Joel followed Lucy back to the treatment room, unable to let her go so soon.
‘I can’t believe you thought of Kawasaki,’ he said softly, leaning against the door and looking at her. She was obviously as bright as she was beautiful.
And she was very beautiful. His experienced eye could see that she wasn’t wearing any make-up, and yet her eyelashes were thick and dark and her skin creamy and smooth.
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And as for her mouth…
He had to clench his hands behind his back to stop himself reaching for her.
Aware that he needed to keep it professional if he didn’t want to frighten her off, he kept to the subject of work.
‘Dad says that you run the asthma clinic and the immunisation clinic,’ he said, working hard to keep his tone casual. ‘I’m going to be doing those with you, so maybe we ought to meet up some time and you can talk me through how you do things.’
Her eyes widened, reminding him of a startled fawn that had just spotted danger.
‘I—I don’t think we need to, Dr Whittaker.’ The slightly husky tone of her voice curled around his insides and he fought his reaction to her. ‘The clinics are fairly standard.’
You didn’t need to be a genius to work out that she was trying to spend as little time with him as possible.
‘But I haven’t worked in general practice before,’ he pointed out, telling himself firmly that if he gave in to his instincts and kissed her now, he’d be in serious trouble. ‘I really want to get a feel for how you do things.’
She licked her lips in a nervous gesture that almost wrecked him, and he could see from the look in her eyes that she was searching frantically for excuses.
He wondered what it was that she was afraid of.
Was she scared of him physically, or was she afraid of the attraction between them?
Because there was an attraction between them and there had been from the moment they’d set eyes on each other at the scene of the accident. But she was obviously determined not to admit it, even to herself.
‘To be honest, I’m feeling a bit at sea at the moment,’ he lied, suppressing a stab of guilt as he saw the wariness in her eyes turn to concern for him. He was uncomfortably aware that he was taking advantage of her sweet nature but he consoled himself with the fact that he had no intention of hurting her.
‘I suppose it must be strange, being in general practice after the air ambulance,’ she said, her husky voice teasing his nerve endings.
He gave her a lopsided smile. ‘Dad’s giving me some pointers, of course, but I really want to get a feel for the clinics.’
She looked at him and he sensed her reluctance, but suddenly she gave him a fleeting smile.
‘All right.’
Joel watched that smile, fascinated by the movement of her mouth and it occurred to him that he couldn’t remember when a woman had last been so shy with him.
Was he really that scary?
‘How about three o’clock? After your clinic.’
‘I can’t do that,’ she said immediately, her dark hair shining under the lights as she shook her head. ‘I finish work at three o’clock.’
He frowned. ‘It would only take twenty minutes or so, and—’
‘I can’t.’
‘But—’
‘I can’t stay late, Dr Whittaker. Ever.’ She stared him straight in the eye and he held her gaze, his mind working overtime, trying to work out what was going on. His father hadn’t mentioned that she worked part time.
Why did she have to leave at three o’clock? He resisted the urge to ask her. He didn’t want to push his luck.