“You’re pulling a double?” he asks, surprised.
I look at the clock on the wall.
“Longer. I passed the point of a double about an hour ago,” I mumble to myself.
“Go home,” he orders.
“What?”
“You heard me, go home.”
“That’s crazy. Listen I know I messed up and I’m really sorry about your abs—err stomach, but it could have happened to anyone. I’ll just clean up and everything will be ready when you come back.”
“Go home, Nurse Riley. Get some sleep. You aren’t going to be any use to me if you can’t keep your eyes open. I need staff that I can trust around me. I’ll get someone to fill in.”
“No.”
“This isn’t a choice. You go home. I will not have you in my O.R.”
“You don’t have a choice. The hospital is packed today and the other nurses are either in surgery or home sleeping after pulling long shifts themselves,” I inform him crossing my arms at my chest. I’ve gone past caution. I will not be treated like I’m some threat to my patients.
“Then I’ll pull in an RN from the floor. It’s not like the job is that hard,” he shrugs.
“Pull an RN… It’s not like… I can’t believe you just said that!”
“Whatever. I’m going to go change. You be gone by the time I get back,” he says and that’s it. That’s just it.
“You can go to hell!” I snap and he jerks around. “I’ll be here when you get back. I’ll be the nurse during this surgery and the one making sure you don’t fuck up and then I’ll go home and sleep and if I’m lucky I’ll have happy dreams of bludgeoning you to death with a shovel!”
I expect him to reprimand me. Report me, and I’ll most likely be fired. What I don’t expect him to do is smile. He does. He smiles and he even laughs. I think it should probably be illegal for him to have teeth that perfect. It’s annoying. He’s annoying and moreover it is annoying that I would even notice that about him.
“You don’t need a shovel, Nurse Riley. You’re dangerous enough with a scalpel,” he says with a smirk.
“Get out of the O.R. before you bleed on something,” I mutter, turning back around and dismissing him. I need to rewash, change my gloves—and get ready for this surgery, even if my job isn’t hard!
“Yes Ma’am,” he says with a laugh and then leaves. I don’t turn around. There’s no point. Besides if I did, I’d probably notice that his ass is as perfect as the rest of him…
Well he’s perfect for an asshole with no personality. Whatever possessed me to tell my sister I was dating him? It’s ridiculous. But, I’ll fix it. I’ll just tell her we broke up. After the jerk he was today, it will be easy to tell her why I want nothing to do with the sexy but hateful Dr. Miner.
We broke up. It’s over and she’ll never have to know I lied in desperation to hide my reaction to her marrying my old boyfriend.
Problem solved!
Chapter Three
Brody
People rarely surprise me these days—at least in good ways. Nurse Riley has positively managed that. I don’t know her that well. I’ve noticed her—I am a man and she’s definitely a woman—a sexy as hell woman. Which is the major reason I’ve made it a point to stay away from her.
In my experience, women find out I’m a doctor and they instantly see me as husband material. Nurses can be even worse. The ones that aren’t looking for marriage are still too damn clingy and I make a point to never touch a woman I work with. That’s too much hassle and irritation for one man to handle.
Nurse Riley might be the first woman to tempt me. She’s got a sexy little body with an ass that bubbles out so damn perfectly I want to squeeze it every time I get behind her. Her tits aren’t huge, but they’d fill my hand nicely and she’s got that long, straight, dark hair that makes a man want to wrap his hand in it and pull… while he’s fucking her hard.
And those are all reasons why I need to stay away from Nurse Riley and her smart little mouth.
The fact that I’ve performed a major surgery and she’s been in my head at all is a clear sign that she is trouble with a capital T. Luckily the surgery, though urgent for this patient, is one that I’ve performed a hundred times. Still, I need to stay away from her before I do something stupid…
“I’m scrubbing out. Dr. Collier you close out,” I order and then without a backward glance I walk away, peeling off my surgical gear and gloves. I go to the adjoining wash room and as I’m washing my hands, I almost curse out loud when Nurse Riley shows up. “Shouldn’t you be in there assisting?” I ask, my voice filled with annoyance.