In the Doctor's Bed
He knelt down and began picking up her charts and she knelt to join him. “You don’t have to do that, Dr. De Winter. I can get them.”
“No problem,” he said, handing her the charts he’d collected.
Their gazes connected the moment their fingers touched and she felt a deep stirring in the pit of her stomach. As she stared into his eyes she thought she saw them darken, but when she blinked he’d already straightened and was standing back up.
She stood as well. “Thank you,” she murmured, clutching the charts to her chest like an armor of steel.
“You’re welcome. And how are your patients? Any problems or concerns?”
Because he’d asked … “There is this one thing. We’re still trying to determine the reason behind Mr. Aiken’s high fevers.”
Dr. De Winter nodded. “I understand he had another one this morning.”
“Yes. We took more blood, but there’s nothing abnormal. The fever means there’s infection somewhere in his body, but nothing is showing up in his blood.”
“So you’re dealing with an FUO?”
Fever of unknown origin. “Yes,” she said, clearly disturbed.
“Any other signs and symptoms, Dr. Campbell?”
“None.”
“Let me see his chart for a second.”
She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and then flipped through the charts to find the one belonging to William Aiken. She handed it to Dr. De Winter, grateful their fingers did not touch this time.
Her pulse thudded as she stood there and watched him peruse the man’s chart. She couldn’t help noticing how his long lashes fanned across his cheeks and how sensuous his mouth looked. He then glanced up and caught her staring at his mouth. Good grief.
“May I make a suggestion, Dr. Campbell?”
“Yes, sir, you may.” The one thing that was different about Dr. De Winter compared to other doctors in an authoritative position was that he didn’t project a brash, all-knowing demeanor. He liked getting input from the interns he supervised and always solicited their opinions.
“Have blood drawn from his toe, preferably the big one, and have it checked.”
She raised a brow. Probably any other intern would have accepted what he said without question, but unfortunately she wasn’t one of them. “Why, if I may ask?”
He chuckled and the sound seemed to whisper across her skin. “Yes, doctor, you may. When I was an intern at a college in Boston, I had a patient with FUO and drawing blood from the big toe was suggested to me by the chief of staff. He explained that often bad blood will find places to settle and can’t easily be detected.”
She nodded as understanding dawned. “Which was the premise behind bloodletting,” she said, thinking out loud and seeing his point. “Which is the draining of bad blood out of a person’s body. And if there’s bad blood not detected, it might be confined in one of the body’s peripheral points. A premise we have now put to sound scientific use.”
“Exactly.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Dr. De Winter. I’ll have that done immediately.” She then quickly walked away.
Lucien watched Jaclyn hurry off and drew in a deep breath. When they had accidentally touched moments ago, it had taken everything within him to control the urge to pull her into his arms and mesh his lips with hers. That encounter had been too close for comfort. Way too close.
No matter how much he tried to control himself around her, he was finding it hard to do so. When they had knelt facing each other and he’d looked into her eyes and gazed upon the lushness of her mouth, heat had flared inside of him. He could imagine them kneeling facing each other, but the setting hadn’t been the hall of the hospital. In his mind they were in the middle of the bed. Naked.
Those were the last kind of thoughts he needed lodged in his brain. He tried forcing them out. The hospital’s nonfraternization policy had been put in place for a reason and he intended to abide by it. But God, he was attracted to her. And if knowing that wasn’t enough to shake his world, then he didn’t know what would. At that moment he thought he could even feel the floor shift under his feet. Yes, he was definitely standing on shaky ground.
Jaclyn nibbled on her bottom lip as she read Mr. Aiken’s most recent lab report. Dr. De Winter had been right in suggesting that blood be drawn from the man’s toe. The report clearly indicated bacteria in Mr. Aiken’s body. Bacteria of an unknown source.
Now she had to determine what was causing it. As she read the report again the main question circling around in her head was why the bacteria hadn’t shown up in a routine lab test.
“You’re too pretty to be frowning.”
Jaclyn glanced up and smiled at Ravi Patel, another intern. With his tall, slender build, long wavy black hair, dark eyes and dark skin, he made a reality of the old cliché tall, dark and handsome.
All the female interns, nurses and patients alike drooled over the American-born East Indian. Even Miss Thang seemed taken with him and would blush like a silly schoolgirl whenever Ravi was near. What Jaclyn most admired and respected about Ravi was that he was quick to let the admiring ladies know that he was an engaged man. His fiancée, a woman from India, was an intern at a hospital in Miami. The two planned to marry in a few years.
“Hi, Ravi. I was going over one of my patient’s charts.”
“His condition is serious?”
“FUO earlier, but thanks to Dr. De Winter I was finally able to find something in his blood. There are bacteria. Now I’m trying to determine the cause.”
“If you need help, this might be something to bring before the others in our group session with Dr. De Winter in the morning.”
Jaclyn nibbled on her bottom lip. She of all people knew when the group of interns would meet with Dr. De Winter in a classroom setting. She looked forward to those once-a-week sessions when he would take center stage at the front of the class. Those were the times when she could sit in the back and ogle him to her heart’s delight and come across only as a very attentive student.
More than once he had glanced her way and caught her staring and she appreciated that he wasn’t a mind reader. He would have been appalled at some of the things she’d been thinking at the time. “I might do that. Thanks for suggesting it, Ravi.”
Ravi glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “There’s Dr. De Winter. We can ask him now.”
Before Jaclyn could stop him, Ravi had gotten Dr. De Winter’s attention. Jaclyn released a deep breath. She hadn’t quite recovered from their earlier meeting when they had touched. Now he was about to get all into her space again.
“Doctors Patel and Campbell. Is there something I can help you with?” he asked, his gaze passing between them.
“Yes, sir,” Jaclyn said. “Thanks to your suggestion I was able to pinpoint bacteria in Mr. Aiken’s blood. But now I’m concerned with the cause. I’ve done tests to rule out several abnormalities, but these bacteria are determined to remain in certain areas. I’m still concerned that we could not detect it in a routine blood test.”
“I thought this would be something she could bring before the group in the morning,” Ravi interjected.
“I agree with Dr. Patel. This is something we can give the group as a think tank question, Dr. Campbell. In the meantime, how is Mr. Aiken? What are we doing for him?”
Before Jaclyn could respond, Ravi glanced at his watch and then said apologetically, “Sorry, I need to go check on one of my patients.”
He then quickly walked off leaving her alone with Dr. De Winter. She forced her gaze from Ravi’s retreating back to Dr. De Winter. For the next few minutes she provided him with the answer to his question. He didn’t interrupt and every so often he would nod slowly. It was hard not to get absorbed in the tingles of awareness that were going through her body from his standing so close to her.
At one point while she was talking, their eyes held for a moment. Her mind went completely blank and it was only when he’d said in a warm tone, “You were saying, Dr. Campbell?” that she realized she had stopped talking in mid-sentence. She swallowed hard and began talking again, knowing with her fair skin that her blush of embarrassment was easy to see.
So okay, now he knew one of his interns was taken with him. The man was sexy and handsome so there was no doubt in her mind she wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last. Although flattered, he was a professional who wouldn’t encourage her. He probably considered her one of those silly little interns with hormonal problems. For her it went beyond that. Oh, she would love to jump his bones if given the chance, but her crush on him was growing by leaps and bounds each day.
When she finally finished her spiel, he met her gaze and asked in what she thought was a husky voice, “Why did you zone out on me a few moments ago?”
She hadn’t expected him to ask her that. Did he honestly expect her to tell him the truth? Even worse, did he suspect the truth? She drew in a deep breath and decided to lie through her teeth. “No reason, sir. I merely lost my train of thought for a second.” And please don’t ask me why.
He slowly nodded and as if he could read her mind and was privy to her last thought, he took a step back. “I’ll see you at the group discussion in the morning, Dr. Campbell.”
And then he walked away.
Chapter 3
Jaclyn had known the moment she entered the meeting room the next morning and saw how everyone was clustered together and talking in whispers that word was out about the Matthews lawsuit.
It had been bad enough when everyone had found out about Terrence’s termination last month. Speculation had run wild as to the reason for it. Now his family was bringing things out in the open and letting everyone know what was going on and that the hospital would pay for what they saw as a grave mistake.
“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked a fellow intern by the name of Tamara St. John as she slid into the seat beside her. She’d liked Tamara from the first day they met and found her to be a down-to-earth person.
Tamara leaned closer and whispered, “Word is out as to the real reason Terrence was kicked out of the program. Rumor has it that he had a drug problem. His family is suing the hospital and saying the charges against him are false.”
Jaclyn swallowed deeply. “What will the hospital do?”
“I hear they feel they have a good case against Terrence. Someone on staff came forward with the goods on him and provided enough proof to make the hospital take action. Now everyone is trying to figure out who among us talked.”
A muscle tightened in Jaclyn’s stomach. “Does it matter, especially if the allegations are true?” she asked.
“Doesn’t matter to me. I can’t help admiring the person for doing it. Some people who are born into wealth think they can get away with anything. Terrence acted like too much of a snob to suit me anyway.”
Tamara glanced beyond Jaclyn and smiled. “Here comes Dr. De Winter. We’ll talk later.” Tamara then straightened in her seat to chime in with the others when they said, “Good morning, Dr. De Winter.”
“Good morning, everyone,” the husky voice replied.
Jaclyn hadn’t been one of those to coo out the greeting, yet she thought his gaze deliberately settled on her as he passed her seat to walk toward the front of the room. It was then that she overheard a female intern sitting in front of her whisper to another woman, “That doctor is way too fine. I just love watching him strut his stuff.”
Jaclyn thought the same thing. She liked seeing him strut his stuff as well, but that was something she wouldn’t dare share with anyone. She watched and listened as he went through the regular routine of asking how things were going and if anyone had had any challenges for the week to share with the others.
She knew that was her cue and she raised her hand. He glanced over in her direction. “Yes, Dr. Campbell?”
She spoke up and presented Mr. Aiken’s situation to everyone. Some fellow interns asked questions while jotting down notes. Several threw out possible diagnoses for her to consider and she wrote those down as well. It was nice getting feedback from her peers. More than once she glanced at Dr. De Winter and saw him watching and listening with interest. He was letting them work as a team. A few times it seemed after scanning the room his gaze would come to settle on her. And each time it did, her breath would get caught in her throat and she would swallow deeply to force the air down.
“So, Dr. Campbell, do you think you have enough possibilities to work with?” he asked, his eyes homing in on hers in a way that made blood rush through her veins.
She took a deep breath and then responded, “Yes, and I’m going to narrow it down to the best three.”
He nodded. “Time might not be on your side,” Dr. De Winter then said. “I understand Mr. Aiken’s fever spiked overnight.”
She wasn’t surprised that he was well aware of what was going on with each of the intern’s patients under his charge. How he kept up with it all she didn’t know. There were fifteen of them and each had been assigned five to seven patients.
“Yes, sir, but so far we’re keeping the temperature down.”
He nodded. “But what we want is to get rid of it all together.”
Jaclyn moistened her lips with her tongue thinking she could have taken his words as a put-down. Instead she took them as a challenge. A patient’s health was on the line and her job as a doctor was to not make him comfortable but to get him well. “Yes, sir.”
He straightened from the podium he’d been leaning against and then looked out over the group. “Good job, team. Now go out there and take care of your patients.”
Lucien remained behind in the empty meeting room. Things with Jaclyn Campbell were still not going well. Hooking up with a woman, getting to know her, developing a relationship both mentally and especially physically, was one of those simple pleasures in life that all men looked forward to experiencing.
He dated, although it had been a while since he’d dated anyone seriously. He always enjoyed a female’s company, but in most situations he tried avoiding dating women in his own profession. More often than not their conversations would center too much around the medical cases they were up against.
The last woman he’d dated had been in the education field and he enjoyed learning about her work and the challenges she faced. The only bad thing about Shawnee Powers was her inability to stop placing herself on some sort of pedestal. There was nothing wrong with someone believing in themselves, but for Shawnee it had begun getting downright ridiculous. He’d put up with it until he’d noticed her jealous streak. She had begun questioning him when he didn’t call or when he didn’t immediately text her back. It had been ten months since they’d broken up and at no time had he been tempted to call her. Ten months.
That had been when he’d seen Jaclyn for the first time. He would always remember that day. There had been twenty residents and now they were down to fifteen. One had gotten seriously sick and had to leave the program, three hadn’t been able to cope the first six months and one he’d had to terminate.
His mind shifted to Terrence Matthews, the one he’d had to terminate. The young man, although somewhat brash at times, had had a promising future. He had started off sharp as a whip, up on every assignment and possessed a bedside manner all the patients appreciated. Then Terrence began being late to group meetings, going MIA when he was supposed to be visiting patients and falling asleep during group discussions.
Lucien had mentioned Terrence’s behavior to Dr. Dudley who at first hadn’t wanted to rock the boat; after all the man was a Matthews. But Lucien had been making his own notes and observations when Jaclyn had come to him about Terrence’s drug use.
Without Terrence aware he was being observed, she had witnessed him stealing drugs from the hospital pharmacy. A replay of the pharmacy’s surveillance camera had backed up her claim, and a random drug test confirmed Terrence’s drug use.
Lucien shook his head when he recalled the day he had summoned Dr. Matthews to his office. The man didn’t deny the charges. Instead he said because he was a Matthews and his family had given so much to the hospital, he felt anything he did should and could be overlooked.
Even the offer that he take a temporary leave and go into drug rehab was laughed off with Terrence saying to do such a thing would be an admission of guilt. Lucien had ending up terminating Terrence’s association with the hospital that day.
Although he’d backed up Lucien’s actions, Dr. Dudley had predicted there would be a backlash from the Matthews family. The old man had been right.
Drawing in a deep breath Lucien walked to the window and glanced out at downtown Alexandria. Below, the brick-paved streets were lined with shops and boutiques of early eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture. And in the distance, across the Potomac, was the nation’s capital in all its glorious splendor. He enjoyed where he worked and loved living in Georgetown, far enough from the hospital on the D.C. side to appreciate the days he had off work.
He knew Jaclyn lived in Virginia, and the only times their paths had crossed after hours had been that Sunday when he’d decided to do his grocery shopping at a store in Alexandria.
He rubbed his hand down his face and turned away from the window. Although she had been sitting in the back of the room today, his gaze had sought her out anyway. He had looked for her. Found her. And had felt his attraction to her intensify. When she’d opened her mouth to speak, his pulse had accelerated and his ability to breathe had become affected.
What the hell was wrong with him?
It had taken all of his control to keep his features neutral, void of expression. Each and every time he was around her he risked the possibility of giving something away. The interns under his charge were bright, observant and astute. They would hang on to his every word, decipher his every action.
Jaclyn made it hard for him to think straight at times. Like today when she had been explaining Mr. Aiken’s condition to everyone. While she talked about the man’s fever, Lucien had begun imagining a fever of a different kind—the typed generated in the heat of passion between a man and a woman. Namely, him and her. He could envision her lush body, naked and hot, extremely hot, writhing beneath his while he thrust in and out of her making nonstop love to her.
Those thoughts had been the last thing that should have been flowing through his mind, but they weren’t. Even now those kinds of thoughts were uppermost in his mind and determined to get the best of him. It might be wise to consider placing as much distance between him and Jaclyn as possible, and the only way he could do that was to suggest she transfer to another hospital. He knew there was no way he could do that. It wouldn’t be fair to her to disrupt her position here just because he was the one with a libido problem.
As he gathered his belongings, Lucien knew what he had to do. He had to get a grip. No matter what, he could not lower his guard around her.
By lunchtime Jaclyn had heard so many versions of what was going down with the Matthews lawsuit that she wondered where was rumor control when you needed it. The only good thing was that so far no one knew the identity of the person who’d snitched on Terrence and for that she was grateful.
She hadn’t known what to expect when she’d made the decision to come forward to report Terrence’s drug abuse. But her parents had raised her to do the right thing, and knowing about the abuse and the harm it could cause her fellow doctor had been the determining factor in making her talk. No one knew she was the one responsible for Terrence losing his job. Not even her roommate Isabelle.
No one except Dr. De Winter.
Just the mention of his name made a picture of him flash in her mind. He was so drop-dead gorgeous. Most of the other female staffers felt the same way, too. She’d heard the comments, and she’d noticed that several of them would cook up any excuse to go up to his office, only to return with what they considered the same disappointing news. Dr. De Winter had suspected them from the first. In other words, he’d seen through their attempt at shrewdness and wasn’t having any of it.
Thoughts of Dr. De Winter still took up residence in her mind hours later at the end of her shift. But they’d been pushed to the background after she’d overheard some interns trying to figure out who had nailed Terrence. They had what they termed a snitch among them.
They’d claimed if they’d known about Terrence, they would have implemented a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Who in their right mind would want to go up against the Matthews family? they’d asked. Hadn’t the snitch caused the hospital more harm than good now that the family was withdrawing its financial support?
As far as Jaclyn was concerned things were getting out of hand. What if Dr. Dudley was wrong and she was identified as the person who’d come forward about Terrence? She could see some of the interns turning on her and making her life at Hopewell unpleasant.
She knew the one person she needed to talk with and found him standing at a nurse’s station writing in a patient’s chart. Taking a deep breath she walked over to him. “Excuse me, Dr. De Winter, may I speak with you privately?”
Lucien stopped writing at the sound of the soft feminine voice. He didn’t have to glance up to see to whom it belonged. He forced the air from his lungs as he turned and looked into Jaclyn’s face. He immediately saw from the look in her eyes that she was troubled by something. But he had to play it cool, remembering he couldn’t jump at the chance to be alone with her any more than he would any of the other interns.
He stuck his pen into his pocket and lifted a brow. “I’m about to call it a day, Dr. Campbell. Is it something that can wait until tomorrow?” he asked in a no-nonsense, very professional tone, knowing his words had been overheard by Nurse Tsang who was all ears.
As usual her radar was on high alert. The woman had a tendency to mind everyone’s business but her own. “No, sir. It can’t wait.”
He glanced at his watch. “Very well, then. We can go to my office.”
They walked side by side toward his office at the end of the corridor. And with every step he took he inhaled her scent. The tropical fragrance of jasmine reminded him of the night-blooming flower from the island where he’d been born. She was wearing it well and it made him recall sultry summer nights.
As he walked beside her, he racked his brain for something to say that wouldn’t come out as too forward. He glanced over at her. With her exotic features and dark hair, she could pass for an island girl if it wasn’t for her fair skin. She was a beauty. He’d thought so the first time he’d seen her and he thought so now.
He increased his pace and she managed to keep up with him. Lucien could imagine those long legs beneath the slacks could do so with ease.
It had been a quiet day, no emergencies that had needed his attention beyond the norm and for that he was grateful. He had been about to call it a day, had hoped he could quietly slip out without seeing her more than he already had that day. But now it seemed he would be in close quarters with her. As long as he kept things on a professional note he would be fine.
At least that was his prayer.
But his prayer didn’t help him a few minutes later when they’d reached his office and he held the door open for her to enter. She brushed past him and her scent had made him tremble.
He knew at that moment he had no business bringing her to his office. The space was tight as it was and having her in it would make it even more confining. And as he stepped into the cramped room behind her and closed the door, he knew he was in trouble.
Deep trouble.