Trauma Doc to Redeem the Rebel by Charlotte Hawkes

Author:Charlotte Hawkes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2024-05-28T18:39:14+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘HEY, CONNOR, any update yet?’

Connor barely lifted his head as the surgical head of trauma ducked into his operating room, instead keeping his attention on the patient in front of him.

‘Just getting into the wound now,’ he confirmed. ‘Give me a moment.’

He worked quickly but carefully, grateful as ever for the surgical work to keep his mind busy and off a certain blonde-haired temptress.

It had been three days since that night at Nell’s cottage in Meadwood. Four nights since he’d almost forgotten himself completely.

He knew he owed her an apology but he hadn’t been able to trust himself enough to return to her home once he’d left the following morning. He was only grateful the contractors had remedied the smoke-sensor system so quickly, but he would have taken a night of intermittent alarm calls over returning to Nell’s cottage.

As it was, it had taken all he had not to stop her from leaving the kitchen that night. To stop her from racing upstairs—away from him. As if distancing themselves from each other could extinguish the spark of attraction he felt to her.

Not that it had worked.

Thoughts of Nell kept flooding his brain every time he left it unoccupied—it didn’t matter how strenuously he tried to deny replaying that night over in his head, or how vehemently he told himself that he didn’t remember how it felt to kiss her, or even how staunchly he pretended not to recall the way her hands had so willingly explored his body in a way that still sent lingering waves of heat through him.

No matter what he told himself, Connor couldn’t pretend that he’d imagined that pull between them—even from the first moment they’d met at the site of Lester’s car crash—or tell himself over and over that it was simply a connection due to the fact that they’d both been foster kids under Vivian’s care. Deep down Connor knew there was more than that.

But he couldn’t allow himself to give into it. A woman like Nell deserved better than a man like him. Better than a meaningless one-night stand—because that was all he could offer her.

And no matter that a part of him imagined what it might be like if he had more to give.

He shoved the uninvited thought from his mind and focused back in on his patient.

‘The pole ultimately created a seven-inch slash across the abdomen,’ Connor confirmed to his colleague, carefully walking his fingers around the inside of the cavity. Feeling his way and checking. Then checking again. ‘But the good news is that the wound doesn’t appear to penetrate beyond the anterior wall.’

‘That is good,’ his chief agreed, peering over the table from as far back as he could. ‘So no damage to either the spleen or liver after all?’

‘No.’ Connor continued probing, concentrating on anything that might get his attention. The spleen and liver were the organs most often damaged in these types of injuries, followed by the retroperitoneum, small bowel and kidneys. Nothing here looked out of place.

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