reaction to suction.
‘First Apgar score of five,’ Lucy said, checking the baby. She gave the baby gentle suction to clear her airways. Her skin wasn’t pink enough either for Lucy’s liking.
‘Second score of seven,’ she reported four minutes later.
The ten-minute score had improved to nine. ‘But this little scrap’s going to up to SCBU—’ the special care baby unit ‘—to warm up for a bit,’ Lucy said.
Nic finished closing. ‘We’ll leave Liza in the recovery team’s capable hands and baby Andrews to SBCU.’ He glanced at the clock. ‘And we’re going to have some lunch.’
Lunch? He wanted to have lunch with her? Her stomach fluttered at the idea of it. Lunch. Sitting opposite him on one of the small cafeteria tables, close enough for their knees to touch…
Way, way too dangerous. ‘Thanks for the offer, but I’d better get back to the ward,’ she said. ‘Finish the rounds—it’s not fair on Mal. One of us ought to go back and you did all the tough work in Theatre, so you deserve the break. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a scalpel move that fast.’
Coward, his eyes said. ‘Maybe Mal needs to feel you trust him enough to finish the rounds on his own.’
And maybe Nic ought to get to know the staff properly before he started throwing his weight about. Just because he’d got the consultant’s job, it didn’t mean he knew everything. She knew Mal far better than he did. She lifted her chin. ‘Maybe I don’t feel he’s ready.’
‘Lunch first,’ Nic said.
‘I really need to get back.’ Liar, a voice in her head taunted. You’d love to have lunch with him. And more.
Given her track record at judging the men in her life, that’d be a very bad move. Anyway, she doubted if he meant that sort of lunch. He was her boss, not her lover.
Despite that kiss.
‘I want to get to know all the team,’ Nic said, ‘and I thought I might as well start with you.’
So he was thinking of her as a doctor, nothing else. Just part of the team. He was going to ask everyone else to lunch, too. He hadn’t singled her out as special. But she still couldn’t help thinking about that kiss. He hadn’t mentioned it, but was he remembering the way it had been between them, that unlooked-for spark at the ball when their mouths had touched?
‘So, shall we?’
Before Lucy could open her mouth to refuse—or, worse, accept—her pager bleeped. She glanced at the display.
‘Sorry. I’m needed back on the ward. Catch you later,’ she said, hoping she sounded as casual as he had when he’d told her he wanted to get to know the team. And without giving him the chance to answer, she strode swiftly away.
COOL, calm, very English—and clearly as mad as hell at him.
And Nic couldn’t blame her, in the circumstances. He’d taken her job and he’d embarrassed her at the ball in front of all her colleagues…and friends? Nic wasn’t sure, yet, if Lucy Williams believed in friends.
She certainly didn’t believe in lovers. The shock on her face when he’d kissed her had told him that.
What he couldn’t work out was why. Why a woman who was clever and talented—enough to take on the role of acting consultant at the very young age of thirty—and beautiful wasn’t already spoken for. No, scratch the beautiful—she was more than that. She looked like an angel, with that alabaster skin and those clear blue eyes and the ice-blonde hair pulled back severely from her face—hair he wanted to see tumbling down over her shoulders or, better still, over his pillow. Her mouth was a perfect rosebud and he just hadn’t been able to resist kissing her at the ball.
And then she’d vanished. He’d looked for her immediately after the next dance, but she’d gone.
And then, when she’d faced him on the ward…
He took a swig of coffee. Leave her alone. That would be the sensible thing to do. Anything else would be breaking all his rules, professional and private.
Except…he couldn’t.
‘Down, boy,’ he said softly to his libido.
It didn’t take the slightest bit of notice.
Lucy somehow managed to avoid Nic for the rest of her shift. Usually she stayed later than she needed to, because the team on River was overstretched and she didn’t mind giving up her free time. She loved her job. But today she needed to get as far away from Nic Alberici as she could. Until she’d managed to get her hormones under control and could treat him with detached professionalism.
The next day, she thought she’d managed it.
Until Nic walked into the side-room where she was talking to Liza Andrews.
‘Mr Alberici.’ Liza was beaming. ‘Thanks so much for what you did for us yesterday—you and Dr Williams. You saved our lives.’
‘Pleasure,’ Nic said. ‘How are you both today?’
‘Tired, but fine. Lucy sleeps all the time.’
Nic cast a quizzical look at his senior reg.
‘This Lucy,’ Lucy explained, still holding the sleeping baby.
‘We called her after you both—Lucy Nicola,’ Liza told him.
‘Thank you. It’s an honour,’ he said quietly. He stroked the baby’s cheek. ‘She’s beautiful.’
‘And Rosemary says the white stuff on her skin—vernix—will wash off in a couple of days.’
‘When they’re overdue it goes the other way—they’re like little, wrinkled old men with very dry skin and you go through tons of moisturiser,’ Nic said.
To Lucy’s horror, he actually sat down on the arm of the chair she was using. Not quite close enough to touch—but close enough for her to feel his body heat. Why couldn’t he have sat in the chair on the other side of the bed? Why did he have to invade her space like this?
‘My turn for a cuddle,’ he said, holding his arms out.
For one heart-stopping moment, she thought he meant a cuddle with her. But, of course, he meant baby Lucy.
‘You’re worse than the midwives—want to keep the babies all to yourselves,’ he teased.
‘I’d better get on anyway,’ she said, gently transferring her tiny bundle into his arms and making sure that the baby’s head was supported.
You’re avoiding me, his eyes accused.
Tough, hers said back. ‘Bye, Liza. Catch you later, Nic,’ she said a lot
