He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt like this.
Since Serena had died he’d been busy burying his feelings in his work. He didn’t usually connect with anyone, but Flo had got under his skin.
Even in the brief time he’d known her.
She made him forget. She made him forget how he had a tight rein on his emotions. Absolute control at all times.
“There you are,” Flo said behind him, making him jump slightly.
“Why did you follow me up here?” he snapped.
“Don’t get so testy. I followed you because I wanted to give you this temporary pass.” She held out the scan card in her delicate fingers. “If you don’t have this you can’t get access to Mr. Francis or basically get around the hospital.”
Nate sighed inwardly and took the scan card from her. “Sorry. Thanks.”
“I guess I could’ve kept it and you would’ve been trapped up here.” A smile played at the corners of her lips. “You would deserve it, too, asking all those personal questions during surgery. My team doesn’t need to know about my personal life.”
“I was trying to lighten the mood in there.”
Since when?
In New York City he was always serious. Residents and interns alike quaked in their boots around him. He wasn’t known for lightening the mood, or even chatting in an operating room. He didn’t know what had come over him.
She crossed her arms. “There was no need for mood lightening in there. Besides, from what I hear, you’re not exactly jovial all the time.”
“Who told you that?” he asked.
“Mr. Francis, when he first came in and was stabilized. When he found out his management team had called you he warned me about you. He said you were a bit of an arrogant brute.”
“I doubt he said arrogant brute.”
“You’re right,” she said, a twinkle in her eyes. “It was much more colorful.”
Nate chuckled to himself. That sounded like something Kyle would do. And when he glanced at Flo he could see a soft side to her. She gave off the appearance of being a tough cookie in the operating room, but there was a softness about her. A warmth.
Something he’d been missing in his life for so long.
“Thanks for helping me in there. I’m so glad he’s stabilized. Let’s just hope we can keep him that way until UNOS calls you.” She smiled at him. “I’ll leave you to it. If you need anything, just have me paged. I’ll be at the hospital for some time still.”
She turned to leave, but Nate reached out and took her elbow to stop her. Flo turned, a questioning look on her face.
“Thank you for being here to help my patient,” he said. “I’m glad a surgeon of your caliber was here to help him. And I’ll get UNOS to add you to the call list.”
Her brown eyes widened in surprise and then she smiled, a pink blush tinging her round cheeks as she tucked an errant wisp of hair behind her ear. “Thank you, and of course.”
Nate knew that he should let her go, only he couldn’t. He felt mesmerized by her and without thinking he pulled her tight against and kissed her.
For one moment, while he tasted her sweet lips, he felt her melt against him, which prompted him to wrap his arms around her, deepening the kiss. Her petite body was pressed against his, his hands in her hair as he bent over to kiss her.
Nate wanted to take this further. If they had been back at his place in New York, he’d be scooping her up in his arms and carrying her off to bed to make love to her, but he was standing with her on a helipad in Los Angeles.
He was tumbling down a dangerous path.
Then he remembered what he was doing.
That this was not keeping his distance from her at all. It was the exact opposite.
He broke off the kiss and took a step away from her, running his hand through his hair, trying to calm the erratic beat of his pulse and the longing in his blood.
Flo stood there, just as shocked as he was, her fingers pressing her lips, her eyes wide.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know...” He trailed off. He knew what had come over him and he was angry at himself for letting lust take over his senses, even for just one moment.
“No, it’s okay,” she said quickly. “The rush of the moment. I get it. We won’t talk about it again, Dr. King.” And then, before he had a chance to say anything else, she turned on her heel and jogged away, putting the distance between them that he should’ve done in the first place.
FLO WOKE WITH a start and forgot for a moment that she was in an on-call room. Her arm had pins and needles because when she’d crashed, she’d crashed with her arm hanging over the side of the bed, clutching her pager, which was currently vibrating in her hand.
She glanced at it and saw that Freya Rothsberg was looking for her.
Drat.
She hoped it didn’t have anything to do with sharing her office with Nate. She wouldn’t have really minded or put up a fight before, but after yesterday Flo knew that sharing an office was a bad idea.
She’d been so surprised when he’d pulled her into his strong arms and kissed her. A little voice inside her head had told her to push him away, but she’d been unable to because the kiss had been the hottest kiss she’d ever had.
Every other kiss in her life, before Nate’s kiss, had been chaste in comparison. The moment his hand had cupped the back of her head, his fingers playing in the wisps of hair at the back of her neck, it had sent a jolt of pure longing and desire through her veins.
And she’d wanted him.
That side of her that lived for the moment had screamed at her to take him. Though the sensible side of her had reminded her that the last time she’d become close to a man, when she’d almost taken the plunge and had had sex, a certain scar had scared Johnny. It spoke to the world that she was ill. That her life was uncertain, and no one wanted to be tied down to a risk. Johnny had made that much clear.
He’d been afraid to touch her again after he’d seen the scar, and she’d told him why she had it hoping that would calm the issue, but it hadn’t. It had just made it worse. Besides, what did she really know about sex? She’d never had it before.
It was good that Nate had broken off that kiss, though it was going to be hard to work with him. Especially if Freya insisted that they share an office.
Flo got out of bed, tidied her hair and brushed her teeth in the on-call room, then made her way to her office. Thankfully, her administrative assistant wasn’t in yet, because Sally would certainly pepper her with a ton of questions
