyelids, he continued to daydream. After the coat, he’d divest her of her blouse. Then, the skirt. Did it zip at the side or at the back? He could see himself, kneeling before her as she stood in those pumps, searching for the zipper with his hands, letting them glide over the fabric to tease her. He’d slide them over her hips and then—

“Now, look up.”

Keegan obeyed. He held the eye chart when she handed it to him and covered his eyes in turn to read the letters. He followed her finger to wherever she moved it to test his eye muscles. He indicated when he saw her fingers wiggling in his periphery. He focused on the light she flashed in his pupils. Finally, they had come to his favorite portion of the eye exam.  He watched as she crossed the room to flip the light switch.

+*+*+

With the room drenched in darkness, Harmony adjusted her opthalmoscope and began to explain the procedure in lay terms, as was customary. “I’m going to use this tool to shine a bright light so I can see some structures inside your eye. I need you to look directly at the wall in front of you. Don’t look into the light until I tell you to.” The first two steps were easy – use the scope to check for the red reflex and then, use it to assess the anterior structures of the eye: the cornea and iris. Harmony took a deep breath. Here comes the tough part. “Okay, now I’m going to get very close to you. Just keep staring at the wall.” She came to stand in front of him with the scope pressed to her right eye. With but an inch of space between the instrument and the patient, she was supposed to use the light to trace the blood vessels in his eye and observe the optic disc. However, all she could focus on was Keegan’s mouth. She was close enough to feel his breath as it left his lips. Close enough to lick the corner of his mouth if she stuck out her tongue. As if he’d read her mind, he ran his tongue over his lips, making them glisten.

“Be still!” Harmony hissed, a sharp warning. “You can look into my light now.” After quickly observing his macula, she switched sides and assessed his left eye, trying desperately to keep her thoughts from straying. When she finished and walked away to turn the light back on, she thought she heard him chuckle.

“I’m going to check your ears now,” she said, allowing her frustration to color her voice. She removed the opthalmic head from her instrument and clicked the otoscopic head into place.

+*+*+

Keegan had to give it to her. So far, she’d managed to stay on track. For that, he decided to reward her with a respite. He was cooperative for the auditory acuity exam, trying not to react to the tickle of her whisper in his ear. He remained still as she looked at his eardrums with her lighted scope. He let her check his sinuses, his nostrils, his mouth and his throat without incident. Whatever she asked, he did, and even though in his mind, he was now maneuvering her panties down her legs and over her stilettos, Keegan blinked, pouted, pointed, and swallowed, just like a good boy. He knew that with one strategic move, he could’ve ended the exam already but he enjoyed seeing Harmony flustered. How far could she progress? How far could he push her before she broke? Right now, she stood behind him with her slender fingers stroking the skin of the hollow notch between his collarbones.

“Swallow one last time.”

Keegan complied. He knew the exam sequence as well as she did. There were plenty of other opportunities to pierce the professional veneer and get her to really touch him coming up.