Heart Surgeon to Single Dad

That she made love to him like a siren and slept in his arms like an angel.

That she was going to be floored by the hospital’s announcement today.

A knock sounded on Dr. Luiz’s office door and Matthew tensed.

Natalie.

His heart pounded in his chest, thumping wildly against his ribcage.

He was about to play a role in hurting a woman who got to him as no other ever had.

Being in Memphis was right for Carrie.

That was what mattered most.

Natalie was just...just someone he’d once spent three fantasy days with.

CHAPTER SIX

WAITING FOR DR. LUIZ to bid her to enter his office, Natalie smoothed her scrubs.

Finally, she thought.

The buzz around the hospital was that something big was about to happen. Natalie knew what that something was. She couldn’t wait until the announcement was made that she’d be promoted and that they’d gotten approval for the surgical procedure they’d been working on for years. She would soon perform the first in-utero vessel transposition repair at Memphis Children’s.

A dream come true. She and Dr. Luiz’s research showed great promise on correcting transposition of the vessels prior to birth. She’d gone through the procedure time and again on computer models, on premature and full-term “blue” babies. She wanted those babies to be born pink, to go home with their families much sooner, to have longer, healthier lives, and believed there was no reason they couldn’t. That she would get to head up the team, would get to be lead surgeon, was enough to make a girl over the moon.

“Come in.”

Smiling, Natalie turned the knob and stepped into Dr. Luiz’s office, only to stop short when she realized her mentor wasn’t alone.

She’d recognize the back of that dark head, those shoulders, anywhere.

What was Matthew doing in Dr. Luiz’s office?

All the blood in her body drained to her feet, bolting them to the floor.

He had known it was her at the door. That much was evident when he stood and turned to meet her gaze. There was no surprise in his pale blue eyes.

Natalie fought shock, though, a million emotions hitting her at once.

He looked so good, so perfect, so much better than anything her memory could conjure. Her body leapt with joy, recalling how he’d stroked such pleasure through every part of her being.

But he shouldn’t be there. At her work. With her boss.

Why was he there? What possible reason could Matthew have for sitting in her boss’s office?

Her brain raced. Had he told Dr. Luiz what had happened in Florida? Why would he? What did it matter if he had? The hospital had no say in whom she slept with. She doubted any of the board members cared, so long as she brought no public shame on the hospital.

Sex with Matthew was nothing any woman should be ashamed of. The man was gorgeous, brilliant, and had the ability to rock a woman’s whole existence.

And how.

Nope, she was not going to let her brain go down that path.

Her gaze not wavering from his, Natalie resisted the urge to clear her throat. She would not let him know how much his being there threw her world off its axis.

“Natalie,” Dr. Luiz began, “you’ll, no doubt, recall having met Dr. Matthew Coleman in Miami, and I know you’re a fan of his work.”