inexperienced rookie. She suppressed a sigh and acknowledged the truth-the mood she was in tonight meant that whatever response Luke made, she would be hard to please.
She set the paper aside and glanced at her watch. ‘The ETA on the quad bike victim is any minute now. The febrile infant will be at least twenty minutes.’
As soon as she’d finished speaking an ambulance glided up to the entrance, red and blue lights revolving.
‘Let’s get to work,’ he said grimly, heading for the door.
With Luke’s attention directed towards the unconscious patient being unloaded by the paramedics, Terri felt a subtle release of tension in her muscles. The quiet air of strength and competence that he radiated should have made him a pleasure to work with…it
He saw too much and she had secret agonies she couldn’t bear to have exposed. He’d already encroached where no one else had by asking her about the explosion that had killed Peter. Other people tiptoed around the issue, relieved when she moved the conversation away to safer topics. But not Luke. Had he sensed there was a problem?
She had to find the resolve to keep him out, not let his compassion weaken her. The guilt and responsibility, the burden for the terrible loss was hers and hers alone.
Luke watched the diminishing lights of the helicopter ambulance for a moment longer before turning wearily to walk back into the hospital. The future of the quad-bike victim was in the neurosurgeon’s hands now.
The man’s wife had wanted absolute reassurances that he’d recover but Luke couldn’t give them to her. Even if her husband survived, he’d probably have months of rehabilitation ahead of him.
He and Terri had done everything they could. The skull X-ray had shown an intracranial haematoma, as he’d suspected from the blown right pupil. With the help of a telephone consult to a Melbourne neurosurgeon, they’d evacuated an epidural clot through a burr-hole. They weren’t ideally set up for the procedure but they’d had to do it as soon as possible for the man to have any chance of a full recovery. Now stabilised, with the pressure on his brain released, the accident victim was on his way to facilities where he could be monitored by regular CT scans.
The only good thing about the situation was that the couple’s five-year-old daughter had hopped off the bike moments before the performance of the tragic stunt.
Luke stripped off his blood-stained gown, lobbing it into the laundry bin beside the sink before scrubbing his hands.
He wondered how Terri was getting on with the dehydrated infant.
Odd how she’d behaved earlier when he’d first come on shift. She’d been so obviously upset that all his protective instincts had gone on high alert, demanding that he do something, anything, to help. After avoiding him for the best part of a week, she’d seemed positively delighted to see him. A disproportionate leap of pleasure had rushed through him in that split second when she’d turned to look at him, her eyes shining. Until she’d put her hand out on the bench to steady herself and he’d seen the desperation underlying her veneer of composure. For a moment, he’d been afraid she was going to collapse at his feet.
But there’d been no sign of hesitation or diffidence when she’d helped him with the quad-bike trauma case. He’d watched for it, been ready to take over if she’d faltered. But she’d been great. Better than great.
She’d been fantastic since day one, taking direction from him with no hostility at all. After his father had explained to him the hospital board’s poor handling of the filling of the position he’d wondered how their working relationship would function. But it was a pleasure…in every way. And if there were any undertones of resentment, he couldn’t detect them. If anything, he was the one giving out the mixed signals.
He enjoyed working with her. And on a personal level, he enjoyed being close to her. Perhaps just a little too much. Since that first night when he’d had his hands on her, he’d wanted nothing more than to touch her again.
Professionally, it was a potential time bomb.
She impressed the hell out of him.
As a doctor, she was strong and competent.
As a woman, she was an enigma. One he wanted to solve. The more he
Those occasional flashes of uncertainty and fragility he saw in her cut straight to his heart. They were so out of keeping with the rest of her.
What had upset her tonight? Obviously not the trauma patient. Could it have been the infant?
It didn’t make sense. That case appeared to be so straight-forward. Perhaps Terri had been a little on the cautious side but he preferred that in the staff he worked with than someone who was negligent about cases.
He knew Terri had taken the infant and her mother through to one of the double rooms. The woman had a toddler to look after as well and Terri’s suggestion of a family room for them had made sense. His runners made no noise as he padded through to the quiet corridor
At the door of the room, he stopped dead.
Terri held the happy chortling baby on her knee. He could see her profile, see the loving smile on her lips. The boy’s trusting eyes looked up into Terri’s face as a stream of unintelligible words tumbled out of the rosebud mouth. The fingers of one chubby hand wrapped around Terri’s thumb and he tried to stuff it between his lips.
‘Aren’t you a gorgeous wee man?’ cooed Terri, her voice a warm, maternal caress. Luke’s breath choked up in his throat.
‘Ga!’ said the child, responding enthusiastically to her tone.
‘Yes, you are.’
The sight rocked Luke to the core, raising age-old masculine instincts to protect, to possess. He swallowed hard, waiting for the world to settle.
He adored being a father. From the moment he’d laid eyes on his daughter, his soul had been filled by her sweet invasion of his life.
A sharp, uncomfortable hunger stirred in his heart as he watched Terri with the child.
He must have made a small noise because Terri looked up suddenly. Her smile was filled with a warm uncomplicated love that slammed into him. The charged moment was packed with intimacy. His heart made a slow painful revolution in his chest and a shudder of recognition fizzed through his brain.
He wanted…He refused to let his mind finish the thought.
Terri’s smile faltered and he wondered what she read on his face. Then she blinked, and a quick puzzled look filled her lovely dark eyes before she looked away. She was still seated in front of him but he had the oddest feeling she’d withdrawn from him, mentally fled.
He moved closer, compelled by a wholly male desire to pursue.
‘Someone’s looking a lot happier.’ He sat beside her, putting one hand on the back of her chair as he leaned towards the child. He suppressed a grin when Terri flicked him a wary look. Her senses were spot on. Though he tried to present an unthreatening appearance, she had stirred a primitive corner within him.
He smiled as he stroked the baby’s soft cheek with the back of one finger. The small mouth drooled saliva as it made chewing motions on Terri’s knuckle. ‘Teething as well, is he?’
‘Yes. Which is possibly why he wasn’t settling for his mum.’ Her voice was soft and tender. ‘Poor little fellow.’
Luke’s eyes were drawn to Terri’s profile. She wore her hair up twisted in a loose bun on the crown of her head, making it easy for him to study her profile, the curve of her cheek, the neat straight nose, stubborn chin.
Another wave of need spiralled through his gut. He hadn’t felt such compelling sexual awareness for a long time. Experiencing it now so powerfully was exciting and unnerving.
He had some thinking to do. His situation with Terri was a sensitive one. He was her boss, they worked in a small hospital. They were both here for a limited time.
But there was something between them. Would Terri allow him to pursue it?
Or perhaps the more important question was, was pursuing it wise?
‘Come on, kiddo. You can’t sit there all day.’
Luke’s head lifted at the sound of his sister’s voice coming from just outside his line of sight. He knew Allie
