Czytaj książkę: «Dating Dr Delicious»

CHAPTER ONE

HANNAH Stewart woke up, momentarily confused by the darkness. Then she remembered.

There were no lights from the city shining in through her curtainless windows because she wasn’t at home. She was at Jake’s condo.

An odd mixture of pleasure and shame washed over her. Good heavens, what in the world had gotten into her? Allowing Jake to take her to his place last night had been completely out of character. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to regret her impulsive decision.

Or rather she refused to regret one second of the pleasure she’d spent in Jake’s arms.

But fantasy time was over. Carefully, she lifted her head from the pillow to better read the small alarm clock on the bedside table. It was half past three in the morning.

Late. Or early. Depending on your frame of reference.

Regardless, she needed to leave. Now. Her last day of freedom was over and she needed to get home and pull herself together before heading to the hospital.

Gently, so as not to wake the man sleeping soundly beside her, she eased out from beneath the covers. When she stood, taking her weight off the mattress, Jake muttered and shifted restlessly. She froze, holding her breath until she was reassured he hadn’t woken up.

Daring to breathe again, she blindly felt around the floor for her clothes, before remembering that she’d likely left most of them in the living room.

The memory of their frantic lovemaking made her blush. Never before had she let herself go so freely as the way she had with the devilishly attractive Jake. She’d lost count of how many times they’d made love. Her body still ached in the most unusual places.

She slipped from the bedroom and headed down the hall, into the living room. She stubbed her toe on the glass-and-chrome coffee table and had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out in pain. In the flurry of sexual activity, she’d only gotten a glimpse of the interior of Jake’s condo, but as her eyes adjusted to the dim light from the window, she looked around curiously.

She wrinkled her nose, somewhat disappointed to see that he went for the expensive, modern type of dcor. Not that it mattered, except the chrome and glass seemed a bit impersonal. And the so-called art on the walls made her raise her eyebrows in surprise.

Hmm. She obviously didn’t get it.

The sense of shame intensified. She didn’t belong in the world of sailboats, yachts and fancy high-rise condos. And she’d been silly even to try. Once she became a surgeon, she still couldn’t imagine herself living like this. She’d gone into medicine to help people, not to become rich and famous.

Fantasy time was definitely over.

Shaking her head at her foolishness, she picked up her clothes, strewn from one corner of the room to the other. She blushed again as she pulled on her yellow bikini, limping as she favored her sore toe. She pulled on the blouse and shorts over the top, slipped her feet into her flip-flop sandals and reached for her purse.

“Going somewhere?” Jake asked.

Her heart shot into her throat and she gasped, spinning around toward him. He stood in the hallway wearing nothing but a scowl on his face and low-slung boxers. Refusing to be distracted by his muscular bare chest, she tried to keep her gaze steady as the seconds dragged out into a long, uncomfortable minute. “Yes. I—uh, have to go.”

His gaze bored into hers. “Without saying goodbye?”

Embarrassed, she glanced away. Okay, maybe she was out of practice with this stuff but, really, what did he expect? They didn’t even know each other’s last names.

She shoved aside the flash of guilt. People did this all the time, right? Right. “Look, it was great. Spectacular, really. You were...absolutely amazing. But I have an important meeting to attend this morning so I really need to get home.”

His gaze never wavered. “Fine. I’ll drive you.”

“No!” Her refusal came out more harshly than she’d intended. But for some reason she wasn’t anxious for him to know where she lived. Besides, from this day forward her life was not her own. She had no idea what he did for work, but whatever it was, she was certain he’d have far more free time than she would. “I mean, don’t bother. I’ll get a cab.” Or the subway.

“Hannah,” he protested, starting toward her, but she picked up her purse and quickly opened the door, effectively cutting him off.

“Goodbye, Jake. You’ll never know how badly I needed what we shared last night. Thanks for everything.” She slipped out of the condo and hastily walked down the hall to the elevators. She held her breath, hoping, praying he didn’t follow.

When the elevator dinged, she couldn’t help throwing a glance over her shoulder, surprised to discover he’d followed her out. Standing there, his broad-muscled shoulder propped up against the wall and his arms crossed over his chest, he looked incredibly sexy, especially with the way his tousled black hair framed his hard, chiseled face.

A wave of regret hit hard and she stumbled, almost falling flat on her face.

Dear God, he was like a giant magnet pulling every cell in her body back toward him. She really, really didn’t want to leave.

But she had to.

It took every ounce of willpower she possessed to regain her equilibrium, flashing him a weak smile and a tiny wave before disappearing inside the waiting elevator.

As the doors closed she heard him murmur, “Goodbye, Hannah.”

She closed her eyes and slumped against the wall of the elevator, running a hand through her hopelessly tangled hair. Tears of regret stung her eyes and she quickly swiped them away. What in the world was wrong with her?

He was just a man. An incredibly sexy, fiercely attractive man, yes. But still a man.

It was better to make a clean break. As much as she had enjoyed being with him, she didn’t have time for a man.

Or a relationship.

Not that Jake had even remotely offered such a thing, she reminded herself sternly.

People had one-night stands all the time, and she was pretty sure none of the participants stood around dissecting every moment after the fact. So why was she second-guessing herself? Sex was good. Sex was healthy. They’d had a great time together and now it was over.

End of discussion.

Hannah hailed a cab and rode through the dark streets to the less glitzy part of town. The warehouse apartment she shared with Margie was scantily and eclectically furnished, but boasted huge windows along two walls. True to form, her roommate wasn’t home. Margie had obviously spent the night with her boyfriend, Bryan.

Relieved to discover that Margie wasn’t there to grill her over what had happened, she made her way to her bedroom.

Normally she liked to drink a cup of coffee while looking out at the sun rising over the water, but today she was too anxious to try to relax so she simply showered and dressed. The subway ride to the hospital didn’t take long and she made it to Chicago Care with fifteen minutes to spare.

Thank God she wasn’t late on her very first day. In fact, she felt oddly energized.

A night of spectacular sex could do that for you.

She tried her best to wipe the crooked grin off her face.

The general-surgery conference room on the fifth floor contained about thirty-five people—interns, just like herself, waiting to start their first day as doctors.

A sliver of anticipation mixed with a healthy dose of fear filled her chest. This was it. The moment she’d been waiting for. She was officially a doctor.

Dr. Hannah Stewart.

Yesterday, she’d celebrated the end of her old life. The eight-year grind of working, studying and then working some more. Balancing two jobs to support herself and her family while managing to keep decent grades through medical school hadn’t been easy. She’d spent most of her time during medical school alone. Hadn’t she deserved one night of fun, of recklessness? Of letting loose and having fun? Of doing something just for herself and no one else?

Maybe she’d taken her celebration a little too far by going home to spend the night with Jake, but that didn’t matter. There was no point in ruminating over the past. She was moving on to the next stage of her career. She’d waited for this day for what seemed like forever. Growing up, they’d lived from one paycheck to the next. And, truthfully, her years of college and medical school hadn’t been much different. Even with a massive loan to pay her tuition, she’d still struggled to make ends meet.

Despite the odds that had been steeply stacked against her from the moment she’d left high school, she’d made it. She’d passed her medical boards. She’d been accepted into the surgical residency program.

Hannah lifted her chin stubbornly. She’d made it this far, and she was bound and determined to make it through the grueling five years before her, too.

Nothing and no one was going to stand in her way.

* * *

Hannah was sharply disappointed to discover the entire first two days of being a new intern meant being stuck in new-employee orientation training for hours on end. Granted, the information was obviously important, and full of rules she tried hard to commit to memory, but sitting in the large lecture hall had been extremely anticlimactic.

Being with her fellow interns wasn’t too bad. She bonded a little bit with one of the few female residents, a strikingly beautiful caramel-skinned young woman by the name of Andrea Barkley. It was a little disturbing to know that the odds were, in fact, stacked against them. The surgical residency program was brutal, one of the reasons many women rarely got in. Or, if they did get in, they didn’t make it all the way through the program.

Or so she’d heard from her former boyfriend, Alec, who had been an intern when she’d been a junior medical student. No wonder their brief relationship hadn’t lasted very long.

The jerk hadn’t been the least bit supportive of her dream to become a surgeon. In fact, she’d had the sense he was threatened by her knowledge and determination. As if they were in some sort of competition or something. He never hesitated to make her feel stupid. And he wasn’t supportive of her family issues, either. Or of her need to work two jobs.

She was much better off without him.

For a moment the image of Jake’s laughing face filled her mind. She ruthlessly shoved it aside.

She didn’t have time for men. Even one as sexy and charming as Jake. There was no point in wondering if Jake would be supportive of her chosen career. Or supportive of her messed-up family.

Jake would be nothing more than a distraction she couldn’t afford.

Hannah met up with Andrea in the female surgical-residency locker room on the third day, relieved to discover they had been assigned to the same rotation, trauma surgery, for the month of July. Today was their first day taking care of real, live patients.

Hannah proudly donned her knee-length lab coat over her scrubs. The medical students were forced to wear short lab coats so that it was clear to the hospital staff that they were only students.

Now it would be clear to the hospital staff that she was a doctor. A surgical resident responsible for treating patients. She tucked her stethoscope into her pocket and took a deep breath.

She could do this. She’d studied hard and trained for this.

“Are you nervous?” Hannah whispered to Andrea as they walked down to the busy arena, the heart of activity in any emergency department. There were patients everywhere. Patients that were counting on them as residents to have a clue as to what might be wrong with them.

She quickly squelched the sliver of self-doubt.

“No.” Andrea glanced at her for a long moment and then shrugged. “Okay, maybe a little.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

They walked up and introduced themselves to the senior resident on Trauma, Dr. Richard Reynolds.

He didn’t look thrilled to be saddled with two new residents. Did he have a grudge against females being in the program? Hannah wasn’t sure, but remained determined to prove him wrong, no matter what his assumptions were.

“There are a couple of trauma patients on the way in from a motor-vehicle crash,” Richard said. “I want each of you to take one of the patients. The attending on call today is Dr. Holt and both of us will be here if you need help. Any questions?”

Traumas? On their first day caring for patients? The look on the senior resident’s face was almost sneering, as if he expected them to balk at the responsibility. So Hannah straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “No questions.”

His gaze narrowed a bit, but then he nodded. “Good.”

Just then the doors from the ambulance bay burst open and two gurneys were wheeled in. For a moment panic stole her breath, but then a sense of calm came over her, as she took control of the first patient.

“James Turkow is a twenty-five-year-old restrained driver T-boned by another vehicle,” the paramedic announced. “Vitals were stable, and he was alert and oriented on the scene, but during transport became less responsive.”

Probable head injury, Hannah decided. But the bluish tint to his lips was concerning, so she pulled her stethoscope from her pocket and quickly listened to his lungs. Definitely not good. From what she could tell, he wasn’t moving nearly enough air to sustain life.

“Get me the intubation tray,” she ordered, pulling the oxygen mask and ambu-bag off the regulator on the wall to begin bagging him. With a flick of her wrist she turned the oxygen up to one hundred percent. “This guy needs an airway.”

The nurse quickly pulled out the emergency airway kit, handing over a laryngoscope and blade. “What size tube?”

“Eight.” Hannah quickly pulled on gloves and then took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. While the nurse placed the stylet into the endotracheal tube, she gently inserted the blade into her patient’s mouth and pulled upward—the way she had been taught—to search for his vocal cords.

Except she didn’t see them.

For a moment panic surged, and she frantically glanced around for Richard, the senior resident. Where in the heck was he? Didn’t he know she might need help? But Richard wasn’t readily available, so she tried again, tipping the young man’s head back farther and looking once again, down the back of his throat. Her left hand wielded the laryngoscope and she pulled upward, keeping away from his teeth to avoid damaging them.

“Easy, now, you’re doing fine,” a deep male voice said near her ear. Just knowing she wasn’t alone was enough to calm her frayed nerves. “Pull up just a little more. There, see the cords?”

Amazingly, she did see them. Trying to hold her left hand steady, she used her right hand to thread the ETT down through the patient’s vocal cords.

“Excellent,” the voice murmured. “Now remove the stylet and begin bagging. I’ll take a listen to make sure you’re in the right spot.”

She nodded, taking care to keep the tube firmly in place as she did as he requested. She kept her gaze trained on the patient’s chest, noticing with satisfaction that the chest rose and fell with every breath she gave with the ambu-bag.

“Good job. Looks like the tube is in place.” His low voice was reassuring. Almost mesmerizing. Relief made her knees feel weak, but she stiffened them with an effort. Her job was only partially done. “You’ll need to get a chest X-ray to confirm placement.”

“Will do,” she said, as she handed over the task of securing the tube to the nurse standing beside her. Once she was free to move aside, she glanced up at her rescuer.

And froze, when his glittering green gaze slammed into hers.

The force of the collision made her heart plummet, the room whirled and there was a loud roaring in her ears.

No. It couldn’t be. But it was.

Jake. Her Jake. Her one-night-stand-Jake was here. At Chicago Care.

The flare of shock reflected in his gaze almost made her feel better. At least she wasn’t the only one knocked off balance. But then she noticed the name on his ID badge and the sick feeling in her gut returned.

Great. Just what she needed. Not only was Jake a doctor here at the hospital. He was Dr. Holt. The attending physician on duty. And Chief of Trauma Surgery!

The man she’d impulsively spent the night with was the man who could make or break her career.