The Heart Surgeon's Secret Son

Hurt and betrayal shone in their green depths.

Why did she look hurt?

She’d been the one to throw away their relationship.

Seeming to realize she’d revealed too much, she pasted a smile onto her terse face and held out her hand.

“As you know, I’m Kimberly Brookes, with Cardico. It’s good to at last meet the great Dr. Daniel Travis.” She spoke loudly enough for the students to hear her professional, aloof tone.

Daniel’s gaze dropped to her outstretched hand. She expected him to pretend like he hadn’t known her, in the biblical sense known her, all those years ago? Did she think no one would guess by the way he’d greeted her? By their body language?

He searched her face, but she’d pulled herself together and he saw only what she wanted him to see—nothing at all.

Longing to touch her and knowing they were being watched, he clasped her hand.

Her fingers warmed his skin, felt small within his grasp, yet held power over every nerve ending in his body. He would have lingered, investigated the phenomenon of her skin against his, but she jerked away with the urgency of someone being scalded.

He felt pretty burnt to a crisp himself.

Just as in the past, skin-to-skin contact between them ignited flames and left him dancing in a hazy smoke cloud, trying to catch his breath.

“Let’s get out of here.” Not waiting for an answer, he grabbed her elbow, ignored the smoldering lust, and guided her from the cardiac lab.

“Wait, Daniel,” she protested, digging her heels in the moment the lab door closed behind them. “What are you doing?”

Hearing her say his name after so long made his stomach lurch.

“Giving us some privacy.” Which standing in the middle of a hospital hallway didn’t provide.

“Privacy?” Fear shone on her face. “We don’t need privacy.”

“You expect to spend the next week with me without us ever being alone?”

She blinked wide green eyes and nervously chewed on her lower lip. “I’m sure we can avoid being alone for the most part.”

“Maybe if you’d come when originally scheduled and you’d have had the benefit of another marketing representative with you.” He wanted her to know he had made the connection to the fact she’d put him off and he guessed her reasons. “But as you opted to come at a later date, it’s just you and me.”

She winced. “I was delayed.”

He just bet she had been.

A tall brunette resident Daniel recognized shot him a smile and a flirty wave. “Hi, Dr. Travis. You were amazing, as always.”

“Hey, Angel,” he absently responded to the young future cardiologist while he tried to figure out what he wanted to say to Kimberly.

Kimberly’s eyes rolled. “Some things never change, I see.”

She made it sound as if he’d cheated on her. Wasn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The skin around her mouth paled. “Just you.”

“Me? You haven’t seen me for fifteen years, so don’t judge me based on what you think you know.”

His blast of fury surprised them both and earned several questioning glances.

Kimberly took a step back and looked around the hallway, nervously letting her gaze settle on the closest exit sign. Did she plan to make a run for it?