Annie froze as Nathan moved his hand to cup her cheek, the caress of his fingers sending a trail of heat across her skin…
His thumb under her chin tilted her face up until she could no longer avoid his gaze.
“How is it possible that you are even more beautiful now?”
His husky words made every part of her go on red alert—his touch, his nearness, his musky male scent all combining to rob her of common sense and strip away her resistance.
“Nathan…”
His name escaped on a whisper of breath rather than sounding like the denial she had intended. And when the pad of his thumb grazed the swell of her lower lip she could no longer maintain coherent thought. Instead, her traitorous lips parted in eager anticipation and responded instinctively as his mouth captured hers.
Annie had forgotten how incredible Nathan’s seductive kisses were. No, that was wrong. She hadn’t forgotten.
Dear Reader,
I was starting to write Nathan and Annie’s story when I was interrupted with some other wonderful projects. So Nathan was left pacing restlessly in my mind, demanding I get down to the business of reuniting him with Annie, who has appeared as a secondary character in several of my previous Medical™ Romance novels. But Annie doesn’t want a reunion with the man she once loved beyond reason—the man she thinks rejected her five years ago.
Now Nathan and Annie must work together as dedicated doctors. Although Annie tries to keep Nathan at bay, she is forced to confront the past and her role in it, discovering that her reality is distorted. As the truth becomes clear, Annie’s plans backfire and an unexpected event threatens to change her life forever. Is it too late for them, or can Nathan and Annie have a second chance at love?
It is wonderful to be back in my fictional world of Strathlochan again, catching up with old friends and making new ones. I hope you will enjoy Nathan and Annie’s story and return to visit the folk in Strathlochan again very soon.
Love,
Margaret
www.margaretmcdonagh.com
THE EMERGENCY DOCTOR CLAIMS HIS WIFE
Margaret McDonagh
THE EMERGENCY DOCTOR CLAIMS HIS WIFE
To Christina Jones and Maggie Kingsley,
my deadline buddies,
thank you for all the support and encouragement
And to Dr. Nick Edwards—thanks for your help
and for your wonderful book, In Stitches,
which is funny, moving and thought-provoking
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ONE
‘HAVE you seen him yet, Annie?’
Dr Annie Webster glanced round in response to the question and stifled a groan at the hungry anticipation on Olivia Barr’s heavily made-up face. The trauma nurse—famous for her short attention span and her even shorter skirts—was staring out of the ground floor staffroom window which overlooked the car park outside the casualty department at Strathlochan Hospital. Accustomed to her ways, the handful of other staff present paid Olivia no mind.
‘Seen who?’ Annie queried, feigning interest as she poured herself a fortifying cup of coffee which she just had time to savour before her shift in A and E began.
‘The new doctor. He started yesterday. But you were off then, weren’t you?’ Thickly kohled brown eyes glittered as Olivia assessed her for a moment before dismissing her. She teased artfully placed strands of short, bleached blonde hair across her forehead and resumed her watch from the window. ‘Here comes his car now. Oh, yes! Talk about sexy. Wait until you see the body on this man!’
Annie expected the woman to start drooling any moment. As one of the other nurses nearby rolled her eyes behind Olivia’s back, Annie stifled a laugh. Olivia’s reputation as a man eater was well earned, and she went after anyone who took her fancy with frightening zest. Olivia might have her moments as a good trauma nurse, but Annie disapproved of her obvious, often embarrassing crushes on male visitors and colleagues. Fortunately for all concerned these never lasted long—her interest rarely being reciprocated—before she moved on to the next man to catch her eye. Unfortunately these distractions often affected her concentration and, worst of all, her patient care—something Annie could not ignore or forgive.
‘I’ve found out he’s not married but I know precious little else about him…yet.’ Olivia’s scarlet-painted mouth set in an unattractive sulky moue of displeasure. ‘So far he’s been difficult to pin down and has refused to answer my questions.’
Annie didn’t blame the guy. Clearly this new doctor had his wits about him if he had summed Olivia up on day one and managed to maintain his distance. The woman was nothing if not persistent in pursuit of what she wanted.
‘I don’t plan to let this one slip through my fingers. He’s something else.’ Olivia rubbed her hands together, looking for all the world like a predator in pursuit of its prey and preparing an imminent ambush.
Shaking her head, Annie cupped her coffee mug, warming her hands as she crossed the room, curiosity drawing her to peep out of the window to see the new man who was the latest to capture Olivia’s attention. It was a cold, grey January day, and a misty drizzle coated the landscape. Low cloud blocked out the hills and the view of the loch in the valley below, around two banks of which the expanding town of Strathlochan sprawled. Although there had been much less snow than last winter, frosty nights were following wet days and the subsequent icy conditions kept the A and E department busy, dealing with injuries from both road accidents and fallen pedestrians.
Annie’s attention returned to the car outside as a blatantly male figure emerged. An inexplicable shiver of unease tingled down her spine. The man had his back to them as he locked the driver’s door, his athletically muscled frame encased in jeans and a well-worn leather jacket. As he walked towards the building with a loose-limbed stride, his warm breath vapourising in the frigid air, the wind teased his dark hair and he turned his head, raising a hand to brush the wayward strands back from his face, giving Annie her first proper glimpse of him.
Shocked, she stepped back from the window, struggling to contain her horrified gasp as recognition slammed into her. The disturbingly familiar body and the patrician profile were unforgettable.
For a breathless moment Annie was sure she had to be hallucinating. A tremor rippled through her. No! No way could Nathan Shepherd be here. Not at her hospital. It was a trick of the light or some unaccountable blip in her imagination. It wasn’t true. Nathan was not in Strathlochan.
Trying to steady her breathing and ignore the way her heart was thudding wildly in her chest, she turned away, deaf to Olivia’s excited appraisal and the chatty greetings as more staff arrived for their shifts.
With shaky fingers Annie set down her still-full mug, her need for caffeine forgotten, and left the staffroom. She walked partway down the corridor and stopped to peer round the corner. The transparent Plexiglas panels in the rubber swing doors leading to the busy A and E department allowed her a better view of the man who now stood at the reception counter.
There was no mistaking that strong, handsome face and sexy body. Nathan was in Strathlochan. And, judging by the way he was looking over a set of notes and giving advice to one of the nurses, and the official ID tag hanging around his neck, it was true he was here to work. In her department! Hell and damnation. Every part of her quivering with shock and alarm, Annie leaned against the wall, her breath locked in her
throat, her fingers clenched into fists at her sides. What was she going to do?
‘Annie, are you all right?’ An older nurse, in the process of bringing a patient in a wheelchair back from the radiology department, if the large envelope containing X-ray images was any guide, paused at the swing doors.
‘Sorry?’Annie blinked, focusing on the matronly woman’s concerned face. ‘Um, yes. I’m fine, Gail.’ She flinched at the lie, knowing she was anything but fine. ‘Thanks.’
Gail smiled and nodded towards the bustling reception area. ‘Quite something, isn’t he?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Our new doctor. Nathan Shepherd. He’s taken over while Trevor Wilkinson is on long-term sick leave. Started yesterday. He’s quite reserved but an excellent doctor. And very easy on the eyes! He made a real impact with both staff and patients. Especially Olivia…but that doesn’t surprise anyone!’ Gail grinned conspiratorially before pushing through the doors and wheeling her charge towards the plaster room.
The sound of Gail’s footsteps and the noisy hum of the department receded as the doors closed, but it took Annie a moment to move. Oh, God! Battling a fresh wave of shock, she hurried to the ladies’ restroom, went into a cubicle and shut the door, needing privacy. In a daze, she sat down. This wasn’t a dream from which she was about to wake up. It was a nightmare. And far, far too real.
‘No! No, no, no…’ Annie bent forward and buried her face in her hands. ‘This cannot be happening. How can fate be so cruel?’
Nathan was here and she was going to have to see him, talk to him, work with him. Sitting back, she closed her eyes and pressed the heel of one hand to the pain that now gripped her chest. Nathan Shepherd. The man she had expected to marry. The man she had determined would be the father of her children. The man she had loved more than she had imagined it was possible to love anyone. The man who had rejected her and broken her heart five years ago.
Now he had reappeared unexpectedly in her life, and one brief sight of him gave the lie to any belief that she had forgotten about him—had recovered from him. One look had brought back all the pain, all the love, all the hurt, all the memories. It was as if the years had been stripped away and every feeling, every nerve-ending, was exposed and raw again. She realised with sick despair that there had been nothing but a temporary sticking plaster masking her wounds, lulling her into a false sense of security. In one unguarded moment the covering had been cruelly ripped off to reveal how little she had healed, leaving her open, hurting, vulnerable.
Nathan’s arrival in Strathlochan was a disaster of unimaginable proportions. Annie wrapped her arms around her midriff, seeking comfort as wave after wave of memories washed over her in an unstoppable tide. When she heard the outer door open, to admit a couple of laughing women, she clamped one hand over her mouth to stifle the moan of anguish her recollections had produced.
Nathan…
Shaking, she sat in silence, anxious not to be discovered, breathing a sigh of relief as the two women shut off the water taps, finished whatever they were doing and left the cloakroom. The door closed on more of their carefree laughter. Annie doubted she would ever feel so lighthearted again.
The hours of her shift stretched ahead like the worst kind of punishment, and she wished she could hide out in this cubicle until it was time to go home. But she couldn’t shirk her responsibilities. Patients needed her. Colleagues depended on her. She wouldn’t let them down. And she could not allow Nathan’s presence in the department to turn her back into the broken person she had been when she had arrived in Strathlochan after their break-up. A break-up that had followed just a few months after the sudden and unexpected death of her beloved father, when she had already been so vulnerable. She was stronger now—more confident, more mature, successful in her career. It had been a hard slog, but she had done it. Whatever it cost her, Nathan would not take that progress away from her as he had taken away her dreams.
Knowing that someone else could come into the restroom at any moment, Annie forced herself to move. Her heart thudded against her ribs as she left the cubicle and checked her appearance in the mirror. She was determined to maintain a cool façade, despite the nerves that were tangling inside her, making her feel sick and unsteady. But Nathan would never know what seeing him again did to her. Somehow she would survive this shift, and then she would decide what to do. For once she gave thanks for Olivia’s excesses. The nurse had unwittingly alerted her to Nathan’s presence, giving her some time to prepare. Better this than the shock of coming face to face with him without prior warning.
Glancing at her watch, she groaned. It was time for the shift hand-over. Unable to linger indefinitely, she sucked in a deep, steadying breath, raised her chin in defiance, then opened the door and walked down the short corridor to confront her past.
Despite her good intentions, her steps faltered when she spotted Nathan on the far side of the group of staff gathered around senior consultant Robert Mowbray. Nathan had changed into the customary green scrubs worn by doctors in the department. A stethoscope was looped around his neck over his photo ID badge, drawing attention to his strong shoulders and broad chest. Thankful to hang back, sheltered from Nathan’s view by a crush of other colleagues, Annie endeavoured to concentrate as members of the previous shift detailed the patients still being cared for within the department.
Unsettled, she adjusted her position until she was able to observe Nathan without him being aware of her. Her chest tightened and her heart gave an irregular and worrisome flip as she assessed her former lover, taking in his familiar stance and the intentness of his expression as he jotted down some notes. She was unsurprised by his thoroughness. Nathan had always been dedicated to patient care. It was one of the many things she had admired…loved…about him. The pain inside her intensified. Her traitorous gaze drank him in, as if needing to quench an endless and long-endured thirst.
His dark brown hair was as rakish as ever—untamed and in need of a cut. She remembered what it had been like to sink her fingers into that hair, could almost feel again the luxuriant silken thickness of it against her skin. As she watched, he raised a hand and absently brushed a fallen lock back from his brow. Strong, capable hands. Hands that could heal. Hands that could bring unimaginable pleasure. Another shiver rippled through her as she remembered the caress of those hands on her body, the brush and stroke of those clever fingers over super-sensitive skin.
She remembered, too, how slumberous dark eyes framed by impossibly long lashes had turned almost black with hot passion when he’d made love to her. And, oh, how he had made love to her! Intensely, wickedly, gloriously, endlessly…with generosity, fire, sinful inventiveness and a single-minded dedication to meet her every need and leave her boneless, breathless and deliciously satisfied. Every feminine part of her tightened, a desperate ache of want lodging deep inside her. She closed her eyes, trying to fight back the erotic memories. But it didn’t help. They were impinged on her brain for ever, and even five years of separation and determined efforts to forget him had not worked.
Nathan was the same, yet different. He had always been impressive to look at, but the past years had seen his six-foot-two-inch body harden and mature even more, while his face appeared leaner, more angular, but just as devastatingly arresting. He had a presence, a latent sexuality that was impossible to ignore, and he was way too handsome and compelling for her peace of mind. Yet he had also been quiet and reserved, mysterious, unapproachable, allowing few people close enough to glimpse the real man hidden inside. A caring man, dedicated to his job, serious and watchful, with a smile all the more heart-stopping for its recipient because of its rarity. At least that was how she had felt. And at one time those special smiles and all that intensity had been for her and her alone—until the fateful moment it had all blown up in her face and their relationship had been over.
Smarting with fresh pain, Annie wondered how Nathan would feel when he discovered she was here. Thankfully, she had the advantage
of knowing what was to come. Would he be as shocked and disturbed as she had been at her first sight of him? Would his body feel the unwanted yet instinctive reaction to her presence as hers did to his? Would he feel anything after five years? He’d rejected her, after all.
She had no more time to ponder on her questions as the consultant chose that moment to dismiss the group and her musings were curtailed. He looked up, saw her, and beckoned for her to join him.
‘Annie, could you stay back a moment, please?’ Robert Mowbray requested, earning her a fulminating, envious glare from Olivia as the nurse flounced away.
As the other staff dispersed, to tend to their assigned patients and assist the new ones arriving all the time, Annie fought a fresh welling of panic and reluctantly walked forward. If she had been in trouble before, meeting Nathan’s dark gaze set off an internal earthquake, way off the Richter scale, rocking her to her foundations. She felt weak, shaken, challenged. Immediately she realised she did not have the upper hand at all. Nathan looked far from surprised to see her. He watched her, silent, unreadable, in control. A barely there, secret smile tipped one corner of his sensual mouth, stirring her blood, tangling her nerves into knots and making her feel in imminent danger of losing her senses. Deliberately she looked away and focused on Robert, desperate for something—anything—to ground her back in reality.
‘Nathan, this is Dr Annie Webster—one of our specialist registrars.’ As the consultant, short, stocky and approaching retirement age, introduced them, Annie was relieved that he appeared unaware of any past history between Nathan and herself. ‘Annie, meet our new Senior House Officer, Nathan Shepherd.’
The emergency doctor claims his wife Page 1
