The Legendary Playboy Surgeon (3 page)

‘Hey...I’m just trying to make Bella here feel welcome.’

‘Of course you are,’ another nurse said. A ripple of laughter went through the theatre staff.

Connor grinned along with them but made a mental note to point out to his anaesthetist colleague, Mike, that the pot shouldn’t be calling the kettle too black. Maybe they’d be able to get a game of squash in this evening and they could discuss it then.

He didn’t get another chance to try and chat Bella up. Partly because he was too busy with his work but also because she got sent out of Theatre. Maybe it wasn’t really her fault that the accident had happened. Technicians were moving some heavy gear and she got in the way somehow and was almost knocked off her feet. Fortunately, she managed not to fall into the sterile field but nobody was thrilled by the explosive disruption of the heavy metal object she’d been carrying hitting the floor. Bella didn’t look too thrilled either, because the collection of used surgical instruments destined for the steriliser had landed on her foot and she was limping quite badly as she slunk out.

She wasn’t limping when he spotted her later, having finally escaped the intense surgical session. She was sitting on a couch near a set of lifts, her shoe off, rubbing at her foot.

‘Broken bone?’ Connor suggested hopefully. ‘Do you need the services of an orthopaedic surgeon perhaps?’

Bella scowled at him. ‘You don’t need to rub it in. I already feel like a complete klutz. It’s just a bruise.’ She glanced at her mobile phone as a text-message alert sounded. ‘Darn...I was hoping to get a ride home but it looks like I’ll have to find a bus.’

It was obviously painful to try and put her foot into her shoe. And no wonder, the high heels weren’t exactly practical.

Connor couldn’t resist a maiden in distress. ‘Don’t force it,’ he advised. ‘Leave it off and get some ice on your foot when you get home.’

‘That’ll be a good look, running for the bus in bare feet.’

‘You could call a taxi.’ Connor wasn’t going to leap in to the rescue if it wasn’t welcome.

Bella shook her head firmly. ‘No way. I’m saving up to head overseas. Every penny counts.’

‘In that case, please let me offer to be of service with no scalpel in sight. I have an extra helmet in my locker.’

‘Helmet?’ Bella’s eyes brightened. ‘You ride a bike?’

‘Sure do.’

Her glance was curious. ‘You’re an orthopaedic surgeon and you just spent hours putting a teenager back together after he fell off a motorbike. Are you nuts?’

‘Probably. Want a ride home?’

Bella grinned. ‘Sure.’

* * *

It was all a bit too easy, Connor decided, following Bella’s directions to one of the nicer city suburbs. He should be delighted. Here he was, riding his bike with the arms of a beautiful girl wrapped around his waist. A perfect girl, given her liking for motorbikes and the willingness to take a bit of a risk. Taking her home where she’d probably ask him in for a coffee or something and he could offer to check out her foot and one thing would inevitably lead to another and...

There was no challenge here.

The sacrilegious thought that the predictability could be boring was unexpected. Disturbing, even.

So disturbing that Connor suppressed his intention to decline the offer to go inside the rather lovely old house he took her to. He must be tired or something, he decided. Maybe the loss of one of his young patients had affected him more than he’d realised. If an evening with Bella didn’t perk him up, he’d know there was something seriously amiss.

‘Nice place,’ he said, pulling off his helmet.

‘It belongs to my aunt,’ Bella told him. ‘I’m just living with her while I’m working at St Pat’s. She works there, too. Come on in. You probably know each other already.’

It was quite possible. Connor was friendly with a lot of the older members of the nursing staff. It was a bonus that Bella wasn’t living with a bunch of nurses close to her own age. Even with his current ambivalence about taking this acquaintance any further, it would be rather awkward if an old girlfriend was lurking.

He had time to look around as Bella hobbled up the hallway ahead of him. The house was even nicer on the inside. The aunt clearly had good taste. She could cook, too, judging by the very appetising aroma that was coming from the area Bella veered into at the end of the hallway.

‘Oh, my God,’ he heard a woman’s voice say in concern. ‘Why are you limping? What have you done to yourself this time?’

This
time? Was Bella accident prone? Maybe she needed looking after.

‘Someone moved an X-ray machine in Theatre and I wasn’t expecting it,’ Bella was explaining as Connor entered the room. ‘I lost my grip on this bucket of stuff for the steriliser. It wasn’t my fault.’ She twisted her head. ‘Was it, Connor?’

But Connor couldn’t say anything in Bella’s defence. He hadn’t seen the incident in the first place and right now it was the furthest thing from his mind. He wasn’t even looking at Bella. He was staring at Kate Graham.

At least, he thought it was Kate.

Maybe it was the good twin? This woman looked like Kate but couldn’t look more different, which made no sense. His head was spinning. The good twin was wearing jeans. Not just any old jeans. These were beloved old, soft, faded jeans with frayed knees and bare feet beneath them. There was a pale, grey T-shirt that was way too big. Big enough for a bare shoulder to be peeping through the neckline. She had no glasses on and her hair hung in a black curtain almost to her waist. A damp kind of curtain, as though she’d just jumped out of a shower.

Or into a movie scene. The prude versus vamp one. To his horror, Connor felt something remarkably like a blush stirring under his skin.

Bella was looking at him and then at Kate. Back and forth as if she was watching a slow-motion tennis game.

‘I thought you guys would know each other,’ she said. She gave an exasperated huff. ‘Kate, this is Connor. I can’t remember his last name. He’s a surgeon at St Pat’s. Connor, this is my aunt, Kate Graham. She hangs out in Pathology.’ She shrugged. ‘I guess St Pat’s is bigger than I thought so maybe your paths never cross.’

Connor was grappling with a new sensation.

Acute embarrassment? Probably. He couldn’t escape the impression that he was seeing something he wasn’t supposed to be seeing. As if he was some kind of voyeur peeping through a gap in a curtain. This was even worse than the bit of leftover guilt from the knowledge of how rude he’d been to her the other day. On top of both those unpleasant sensations there was also something he didn’t want to identify that had to be blamed on the absurd flight of fancy whilst scrubbing in this afternoon.

He cleared his throat. He had to say something. Kate was doing that totally-lost-for-words thing again.

‘They’ve...um...crossed,’ he muttered.

‘Oh, good.’ Bella gave Kate a quick hug on her way towards the fridge. ‘Have we got any ice? I think I should put some on my foot. Connor was kind enough to give me a ride home when I found I couldn’t fit my shoe back on.’

‘Three days,’ Kate muttered, her tone faintly incredulous.

‘What?’ Bella looked up from the depths of the freezer. ‘You think I need to ice my foot for three days?’

‘I... No, of course not. If it’s still that sore and swollen tomorrow, you’d better get an X-ray. You might have broken something.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ Connor said. ‘Heavy things, those buckets. Especially when they’re full of the kind of surgical gear we use for rearranging bones.’

Bella had a bag of frozen peas in her hand. ‘Can I use these? Much better than ice blocks.’

‘Sure. Just don’t put them back in the freezer so we eat them by mistake.’

‘Speaking of eating...’ Bella lifted a lid on a pot. ‘Ooh, yum. This smells divine.’ She grinned at Connor. ‘My aunt is the best cook in the world.’

‘I can believe that.’ Connor couldn’t help licking his lips.

Bella took another look in the pot. ‘There’s heaps here. Connor could stay and have some dinner with us, couldn’t he, Kate?’

‘I...uh...’ Kate had no idea what to say.

This was an appalling situation. Nobody from her work had ever been into her home. Her private life was exactly that. Private. She didn’t want anyone here. She especially didn’t want
this
man. St Pat’s playboy doctor. The one who thought she was
buttoned up
and needed a life. She had exactly the life she wanted. Private and...and safe.

Until now.

Good grief, she was only just out of the shower and her attire could hardly be deemed presentable. And even if she’d still been in her work clothes she would have felt half-naked with that look he’d given her when he’d come into the room. For heaven’s sake, he’d brought Bella home. What did he think he was doing, looking at
her
like that?

And why did it give her the most peculiar ripple of sensation in places she was barely aware of?

She’d known Bella would be capable of discovering the most desirable of any available men at St Pat’s and she had imagined her arriving home on the back of Connor’s motorbike. But she’d given it a fortnight. Three days had be breaking some sort of record, surely? And did she want to sit and watch this embryonic, going-nowhere, purely sexual relationship develop under her gaze? In her own home?

No, she damn well didn’t.

Connor was looking just as uncomfortable at the prospect but somehow that didn’t mollify Kate in the least.

‘I can’t stay,’ he said hurriedly. ‘I’ve got—’

He didn’t get time to finish his sentence because Bella had turned around with the bag of peas in her hand to head for a chair but when she put weight on her foot, she gave a cry of pain and looked like she was about to fall. Connor stepped forward with commendable speed, caught Bella and practically lifted her bodily onto the kitchen bench.

‘That foot needs looking at,’ he said firmly. ‘Sit still.’

Bella sat.

Connor pulled a kitchen chair close and perched on the edge of it so that the injured foot was close to eye level. Then he put his hands on it.

‘Ouch,’ Bella said.

‘How much ouch?’

‘Lots.’

‘You’ve certainly got a good bruise coming up. Good thing you missed a direct hit on your toes. Can you wiggle them all?’

Bella wiggled.

Kate watched. There was indeed a large bruise on the top of Bella’s foot and it probably hurt a great deal. How crazy was it to be feeling...what,
envious
of her niece right now? No. She was feeling frustrated, that’s what it was. She wanted Connor out of her kitchen. Out of her house. Preferably out of her life.

Connor had his hand under the foot. ‘Try and push my hand away.’ He rested his hand gently on the top. ‘Pull up against my hand.’ Then he began carefully but thoroughly to palpate all the tiny bones Kate knew a foot contained.

‘Don’t think anything’s broken,’ he said finally. ‘But the only way to know for sure is to get an X-ray. Maybe I should run Bella back to A and E.’

‘No need,’ Kate said crisply. ‘I can take her. I don’t think riding a bike with a potentially broken foot is the best idea, do you?’

She didn’t mean to sound like some prim school teacher but it certainly came out that way. She saw the look that Connor and Bella exchanged. Her niece was smiling.

‘Don’t take any notice,’ she told Connor. ‘She’s a sweetheart, really.’

‘I’m sure,’ Connor murmured, sounding anything but. He backed away. ‘Let me know how it goes,’ he said by way of farewell.

Kate flicked off the controls on her stove. Dinner could wait. Her appetite had deserted her in any case.

‘Come on.’ She helped Bella down from the bench. ‘You can sit a bit closer to floor level while I go and make myself presentable. Then we’ll go and see what the damage is.’

The rest of the damage maybe. Something felt very odd about her home right now. As though something indefinable had been broken. Connor was gone but she could still feel his presence in her house.

And she didn’t like the feeling one little bit.

CHAPTER THREE

‘C
ONNOR
!
What are you doing here?’

Good
question.

Connor wasn’t quite sure of the answer, mind you. He should be playing squash with Mike the anaesthetist. Having a beer after the game and chewing the fat with the lads. He should, at least, be having his dinner.

But here he was in the emergency department of St Pat’s. In a cubicle where Bella was lounging on the bed and Kate was sitting beside her, ramrod straight against the back of the chair.

No. This was Dr Graham sitting here. Connor sighed inwardly, knowing that this was largely why he had found himself drawn in this direction.

It was nearly an hour and a half since he’d left Bella sitting on the kitchen bench and he’d been out on the motorway, with the night air rushing past, while he’d tried to sort out the puzzle in his head.

The puzzle that Kate Graham represented.

The split personality.

Dr Graham. Prim and buttoned up at work. Closed off.

The house fitted with that image of her. Tasteful and perfect and so damned tidy. Like she was now, with her hair scraped back again and her glasses back in place and wearing a skirt and jacket that looked like the female equivalent of a business suit.

But he’d seen
Kate
and she’d been in frayed jeans and...and bare feet, for God’s sake. And she’d had cute toes. With red nails.

Connor loved red toenails. He couldn’t look at this woman now without remembering those toenails. He knew he wouldn’t be able to pass her in the corridor of St Pat’s from now on without remembering them, and it was messing with his head.

Two women in one body.

Connor was intrigued.

Not that he was attracted to her or anything. Hell, no. It was simply a conundrum.

A challenge.

He’d only come back to St Pat’s because it was too late to jack up a game of squash and, if he was going to eat a microwaved dinner by himself, he wanted the distraction of the new journal he’d left on his desk. So why had he veered into the emergency department on his way out?

‘I just wanted to hear the verdict on the foot,’ he said aloud. ‘If something’s broken, I’ll have a mountain of paperwork on the way. The theatre was booked under my name, you know.’

The foot was propped up on pillows, with an ice pack on the top of it.

‘Look at this.’ Bella leaned forward and lifted the ice pack.

The bruise was starting to look really impressive now. The colour was much darker and the internal bleeding was tracking down the side of the foot to pool in the hollow beneath the ankle bone.

‘Hmm...’ Connor said in his most professional voice.

Bella giggled.

Kate’s voice was clipped. Clearly this was nothing to joke about. ‘We’ve only just got back from X-Ray,’ she said. ‘We’re waiting for the radiologist’s report to come through.’

‘I could pull up the X-ray and have a look myself if you like.’ Connor was surprised they hadn’t been fast-tracked in the first place. Staff were always given preferential treatment and that was fine by him. It was one of the only perks of a job that required far more commitment than any other career.

‘Bella’s a patient here,’ Kate said. ‘And I’m a relative. The department’s busy.’

She wasn’t about to bend any rules herself and didn’t want them bent for her.

Fine.

Connor smiled. He hitched one hip onto the end of Bella’s bed. ‘No worries,’ he said. ‘I’ve got nothing better to do. I’ll wait, too.’

The discomfort on Kate’s face was worth waiting a bit longer for some food. Man, she was regretting not bending a rule or two now.

Her voice sounded tight when she spoke. ‘I might go and give Jackie a call. She’ll want an update.’

Connor raised an eyebrow when Kate pulled a mobile phone from the pocket of her jacket. She gave him the kind of look only women seemed to be capable of. The one that made you feel about two inches shorter or something.

‘I’ll go outside,’ she told Bella. ‘I wouldn’t want to interfere with any electronic equipment being used in here.’

Connor grinned at Bella as Kate swept past. ‘She does know that doctors have their phones on all the time in here as back-up for their pagers, doesn’t she?’

Bella’s eyes widened. ‘Do they?’

‘Of course they do.’ Connor suppressed a sigh. Maybe it was just him. Maybe every other person on the St Pat’s planet went around obeying every little rule and regulation. ‘How’s your foot feeling?’

‘Fine. I had some painkiller when I got here. It doesn’t even hurt to wiggle my toes now, see?’

Toes wiggled. Bella had a French polish thing going on. Classy. The sort of look he would have expected Kate to go for. If he’d ever bothered to spare a thought for her toenails.

Which he hadn’t. Of course.

‘Who’s Jackie?’ he asked abruptly.

‘My mum. Kind of Kate’s mum, too.’

‘Oh?’ Connor was bemused. Surely her niece’s mother would be more in the category of a sister? ‘How’s that?’

‘Kate came to live with us when she was fifteen. My dad’s her older brother. I was six so it was like getting a big sister for a surprise present. A huge surprise, cos I didn’t even know I had an aunt.’

‘How come?’

Bella lowered her voice. ‘Dad didn’t have anything to do with his family. He left home when he was seventeen.’

‘How old would Kate have been then?’

‘About five? He’s never talked about it. He doesn’t talk about his family at all, really. Neither does Kate. It’s like they’re orphans or they’ve got a secret pact or something. Anyway, it was kind of cool to have a teenage aunt. Especially as I’ve got four younger brothers and sisters and if Kate hadn’t come to live with us I would have been the oldest and had to help look after them all and that would have been a bit of a fun-buster, wouldn’t it?’

Connor knew he shouldn’t be encouraging this kind of personal gossip about a colleague but it was irresistible. There was clearly a mystery here. One that might explain why Kate was the way she was. Why had she gone to live with her older brother and his young family at an age when most girls needed their mothers? Why had her brother turned his back on his family when he hadn’t been much older himself? What kind of parents had these young people had?

Connor wasn’t going to try and analyse why he was so fascinated. He’d probably do that later, when he wasn’t in the company of the irrepressible—and very open—Bella.

‘So you’ve never met your grandparents?’ he found himself asking quietly.

Bella shook her head. She bit her bottom lip as she sucked in a quick breath. ‘Grandma died not that long after Kate came to live with us. She and Dad went off to her funeral and that was that. Except...’

‘Except what?’ OK, Connor was dead curious now. Riveted, even.

‘I shouldn’t say... Kate doesn’t even know I know.’

Connor leaned closer. ‘I won’t breathe a word,’ he promised.

Bella was still hesitating. She looked over his shoulder as though fearful of Kate’s return. Then she looked back at Connor, biting her lip. She
wanted
to tell him.

And, damn, he wanted to hear.

‘You can trust me,’ he murmured. ‘So can Kate.’

‘I found a letter,’ Bella whispered. ‘About a parole hearing.’

Connor’s jaw dropped. ‘Who was in prison?’

‘I think he still is,’ Bella said.

‘Who?’

‘My grandfather.’

‘What’s he in prison for?’

‘I have no idea.’ Bella shook her head. ‘But I think he went in there the same year that Grandma died and that’s... God, about seventeen years ago so it must have been something
really
bad—’

‘What’s really bad?’

They both jumped as Kate walked in.

‘My foot,’ Bella said promptly. ‘If it’s broken it would be a really bad way to be starting a new job.’

Connor had to admire the way Bella had extricated herself from a tricky moment but something in Kate’s face made him think that she knew there had been more to the conversation. The glance she flicked at Connor was wary. She would not be at all happy if she knew the kind of private details Bella had been sharing about her aunt, that was for sure. He shouldn’t have encouraged it. He shouldn’t even be here, come to that.

‘I’ve just spoken to the consultant,’ Kate said. ‘He’s had a good look at the X-ray and talked to the radiologist. Nothing’s broken. He’s going to come and talk to you before we go but they’re going to put a compression bandage on and give you a sick note for work for a couple of days. You’ll need to keep it elevated and rested. You might get a set of crutches if it’s too painful to put weight on.’

‘Not broken? Yay!’ Bella beamed. ‘I’ll be dancing again in no time, then.’

A nurse bustled into the cubicle with a handful of bandages. ‘Hi, I’m Gemma,’ she said. ‘I’ve come to bandage up that poor foot of yours.’ She nodded at Kate and then did a double-take as she spotted the extra person in the cubicle. ‘Connor! What are you doing here?’

‘I’m kind of...involved in the case,’ he said.

‘Of course you are.’ She grinned, and turned to her patient. ‘It’s Bella, isn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

‘And I hear you dropped a steriliser bucket on your foot in Theatre.’

‘Mmm.’

‘In my theatre,’ Connor put in. For some reason he felt he needed to explain his involvement. He’d never dated Gemma but he had been out with one of her friends a few times. That knowing little comment was sending a message to Kate that he didn’t like at all. He wasn’t trying to pick Bella up, here. Not at all. She was bright and bubbly and fun and everything but she was far too young. And too...open? Not mysterious enough?

Uh-oh, there was something disturbing in this line of thought. It really was time he left but Gemma was uncovering Bella’s foot now. He could just stay for a minute and make sure she did a good job of that compression bandage.

‘Ooh, nice bruise,’ Gemma said admiringly. ‘Did I hear you say something about dancing soon?’

Bella was admiring her foot as well. ‘Maybe not immediately.’

‘Shame. There’s a dance on next Saturday night that should be great fun.’ Gemma looked up at Connor. ‘I assume you’ll be going.’

‘Wasn’t planning on it.’ This was another message he wasn’t comfortable with Kate receiving. He could just imagine what she thought of him. Someone who took no notice of rules, dated everything in a skirt and couldn’t stay away from even the hint of a party. Shallow only began to describe that kind of person, didn’t it?

‘But it’s a fundraiser for Paeds. The “P” for pool party?’ Gemma shook her head. She turned to Kate. ‘The physiotherapy department is trying to raise enough money to put in a new therapeutic pool. You’ll be going, won’t you, Dr Graham?’

‘No.’

The word was final. Kate had no intention of going to this party. Or any other party judging by the echo of the word that hung over Bella’s bed.

A determined gleam came into Bella’s eyes. ‘Why not?’ she demanded. ‘Sounds fun. Except that I have no idea what a “P” party actually is. Sounds a bit dodgy to me.’

‘Fancy dress,’ Gemma explained. ‘You have to come as a character that starts with the letter “P”. You know, like a pirate?’ She eyed Connor. ‘That would be a great one for you.’

Kate was staring at her shoes. She didn’t dare look at Connor.

She could understand all too well why the girls found him so attractive with that ‘bad boy’ vibe going on. It was all too easy to imagine him dressed up as a pirate with a gold ring in his ear and a rakish hat and a king-of-the-world kind of attitude.

No wonder she found Bella’s face lighting up like a Christmas tree when she felt compelled to lift her gaze.

‘What about a princess?’ Bella exclaimed. ‘Oh, I
have
to go. Even if I’m on crutches. I’ve always wanted an excuse to dress up as a princess.’ She saw Kate’s expression and grinned. ‘Yeah, yeah...I know. I did it all the time when I was a kid but this would be like...legitimate.’

Kate had to smile at her excitement. She would make a perfect princess with her gorgeous long hair and those big blue eyes. The men would be falling all over themselves wanting to find out who she was. Maybe Connor should go as a prince instead of a pirate and stake a visible claim. She couldn’t help her glance sliding in his direction as her brain prompted her to say something aloud but the suggestion died on her lips at his expression.

Curious, that’s what it was.

Oh, God...she
knew
they’d been talking about her when she’d gone to phone Jackie. That conversation she’d interrupted hadn’t been about Bella’s shaky start to her new job at all. So what had been the ‘really bad’ thing they’d been discussing? How embarrassing it was to have a spinster aunt who hid herself away and needed to get a life?

‘We’ve still got plenty of tickets,’ Gemma said. She was winding a bandage firmly around Bella’s foot with admirable precision. A figure-of-eight style, with the overlapping bandage edges exactly a centimetre from the previous one. ‘There’s an inter-departmental competition for who can sell the most tickets. You should all come.’ She turned her head to glare at Connor. ‘Especially you. How could you not go when you’re so involved with everything in the kids’ wards?’

Connor was still staring at Kate. ‘I’ll go if Kate goes,’ he said.

Bella laughed aloud. ‘Yes! Me, too.’

Kate saw the look that passed between them. This was turning into a conspiracy. Not only had Bella hooked up with the hottest guy in St Pat’s in no time flat, had they used the few minutes they’d had alone together to make some kind of pact to see that Bella’s aunt...got a life?

‘I’m not going,’ Kate said, aware that she was failing to keep a hint of desperation from her tone. ‘Fancy dress? I don’t think so.’

‘But don’t you see?’ Bella asked. ‘It’s perfect.’

‘No, I don’t see,’ Kate muttered. She watched Gemma hook the tiny metal ‘crocodile’ clips into place to secure Bella’s bandage. Good. They could escape very soon.

‘You never go to work social events, do you?’ Bella said.

Not unless she absolutely had to. How embarrassing was this? Bella thought the whole world was on her side and there was no need to keep things private. She was open and honest and...everything Kate could never be. No wonder Bella never had any trouble making friends wherever she went. Kate had nobody she could call a real friend but she didn’t need that pointed out to the people she had to work with. Especially to Connor Matthews. It was bad enough that he already thought of her as boring and unattractive and incapable of having fun.