gave her an odd look. “You been drinking?”
Emily laughed. “Because I find the man I’m dating more attractive than some new doctor at the hospital, you think I’m inebriated? Richard is my boyfriend. Why wouldn’t I find him more attractive than Dr. Cain?”
“Do you?” a familiar male voice asked from behind her.
Every cell in Emily’s body did a nervous jump to attention, making her legs weak, making her hands tremble, making her heart race. Not wanting to look at him, not wanting to have a conversation with him, she turned to face her ex-husband.
Up close he looked even better than he had from across the room. Why, oh, why couldn’t time have taken its toll and marred the physical beauty of his face?
He told you to leave. He filed for divorce. He’s a cold, heartless jerk who means nothing to you.
Even so, her hands shook and her stomach threatened to hurl the appetizers she’d consumed earlier. “Do I what?”
“Find the man who bid against me more attractive?” His blue eyes twinkled with the same old arrogant mischief. He knew that he was handsome as sin, that women fell to their knees when he so much as bestowed a smile upon them. He couldn’t fathom her finding any man more attractive. The jerk.
“Of course I find Richard more attractive, Dr. Cain.” She put great emphasis on her formal use of his name. “He and I have been dating for almost ten months.”
“Ten months?” He raised a brow as if impressed as his gaze took in everything about her. “Some marriages don’t last that long.”
Her breath lodged in her throat and she dug her fingernails harder into her palms. Mentally, she called him every rotten name she could think of.
“You’re right,” she agreed. “Too many people get married who shouldn’t. Probably because they’re too young to know any better or one of them wasn’t committed to the relationship to begin with. My guess is that when those people become involved in their next serious relationship, they are a lot choosier.”
The arrogant look in his eyes flickered just a little, as if she’d delivered a damaging blow and won that round. Good. He needed taking down a peg or two.
“I bet you’re right.” He turned to Meghan and gave her a smile so charming that it was a wonder she didn’t swoon. “Hi, I’m Dr. Lucas Cain. I work at Children’s with Emily.”
Ugh. He sounded so nice, so polite, and Meghan was tripping over herself trying to form coherent sentences. He’d always had that effect on women. Even her.
But that had been in the past. These days her sentences were freaking pieces of grammatical art. She’d been inoculated against his sexual mojo.
Well, mostly. He was a sexy beast and her body wasn’t dead. Good thing her mind knew better and ruled.
“Me, too,” Meghan practically stuttered. “At Children’s. I mean, I work at Children’s, too.”
Lucas’s brow lifted. “On the neuro floor with Emily?”
Hearing her name on his lips caused tightness to squeeze Emily’s chest. Darn him that he was here creating chaos in her world, not to mention making a blabbering idiot of her best friend.
Meghan nodded, still stammering and stuttering. “I’ve taken care of a few of your patients.”
He flashed one of his most potent smiles and Emily had to forgive her friend. When he was more handsome than anything Hollywood had ever put on the silver screen, how was Meghan supposed to resist? Her friend didn’t know he had a heart of ice and a soul as black as coal.
“Ah,” he said. “That’s why you look familiar.”
Emily wasn’t buying that he hadn’t known who Meghan was. No doubt he knew everything about her best friend.
Meghan’s lashes swooped downward. “I guess you heard what I was saying about how you looked.”
Her best friend was flirting with her ex. Not that Meghan knew, but still. Gag. Gag. Gag.
Just take Emily out and push her in front of a taxi driver right now. She couldn’t take any more.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go find a ladies’ room.” She went to move past Lucas, but the photographer chose that moment to appear.
“Hello,” the overly friendly guy said, smiling and motioning for Lucas and Emily to pose. “Get together for a photo for our website.”
Emily clenched her teeth and moved one step closer to Lucas.
The photographer frowned. “Smile. Look happy. You just brought in more money than any of the others.”
There was that. Raising money for a good cause did make her happy. She sighed and focused on the help that would be provided to her patients’ families because of Lucas’s generosity.
Surprisingly, he looked a little hesitant. Lucas off guard. Now, that was something new. Still, he put his arm at her waist and smiled for the camera.
Trying to ignore the fact that he was touching her, Emily curved her lips upward.
The photographer’s flash went off a couple of times.
“Thanks.” The photographer turned to Meghan and her winner, who’d joined them. “Your turn, Pretty Lady.”
Meghan curled up next to the stockbroker she’d gone on a couple of dates with.
Which moved everyone’s attention off Emily and Lucas.
Her throat suddenly tight, she glared at him. “Congratulations. You’re such a winner.”
THAT HADN’T GONE anywhere near the way Lucas had mentally rehearsed his first encounter with Emily outside the hospital.
Then again, what had he expected? He should thank his lucky stars that she hadn’t made a scene.
The look she’d given him said she’d like to have smacked him. Or worse.
“I think you two got off on the wrong foot.” Meghan rejoined him after the photographer had snapped a few shots of her and her date winner. The brunette frowned after Emily. “I don’t understand how that’s even possible. Emily gets along with everyone. She’s the sweetest, kindest person I know.”
They hadn’t gotten off on the wrong foot, but they’d ended that way.
He closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath, catching the faintest whiff of Emily’s perfume still on the air. She’d always worn the light vanilla scent. He could never smell anything even close to the fragrance without being haunted by memories of the past.
Lately, most everything had his mind filling with Emily.
Ever since he’d been offered the position at Children’s,
