Selfless Hero

“Right here,” he said. We came to a stop at the on-call room, which was empty at the moment. He held the door open for me and I entered, suddenly feeling self-conscious about the way I walked because I felt like my hips were swaying with minds of their own no matter how much I tried to stop them.

My heart stuttered again, this time right along with the click of the door as Dr. Lewis closed it. He shook his head. “Sorry—this day shift. I just can’t seem to think straight. I guess you could have brought your lunch here if you wanted.”

“It’s fine. I was done.” With the worse timing ever, my stomach gave an embarrassingly loud growl. I crossed my arms over my torso, as if that would help muffle the sound. It felt like someone had lit a match over my face.

Dr. Lewis cleared his throat, trying to disguise the fact that he was laughing at my rumbling stomach. When I could get the nerve to look up at him, I could see a smirk lingering beneath his expression. It almost made me want to turn right on the spot and leave the room.

Why did this man make me feel so unsure of myself?

“I called Child Protective Services,” I said, feeling desperate to fill the empty room with sensible discussion. I couldn’t take too much more of the silence in his presence. Besides, I needed an excuse for staring at him; his smoldering dark eyes seemed to be holding my gaze captive.

He nodded, briefly looking down to the floor. The amusement on his face vanished entirely, getting replaced with barely concealed sadness. “Yeah. Thanks for that.” He looked up at me. “That’s what I really wanted to say to you. Thank you for helping out with Raya. I’m not so good with kids. I’m glad they sent up someone who is.”

I nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“Do you have kids? I mean… you don’t look like you do…” His eyes not-so-subtly roamed over my body before he caught himself and glanced away. “I didn’t mean it like that because plenty of moms are still… Anyway, uhm… you were just so good with Raya earlier, I wondered…”

I stood there, stunned to see that for the first time, Dr. Lewis actually looked flustered. It was my turn to chuckle. “No, I don’t have any kids, Dr. Lewis.”

“You can call me Max.”

I nodded. Max. His name even sounded sexy. Shit, this was going to be a problem. A long stretch of silence passed between us. Unnerved, I cleared my throat. “So… is that all?”

Max ran his hand through his hair again, and I stood there, wishing I could run my own fingers through it. Wondering if it felt just as silky as it looked…

“Kylie, the real reason I brought you here is because I want to apologize for yesterday.”

I blinked. I certainly hadn’t seen that coming. I opened and closed my mouth a few times, not sure what to say. When I finally could manage to speak, all I said was, “Oh.”

He shook his head. “I had no right to speak to you that way. I’m not sure what came over me. I’m not usually like that, I swear.”

“Well, Megan told me that. She said that you weren’t yourself yesterday.”

“And what else did Megan tell you?”

“That you used to be a soldier.”

He smiled and I noticed for the first time that he had dimples. Then again, it was probably the first time I’d ever seen such a genuine smile from him to begin with. I couldn’t help the way my own lips curled into a smile at the sight of it.

I gave a start at his sudden nearness. Disoriented, I couldn’t figure out if I had involuntarily moved closer to him, or if he had moved closer to me. The fresh scent of his skin drifted to my nose.

God, he smelled good…

“You’re a very impressive nurse, Kylie,” he said. “You’re impressive in a lot of ways, actually…”

“I can say the same to you. I mean, as far as doctors go.”

He smirked. There was another stretch of silence. Suddenly, he sighed. “Look—the reason I treated you that way is because I know you’re the kind of person I could… you’re the type of person that could very easily hold my interest and I can’t risk that sort of thing at the moment. I mean, I’m not delusional enough to think I actually have a chance, but still, I can’t get close to anyone. Besides, the ‘no fraternizing with superiors’ policy is pretty clear.” He shook his head. “Sorry I’m being so lousy with my words right now. I guess I’m really just trying to say that I hope you accept my apology. And I hope we can get off to a fresh start since it looks like we’ll be together quite a bit. Professionally, I mean.”

Crap. He meant we couldn’t take advantage of the on-call room being empty, or the fact that I had noticed his cock twitch under his scrubs. He was right, of course. The policy was absolute.

Plus, I loved my job.

But it literally hurt not to touch him…

CHAPTER 8

Max