style="font-size:15px;"> “Yep and no. My plans for tonight are none of my brother’s business.” The smile she threw him was one he recognized all too well. Full of mischief and laughter, it said she wasn’t about to tell him what he wanted to know. Instead she arched her brows in a very feminine move that Adam would have never pictured her doing. Before panty-gate, anyway.
Panty-gate? Oh, brother. He rolled his eyes and stepped to the side, gripping the door handle and pulling the door open in one swift move designed to let her out so that he could finish his day and see his last patient. And try not to think about what else he had seen or what Natália was going to do that she didn’t want her brother to know about. In the meantime, he was going to mind his own business and forget—or at least try to forget—that this unfortunate encounter had ever happened.
* * *
Natália Texeira swished down the hallway, trying to look a lot more confident than she felt. In reality, her legs were shaking and her heart was pounding. A date? Well, that was a great line.
Not so great was the look of shock on his face. Did he think she couldn’t get one? Well, he could just go and...
Better not to even think that. Because while he might have been surprised about her so-called date night, his reaction to seeing her undressed had been totally masculine.
And totally hot.
She’d dreamed about him looking at her like that for most of her teenaged and young adult years. But since he was six years older than she was, he’d always thought of her as a little kid. Those days were long gone. They were both adults now. He’d been married and divorced. They’d moved past childhood infatuations.
Not that Adam had ever had a crush on her.
She wanted to look behind her. Was dying to know if he was still staring at her. There’d been something in those deep brown eyes that had made her insides sizzle. Of course she’d kept her scarred arm facing away from him, although she had no idea why. He had to have seen it at some point over the years. More than once, despite all her efforts to keep it hidden.
“Nata? Did you forget something?”
His voice sounded from right behind her. Not only was he looking. He’d followed her. She couldn’t imagine what he was talking about. Heart in her throat, she spun around to face him.
In his hand he held something brown and shiny and... Her barrette.
The tiny zing of anticipation died a hard death. Ugh. What had she thought he was going to say? That she’d forgotten to kiss him goodbye? Not in this lifetime.
“Thanks.” She forced a smile, hoping it was bright and cheery. She gave her sleeve a tug and then held out her hand for her errant hair ornament. In her haste to get away from him, she hadn’t realized she’d left her hair down.
“Why do you keep doing that?”
She blinked. “Doing what?”
“Pulling at your sleeve. Is your arm hurting you?” His brows puckered in... Concern. Oh, God, no. Not again.
Her smile disappeared. “No. This shirt is just snug.”
Liar. Her top was a stretchy, flowy material. The opposite of snug.
“When was the last time you had it checked?”
“Are you kidding me, Adam?” This time it wasn’t anticipation that tingled up her back until it hit the base of her skull but raw anger. “I’m a doctor. I think I would know if my prosthesis was giving me trouble.”
His wince was unmistakable at her bald words. Well, what she’d said was true. Her prosthetic device might not be visible to the world, but it was there just the same. And for him to ask her about it after the encounter they’d just had was almost unbearable. So much for feeling sexy and confident. He’d just transported her back to when she was sixteen and woken up in a hospital bed with seven inches of her left humerus gone, replaced by a shaft of metal. She found herself bending her elbow, a subconscious response to thinking about the osteosarcoma that had almost taken her arm. If she’d never gotten sick, her life would be very different now.
And maybe Adam would have looked at her through different eyes.
But it was what it was.
“I’m sorry.”
The man actually looked penitent, something she couldn’t normally say about the handsome orthopedic surgeon. He’d had a reputation as a playboy back in high school, college and for most of med school. All that had changed when he’d gotten married and then divorced a couple of years later. Women still threw themselves at him, but from all accounts those advances were ignored with a quick smile as he went on his way.
Except the way he’d looked at her in that exam room... If she’d wrapped her arms around his neck would he have rebuffed her?
Um, yes, if this conversation was anything to go by. And she would be mortified to have him set her aside like a child. She wasn’t a child. And she was going to show him that once and for all.
Only she had no idea how. Or why.
Up went her chin. “You and my brother need to get it through your thick skulls that I do not need protecting. I’m a big girl with big girl panties, and I’ve been wearing them for quite some time.”
“So I’ve seen.” The words were muttered in a low pained tone. At first she thought she’d misunderstood him, but since he was now avoiding her eyes like the plague, she was pretty sure she’d heard him correctly.
Well, then. Maybe she hadn’t been wrong about his adult male reaction after all. “That’s what you get for walking in on someone—”
“In an unlocked exam room. What if I’d been the hospital administrator?”
“You weren’t. Karma wouldn’t do that to me.”
At least she hoped not. She tried to be nice to those around her. Except when a certain overprotective brother and his hunky cohort started to meddle in her affairs.
Not that she had any affairs worth meddling in.
“Oh, I think karma has a pretty twisted sense of justice.”
Was he talking about his divorce? She’d heard his ex-wife had not only married another doctor but she’d gotten a hefty settlement during the divorce trial. Due to some ridiculous lie about how he withheld himself from her emotionally after she’d told him she didn’t want children.
Adam was no cold fish. And surely his wife had known how much he wanted a large family. Natália remembered him always talking about wanting lots and lots of kids. Of course, he would tweak her nose as he said it, adding something along the lines of hoping all his little girls were as cute as she was. Only that was never going to happen. Not now. And unlike his ex-wife, it wasn’t because Natália didn’t want children. “Maybe it does, since you happened to be the one who caught me. Someone who is practically family.”
The dig was meant to get a reaction out of him, but she was sorely disappointed. He merely nodded.
She flexed her elbow again, then stopped mid-movement
