Flaming Desire - Part 1 (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Page 3

  “Welcome to Santa Fe General, Matt,” I said. “You ready?”

  I quickly made my way back down the hall, heading toward Trauma Bay Number One. The outside emergency room doors slammed open with a bang behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at Matt. He said nothing, staring down the hallway toward the gurney quickly approaching, guided by two paramedics. “For today, you’re basically my assistant, okay?”

  He glanced down at me without expression, and I wondered what he was thinking. He finally offered a nod. “You’re the boss, Jesse,” he commented.

  I made a face. “It’s Jessica,” I said, moving out of the way as the paramedics pushed the gurney into the trauma bay. Matt stood slightly behind me while the gurney was pushed into the middle of the bay and up against the ER department gurney on rolling wheels, locked and ready for its newest patient. I snatched a pair of gloves from the box mounted in brackets by the door. Matt followed suit.

  The two paramedics, Matt and myself helped transfer the woman onto the hospital gurney. I couldn’t help but notice the bulge of Matt’s muscles as he lifted the woman’s upper torso by himself while I and one paramedic took her legs and the other held her head and neck still. The woman wore a neck brace, half conscious and obviously disoriented. I glanced at Matt, but didn’t have to say a word. He was already pulling the stethoscope from around his neck to begin taking her vitals.

  As he worked, I watched him for a moment, then stepped back as the paramedics wheeled their now empty gurney out of the room. One paused beside me and spoke. “Her vitals are good, no sign of trauma other than that gash on her forehead, but we put the collar on her just to play it safe.”

  I nodded and then moved toward the gurney just as Melody entered the room. “Doctor Linder is on the way,” she informed the room at large. While Melody made an attempt to communicate with the woman, Matt busied himself obtaining her vitals and attaching electrodes and leads that would connect her to the machines that tracked heart rate and rhythm, and oxygen or O² stats. I was impressed with his efficient movements. All he would need from me, it seemed, was to familiarize himself with the ER department. He had the skills down pat.

  As Melody and I floated around the patient, cutting off her clothes with angled scissors and assessing her injuries, Doctor Linder rushed into the room, lab coat flapping behind him. The moment he saw Matt standing near the patient’s head, he frowned and glanced at me.

  “Another new one?” he asked, frowning.

  “He’s an experienced ICU nurse, Doctor Linder,” I said.

  I saw Matt glance at the doctor, but his expression didn’t change. He appeared calm and not in the least bothered by the doctor’s comment. Nevertheless, I was. I didn’t much care for Doctor Linder. He had a wandering eye and often that wandering eye landed on me.

  Doctor Linder made his way toward the head of the gurney, literally crowding Matt out of his position just as he was completing his task of attaching the leads to the heart monitor. While he gave the doctor a look, he quickly finished his task and then stepped back. I gestured with my chin for him to join me on my side of the table, opposite Linder.

  As Matt moved to join me, I heard the outside emergency room doors slam open again. In seconds, another gurney made its way past their trauma bay to the next room. Through the glass floor-to-ceiling window, I saw the bloodied man lying on a gurney. One of the paramedics was actually straddled over him, performing CPR. Matt saw it too, stared for a moment, and then glanced down at the woman. Was that pity I saw in his gaze?

  Matt had just rounded the rear of the gurney and taken a position next to me when Doctor Linder decided to change sides. He brushed rudely past Matt.

  “Get out of the way!” he grumbled as he began palpitating the bleeding area on the woman’s skull.

  I gazed in surprise at the doctor, who wasn’t usually quite so rude. He was an ass, but he usually wasn’t such a bore.”Let’s get a CT,” the doctor mumbled, using his pen light to test pupil reactions of the patient.

  I glanced up at Matt. “Use the phone at the nurse’s desk and call up to Radiology. The extensions for all the departments are taped to the table right next to the phone.”

  He didn’t hesitate, but nodded and quickly retreated from the trauma bay. Seconds later, I heard his deep voice speaking to the radiology department to set up the CT. I glanced at Melody and smiled. I knew we were both thinking the same thing. He was on top of things. Top of things… I was distracted by the image of him being on top of me…

  Matt returned to the trauma bay. “They said they’re backed up and would we mind transporting the patient upstairs.”

  Usually the receiving department did the transporting, but this was nothing unusual. “Everything is under control here for the moment,” I said. “Go next door and see if you can help out over there.”

  Again he nodded and, without a word, disappeared. I heard quite a bit of dialogue coming from the next room over the sound of the heart monitor buzzing its danger sound that the patient’s heartbeat was declining rapidly, then the accented voice of Doctor Chanda calling for the paddles. I sighed, wondering if the man in the next bay was this woman’s husband or just a stranger who had been involved in the car accident. I didn’t have time to contemplate.

  “She seems stable for now,” Linder said. “Get her up to radiology for the scan. I want the results in less than twenty minutes.”

  Melody and I did as we were instructed. With Melody moving around to the head of the gurney, I quickly detached the accident victim from the leads, then attached a portable oxygen tank to her oxygen cannula and then, making sure her oxygen mask was still positioned properly on her face and the portable canister was lying between her legs, I grabbed the bottom of the gurney. We quickly wheeled her out of the trauma bay and down the hallway toward the elevator bank next to the nurse’s station.

  As we passed the trauma bay next door, I glanced inside and saw Matt pressing both his gloved hands down onto a gaping wound on the man’s thigh. From the amount of blood, I could only surmise that his femoral artery had been severed. Even though his hands were covered in blood, his expression was blank. He seemed unflappable.

  In the next instant, a cluster of nurses blocked my view of what was going on inside there. The paramedics stood just outside the doors, watching. The gurney they had brought the man in on was stained with blood.

  No time to ponder, Melody and I steered the gurney into the elevator. As soon as I pushed the gurney inside the lift and the doors swished shut, I reached over to push the button for the third floor where the imaging department was located.

  “That guy is way too hot for his own good,” Melody said and blew out a breath.

  I shrugged, trying to play it cool. After all, if my friend saw how attracted I was to the new guy, I would never hear the end of it. Melody pressed on, an eyebrow raised.

  “Are you telling me he doesn’t get your blood pumping?”

  I looked at her friend. “Melody, I…”

  The woman on the gurney moaned and I glanced down at her, then up at Melody. We had more important things to do right now than talk about the new nurse, no matter how good-looking he was. I turned around and grasped the end of the gurney, prepared to exit as soon as the elevator stopped and the doors opened wide enough to get the gurney through. As soon as the elevator stopped on the third floor and the doors opened, I stepped out, practically pulling the gurney by myself with Melody providing direction. The imaging technicians were ready for us and seconds later, Melody and I handed our patient off to the imaging department.

  “I’ll wait here with her,” Melody offered.

  I nodded. “I’ll go back down, see how Matt is doing. You’ll notify Doctor Linder when they have the results?”

  “Will do,” Melody said, and then once again disappeared behind the doors to the imaging department and CT room.

  I turned for the bank of elevators, but saw they were all in use. Not wanting to waste time waiting for a lift, I quickly s
tepped to the doorway marked ‘Stairs’ and began to make my way down to the ER. To my surprise, Doctor Linder was coming up. Why wasn’t he taking the elevator?

  “How’s she doing?” he asked.

  “They just took her in for her scan,” I informed him. “Melody’s with her.”

  Linder made me uncomfortable. He had tried to ask me out on several occasions, but I always just managed to cut him off before he could come out and ask. I could be imagining things, but I didn’t think so. As a matter of fact, right now he was staring at my breasts, not caring that I noticed. I paused on the steps and turned slightly to the side to allow him to pass.

  “Jessica—”

  “Doctor Linder, I don’t feel comfortable with you—”

  “Jessica, why don’t you ever just call me Frank?”

  “To be honest, Doctor Linder, it’s because I don’t feel it’s appropriate.” I gestured toward the stair landing. “I think your patient will be waiting for you.” I started to move around him, intent on continuing down the stairs. To my surprise, he stepped in front of me. I stared at him, eyebrows raised in question, refusing to let him see my anxiety. “Is there something else?”

  “What’s your hurry?” he asked, smiling, the gesture not reaching his eyes. “You afraid that your new nurse might be lost somewhere down there without you?”

  I didn’t like the turn of this conversation, not one bit, especially the way he spoke about Matt. “Not at all,” I said, shaking my head. “By the way, his name is Matt Drake. He’s a transfer from California, and very experienced. He’s very capable.”

  He laughed. “Capable at what? Fucking?”

  I gasped at the doctor’s crude language and insinuation. Once again I caught him ogling my breasts, hidden though they were under my light blue scrub top. If this continued, I would be forced to file a sexual harassment claim against him. I didn’t want to do so though, because it would cause nothing but trouble. The Old Boys’ Club still existed and was alive and well out here in the deserts of the Southwest, despite laws, regulations, and warnings. Besides, it would be my word against his. He never behaved this way when there were witnesses around. I supposed that, once again, I should try to make it clear that I wasn’t interested.

  “Look, Doctor Linder, I’m not—”

  Linder frowned. “What do you think this is all about, Jessica? That I’m offering a marriage proposal?” He laughed and lifted his left hand, wiggling his ring finger with the wedding band encircling it. “You know I’m married, don’t you?”

  Yes, I knew he was married, and that he had been caught having flings with more than one nurse at the hospital.

  “I’m not interested in a relationship,” he said bluntly, while a little smile lifted his mouth. “You’re an attractive young woman. I just thought we could get to know each other a little better, release a little steam when things get stressful around here. That’s all.”

  I shook my head as I again made to move past the doctor and on down the steps. “I’m not interested, Doctor Linder.”

  “Really?” he said, a smirk lifting one side of his mouth. “You think that young blood down there has more experience than me?”

  Appalled, I managed to slide past the doctor, although I heard him chuckle as I quickly took the steps downward.

  “You’re way too serious, Jessica,” the doctor called down the steps. “You do know there are certain ways to loosen up, don’t you?”

  His laughter echoed in the stairwell until he pushed open the door to the third floor and disappeared behind it. The door slammed shut with a bang, causing me to cringe. I paused on the steps for several moments, shocked by his blatant sexual innuendo. This debate had been going on for at least the past month, maybe more. But not to this degree. I began to wonder if I should perhaps start keeping a log. I didn’t want to open a sexual harassment claim against him, but if he didn’t knock it off, and soon, he would leave me with little choice.

  I reached the trauma room floor and shoved against the metal bar to open it, staring down as I scowled, my mind occupied with Linder’s un-welcome advances. A shadow passed in front of me, and at the last minute I glanced up.

  “Oh!” I bumped into something tall, solid, and rock hard. Lifting my head, I realized that once again I had literally barreled into Matt, and, just as before, literally bounced off his chest. He reached out his hands to grasp my shoulders so I didn’t lose my balance. To my dismay, the feeling of his hands on my shoulders sent a shiver of thrills through me.

  I stepped back, suddenly needing to get away. Needed to pull myself together. I had never been physically affected by a mere touch, but there was something about Matt Drake that was just so sexy and compelling.

  “You okay?”

  I glanced up into his eyes and noticed, not for the first time, that they were an odd shade, somewhere between blue and grey. He gazed down at me with concern. “I’m so sorry,” I stammered. “I wasn’t watching where I was going… again.” I gathered myself and glanced over his shoulder at the second trauma bay unit. “He didn’t make it, did he?”

  He shook his head.

  “I’m sorry Matt—”

  My heart sank. It was always hard to lose a patient, and I knew what it felt like to try your best and the patient still slipped away. It was an awful feeling, one that I didn’t wish on anybody. Unfortunately, I had shared the responsibility of notifying families when a loved one didn’t make it past the trauma room—while the doctor often delivered the news, one of the other nurses or I was often beside the doctor, dealing with the aftermath of devastating news. It was so hard to hold it together, even when you didn’t know the patient personally. Just seeing another person’s heart wrenching pain often tore at my own heart.

  When I saw the look on Matt’s face, I sensed he felt the same way. At that moment I realized what a good nurse he was—a good man; one who had a true desire to help others. He wasn’t in it for the money or the thrill.

  I felt hot liquid surge through my veins. God, why did he have to be so damned handsome? I stared up at him for several moments and then shook my head. I would need to keep a distance between us. I felt like a giddy little schoolgirl in his presence and that would just not do. I was his mentor! I was the one that was supposed to show him the ropes around here, but for some reason, I felt like the newbie.

  He slowly released his hands from my shoulders and then gestured with his chin toward the stairwell. “How’s your patient doing? I just saw Doctor Linder taking the stairs up.”

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “Come on, let’s get the trauma rooms cleaned up.” I couldn’t explain why I felt a surge of disappointment flow through me when he took his hands off my shoulders. I watched him turn and make his way to Trauma Room Number One.

  Those hands. Strong, warm, capable. I wondered what it would feel like to have those fingers caressing my cheek, cupping my breasts, or even—

  I shook my head, surprised with myself. What the hell? No, I couldn’t be sexually attracted to him. No! I had been around him less than an hour and I was already so hot for him I felt dampness in my panties. Great. Just what I needed.

  We spent the half hour cleaning up both trauma rooms. Thankfully, it was turning out to be a relatively slow day, but then again, it was early afternoon during the middle of the week. I knew that come the weekend, most of the trauma bays would be filled and I and my fellow nurses would be scrambling to keep up with the demand.

  By the time I glanced at my watch, I realized it was nearly two o’clock. We had just finished organizing what we could do in the bays. Maintenance had come in as well and were ready to start mopping the floors of blood. We took the carts to the supply room one at a time and I watched while Matt restocked the trauma carts. He was a little slower than me, but only because he wasn’t familiar with where all the supplies were. I helped when he couldn’t find something, but other than that, he did great. With that task completed, I smiled. “Ready for a break?”

  “Am I supp
osed to shadow you for that too, or can I go out and sit in my truck for a while?”

  I shrugged. “You’ve got thirty minutes to do whatever you’d like to do. Clock out and I’ll meet you back here in thirty.”

  With that, he nodded and headed toward the small alcove at the far end of the hall, opposite the nurse’s station and Diane’s office. A small room there held the time clock, notices, bulletins, and served as a sometimes break room although there was a larger one available for them at the other end of the hall near the elevator banks.

  During break, I usually just sat on one of the bottom steps inside the stairwell, resting my brain, calming my thoughts. If I was hungry, I might go to the cafeteria and grab a fruit plate, but I wasn’t hungry today. Today, my thoughts were focused on Matt. Then, they soured when my thoughts drifted to Doctor Linder.

  Figuring that the doctor was still busy with his patient upstairs, I moved into the stairwell and sat down on the bottom step. I made myself comfortable, leaning my back against the wall, my legs stretched out in front of me on the step. Suddenly, the door to the second floor banged open, startling me. Every one of those doors had a different sound, and I knew them all. I glanced up, not surprised to recognize Vanessa.

  “I hear we’ve got a hot one!” She giggled as she quickly made her way down the stairs.

  “That didn’t take long,” I said.

  Vanessa laughed. She made no bones about the fact that she loved men. More specifically, having sex with men. Of course, there was a rumor that Vanessa swung both ways, but that was something I didn’t even want to know about. There was no doubt that men loved her as well. In fact, I had heard rumors that Vanessa and Doctor Linder had gotten into it a time or two. The thought nearly made me gag.

  “Where is he?”

  Distracted, I had lost my train of thought. “Who?”

  “The new guy, the new male nurse… where is he?”

  “He’s on his break,” I said. “And he isn’t a new nurse. He’s a transfer.” I wasn’t about to sic Vanessa onto Matt—I gave up. I was trying to keep my distance, keep him impersonal, but it was useless. For some strange reason, the thought of Vanessa stalking after Matt pissed me off. That gave me food for thought.