The Spanish Consultant (Westerling)

Katy walked round the car and slid into the passenger seat, relieved to get out of the rain.

What would happen now? He’d been waiting for signs that she couldn’t cope with trauma work and unfortunately she’d now given him all the ammunition he needed. The way he’d looked at her had left her in absolutely no doubt that he’d noticed her horrified reaction. Hardly an impressive response for a doctor who was beginning a career in accident and emergency medicine, she thought, frustrated beyond belief by what she perceived as her own weakness.

Her first experience of on-scene trauma and she’d panicked and behaved like a frightened rabbit.

He had every right to be impatient with her.

As she and Charlotte drove back towards the hospital, she pondered on the outcome of the inevitable encounter. He’d said that if she couldn’t prove herself then she’d be out.

So what would happen now?

CHAPTER FIVE

JAGO heard the tap on the door of his office and looked up from his computer with a frown.

He’d had a long and trying day and technically he was now off duty so he hadn’t been expecting visitors.

Katy stood in the doorway, her blue eyes wary as she watched him from the doorway.

She looked tired and incredibly nervous.

He sat back in his chair, his eyes suddenly watchful, his senses on full alert. Why was she nervous? She was looking at him the way a baby impala looked at a hungry lion at lunchtime.

She closed the door behind her and cleared her throat. ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you.’ Faint streaks of colour touched her cheekbones and for a disturbing moment he had an all too clear recollection of the way she’d looked after he’d finally made love to her the first time.

Flushed, round-eyed, softly feminine and in awe of him—much the way she was looking right now.

He felt his body harden in response and he felt a rush of anger at his own inability to control his reactions around her.

‘I’m in the middle of something so I’d appreciate it if you could make it quick.’

He saw her flinch but steeled himself against feeling sympathy, reminding himself that she wasn’t as gentle and innocent as she seemed.

As he’d discovered to his cost.

‘I just wanted to apologise for earlier,’ she said quietly, her fingers digging into her palms. ‘I was useless out there. I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry…’

He was so utterly captivated by her soft mouth that it took him a moment to understand what she was talking about.

The accident. He shook himself slightly. She was talking about the accident.

‘You weren’t useless.’ He resolutely pushed away memories of all that stunning blonde hair spread over the soft grass as he’d rolled her underneath him on a baking summer’s day eleven years earlier.

‘I wasn’t prepared for the injury to be so severe,’ she confessed shakily. ‘I—I’ve never attended the scene of an accident before. I didn’t know what to do, and I’m sorry.’

He sat back in his chair, suddenly understanding why she was so nervous. Hadn’t he warned her on her first day that if she didn’t perform she’d be out? She was afraid that her shocked reaction to her first exposure to major trauma at the roadside would count against her.

She was afraid that he was going to get rid of her.

And that had certainly been his intention when he’d first realised that she was going to be working in his department.

He hadn’t thought she’d last five minutes.

He hadn’t wanted her to last five minutes.

And he’d been incredibly hard on her. Harder on her than any other doctor in his team.

And she’d surprised him. So far she’d proved herself to be thorough and competent, and he’d observed on several occasions that her warmth had a calming influence on the most fractious patient.