‘I’ve always been clear on what I can and can’t give you, Lexi,’ he said. ‘I haven’t made any false promises to you and I’m not going to make them to you now.’
‘I know,’ she said on a sigh that prickled her chest. ‘I know …’
He brushed her cheek with the back of his bent knuckles, his eyes gentle and warm as they meshed with hers. ‘If ever you need a hideaway I’ll keep that cupboard empty just for you,’ he said.
Lexi gave him a bittersweet smile. ‘You do that, country boy.’ And then she picked up her bags and left to make her way home.
CHAPTER TEN
FINN Kennedy was just about to go home before his throbbing headache turned into a migraine when he got a call from Evie in A and E. He had been having trouble with his arm all day. He had dropped a coffee cup in the doctors’ room but thankfully no one had seen it. The pain behind his eyeballs was like dressmaking pins stabbing at him as he tried to concentrate on what Evie was saying.
‘We’ve got a post-op patient of yours in,’ she said. ‘A Mr Ian Reid with a swelling in his groin. You did a heart-valve op on him eight days ago. He’s in pain and the swelling’s getting bigger. I think you need to see him.’
Finn rubbed at his aching temple for a moment. The last thing he wanted to do was head into Theatre feeling the way he did just now. What if his arm let him down at a crucial moment? Dropping a coffee cup was one thing, severing an artery was another. ‘I’ll be down to see him in a few minutes,’ he said. ‘I have a patient in ICU I have to check on first.’
‘We’re pretty busy down here,’ Evie said. ‘The ambos have rung ahead about a stabbing coming in any minute.’
Finn ground his teeth. ‘I said I’d be down there, Evie. Just give me five minutes, OK?’
The phone slammed down in his ear.
Finn walked into the cubicle where Ian Reid was propped up in bed, having just finished a sandwich and a cup of tea. A young nurse, Kate Henderson, was just about to clear the tray away.
‘Would you like another drink, Mr Reid?’ Kate asked.
Finn glared at the nurse as he indicated for her to leave the cubicle to speak to him away from the patient. ‘How could you be so stupid as to have fed this patient?’ he roared. ‘What the hell are you thinking? He’s come in with an obvious hematoma over his femoral puncture site, he’s obviously still bleeding, he obviously needs emergency surgery, and you’re serving him high tea, for God’s sake!’
Kate blushed to the roots of her hair and her chin started to wobble uncontrollably. ‘But he was hungry, Dr Kennedy. I didn’t know he was going to Theatre.’
‘Didn’t Dr Lockheart inform you of his condition?’ Finn asked, frowning furiously.
‘Um … she mentioned to make him comfortable until you arrived,’ Kate said.
‘Comfortable?’ Finn said with a sneer. ‘Well, he’s not going to be very comfortable if he vomits when he’s anesthetised, aspirates and ends up on a ventilator in Intensive Care, is he?’
‘But I didn’t know he needed Theatre …’
‘Well, you damn well should have checked,’ Finn said. ‘Anyone with any sense and experience could tell he was in dire straits and would’ve taken the initiative to fast him. What are they teaching you lot at university?’
Kate started to cry, her shoulders shaking as she stood with her head bowed before him.
‘Oh, for pity’s sake,’ Finn said. ‘Stop acting like a child and get an orderly down here and have them get this patient up to Theatre before any more harm is done. He’ll have to have a crash induction and we’ll just have to hope to hell nothing goes wrong before we get this bleeding under control.’
Kate scurried off, still brushing at her eyes as she went.
Evie frowned and followed Finn into the office, closing the door for privacy. ‘What was that all about?’ she asked.
Finn began writing up his patient notes and didn’t even acknowledge her with a look. ‘What was what all about?’ he asked.
Evie ground her teeth as she took in his devil-may-care demeanour. ‘You had no right to speak to that young nurse like that,’ she said. ‘This is only her second day in the department. She’s still finding her feet.’
Finn scrawled his signature on the foot of the page before he cut his hard, ice-blue gaze to hers. ‘She can find her feet somewhere else,’ he said. ‘I haven’t got time to babysit silly little schoolgirls.’
‘That’s hardly fair, Finn, you know how hard it is for the new graduates these days,’ Evie said. ‘They don’t have a lot of on-the-ground experience when they come to us.’
Finn gave her a hard look. ‘Then you should be watching for slip-ups like this. It’s my name that will be dragged through the courts on a malpractice suit if something goes wrong. What the hell are you doing down here? Running a bloody crèche?’
Evie flattened her mouth in annoyance. ‘You really get off on intimidating everyone, don’t you?’ she asked.
He eyeballed her for so long the air almost started to pulse with tension. ‘You want to pick a fight, princess?’ he asked. ‘Just keep going the way you are.’
She stood her ground, even though her stomach gave a funny little wobble as his ice-pick gaze pinned hers. ‘Why do you do it, Finn? Why are you so determined to alienate everyone?’
His eyes were like stone as they held hers, his jaw just as unmalleable. ‘I’m not here to win a popularity contest.’
‘Maybe not,’ she said. ‘But it doesn’t mean you can’t demonstrate a bit of emotional intelligence from time to time, especially with younger members of staff. You’re meant to be a role model. Monkey see, monkey do, remember?’
‘Leave it, Evie,’ he said, tossing the file on the desk with an impatient flick of his hand, his forehead crisscrossed with a brooding frown.
‘No, I will not leave it, Finn,’ she said. ‘You can’t come into my department and throw your weight around, or at least not on my watch.’
His lip curled upwards in a smirk as he stepped towards her. ‘Your watch?’ he asked. ‘Since when have you been appointed Department Head?’
Evie was the only thing between him and the door and she was determined not to move until she had said her piece. But it was hard work staring him down when he was so big and so threatening and so very close. She could feel the heat coming off his body. She could smell his scent: one part aftershave and three parts potent, hard-working male. She could feel herself responding to his nearness. She could feel her skin prickling as he sent his gaze on an indolent perusal of her body. Those Antarctic, unreachable, unreadable eyes seemed to be slowly but surely stripping her of every stitch of clothing, leaving spot fires burning in their wake. ‘I might not be a head of department but I’m responsible for the staff who work with me,’ she said, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘It’s about being a team. We’re meant to be working together, not against one another.’
Finn’s hooded gaze burned into hers. ‘You want to get out of my way, princess?’
Evie felt a warning shiver scurry down her spine like a small furry animal but she still didn’t budge. A perverse desire to get under his skin kept egging her on. ‘What are you going to do, Finn?’ she asked. ‘Throw me over your shoulder, caveman style?’
His eyes gleamed menacingly and she felt his warm breath skate over her uptilted face. ‘Now, that sounds like a plan,’ he said, planting a hand either side of her head, trapping her within the cage of his strong arms.
Evie sucked in a quick little breath that felt like it had tiny rose thorns attached as he moved just that little bit closer. His hard, muscular chest brushed against the swell of her breasts and his belt buckle poked her in the belly, an erotic hint of what would happen if she allowed him any nearer. Her body flared with heat at his disturbing proximity, her skin tingling with awareness, her scalp prickling all over. His eyes were a deep and dangerous blue sea of male desire as they held hers. Her heart started to flap at the wall of her chest like a shredded truck tyre against bitu
men. And her mouth went totally dry as his loomed inexorably closer …
A rumble of voices in the background suddenly lifted Finn’s head. ‘Might want to open that door, Evie,’ he drawled mockingly as he stepped back from her. ‘Your team might be wondering what’s keeping you from doing your job.’
Evie moved aside to let him pass, her heart still flip-flopping against her ribcage as she sent him a contentious glare. ‘Go to hell, Finn.’
He flicked her cheek with a lazy finger on the way past. ‘Been there, done that and thrown away the T-shirt long, long ago,’ he said, and then he left.
‘What’s been eating at Finn Kennedy lately?’ Julie, one of the nurses on duty, asked Evie a little while later as they were clearing up a cubicle after a patient had been transferred to ICU. ‘He’s been wandering around like a bear with a sore head.’
Evie peeled off her gloves and tossed them in the bin. ‘I have no idea,’ she said. ‘He’s always been a law unto himself.’
A head popped through the curtains from the next cubicle. It was one of the other nurses who had worked with Finn earlier. ‘That’s because he has got a sore head,’ she said. ‘I saw him pop a couple of paracetamol before he left. Mind you, who wouldn’t get a headache working here? Patients are lined up three deep in the waiting room and there are no beds.’
Evie frowned. ‘Finn had a headache?’
The nurse nodded. ‘He saw me looking at him while he was getting the painkillers and said he was fighting a migraine.’
Evie let out a breath and sank her teeth into her bottom lip. ‘He should have said something …’
Julie gave a snort as she bundled up the linen in her arms. ‘Yeah, right, that sounds like something Finn Kennedy would do.’
Evie took off her stethoscope and ran the rubber tubing through her fingers. Finn had seemed particularly snarly this evening. And she had gone at him all guns blazing. If he was struggling with a migraine it was no wonder he had lost his temper with the junior nurse. And he’d had to take Mr Reid to Theatre. It would have been a nightmare for him if he hadn’t been feeling well.
She glanced at her watch. Her shift was nearly over. It was late but not too late to deliver an apology in person.
Finn’s penthouse apartment light was on. Evie had checked before she had knocked on the door but it seemed a decade or two before he answered.
The door swung open and he scowled down at her. ‘What do you want?’
‘How’s your headache?’ she asked.
His frown deepened. ‘What headache?’
‘The headache that made you act like an absolute boor in A and E earlier this evening,’ she said.
His hand fell away from the door and tunnelled through his hair. ‘It’s fine,’ he said in a gruff tone. ‘I’ve taken something for it. It’s almost gone.’
Evie sidled past him in the doorway.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked, shooting her a glare.
‘I’ve come to apologise.’
‘For what?’
‘For laying into you the way I did,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise you were ill.’
His brows snapped together. ‘I’m not ill.’
‘You have a headache.’
‘So?’
‘Doesn’t that qualify as being ill?’
‘Not if it doesn’t interfere with my work,’ he said.
‘But it does interfere with your work,’ she argued. ‘The way you spoke to that poor girl was—’
He opened the door and jerked his head for her to leave. ‘Don’t let me keep you.’
Evie ignored the open door. ‘Have you had migraines before?’ she asked.
‘Go home, Evie,’ he said grimly. ‘I don’t need a diagnosis. I had a tension headache. I get them occasionally. Everyone does. Now leave.’
‘There have been a number of times at work when I’ve seen you struggling with your co-ordination,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen you drop things. And that facial stitching you abandoned that time? It was like you couldn’t get your fingers to work. Now you’re having migraines. Have you thought of having some scans done to rule out anything sinister?’
Finn let out an impatient curse. ‘I haven’t got a brain tumour,’ he said. ‘I haven’t got anything. Now get out of here before I lose my temper.’
Evie moved even further into his apartment, trailing her fingers over the leather sofa as she walked by to look out of the bank of windows overlooking the harbour. She affected an air of calm she was nowhere near feeling. Finn was intimidating at the best of times, but in this mood he was lethal. He reminded her of an alpha wolf who had taken himself away to lick his wounds without the cynosure of critical eyes. The thing she had to establish was if the wound he was hiding was self-inflicted. That was the one question she dreaded asking but ask it she must.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Finn asked.
Evie turned and looked at him, taking a deep breath before she asked, ‘Is it alcohol? Have you got a hangover?’
His expression became thunderous. ‘What are you implying?’ he asked.
Evie rolled her lips together for a moment. ‘You know what people are like, Finn,’ she said. ‘They talk, gossip, spread rumours.’
‘Then they can bloody well talk,’ he said. ‘I don’t drink on the job. Never have, never will.’
‘I want to believe you but—’
‘I don’t give a rat’s backside if you believe me or not,’ he shot back. ‘Now, I’m going to say this one more time. Leave.’
Evie folded her arms and eyeballed him. ‘Aren’t you going to offer me a cup of coffee or something?’
His face was a blank canvas. ‘No.’
‘You don’t give a damn about anyone, do you?’ she asked.
‘Not particularly.’
‘I’m trying to understand you,’ she said, her voice rising in frustration. ‘But you’re so damned obstructive. Why can’t you at least meet me halfway?’
Finn shut the door with a definitive click; the gunshot sound of it making Evie flinch. She drew in an uneven breath as he sauntered over to where she was standing, his long legs eating up the distance in a matter of strides.
His features were harsh as he looked down at her, his cold, unfathomable eyes nailing hers. ‘What is it you really want, Evie?’ he asked. ‘A cosy chat over coffee or a quick tumble in the sack to let off some steam?’
Evie felt her face flash with heat. ‘You think I came here to sleep with you?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, that’s what I think.’ His eyes flicked to her mouth before coming back to mesh with hers, challenging her, provoking her, arousing her.
She straightened her spine and sent him a withering look. ‘Strange as it may seem, Finn, I don’t want to dive headfirst into your bed,’ she said. ‘Call me picky but I don’t care for where you’ve been just lately.’
He gave her a devilish smile as he stepped into her body space. She tried to move away but the sofa was in the way. He captured some strands of her hair and looped them around his fingertip, a disturbingly intimate tether that sent her heart into an erratic rhythm. ‘Liar,’ he said. ‘We both know why you’re here, princess. You want me to finish what I started back in the office.’
Evie ran her tongue out over the chalk-dry surface of her lips. ‘Y-you’re totally wrong,’ she said in a husky whisper that didn’t really help her denial one little bit. ‘I just wanted to check that you were all right. I was concerned about you.’
He fisted some of her hair in his hands; the tugging should have been painful but instead it was intensely erotic against her scalp. His eyes dipped to her mouth, lingering there for a he art-stopping moment before he came back to her gaze. ‘Keep your concern for someone who wants it,’ he said. ‘I have no need or desire to be taken care of and certainly not by you.’
‘Why must you block anyone getting close to you?’ Evie asked.
His fist tightened on her hair, making her toes curl inside her shoes. His eyes blazed
with heat as they bored into hers. ‘I’m not blocking you now, princess,’ he drawled. ‘You can get as close to me as you want. I won’t stop you.’
Evie snatched in a prickly breath. ‘I’m not talking about physical closeness.’
He bent his head to her neck, his lips nibbling on her skin in a teasing caress that sent a shiver down the length of her spine. ‘It’s the only type of closeness I want,’ he said. ‘And you want it too, don’t you, Evie, hmm?’
Evie wished she could deny it but her legs were already folding beneath her as his tongue moved across her lower jaw, making every nerve spring to attention. She tilted her head to one side to give him better access, her eyes closing as ripples of pleasure flowed through her body. He got closer and closer to her mouth without actually touching her lips. It was a torturous assault on her senses. She felt her lips buzzing with need as he advanced and retreated, again and again and again, until with a little whimper of desperation she finally took matters into her own hands and pressed her mouth to his.
Fireworks went off in her body as he took control of the kiss. His lips moved against hers with bruising pressure, his tongue not asking for entry but taking it in one savage thrust that lifted every hair on her head, including the ones he still had fisted in his hand.
He turned her in one deft movement and began walking her backwards to the nearest wall, his muscled thighs moving against hers in a commanding and totally provocative manner. She felt the surge of his erection against her belly as her back hit the wall, the rock-hard length of him pulsing with the drumbeats of raw, primal, male need. Her body was aflame, her feminine core already seeping with the dew of her longing. It was a raging fever in her blood, a full-throttle rush of sexual need on a scale she had never felt before. She felt wanton and wild with his mouth crushing hers. She gave another whimper as his mouth ground against hers with savage intent, his tongue demanding hers submit to his. She fought him every step of the way for supremacy. She used her teeth, small nippy bites and harder ones, but he refused to allow her control.
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