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       To the crew at Dr. J Family Medicine. Thank you for making me a part of your family. I love you all.

       Dear Reader

      Life sometimes forces us in new directions whether we want to go there or not. When nurse Joni Thompson’s heart and career are left in tatters by the man she loves, she starts over in Bean’s Creek, North Carolina, making a new life for herself, determined never to give another man control over her life.

      Only she can’t resist Dr Grant Bradley’s smile—nor his touch. But so long as she’s the one making the rules and they stick to them her heart and job will be safe … right? Too bad the dashing pulmonologist is playing by his own set of life rules—rules that leave her heart vulnerable. But what’s a girl to do when he steals her breath and demands she give him her all?

      Hope you enjoy Joni and Grant’s story, and the Bean’s Creek crew.

      I love to hear from readers. Please e-mail me at [email protected] to let me know what you think of Joni and Grant’s story, or just to chat about romance. You can also visit me at www.janicelynn.net, or on Facebook, to find out my latest news.

      Happy reading!

       Janice

       Recent titles by Janice Lynn:

      FLIRTING WITH THE SOCIETY DOCTOR

      DOCTOR’S DAMSEL IN DISTRESS

      THE NURSE WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS

      OFFICER, GENTLEMAN … SURGEON!

      DR DI ANGELO’S BABY BOMBSHELL

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       These books are also available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk

      CHAPTER ONE

      “THERE is just something about that man that makes my uterus want to come out of retirement.”

      Intensive Care nurse Joni Thompson’s gaze jerked away from the IV pump she was programming to gawk at the eighty-plus-year-old skeleton of a woman lying in the hospital bed. Mrs. Sain had severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was unfortunately a frequent flyer in the ICU when she lapsed into hyper-capneic respiratory failure.

      Joni didn’t have to ask who her patient referred to. Apparently, even little old ladies two tiptoed steps from death’s doorway weren’t immune to his charm.

      Dr. Grant Bradley, pulmonologist extraordinare.

      Okay, so the man had it all. Brains, beauty, body.

      Not that she’d noticed. Much.

      Oh, yes, much perfectly described how she’d not noticed Grant.

      She’d not noticed much about his sky-blue eyes. Or much about his broad shoulders that couldn’t be hidden beneath his standard hospital-issue scrub tops that perfectly matched those thickly lashed intelligent eyes. Or much about his narrow hips, and she just knew if she could pull his scrub pants tight to his body, he’d have a butt not worth much ado as well.

      But his smile was what she’d not noticed the most much.

      His smile lit up his face, dug dimples into his handsome cheeks, and made his beautiful eyes dance with mischief. The man’s smile did funny things to her insides.

      She closed her eyes and willed Grant out of her head yet again. Seemed like the longer he worked in Bean’s Creek, the more she had to forcibly exorcise the man from her thoughts.

      “It’s his smile, you know.”

      Had Mrs. Sain read her mind or what?

      Joni gawked at the white-haired woman fanning her face as if she really was having a full-blown hot flush brought on by a sudden surge of Dr. Grant Bradley-is-Hot hormones.

      “When that man smiles it’s as if he knows your every secret.” Mrs. Sain’s fanning increased, gaining good rhythm for a person in her frail condition. “As if he knows you’re thinking about him, and he likes being the center of your attention.” A soft sigh escaped thin, pale lips as her eyes closed. “Reminds me of my Hickerson.”

      Joni smiled at the woman’s reminiscing of her late husband. Her patient often mentioned the devilishly handsome man she’d spent more than sixty-five years married to.

      Was Mrs. Sain right? Was it Grant’s smile that made him so irresistible? Joni considered the cocky sideways grin he frequently flashed her way. The man smiled exactly as if he knew what she was thinking and his arrogant self liked it that she wanted to rip off his clothes and lick him from head to toe and all in between.

      Definitely all in between.

      He expected no less than that reaction from women.

      Why would he?

      The man was a god when it came to the opposite sex. Women of all ages fell over themselves vying for his attention, vying for one of those half-cocked grins to be just for them.

      No, he wasn’t a god, more like a tempting devil crooking his finger to lure women to the dark side.

      Biting back a frustrated sigh, Joni shook her head at her still fanning—although rapidly losing momentum—patient. The woman had been on a vent less than forty-eight hours before. If Joni didn’t know better she’d swear the IV fluid must have contained youth serum. Or one hundred-proof estrogen. Joni really liked the spunky older lady who somehow always managed to bounce back no matter how ill she was at time of admission.

      “Not that he looks at me like that, mind you. But I’ve seen how he looks at you.” Mrs. Sain placed her weathered hand on Joni’s arm. “I think he may be a little sweet on you.”

      “I think your oxygen must be dropping because you obviously aren’t thinking straight,” Joni snorted, winking to soften her words because she’d been a bit more brusque than she’d meant to. Honestly, she just couldn’t deal with Grant being “a little sweet” on her. She had her once messy life all straightened out. She didn’t need Dr. Steal Her Breath throwing a curve into her life plan.

      Mrs. Sain didn’t appear in the slightest concerned about her oxygen levels, just laughed at Joni’s remark and patted her arm with thin, clubbed fingers.

      Trying her best not to react so she didn’t encourage Mrs. Sain’s current train of thought, Joni listened to the woman’s heart and lungs. She noted the steady click of the woman’s pacemaker and the coarse rhonchi and expiratory wheezing heard bibasilarly in both lungs anteriorly and posteriorly. As horrible as the woman’s lungs sounded, they were still much improved from even the day

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