feel the same way as Reg and Colin,’ he reassured her. ‘Some of us have actually learned that it’s not just what we do but how we do it that matters.’
‘Thus proving evolutionary theory correct?’ she queried, suddenly realising that her hand was still securely wrapped in his and tugging surreptitiously. To her surprise, he resisted, tightening his grip fractionally to prevent her retrieving it.
He tightened his grip still further and nodded when she automatically matched the pressure with her own. ‘Good. You have worked hard to improve your strength, but have you sacrificed dexterity?’ he challenged.
‘I can thread a needle with the best of them,’she reassured him. ‘But you’ll see for yourself when we start work.’
‘Not if he has his way,’ interrupted Reg with an unexpected touch of venom to his tone. ‘He’s been trying to get the hospital to agree to some ridiculous conveyor-belt system that will mean we wouldn’t even have time to breathe, let alone speak, and as for mentoring…Forget it! Thank goodness the hospital’s administrators have got more sense than wasting scarce resources on it.’
Lily saw the way Razak’s face fell with disappointment and she felt an unexpected pang of sympathy. Whatever this scheme was, it was clearly close to his heart.
‘They have sent the department a written decision?’ he demanded, turning on his heel to stride towards the pigeonholes on the wall behind the door, then flicking impatiently through the handful of items waiting in the slot labelled ‘Khan’.
‘Well, no,’ Reg admitted reluctantly. ‘But it stands to reason that they will, man. It’s taken years to get the funding released for that new theatre suite to be built. Do you really think they’re going to hand the whole thing over to a surgeon who’s only going to be here for a few months, just so he can waste time, effort and precious resources trying to prove an…an alcohol-fuelled brainwave?’
‘I don’t drink alcohol,’ her new boss said with admirable restraint. ‘And I would have thought you would jump at the chance to have someone else working in the new theatres. Then he could suffer while all the teething problems are sorted out.
‘Anyway.’ He turned to face Lily and his sombre expression was immediately lightened by a smile. ‘It is time to give you the guided tour, Dr Langley. You will need to know your way around the rest of the hospital in case we get a call from A and E, and also to know where everything is within the department in case they send something urgent up to Theatre.’
‘Actually, I had a tour when I came for my interview,’ she reminded him, conscious that his time must be too precious to act as a glorified tour guide. ‘The one bit they couldn’t show me was the new operating suite because it was still a building site. Is it really nearly finished?’
‘Do you want to see?’ he offered, with all the enthusiasm of a puppy dropping a ball at her feet in the hope that she would want to play.
‘Of course.’ She grinned, then was glad of her long legs when she had to quicken her pace to keep up with him when he strode out of the room and set off down the corridor.
‘Oh, I am so sorry,’ he apologised a moment later, coming to a sudden halt so that she almost ploughed into his back.
‘For what?’ She tried to appear unaffected in spite of the fact that her pulse had just accelerated from sixty to a hundred and twenty beats with his unexpected proximity.
She was close enough to feel the heat emanating from his lean body through the cream-coloured shirt he wore, close enough, even, to be able to see the beginning of a tangle of dark hairs at the unbuttoned throat of that shirt.
Suddenly she was uncomfortably aware that she knew something as intimate as the fact that her new boss had hair on his chest, and Lily felt the beginning of a blush warming her cheeks.
He was staring in amazement when he found that she was right behind him, those dark eyes dropping the length of her long trouser-clad legs with a dawning smile. ‘I was going to apologise for expecting you to be able to walk as fast as I do and rudely leaving you behind. This is the first time…the first time in my life…that a woman has been able to match my pace without running or getting out of breath.’
‘So you’re accustomed to having short-legged women running after you?’ she quipped, then sucked in a sharp breath when she realised that she was actually flirting with the man. She’d never realised before that she even knew how to flirt.
The gleam in his eyes grew more pronounced and his teeth were startlingly white against his olive skin. ‘Some of us have that cross to bear,’ he admitted with mock modesty. ‘And doubtless your long legs have been very useful to you as you leave your many suitors in your dust.’
Many suitors! Hah!
Lily knew what she looked like. She saw herself in the mirror every morning as she brushed her teeth and pulled her hair back into a no-nonsense twist. Even on a good day, she wouldn’t stop traffic, unlike her sisters who had inherited their mother’s better-endowed shape. So, was he mocking her for her lack of feminine attributes, his own subtle way of putting her down?
‘I am sorry. Did I say something wrong?’ He had obviously noticed her rapid change of expression as his broad forehead was pleated into a frown. ‘If I have upset you…’
‘No, no. Everything’s fine,’ she said hastily, averting her face from his intense scrutiny to look along the corridor. ‘So, does this lead directly to the new operating suite?’
For just a moment she held her breath, certain that he was going to pursue the point, then released it in a silent sigh of relief when he began walking again.
‘Nothing in this hospital leads directly to anything else,’ he said wryly. ‘I hope you have a good sense of direction.’
‘If I get lost, you’ll have to send out search parties,’ she suggested, trying to recapture the light-hearted tone of their earlier conversation, but when Razak shouldered his way through the next set of swing doors she came to a sudden halt.
‘Wow!’ she breathed, feeling her eyes grow wider and wider as she looked around at the reception area for the new suite. ‘This is bigger than my whole flat…well, it’s more of a bedsit, really, but…’ She shut her mouth, suddenly aware that she was babbling. That would have been bad enough if it was only in front of her new boss, but to have half a dozen workmen listening in, too…
‘So, you like it?’ he asked, as he beckoned her forward to point out the eventual purpose of each of the rooms, from the lowliest store cupboard to the two spacious theatres. ‘They finished putting in the last of the flooring on Friday so they were given the weekend without any traffic on them to allow the adhesives to set properly. Today, as you can see, everywhere is being decorated.’
‘But there are no doors to any of the rooms,’ she said, suddenly realising why everywhere looked so strangely open.
‘There will be doors,’ he reassured her with a laugh. ‘Apparently, they won’t go in until all the equipment has been installed because otherwise they get in the way and can get damaged.’
‘That’s logical,’ she agreed, ‘especially as so many of them will be on automatic closing mechanisms. And you’re hoping that we’ll be moving in here when it’s completed?’
‘I’m lobbying hard,’ he admitted
