Masquerade (13 page)

She felt the warm slide of silk over her shoulders as Alex placed his jacket around her.

“Typical woman, never thinking to bring a jacket, because it would spoil the
look
of her dress.” His words were lightly spoken.

“Well, it gives our dates the opportunity to act chivalrous and give up their coats for us.”

“Is that right? I’ll have to remember that.”

There was something in his tone that suggested he was going to pursue the subject further, but his car arrived.

Sophie stepped into the waiting vehicle, slipping off the jacket and placing it on the backseat. The heater had been turned on and the short journey from the car park to where they had been standing had warmed the interior sufficiently.

Alex negotiated his way out of the complex and she laid her head back against the headrest.

“So we’re on a date, are we?”

Her eyes shot open and she sat up as if she’d been slapped in the face. “Pardon?” she asked. Where on earth had he got the idea they were on a date? They were merely two work colleagues attending the same function.

“I’m only joking, Sophie. But you need to be careful of what you say — someone else may misinterpret it.”

She had no idea what Alex was talking about and felt that, instead of stepping into the car, she’d stepped into an alternate reality.

“What on earth are you talking about, Alex? I’m totally lost.”

He laughed and patted her leg. “Think back to what you said about me putting my jacket around your shoulders.”

She thought for a moment and then felt heat suffuse her face. Thank goodness it was dark inside the car and Alex couldn’t see her embarrassment. “Oh, right. I remember now.”

Sometimes she wished she would engage her head before she spoke. But if the truth be known, she did wish they could date. It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the attraction she felt for Alex. Her heart fluttered each time he spoke. Her skin sizzled each time he touched her. Her head was losing the battle with her heart, but she had to remain strong. She couldn’t afford another intra-hospital relationship. Once was enough.

Before she knew it, they’d pulled into their building’s car park. The moment Alex turned the engine off she reached for the door handle. The need to get to her apartment to give herself a lecture was strong.

A hand clamped on her wrist, stopping her escape.

“I know you don’t want this. But I need to do it.” Alex’s words were huskily spoken. Desire was evident in his eyes when she turned to look at him.

“No, Alex, we can’t.”

He placed his fingers over her lips. “Shhhh. One last time.”

He replaced his fingers with his mouth. He tasted of coffee and mints and heaven. His lips caressed hers in the sweetest of kisses. She couldn’t fight him, not tonight. One last time, like he said. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gave herself over to the kiss.

She opened her mouth beneath his to deepen it. Her nipples peaked and pushed against the fabric of her dress, creating a delicious friction that was answered by the heat pooling low between her thighs.

His lips left hers and trailed a slow journey down her neck, across her shoulders, and back again until he nibbled at the delicate shell of her ear.

She moaned and placed her hands on his chest, feeling the strength she’d admired that morning in the lift.

“Invite me up, Sophie?” He murmured the words against her neck, his breath warm against her sensitized flesh. “Take a risk.”

She didn’t know how she did it, but she pulled away from his touch, feeling cold and lonely all at once.

“I can’t, Alex, it’s too difficult.” She reached for the door handle and fumbled with it before finally getting it open. “I can’t take the risk again. My reputation was shredded once. I’m not going to let it get shredded again.”

Sophie left him in the car and tried to ignore the desire burning up her flesh. She had to fight an inner battle not to turn around and say,
I made a mistake. Take me to your place, Alex. Make love to me.

She somehow made it up to her apartment. The journey in the elevator was a blur. She discarded her dress and washed her makeup off.

She slipped between the sheets, but knew sleep would be elusive in coming.

• • •

Alex tossed his keys onto his kitchen bench and shrugged his jacket off. He walked over to his sliding doors and strode out onto the balcony. He gripped the railing, letting the cool breeze waft over his heated body.

He gazed at the twinkling lights of the city. He wanted … He pounded his fist on the cool metal. What he wanted he couldn’t have and he had to respect that.

It would be hell at the hospital, but somehow he had to make sure he wouldn’t let the desire he felt for Sophie affect his job.

He laughed harshly. How ironic. For years, he’d closed himself off. Told himself he was fine with having the odd affair, keeping himself emotionless. He’d been happy — or so he’d thought.

Now he found himself in a situation where he was the one wanting and not being able to have what he wanted.

He wandered back into his apartment. What was worse was that she was only an elevator ride away. Temptation within reach, and yet she might as well be a million miles away.

Alex stopped at the built-in bar, reached up to the middle shelf and pulled down a bottle. He unscrewed the lid and poured an amount of his favorite single malt whiskey, the aroma of the amber liquid clearing his senses.

He picked up the glass and took a sip, the smooth liquid sliding down his throat.

As he swallowed, he came to a decision.

It was time to take a risk and allow himself to feel. He would make the most of the situation. They’d already worked together one week. They had a lot more time and opportunities where they’d be thrown together. And he’d use every one he had to make Sophie realize they could make it work.

He always got what he wanted. What he wanted now — was Sophie.

Sophie sat at her desk and looked over the staff rosters for the coming week. Barring sickness, they should be running at maximum staff. After the week they’d had, she would be keeping her fingers crossed that fate looked down on her kindly.

Everyday she’d had at least one staff member ring up saying they were sick. Some kind of stomach bug was running rampant through the emergency department and she hoped for one that she wouldn’t get it. The last thing she needed was to be sick.

She hit the send button and sent the rosters off into cyberspace to all her staff.

One job ticked off the list, another twenty to go. Sophie was wondering now why she’d been so keen to take on this role. Oh, she enjoyed the challenge but sometimes the administration side of things threatened to overwhelm her. She had to admit, though, Alex was a big help. He not only kept an eye on all the doctors, he was also willing to lend a hand with dealing with the paperwork.

She was just reaching into the drawer to extract her handbag when the door flung open.

“Sophie, I need you in resus now.” Alex shouted the words at her. It was unlike him. He was always so calm. She had no time to ask what the emergency was. He was out the door just as quickly as he’d entered.

She thrust her chair back and raced out toward the room. Raised voices and the sound of trays of instruments crashing to the ground reverberated through the department.

“Call security,” she yelled as she raced past the nurse’s station.

“Already on their way,” a voice called back to her.

She nodded to show she had heard them, and skidded to a halt as she reached resus. She ducked quickly to avoid the flying shoe.

“What the hell?” she asked.

Alex and another senior resident had a man by the arms while two paramedics struggled to contain his legs. A young first year nurse cowered in the corner. Sophie looked into the patient’s eyes — they were wide and manic and darting all across the room.

He was high.

Sophie spared the young nurse a quick look. “Move, now!” The girl didn’t needed to be told twice and was out the room in a flash.

“What’s he taken?” Sophie continued, as she moved another trolley of instruments out of the way of a flailing leg.

“Ice,” one of the paramedics answered. “We don’t know how much, though.”

She could also see he was bleeding profusely from his hands and chest.

“How serious are those wounds? How were you able to transport him if he was this violent?” She was sure Alex or the other resident had asked the same questions but she wanted to know everything so she could attempt to gain back some control of the situation.

“He wasn’t like this when we treated him at the scene. But when we got him here he went ballistic,” the other paramedic answered. “Like the smell of the hospital set a reaction off.”

“Leave me alone,” the patient yelled, twisting and turning against the attempts to settle him so he could be treated.

To Sophie, they all seemed to be working against each other instead of with each other.

Alex’s words were said through gritted teeth as he struggled to keep a grip on the patient. “If we could get him on the bed and restrained we might be able find out exactly what damage he’s done to himself.”

She appraised the situation. “If you stopped fighting against each other, it might be possible,” she suggested.

Surprisingly, her words had them all pausing for a moment. She used the small pause to her advantage.

“Right, on my count, all lift at once. One, two, three, lift.” Her tone had been enough to keep the patient still and enable them to lift him onto the bed. Once he was lying flat, the restraints that were always present on the sides of the bed were strapped around his hands and ankles, making an examination possible. He pulled and twisted against them but after a few moments, he gave up the fight.

She walked over to where he lay. His eyes were still wide, but they zeroed in on her. What she saw there almost had her stepping back, until she remembered he was off his tree. His eyes held malice and a viciousness she’d never seen before. He started pulling against his restraints again.

“You bitch, I’ll come back and get you. No one ties me down.” He screamed the words at Sophie. She’d been abused by drunk patients before and never thought anything of it. But this time, this patient’s tone suggested he would keep his word.

She shivered at the prospect and coldness swept over her, leeching into her bones.

“Try that and you’ll have the whole department on you like a flash,” Alex said sardonically. “You think you’re so tough, so invincible when you’re stuffed full of drugs.”

“I’ll get you, too, doc, mess up that pretty face of yours so no woman will look twice at you,” the patient sneered.

Sophie watched as Alex looked down his aquiline nose and spoke so coldly and quietly that Sophie hoped she’d never be on the receiving end of that tone. “Your threats don’t worry me. Now I suggest you keep it down so we can examine you.”

Sophie had to admire the way Alex had dealt with him. While he was parrying words with the patient, the other staff had managed to get an IV in and start to clean up his cuts.

“Does he have a name?” she asked. Maybe if they personalized things a bit he might calm down.

“Phil Walker, of no fixed address, or so he says,” advised one of the paramedics.

“Okay, Phil, let’s try to get you sorted. Alex, you need bloods, x-ray, stitching kit, what else?” Sophie needed — no,
wanted
— to stay in the room. With a patient as volatile as this one experienced staff was needed. Even if he had threatened her, she wasn’t going to let Phil see he’d unnerved her.

Alex lifted his head from where he was examining the cuts on the Phil’s arms. “I think you’ve got everything covered, just let x-ray know that we can’t sedate him until we know exactly what he’s got in his system.”

“I’m not unconscious, you know, I’m right here,” Phil snarled and Sophie rolled her eyes.

“Well, perhaps you can tell us what you’ve taken, apart from the ice. Then we can treat you properly.”

As she expected, words seemed impossible for Phil to form.

“Hmm, I thought so.” She reached for the phone. “I’ll notify the lab we need a rush on these blood tests and the tox screen.”

She caught Alex’s nod as he proceeded to fill a few vials with Phil’s blood.

When he’d finished, he handed them over to her. “I think it will be quicker if you take them up. Also cancel x-ray, doesn’t look like any broken bones. Just a few deep cuts and a sprained ankle.”

Sophie eyed Phil on the gurney, he was lying still at the moment, but that could change in the blink of an eye. “Do you think that’s wise? He’s been pretty erratic.”

“I’ve got the situation under control,” Alex glanced at the vials of blood in her hand. “We need those results pretty quickly — the lab will pay more attention to you bringing them up than a junior nurse.”

She could see what Alex was getting at with his request. “Okay, I’ll be as quick as I can.”

As Sophie made her way up to the lab, she wondered what the fascination with drugs was. Some would call her prudish, but she didn’t understand the need to totally lose oneself in drugs and alcohol.

She handed over the bloods and argued with the lab technicians with trying to get the results pushed through quicker. She had a minor victory and then headed back to the ER. She popped her head into resus. “Lab says results should be back in an hour. They’re swamped so that’s the quickest they can get it done. How’s he doing?”

She noticed that he appeared to be sleeping or had he finally given up fighting and was letting Alex fix him up.

“Sleeping, but his pulse is still erratic, so we need to have thirty minutes obs.”

“Okay, I’ll arrange for Phoebe to do that. She won’t be fazed if he wakes up and gives her some lip.”

Alex’s chuckle rumbled down her spine. “Fine.” He ripped off his gloves and put them in the hazardous waste bin. “I’m heading up to admin for a meeting. I’ll see you in the morning.”

A meeting with admin? That was news to Sophie. Why wasn’t she told?

She followed Alex out and down the hall to the elevator.