Masquerade (9 page)

Sophie waited as Alex walked toward her, his steps sure and predatory. When he reached her he answered her question. “Yes, I can respect that, even understand it, but do I like it? Not really.”

He placed his hand on her door handle and turned it pausing before passing through the opening. “But it’s not over yet, Sophie, believe me.”

He walked through the open door and let it close behind him.

Her breath whooshed out of her and she slid down the wall until her bottom hit the ground with a quiet thud.

She’d experienced a gamut of emotions in the space of a few hours. How was she going to get through having to spend so much time with Alex at work? Looking for a new job wasn’t an option. She’d worked hard to get where she finally was and she wasn’t going to give that up.

No, the only option she had was to suck it up and deal with it. She could be professional and she could bury the feelings of attraction that coursed through her blood.

She had to.

• • •

Sophie was sipping on her second coffee for the morning as she walked through the emergency room doors. A flurry of activity greeted her. Perfect. A busy day was exactly what she needed to forget the previous evening’s events.

“Sophie, thank goodness you’re here.” The harried voice of the chief night nurse had her smiling. It was good to feel useful and appreciated.

“Hi, Dawn, what’s up?”

“After you left last night things went into hyper drive. You’d think it would’ve been quiet for a Monday night, but it was the opposite. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Dawn kept up her constant stream of chatter as they made their way to Sophie’s office. She flung open the door with a confidence she wasn’t feeling and was slightly disappointed when she found it empty.

“Dr. Scavoni not in yet?” she asked Dawn as she dumped her bag in her desk drawer.

“Yep, he was in at the crack of dawn. Apparently he couldn’t sleep. He’s upstairs at the burns unit checking out the patient you brought in last night.”

Sophie noted Dawn’s comment about Alex not sleeping. Her heart beat faster as she wondered whether she was the cause of his sleeplessness. “How’s Tim doing?”

Dawn sat on the corner of her desk and flipped the pages on the clipboard she was carrying.

“He’s stable. The swelling is starting to subside. No news on whether he’ll lose the use of his hand.”

Sophie made a mental note to go visit him later on. It was going to be a long, hard recovery road for the young chef and he would need a lot of support.

“What about the rest of the evening? Anything I should know about?”

They spent the next few minutes going over the night’s events. They still had some people waiting for test results and bed availability before they could be moved.

Dawn stood and handed over the clipboard. “I’ll leave it in your capable hands. I’m beat and my bed is calling.”

Sophie laughed. She totally understood the strain and stresses working the night shift could do to your body.

“Well, according to my roster, you now have a couple of days off. Enjoy them, Dawn, and I’ll see you on your next shift.”

“Thanks, Soph, have a good day.”

Sophie murmured her thanks but her mind was already on the shuffling she was going to have to do to make room in the department for any incoming patients. It was a vicious circle. There never seemed to be enough beds in the wards to take the amount of patients that seemed to flow through the emergency room doors.

She was about to head out into the jungle when Alex strode in. She schooled her features but she couldn’t stop the rapid beating of her heart or the moisture that started to form on her hands.

“Good morning, Alex.” She felt she should say more but couldn’t form the words. It was as if her mind was made up of jelly.

“Morning, Sophie, I trust you slept well?”

How did she answer that?

Yes, Alex, I slept like the dead. Until you invaded my dreams and turned them from pleasant to hot. So hot that I woke up tangled in my sheets, needing you to assuage the hunger I was feeling.

Oh yeah, that would go down real well.

“Fine, thanks. How about you? Coffee didn’t bother you?” She couldn’t resist asking even though she knew from Dawn how well he’d slept.

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t answer. A tense silence settled momentarily over the room.

Sophie cleared her throat. “I, ah, I heard from Dawn that Tim is stable. That’s good news.”

Alex ran his fingers through his hair, mussing it, and she had to stop herself from reaching out to tidy it up.

“Yes, it is good. But on to other things. We’ve got people in beds that need to be moved. People in the waiting room that can’t be seen because we have no beds. Does the night staff not know how to run things?”

Anger warred with shock at his words. He hadn’t even spent one full day in the department and he was already casting aspersions over the ability of the staff.

“How on earth did you become director of emergency, Doctor?” She strode around her desk. “This is what happens day after day after day. We’ve even had ambulances lined up outside. It’s a constant battle that can never be won. We just have to deal with it and try to keep our patients comfortable.”

She stopped and took a breath before continuing. “And another thing, I’d think twice before saying things about
your
staff, otherwise you’ll have no staff to deal with
your
patients.”

Now it was his turn to look shocked. Clearly, no one had ever spoken to him that way. As the red haze of anger cleared, Sophie realized she’d just told off her superior. A superior who could have her removed from the job with a quick slash of his pen. A superior who she really wanted to kiss.

“Are you finished?” he asked, with a slight note of admiration in his tone.

Sophie knew she’d overstepped her boundaries, and owed Alex some sort of an apology. Even though she meant every word of her tirade. “Sorry, but I will defend my staff against overbearing doctors who have no idea just how hard my nurses work.”

It could hardly be described as an apology, but she would always defend her nurses.

Alex slumped down into his chair. “No, you’re right, Sophie. It was unreasonable of me to take my foul mood out on you and our staff. I’m sorry.”

Sophie didn’t know how to take his apology or his tone. He sounded so dejected and he hadn’t even been there one day. It didn’t bode well for the ER if he was so low.

This time it was her turn to sit on his desk. “What is it, Alex, what’s wrong?”

He took his time before he answered, as if he was pondering exactly what to say and how much he wanted to say to her. The anger in her started to rise again. “Look, Alex, whatever you have to say, just say it. I can take it. Believe me, I’ve had worse thrown at me over the last couple of months.” She laid her hands on the cool wooden surface of his desk and leaned forward, passion filling her words. “But when it comes to the hospital and our staff, it’s up to us to keep moral high and deal with the problems of bed shortages and making the department run smoothly.”

“You really do love your job, don’t you?” Bewilderment and admiration mixed to chase away the dejection on his face.

“Of course I do, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love it. Why are you so surprised?”

“I just am, that’s all. When I first met you, I would never have pictured you as a nurse.”

She snorted, cynicism lacing her voice. “You thought I was some airhead. Some socialite who had nothing better to do with her time, other than getting her hair and nails done.”

She had the pleasure of seeing a shade of burgundy flood his cheeks. “I can see I was right. You’re not the first one and I doubt you’ll be the last one. If my father had his way, his ‘precious princess’ would never get her hands dirty again. She’d marry well and let her husband look after her and provide for her, so she wouldn’t have to worry her little head about working in a
public hospital
.”

She took a breath and continued before Alex could interrupt. “I may be property tycoon Richard Franklyn’s only daughter. But I make my own mind up and I live my life with purpose. I’m a nurse and a damn good one at that. I am not defined by my father’s wealth.”

Alex held up his hands in mock surrender. “I won’t lie, Sophie. Yes, I thought you were a socialite, but there was something else there I could see. I don’t care who your father is or how wealthy he is. I can see that his money doesn’t define you. But something that drew me to you from the moment I sat down next to you that night. Something I couldn’t ignore.”

Sophie didn’t want to hear those words. It sounded too personal and she wouldn’t do personal now. “Well, let’s just forget that night ever happened. It’s in the past and we need to move on.”

Her breath fluttered in her chest as his hand reached out and touched her face. So reminiscent of the gentle caresses he bestowed upon her that one night. It took all her strength to remain rigid and not let him know how much his touch affected her.

“Can you really do that, Sophie?” he asked. “Can you really forget everything we shared that night and even last night?”

She moved away, determined to put some distance between them. She felt like a broken record, but it seemed he wasn’t listening to what she kept saying. “Alex, as I told you last night, I can’t do this. I will not be pressured into a personal relationship with you.” She paused to catch her breath. “Last night you said you could deal with that.”

• • •

The stubborn tilt of her chin and the steely look of determination in her eyes garnered nothing but admiration in him. She had grit and was focused on what she wanted. He had to respect that about her.

“Yes, Sophie, I can deal with that. Professionalism from here on out.”

Sophie lifted her chin a little higher. “Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my nursing staff will be wondering where I am.”

He watched as she opened the door and strode out, leaving behind the lingering scent of her perfume.

What was it about Sophie that had his sensibilities flying out the window whenever he got within a few feet of her?

She was right, though, he should be listening to her. She spoke the truth. A personal relationship should be out of the question. He made a vow to himself after his failed marriage he didn’t want to go down that road again. Hadn’t he learned the first time?

What he should do was ring Amanda. She was always a voice of reason. It had taken them a few years, but he and his former wife had managed to salvage a friendship out of the wreck of their marriage. He was even godfather to her daughter.

A dull ache pierced his heart as he thought about Abby. How, if things had been different, she might have been their child. But no, if he couldn’t be a proper husband there was no way he would be a proper father. A proper father was there when his child needed him. Not a passing figure that either left too early in the morning or arrived home too late. A child needed their father not to be on call, having to rush off to an emergency. It would kill him to see the look of disappointment on his child’s face, once again, when he had to rush out and leave behind a party or a picnic.

No, he was better off being single, and then no one would get hurt. To appease his need for a child, he’d live vicariously through his goddaughter Abby.

Alex stood, pleased with the decision he’d just made, ignoring the voice inside of him telling him he would be a lonely old man.

Better a lonely old man than a man who continually hurts the people he cares most about.

As he walked out the door, he made a mental note — he should go and thank Sophie for finally making him see reason.

A relationship between them would never work.

The sound of the water gently swishing against the shore had the calming effect Sophie wanted.

It had been a hell of a week. After her discussion with Alex in their office, he had gone out of his way to be painfully polite and correct with her. There was no gleam in his eye. No little touches to her arm or cheek. No flirtatious smile. He had become the consummate professional work colleague. She didn’t like it.

You got what you asked for,
the insidious little voice in her head taunted her.
You wanted professionalism and that’s what you got. So suck it up.

Sometimes she wished she could grab that voice out of her head and smash its sarcastic tone with her foot. She plonked herself down on the soft sand, still warm from the setting sun. It had been a hot day and now, with the sun starting to set, the temperature was cooling and it was turning into a balmy evening.

She loved living close to the river, being able to unwind with a walk along its shores, inspecting the sand for shells, and enjoying the coolness of the water as it bubbled and gurgled around her ankles.

What you really want is Alex to be sharing it with you,
the voice in her mind taunted again.

“Mind if I join you?”

For a moment, Sophie thought her imagination had conjured up Alex. She turned and squinted, looking up at the figure looming over her.

“Alex?”

He laughed softly as he sat himself down next to her. “Were you expecting someone else?”

“Umm no, not at all, I’m just surprised to see you here, that’s all.”

Neither spoke for a few moments. Sophie’s mind was full with questions she wasn’t sure she could ask.

Why had he come here?

What did he want?

How had he been able to find her?

“You know, all you have to do is ask. I think I said it once before, I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.”

Heat filled her cheeks and she tried to fool herself into believing it was from the sun and nothing else. This man sitting beside her was a contradiction. He’d all but ignored her the whole week and now he’d deliberately sought her out.

“I don’t believe this is a coincidence, Alex. It’s not a place frequented by a lot of people. So why are you here?”

“This isn’t a social call. It’s a business one.”

Sophie’s spirits deflated all at one. His tone had turned so serious. She stood abruptly. The calmness that previously filled her evaporated, like a cloud of perfume after it left the bottle.