Playing the Playboy's Sweetheart (2 page)

‘How is she now?'

Emily chose not to answer.

‘I'd better go.'

‘Emily?'

She didn't want to answer, she didn't want to say that, yes, while Donna was fine now, she wasn't so sure that the marriage was.

‘Stay for a bit longer,' Hugh pushed.

She didn't want to, though, because she opened up too easily to him.

Fleeting.

She recalled Annie's words.

Heartbreak.

Neither of those did she need.

She wanted her perfect man—one that meant she could hold onto her heart.

Right now that heart was hammering in her chest and very possibly about to be set free if that lovely, sexy mouth moved just a few inches closer, which it was possibly about to do.

‘I really do have to go...' Emily chose to play it safe.

‘Why?'

‘I told you—I don't want to miss my lift.'

‘And I told you—I'm very happy to drive you home.'

Hugh had more than noticed Emily and had hoped to get to know her some more tonight.

In the weeks she had been at The Royal she had intrigued him—Emily was friendly yet distant at the same time, and not just with him. Yes, she chatted easily with her colleagues and there was no doubt she was an extremely efficient nurse yet, and Hugh couldn't quite put his finger on it, she held back, really revealing nothing.

Until tonight.

That small sliver of information about her parents had Hugh wanting to know more about Emily.

She was a curious girl, Hugh thought.

Something told him there was a lot more going on in that sensible head of hers and her cool exterior told Hugh that the full force of his charm would not be welcomed just yet.

Yes, his intention had been to take things very slowly until Gina called Emily's name.

‘Emily!'

Hugh watched as she turned to the sound of her name but this time it was Hugh's stomach that plummeted as he realised that it was Gina who would be driving Emily home.

Just yesterday Hugh had voiced his concerns about Gina to Alex and then Mr Eccleston, the head of anaesthetics. The decision as to whether or not to speak with Gina's boss had been eating at him for weeks. Hugh had been through medical school with Gina—they were good friends and he had always looked out for her.

But he had to look out for the patients first.

He could not turn his back so had voiced his concerns and the truth was tonight he wasn't sure that Gina hadn't been drinking, or even if she was on something else.

All he knew now was that he could not let Emily get into a car with Gina and, given the delicate nature of his complaint, neither could he share his concerns with Emily. He instead chose to act on the undeniable sexual tension between them.

‘
I'm
taking you home.'

His words were very decisive and Emily looked back at him. An alarm was ringing in her head, warning her to just walk away now, except there was something else signalling louder.

Instinct.

She had never been more aware of it. Simply, her instinct told her to accept the kiss that was nearing.

‘Emily!' They could both hear Gina calling her name again, but this time it seemed to be coming from a very long way off.

She caught the fresh tang of him, a scent that had remained trapped in her senses since the first day they had met. Oh, where was her perfect man when she needed him? The one that didn't move her so.

Hugh lowered his head and his mouth brushed hers. Soft and warm, it made her own lips want to part like the Red Sea but she somehow held them closed. Except that meant she inhaled his scent, and the scent of Hugh was possibly more potent so she borrowed the wall behind her to lean on. His lips were more insistent now, nudging hers as his hands held her face, and finally their mouths commenced their first dance—a gentle dance at first to accustom themselves, then a playful dance that began to tease, but when their tongues met it was like an accelerant.

Hugh actually felt the shift. One minute they were kissing and the next their mouths belonged to each other. The party disappeared, the only noise was them—cool to his words she was hot to his mouth, Hugh felt as if he'd tripped and found a portal as he held the passion that burned in his arms. His hands left her face and moved to her hips without thought and were made very welcome for her bottom left the wall and the press of her body was as suggestive as his.

He pulled back but only because to continue would have them on the edge of indecent. Emily could taste his breath, see his lips wet from hers and she wanted to be back there now, yet she resisted the call of her body and moved her hips away from him.

Oh, it wasn't that Hugh was bad that terrified her, it was that he was so, so good.

‘I really do have to go.'

She moved to the side and slipped past, and Hugh watched as she walked off, both trying to get his breath back and trying to ignore the fact he had been dismissed. Then he smothered the smile that came to his lips when Louise told Emily that Gina had just gone. ‘She said you looked busy.'

There was a flush on Emily's cheeks but it wasn't from embarrassment, it was from arousal by the man who was now by her side.

‘Let's go.'

It could have been an awkward ride home except Emily knew that she was possibly approaching the ride of her life.

Never, in all her twenty-three years had a man detonated her the way Hugh had.

His hand was on her thigh as they drove and she took no offence for hers was on his and it was suggestive down to her fingernails in a way she had never been before. The relief when he turned off the engine at the same time as he pulled up the handbrake had her snap off her seat belt in haste to return to his mouth.

‘Emily...' His hand was up her skirt like two out-of-control teenagers and the spinning wheels in her head slowed as he halted. ‘Not here.'

She was going to ask him in.

Sex.

Brilliant, sex and, and...

Emily pulled back her head and denied instinct.

‘I'm going in...'

‘Sure.' Hugh would, of course, rather she asked him in too but, well, this would be so worth the wait.

She watched his mouth move and offer dinner, a catch-up next week, though his hand between her thighs told her it would definitely end in bed and it was time to bring things to a halt.

‘Hugh.' She let out a breath. ‘I don't know...' She changed tack. ‘It's just...' How could she deny the want that thrummed between them? For Emily there was but one thing left to do so she came up with a rapid lie. ‘I'm seeing someone.'

‘Oh.'

‘Gregory.'

‘It's fine, I get it...' Though he didn't. Poor Gregory, Hugh thought as he reclaimed his hand, because five minutes from now he'd have had her knickers off.

‘He's in Scotland, so we don't see each other as much as—'

‘You really don't need to explain.'

And so the phantom Gregory was born.

* * *

When her father and Donna broke up in the New Year it was to Gregory she turned, rather than Hugh, though they did touch on it once, because Hugh came into the staffroom when Emily was on the phone.

‘Donna, I get it that you have issues with my father but I don't understand what that has to do with me. If you don't want to see me that's fine but can I just take the twins to the park or for an ice cream every now and then...?' She turned in her chair and saw that Hugh had come in just as Donna told her that, no, she'd prefer Emily didn't have extra contact with the twins—she could see them when her father bothered to.

‘Is she not letting you see the twins?' Hugh asked when she came off the phone.

‘I can see them when they're with my dad, which isn't very often. I asked if I could take them out at the weekend but it unsettles them apparently.'

‘Can she do that?'

‘Of course she can.' Emily stood and went to walk past but Hugh caught her arm.

‘Emily?'

‘What?'

‘Do you want...?' Hugh didn't really know what he was offering.

Emily did.

Yes, she did want.

She wanted to burst into tears, she wanted him to take her out and not cheer her up, just share...

She wanted to share with him.

Emily looked down at the fingers that still held her wrist.

Oh, he could hurt her, Emily thought, and then looked up to his eyes. He could really, really hurt her.

‘I'll sort it out,' Emily said. ‘Gregory is going to try and speak with her.'

At the mention of Gregory his hand disengaged from her arm.

* * *

For the next three months, every time Emily went to visit her mother Hugh was brought up to speed through vague conversations. However, just as he was starting to wonder about the fact that Gregory never seemed to come down to London, Emily actually found her perfect guy for real, so Gregory was swiftly dumped.

Marcus
was
perfect.

Dark haired, terribly serious, he was a social worker at the hospital and liked to hike at weekends. Sex happened on Saturdays, occasional Tuesdays, and Emily developed solid calf muscles from trips up hillsides.

It was perfect for close to two years when the breaking news arrow shot across the hospital grapevine that Marcus had been found in a compromising position in the X-ray department with Heidi, the Swedish radiographer.

Hugh, now a senior registrar and going out with Olivia by then, expected tears in the staffroom, blushes and drama—the usual type of thing that happened with a very public break-up. With Emily that didn't happen, though...

Oh, she was a curious thing.

Emily just shrugged it off and got on with work.

The very next Monday they stood in Theatre and Emily glanced up as the alarm went off on the cardiac monitor when the anaesthetised patient kicked off a few ectopic heartbeats.

‘All fine,' Rory, the anaesthetist, called as the patient's heart steadied back into a regular rhythm.

There were no flashing lights, no drama—it was hardly an event really.

And that was just how Emily liked things.

It was how she kept control.

CHAPTER ONE

‘I
DON
’
T
WANT
to work there.’

It was, for Emily, as simple as that.

She and Hugh had been working together for close to three years now and often caught up on a Monday. Now, in their lunch break, they sat in the staffroom at their favourite table, putting the world to rights.

‘I think you’d be very good in Accident and Emergency,’ Hugh said. ‘Anyway, it’s only for three months.’

‘Well, why don’t you go and work in Labour and Delivery for three months and then get back to me with that statement.’

‘Fair point,’ Hugh conceded.

‘I’m going to speak to Miriam today and see if there’s any way I can get out of doing it.’

Miriam, the head of Critical Nursing, had, last year, decided to rotate the staff on the units. Emily had reluctantly done a three-month stint in ICU and had thought that would be the end of it, but Miriam had decided to press on with internally rotating the staff. Emily had been told that in June she would be commencing a term in Accident and Emergency.

Theatre was Emily’s stomping ground. The thought of working in Emergency was unsettling—the drama of it, the emotion, the constant loaning out of your heart if you chose to empathise, or the burn-out that left you a tough bitch. Emily couldn’t decide what was worse. She had no intention of revealing to Hugh the real reasons she was so opposed to the idea, so instead she changed the subject.

‘So, is it true?’ Hugh didn’t reply to her question but Emily pushed on. ‘Have you and Olivia broken up?’

‘Yep.’

‘I thought you two were happy.’

‘We were,’ Hugh said. ‘When we were together.’

‘What do you mean?’

It was Hugh who sat silent for a moment now. He and Olivia had been happy. Everyone had said how suited they were and, yes, their relationship had ticked most boxes.

Two boxes had been missing, though.

Olivia’s jealousy and trust issues were one and as for the other...

He looked across the table to where Emily was peeling open her croissant and sprinkling more black pepper onto the cheese and tomato that filled it. She loved black pepper—there were always a couple of sachets in the pocket of her scrubs.

He knew a lot more about her than he had three years ago.

Just not enough.

‘I don’t know how to explain it, Em,’ Hugh admitted. ‘I don’t know why Olivia felt that every time I was late home or out on a work do that there had to be more to it...’

‘You do have a reputation,’ Emily pointed out. As much as she liked catching up with Hugh, she loathed hearing about his life, his girlfriends, the wild parties and frequent holidays and weekends away.

Mondays were sometimes torture.

In fact, sometimes Emily dreaded them.

‘Perhaps I do have a reputation around the hospital but I’ve never cheated when I’m seeing someone...’ Hugh chose to go back a few years and watched a dull blush spread on her neck. ‘If I am then I wouldn’t so much as kiss another person.’

‘Well...’ Emily flustered a little. It was far too late, all these years on, to tell him there had never been a Gregory. It was far safer not to—that little black mark against her name was one she would happily wear if it kept her at a distance from Hugh. ‘So what brought it to a head?’

‘There’s a conference coming up in a couple of months that Hadfield wants me to go on. I only mentioned it in passing but... The thing is, if I’m going to stand any chance of getting the consultancy then I really ought to go and concentrate—but Olivia seemed to think it was a good chance to have a couple of days’ holiday, then she couldn’t fathom why I might not want her to go with me...’ His green eyes met Emily’s. ‘If I do get the consultancy position, things are only going to get busier for me. Call me selfish but I want to focus on my career and that means I can’t be checking in every five minutes and reassuring someone that I’m behaving...’ Hugh shook his head. ‘Am I unreasonable?’

‘No.’ Emily fully agreed and she genuinely meant her words. She had long ago learnt from her parents that a million phone calls and texts meant little. ‘If someone’s going to cheat, they will.’

Hugh rolled his eyes. ‘The point is, Em, I don’t cheat. More to the point right now, Alex is pretty angry that I’ve broken up with Olivia and I want that promotion.’ Hugh brooded for a moment. ‘I got turned down last year.’

‘Ouch,’ Emily said.

‘I get it that I perhaps wasn’t ready then but I am ready now.’

‘He can’t judge whether or not you get the role on that.’

‘I’m sure he wouldn’t admit to it, but he’s of the opinion that behind every great surgeon is a stable home life...’ Hugh rolled his eyes and Emily laughed. ‘I want that role,’ Hugh said. Alex was a professor now and a consultancy position had officially opened up and Hugh could think of no one that he wanted to work alongside more. Alex was an amazing mentor. His technique and studies into laparoscopic surgery were right at the front of the game and every hour of every day Alex taught him something new.

‘Behave for a few months, then!’ Emily said. ‘It really isn’t that difficult.’

‘Oh, but it is when you find yourself suddenly single.’ Hugh drained his cup and then headed back to work. Emily sat alone for a while, pondering a suddenly single Hugh.

It was the time she loathed him most.

Or rather the time she loathed most.

Hugh worked hard and partied the same way. If she didn’t have to hear it on Monday in Theatre then it was all over bloody Facebook.

She had the next hour at the computer to work on the off-duty roster then she was down to scrub for Alex, but instead of heading to tackle the roster Emily looked over at Miriam, who was just heading out of the staffroom.

Instead of rinsing her cup and plate, Emily put them in the sink and caught up with her. ‘Miriam, I wondered if I could have a word.’

‘Now?’ Miriam checked, and Emily nodded.

This needed to be done.

They stepped into Miriam’s office and Emily took a seat as Miriam gave her a thin smile. ‘I can guess what this is about. I know that you’re not keen to go to A and E.’

‘Because I’m happy here,’ Emily said.

‘Emily, rotating the critical care staff has proved a success. Handovers are smoother, we’re all more aware of the other departments’ procedures...’

‘I understand that,’ Emily said, ‘but I chose to be a theatre nurse.’

‘And you’re a very good one,’ Miriam said. ‘One who I hope will go far...’ She left the rest unsaid but to Emily it was clear that if she wanted to go further in her career here, which she did, then she would have to comply. ‘It’s a couple of months away,’ Miriam added. ‘There’s plenty of time to get used to the idea.’

Emily didn’t want to get used to the idea, she liked being used to
here
!

‘Any luck with Miriam?’ Hugh asked at the end of the day as Emily came out of the changing room dressed for the outside world. Hugh was looking pretty drained—he’d been operating since eight a.m. and now would be heading up to the wards to check on his post-operative patients.

‘Nope.’ Emily’s jaw tensed and she let out a tense breath. ‘If I want to get on—’

‘Ha,’ Hugh interrupted. ‘Don’t complain about that to me—at least you don’t have Alex as your boss. I need a wife if I want to get on.’

‘When we’re in charge we’ll change the world,’ Emily said as they walked together. Hugh was heading up to ICU, Emily for home, and it felt like a long time till next Monday for Hugh.

Hugh was possibly the one person who
did
like Mondays. Sure, he and Emily caught up during the week at various times but Monday was Alex’s rostered operating day and on the days that Emily wasn’t there he missed her.

Yes, Hugh wanted to finally move things on between them and give this
almost
romance its wings. He wanted a nice table between them and a waiter whose arm would probably drop off as he cracked enough pepper to satisfy Emily.

Okay, Hugh decided as they walked down the long corridor, whatever happened, he would not let it affect their friendship.

‘You do realise,’ Hugh said as they reached the swing doors that would take them out of Theatre and to their separate destinations, ‘that this is the first time in three years that we’ve both been single at the same time.’

Nice opening! Hugh was just silently congratulating himself when Emily delivered her response.

‘Well, I don’t know about you but I’m staying that way,’ Emily said, shutting down the conversation as firmly as the black doors swung closed behind them. ‘’Night, Hugh, it was nice working with you today.’

Was he missing something?

Hugh just watched as she walked off.

Did he have body odour that only Emily could smell?

They liked each other!

They fancied each other!

He could taste it.

If only she’d let him.

‘Problem?’ Alex asked, as he came out and saw his junior standing with a puzzled frown on his face.

‘More a mystery,’ Hugh said. ‘One I intend to work out.’

He couldn’t, though.

It would seem Emily was serious about staying single and for two whole months she did just that.

Till Hugh decided they might need a little helping hand.