LITMIR.BIZ

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of her head, securing it with a giant clip. ‘But sometimes I think it’s not worth the bother and all the time it takes. After all, with a shaven head, I would easily have beaten you to the coffee.’

      She took a careful sip to test the temperature then a larger mouthful when she found it bearable. He nearly groaned aloud when she closed her eyes and moaned in ecstasy.

      ‘Why does the first cup of the day taste so good?’ she demanded.

      He didn’t reply. The memory of waking up to other activities, and the realisation of just how long ago that had been, reminded him with a jolt of all the reasons why he shouldn’t be indulging in this sparring with her. It wasn’t right, not when he had absolutely no intention of following through. His days on the relationship merry-go-round were over, and he was glad of it. He wouldn’t willingly go through that pain again for anything.

      ‘I stuck my head round the door to check up on the babies,’ he announced, needing to get his thoughts onto more professional matters. As that was the only sort of relationship the two of them could have, he might just as well set the boundaries right from the start. ‘Baby three—the little boy who got squashed—wasn’t doing very well, but his big sisters were doing amazingly well, in spite of their size and prematurity.’

      ‘And Mum?’

      ‘Still in Recovery. Ashraf’s hovering over her. All her vital signs seem to be slowly coming good but she hasn’t really shaken off the anaesthetic yet.’ He frowned briefly. ‘She’s certainly not compos mentis enough to be told what happened on the table.’

      ‘Well, that’s certainly going to be an interesting set of notes to write up. Perhaps you could make a presentation of the case at the monthly meeting.’

      ‘A presentation?’ He was startled by the suggestion. At his last post he’d barely had time to breathe, let alone prepare presentations, then he realised how logical the suggestion was when she continued.

      ‘Not only would it serve as a cautionary tale for those who weren’t involved today, but it would also scotch the rumours that are bound to grow with every telling.’

      ‘Ah, yes. The hospital grapevine,’ he said ruefully. ‘That’s one aspect of our job that’s the same wherever we go—a hairline crack becomes multiple fractures and a Caesarean delivery and hysterectomy becomes—’

      ‘A life-saving procedure performed superbly to give mother and all three babies the best chance possible,’ she interrupted, and for the first time in a long time, in spite of his embarrassment, he allowed himself a brief moment to bask in the warmth of her praise.

      ‘Which I couldn’t have attempted without a damn good team to back me up,’ he added, giving them their due, too. ‘Ashraf’s definitely one of the best anaesthetists I’ve worked with. That woman was emptying out so fast…’ He shook his head at the scary memory. ‘I honestly don’t know how he kept her going long enough for me to tie everything off. And as for you…’

      It was her turn to blush, but he wasn’t giving her empty words—he wouldn’t waste his time on anything but the truth.

      ‘I admit that I was quite surprised to hear that you were one of the applicants for the AR head of department. I couldn’t believe that someone so young could possibly have the necessary skills.’ He bowed briefly towards her. ‘Suffice it to say that since I’ve witnessed your skill and intuition, albeit assisting this time rather than leading, I’m no longer surprised. You knew exactly what I was going to do and how to make it easy for me—proof, in spite of your own doubts, that you would have been equally able to do the job.’

      She was obviously trying to bury her embarrassment in her coffee-cup but he could tell that she was pleased with his recognition of her skills. He had a brief image of the chaos that awaited him in his office and suppressed a shudder that it had been allowed to get into such a state. Was it just that organisation was not one of her skills? He supposed he had to make allowances for the fact that she’d been trying to run the department short-handed, but just in case her weakness was paperwork, he was going to offer to write up this morning’s case notes himself.

      ‘Are you sure?’ she said doubtfully. ‘Donald hated doing them—said he’d rather have his teeth pulled.’

      ‘I’m sure,’ he said with an even deeper sense of foreboding. Had he been unlucky enough to take over a department that hadn’t had anyone willing to take on the essentials? ‘I’ve brought everything with me and I shall have another cup or three of coffee while I get it done.’

      ‘In that case, I’m going to check up on Mum then sneak in for a peep at the babies. I wonder if anyone’s been able to contact their father yet.’

      ‘I’ll leave you to check up on that and I’ll see you in my office at, say, eight?’ he suggested.

      For just a moment there was a strange expression on her face but it was gone too quickly for him to decipher it. Was it chagrin that it was now his office rather than hers, or was it the fact that she was handing it over in such a disastrous state? Well, either way, there was nothing she could do about it now. The job was his, and, providing there wasn’t a run of emergencies like this morning’s, it really shouldn’t take him long to get everything organised, even if he had to ask Personnel for the temporary loan of some sort of specialist filing clerk.

      In the meantime, he had a complicated surgery to document, right down to the last suture and cc of drugs. At least that ought to push Leah out of his mind until he saw her again at eight.

       CHAPTER THREE

      ‘HELLO…Ah, g-good morning, sir,’ Leah ended up stammering, suddenly unaccountably uncertain as to what she should call her new boss.

      Working together in Theatre in such fraught conditions had definitely given her a feeling of connection with him, but perhaps he preferred a little more formality from the more junior members of his…

      ‘Sir?’ he queried with a blink, then ostentatiously looked over his shoulder as if looking for someone else she might be addressing.

      Leah couldn’t help the brief giggle that escaped her. It was probably the result of the nerves that had built up while she was trying not to look as if she was hovering around in the corridor, waiting for him to arrive. She’d even unlocked the door in preparation for his arrival, in case he hadn’t been given his own set of keys yet.

      Then he’d swept open the door at the other end of the corridor and begun striding towards her, all long lean legs and broad shoulders, and all her rational thought processes had ceased.

      ‘That’s better,’ he said with an answering smile as he reached for the door handle. ‘Obviously, there has to be a degree of formality when there are patients present, but at all other times you’re free to call me…God! What on earth happened here?’

      He took a step back to look at the name-plate on the door, as though doubting that he’d come to the right room, but even that had been changed after she’d chased Maintenance to install his name in place of Donald’s—just one of the last-minute things she’d done while he’d been occupied writing up the post-op notes.

      His reaction was everything she could have hoped for, but it was his slip of the tongue that actually made her laugh aloud. It was a struggle to speak for several seconds.

      ‘So, let me get this right,’ she said, smiling in the face of his frown of puzzlement. ‘You don’t want formality but I’m free to call you…God?’ she teased.

      He was walking warily towards the miraculously clear desk.

      ‘You know I didn’t mean that,’ he objected distractedly as he turned in a circle. ‘When did all this happen and who did it?’ he demanded, then she saw panic take over from approval. ‘What happened to all the files, Leah? Where are they? They haven’t been taken away, have they?’

      ‘They’re

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