I’m sorry I took so long,” her father said, coming into the room. She jumped back, silently thanking her father for his timing. “Ah, I see that I no longer have to seek you out, Thomas. Geraldine, I would like you to meet Mr. Thomas Ashwood. Thomas, this is my daughter, Geraldine Collins. She’ll be taking over my position in the practice when I retire.”
* * *
“Pardon?” Thomas said, sounding a bit dumbfounded. He was sure he’d heard the enchantress say the same thing the moment Charles Collins had dropped the bombshell on him. “What was that?”
“My daughter, Dr. Geraldine Collins. She’s the cardiologist who is taking over my role in the practice. She’ll be your partner.”
Oh. God.
He’d been hitting on Charles’s daughter? His competition, the bane of his existence since Charles had announced that he was retiring and leaving the practice. Thomas had thought that he was going to take over the practice in its entirety. He’d planned to hire an up-and-coming cardiologist and expand the surgical side of the practice. Take it to new heights, ones that he’d never been able to meet before.
But now he found himself with an unwanted new partner. The daughter of the great Charles Collins. He knew the type. Debutante. Spoiled, selfish and she would be all over him in a trice when she learned of his aristocratic background. Society women were out for money and blood.
It was all the same with women from the circles he moved in and he’d expected nothing different from Collins’s daughter.
Until now.
She was nothing like he’d expected. She stood up for herself. She exchanged banter with him and didn’t back down. He liked matching wits with someone. Not only was she a beauty, she was intelligent to boot. It was kind of exciting and also a bit bothersome. To her credit, Dr. Geraldine Collins didn’t look exactly thrilled at the prospect of being his partner either.
“This is Mr. Ashwood?” Geraldine asked. Thomas couldn’t help but notice the mild disgust in her voice. “This is the Mr. Ashwood who is your partner in your practice?”
Thomas bowed slightly at the waist. “One and the same, dear lady.”
Geraldine’s eyes shot daggers at him.
“Have I missed something?” Charles asked, apparently confused.
“No, nothing at all, Charles. I didn’t exactly make my presence known to your enchanting daughter when I arrived. I’m afraid I took her a bit by surprise.”
Charles Collins cocked his eyebrows. “Oh. Well, that explains everything.”
“Aye?” Geraldine blushed and cleared her throat. “I mean, I suppose it does.”
Thomas had been charmed the moment the “Aye” had slipped past her lips. She seemed refined, but she had obviously not been raised in the world he was used to, the world that both he and Charles came from.
And that intrigued him all the more, which was a dangerous thing indeed. He had to make an expeditious exit or he might do something he’d regret. And he thought too highly of Charles to besmirch the good name of Collins.
“Well, if you’ll both excuse me...” As he was trying to make his excuse his pager and Charles’s both went off. It was their patient, Lord Twinsbury. He was on his way to hospital and E.
“Blast,” Charles said. “I have an office full of appointments.”
“I can handle this, Charles,” Thomas offered.
“I can assist,” Geraldine said to her father. “You can head back to the practice and I can assist Mr. Ashwood.”
No.
“That’s an excellent idea,” Charles said. “You met Lord Twinsbury last week when he visited. You’re familiar with his file. What say you, Thomas? I mean, you’ll eventually have to work together when I retire officially, so why not take the plunge now?”
“I don’t think I’ll need Dr. Collins’s assistance in this matter.” He was grasping at straws, but he really needed to get away from Geraldine. She piqued an interest in him that he hadn’t felt in some time and he didn’t like the way it made him feel.
“With all due respect, Mr. Ashwood, we don’t even know if this is a surgical case,” Geraldine said firmly. “And I will be present as we both examine Lord Twinsbury.”
She had spirit. He liked that.
“You don’t have hospital privileges.”
It was a weak excuse.
“I do, as a matter of fact. I was granted them this morning.” Geraldine crossed her arms, smiling very smugly.
“Now, instead of standing here and arguing, why don’t we meet Lord Twinsbury in A and E and give him the attention he needs?”
Thomas was stunned as Geraldine moved past him and headed out into the hall. Even Charles looked a bit shocked but Thomas didn’t have time to sit there and hash it out with him. Instead, he ran to catch up with Geraldine, who was marching away, her back ramrod straight and honey-brown strands of hair escaping that severe bun that was pinned at the back of her head. He couldn’t help but admire her backside as she marched down the hall.
Don’t think about her like that. She’s off-limits.
“Do you even know where the A and E department is?” Thomas asked as he fell into step beside her.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be silly. Of course I do.”
“Good, because right now you’re headed to the operating theater floor and A and E is this way.” Thomas motioned over his shoulder in the opposite direction. He should’ve just let her go and get lost. Then he could deal with Lord Twinsbury himself, only something deep inside him, that nagging conscience he tried so often to ignore when it came to the opposite sex, was yelling at him to do the right thing.
She skittered to a stop and looked down the hall, her hazel eyes sparkling with determination, annoyance and possibly embarrassment, her red lips pressed together in a firm line.
“Are you going to show me the right way, then, or am I to find the way myself?”
“If I was going to let you fend for yourself I wouldn’t have stopped you and told you were going in the wrong direction.”
Geraldine’s shoulders relaxed and a small smile crept onto her face. “Thank you. I didn’t think you would... That is to say...”
“There’s no explanation needed.” Thomas knew what she was trying to say, that she didn’t think he would help her, and part of him was telling him not to. To let her flounder. She was, after all, the competition. Only he couldn’t do that.
He might go by “the Dark Duke” in his social circle, the rake who seduced debutantes and left them the next day, but he was, after all, a gentleman above all else. Only, since the moment he’d first begun arguing with her, he’d been trying not to think about all the ungentlemanly things he wanted to do to her.
“It’s
