Their Most Forbidden Fling

Molly walked to the door, but as she pulled it closed on her exit she saw that he was frowning heavily as he reached for the phone …

CHAPTER TWO

LUCAS WAS GOING through some blood results with Kate Harrison, one of the nurses, when Molly came into the ICU office the following day. Her perfume drifted towards him, wrapping around his senses, reminding him of summer, sweet peas and innocence. How she managed to look so gorgeous this early in the morning in ballet flats and plain black leggings and a long grey cardigan over a white top amazed him. She wasn’t wearing any make-up to speak of and her shoulder-length hair was pulled back in a ponytail, giving her a fresh-faced, youthful look that was totally captivating.

‘Good morning,’ she said, her tentative smile encompassing Kate as well as him.

‘Morning,’ he said, turning back to the blood results. ‘Kate, I want you to keep an eye on Mr Taylor’s white-cell count and CRP. Let me know if there’s any change.’

‘I’ll ring you with the results when they come in,’ Kate said. She turned to Molly. ‘Hi, I’m Kate Harrison. I heard on the grapevine you’re from Dr Banning’s neck of the woods.’

Molly’s gaze flicked uncertainly to Lucas’s. ‘Um … yes …’

‘I looked it up on an internet map,’ Kate said. ‘It’s a pretty small country town. Were you neighbours or something?’

‘Sort of,’ Molly said. ‘Lucas’s family ran the property next door but it was ten kilometres away.’

‘I wish my neighbours were ten kilometres away,’ Kate said with a grin, ‘especially when they play their loud music and party all night. Nice to have you with us, Dr Drummond.’

‘Please call me Molly.’

‘We have a social club you might be interested in joining,’ Kate said. ‘A group of us hang out after hours. It’s a good way to meet people from other departments. Nobody admits it out loud but it’s sort of turned into a hospital dating service. We’ve had two marriages, one engagement and one and a half babies so far.’

‘Dr Drummond already has a boyfriend,’ Lucas said as he opened the file drawer.

‘Actually, I would be interested,’ Molly said, sending him a hard little look. ‘Apart from Simon, I don’t have any friends over here.’

‘Great,’ Kate said. ‘I’ll send you an invite by email. We’re meeting for a movie next week.’

Lucas waited until Kate had left before he spoke. ‘I’d be careful hanging out with Kate’s social group. Not all the men who go have the right motives.’

She gave him a haughty look. ‘I can take care of myself.’

‘From what I’ve heard so far about your plastics guy, he doesn’t seem your type.’

Her brows came up. ‘And you’re some sort of authority on who my type is, are you?’

He gave a loose shrug of his shoulders. ‘Just an observation.’

‘Then I suggest you keep your observations to yourself,’ she said, her eyes flashing like sheet lightning. ‘I’m perfectly capable of managing my own private life. At least I have one.’

‘Just because I keep my private life out of the hospital corridors doesn’t mean I don’t have one,’ Lucas clipped back.

Jacqui came into the office behind them. ‘Whoa, is this pistols at three paces or what?’ she said. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Nothing,’ they said in unison.

Jacqui’s brows lifted speculatively. ‘I thought you guys were old friends from back home?’

‘Excuse me,’ Molly said, and brushed past to leave.

‘What’s going on between you two?’ Jacqui asked Lucas.

‘Nothing,’ he said with a glower.

‘Could’ve fooled me,’ Jacqui said. ‘I saw the way she was glaring at you. It’s not like you to be the big bad boss. What did you say to upset her?’

‘Nothing.’

Jacqui folded her arms and gave him a look. ‘That’s two nothings from you, which in my book means there’s something. I might be speaking out of turn, but you don’t seem too happy to have her here.’

The last thing Lucas wanted was anyone digging into his past connection with Molly. It was a part of his life he wanted to keep separate. The turmoil of emotions he felt over Matt’s death was something he dealt with in the privacy of his home. He didn’t want it at work, where he needed a clear head. He didn’t like his ghosts or his guilt hanging around.

‘Dr Drummond is well qualified and will no doubt be a valuable asset to the team at St Patrick’s,’ he said. ‘All new staff members take time to settle in. It’s a big change moving from one hospital to another, let alone across the globe.’

‘She’s very beautiful in a girl-next-door sort of way, isn’t she?’

He gave a noncommittal shrug as he leafed through a patient’s notes. ‘She’s OK, I guess.’

Jacqui’s mouth tilted in a knowing smile. ‘She’s the sort of girl most mothers wish their sons would bring home, don’t you think?’

Lucas put the file back in the drawer and then pushed it shut. ‘Not my mother,’ he said, and walked out.

Lucas was walking home from the hospital a couple of days later when he saw Molly coming up the street, carrying a cardboard box with holes punched in it. He had managed to avoid her over the last day or two, other than during ward rounds where he had kept things tightly professional. But as she came closer he could see she looked flustered and upset.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked as she stopped right in front of him.

Her grey-blue eyes were shiny and moist with tears. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ she said. ‘My landlord has flatly refused to allow me to have Mittens in my flat. He’s threatening to have me evicted if I don’t get rid of him immediately.’

‘Mittens?’

She indicated the box she was carrying. ‘Mittens the cat,’ she said, ‘the one that got hit by a car on my first day? I had to take him otherwise the vet would’ve sent him to the cat shelter and he might’ve been put down if no one wanted him.’

‘Didn’t the owner come and claim him?’ Lucas asked.

‘It turns out he doesn’t have an owner, or none we can track down,’ she said. ‘He hasn’t got a collar or a microchip. He’s only about seven months old.’

He angled his head, his gaze narrowing slightly. ‘What were you planning to do with him?’

Her expression became beseeching. ‘One of the nurses mentioned you lived in a big house all by yourself. She said you had a garden that would be perfect for a cat. She said you’d—’

Lucas held up his hands like stop signs. ‘Oh, no,’ he said. ‘No way. I’m not having some flea-bitten cat sharpening its claws on my rugs or furniture.’

‘It’s only for a few days,’ she said, appealing to him with those big wide eyes of hers. ‘I’ll find another flat, one that will allow me to have a cat. Please?’

Lucas could feel his resolve slipping. How was he supposed to resist her when she was so darned cute standing there like a little lost waif? ‘I hate cats,’ he said. ‘They make me sneeze.’

‘But this one is a non-allergenic cat,’ she said. ‘He was probably hideously expensive and now we have him for free. Well … not free exactly …’ She momentarily tugged at her lower lip with her teeth. ‘The vet’s bill was astronomical.’