‘Which cubicle?’
‘Twelve.’
He headed in the direction of the cube but with her following behind, his thoughts were on her low urgent whisper from last night instead of the pending patient. Her‘fuck me harder’twisted through his belly as a hot spike of need flooded his groin.
Snapping out of the memory as he snapped back the curtain, Alessandro greeted his patient. ‘Hi. Ellie? I’m Alessandro Lombardi.’ He held out his hand and the harried young woman shook it briefly, grabbing her side as she let go. ‘Nat’s been telling me you have some pain.’
‘Yes,’ Ellie agreed. ‘The odd niggle the last day or two but worse this morning. And by the time I got to work it was unbearable.’
Alessandro questioned her closely, taking a full history before methodically examining her, palpating her abdomen and deciding she probably had a hot appendix and would need to see a surgeon. He flicked a gaze to Nat, who’d been watching him the entire time. There was nothing sexual about her expression;instead, it blazed with admiration and respect and, hell, if that didn’t join the heat in his groin.
‘I’ll call for a surgical consult and order some bloods. In the meantime,NurseDavies…’ There was something deliciously illicit about using her professional title at work in front of everyone, knowing that he’d seen her naked only a handful of hours ago. The flare in her nostrils told him she felt it too. ‘…I’ll write up some morphine.’
He handed the chart back and deliberately let his gaze slide to her mouth. Her lips parted at his blatant come-on and his groin was now officially on fire.
She cleared her throat, her eyes far from innocent as she murmured, ‘Certainly,DrLombardi.’
Alessandro nodded briskly, liking that she could give as good as she got. Liking it a little too much as he left the cubicle with a reassuring smile at Ellie and a hard-on that was entirely unsuitable for work.
It was like that for the rest of the shift, a slow tease that had Alessandro’s motor well and truly running. Wherever he was – she seemed to be.
Smiling at him with those private eyes as she handed over the twenty-six-year-old male who had accidentally ingested sterilising tablets instead of aspirin. Her fingers brushing his as she handed him the chart of the forty-nine-year-old woman who was having an allergic reaction to an unidentified substance. Watching him intently as he moved his stethoscope around the chest of a twenty-year-old male complaining of shortness of breath.
He gave as good as he got, however, grabbing her hips and lingering a little too long as he passed behind her in the cramped confines of a lift as they transported a thirty-six-year-old female who had suddenly gone blind in her right eye to aCTscan.
Calling her Nurse Davies every chance he got.
By the time they were halfway through the shift, Alessandro’s body was humming with desire like a damn tuning fork. She was everywhere and each hour cranked the anticipation up another notch.
He hoped she wasn’t planning on getting any sleep tonight.
After lunch Alessandro opened the curtains to cube nine and greeted his next patient as Nat introduced him. ‘Seventy-two-year-old Mr Gregory, a five-year prostate cancer survivor, complaining of acute hip pain.’
The patient gave a loud hoot. ‘Ron, please. Mr Gregory reminds me of my teaching days, and as much as I loved it I’m damned pleased I’m not doing it any more.’
She laughed. ‘Ron it is.’
‘Sorry to be such a damn nuisance, Doc,’ Ron said addressing Alessandro. ‘BloodyGP’s making a fuss about nothing.’
Ron was a sprightly guy, tall and snowy-haired with crinkles around his eyes like he enjoyed a good laugh, but there was a slight strained note in his voice that made Alessandro think that, beneath all that bravado, Ron was a little worried.
Shrugging, Alessandro said, ‘Better to be safe than sorry. No harm checking you over.’
After taking some history, Alessandro put his stethoscope in his ears and Nat helped Ron get into a sitting position so he could listen to both back and front.
As ordered, Ron took several deep breaths before he said, ‘I see you’re not married, missy,’ which Alessandro could hear perfectly clearly through the bell of the stethoscope. ‘Are young men blind these days or just plain stupid?’
Nat’s gaze briefly met his over the top of the patient’s head, a smile on her very kissable mouth. ‘Good question.’
Ron started to say something else but she put her finger to her lips in the universal sign forquiet please. Alessandro needed quiet to properly hear lung sounds, but when he was done with that and had moved on to Ron’s abdomen, the patient picked up where he left off.
‘Maybe you’re holding out for a more mature gent?’ he said with a smile in his voice. ‘Very wise. Take my generation, we know how to treat a lady.’
Alessandro tried to ignore the flirting as he felt Ron’s abdomen. He’d been in emergency departments long enough to know that some patients – particularly older men – loved a little flirt with a female member of staff, be it nurse or doctor. God knew, he’d been flirted with on more than one occasion at work by women of a variety of ages. Nat certainly wasn’t objecting and he knew it was just a bit of harmless banter to pass the time.
But still, he was irritated as Ron persisted. ‘Teachers are particularly good dates.’
‘Well, now, that depends. What subject did you teach?’
