Luke

Luke
Jill Shalvis

E.R. head Dr. Luke Walker saves all of his bedside manner for his patients. With the hospital staff he's outspoken, tough, no-nonsense…until now. Disciplinary action from the hospital board has landed him a three-month stint at the Healing Waters Clinic. And working around aromatherapy, acupuncture and yoga seems to be having a remarkable effect on him. But not nearly the effect Faith McDowell–the fiery redheaded director of the clinic–is having on his libido!The truth is Luke and Faith clash over everything–except their passion for healing people…and their passion for each other. Making love to Faith has a remarkable healing effect on Luke, putting a sexy smile on his face. Problem is, Luke Walker, who has done his best not to need anyone, finds himself needing her. So now he has to use his most persuasive bedside manner to convince Faith that this passion is for keeps.

“It’s just lust,” Faith gasped when they came up for air

“Are you sure?” Suddenly—shockingly—Luke wasn’t sure himself.

“Extremely. Lust is just a bodily function, right? So…we deal with it.”

“Are you trying to say we should have sex?” he asked, incredulous.

“Well, not here,” Faith said. They were in a storage closet. At the clinic. With patients just down the hall. “But after work. Just on the Saturdays you’re still honor bound to give me.”

“What about after that?”

“Well, you’d just have to let me go. I’m sorry, Luke, but like we said, we’re just too different.”

Luke should’ve been doing the happy dance. But he didn’t feel like dancing. “Faith, you deserve more than that.”

“It’s what I want.” She arched, letting her tight, hot nipples rub against his chest. “Are you going to turn me down, Luke?”

The thought made him want to cry. “No. Definitely, no…”

Dear Reader,

I think a bigger-than-life hero is fun to read about—there’s something so inherently sexy about him. I’m hoping you think so, too, as Dr. Luke Walker is both bigger than life and extremely sexy. He’s certainly sure of himself…maybe more than any other hero I’ve ever written. He’s a black-and-white kind of guy—no middle ground for our Dr. Luke. So it was fun letting Faith McDowell have her way with him and show him all that gray in between.

And getting to do this miniseries with Lori Foster (Riley, June 2003, Temptation #930) and Donna Kauffman (Sean, July 2003, Temptation #934)…talk about exciting! I hope you enjoy our AMERICAN HEROES, readers!

Happy reading,

Jill Shalvis

P.S. Be sure to visit me at my Web site, www.jillshalvis.com.

Luke

Jill Shalvis

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To Lori Foster and Donna Kauffman,

for graciously sharing their readers with me.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Epilogue

1

THE TWO NEARLY NAKED WOMEN frolicked in the waves only yards away and Luke Walker yawned. Yawned.

Oh, definitely, he was on the edge of burnout. On the edge and skating on thin ground. Behind him stood his home on the Malibu bluffs. In front of him were the bikini babes.

And inside him…exhaustion. Actually, he was far beyond exhaustion and heading straight for brain dead, but who was keeping track?

Unfortunately, even sleep couldn’t help him, not today, not when every time he closed his eyes, he transported himself back.

Blood soaking his hands, splattering across his scrubs as he knelt on the moving gurney next to the far-too-still six-year-old boy. Orderlies racing them down the hallway towards surgery as Luke barked orders, held the boy’s wound shut and prayed to a God he wasn’t sure could hear him.

“So why aren’t you down there frolicking with the babes?”

At the heavily Spanish accented voice, Luke groaned and opened his eyes. Carmen DeCosta took great pleasure in thinking she knew him well enough to boss him around. She stood there with her hands on her ample hips, waiting for an answer.

Was everyone going to give him that bug-on-a-slide look today? “Don’t go there,” he warned. “I’m trying to take a breather here.”

“Good. You don’t do that enough.” With a spryness that belied her chunkiness, the dark-haired, dark-skinned—or should he say thick-skinned—woman dropped to the sand next to him, apparently taking a break from her duties cleaning his house to offer him her opinions on his life. Nothing new. She liked to boss him around. She liked to fuss over him as well, and he knew she thought of herself as a surrogate mother since his own was gone.

But he didn’t need one. Actually, he’d never needed one. And yet somehow he’d never managed to convince her of that.

He looked out at the pounding surf, at the ridiculous bikinied beach babes, and saw nothing but Dr. Leo Atkinson from South Village Medical Center frowning at him. Luke was head of the E.R., but Leo was head of surgery. He was also director of all the various department heads. So while technically they were peers, Leo, sitting on the hospital board and also town council, had far more power. Which was fine with Luke, who just wanted to be left alone to heal people, not navigate the bullshit, ass-kissing waters that was hospital politics.