One More Time - Louisa George Page 0,12

sure, Charge Nurse Radley? You were an animal. I particularly liked that thing you did with your finger—’

‘Do not...’ His proximity was jangling the one nerve she had left. First proper day in charge and she did not need this distraction.

She glanced over to make sure Jamie was still asleep. Peered out through the curtains to see if anyone could hear.

The patient in the next bed grinned at her and waggled his finger. Gabby silently wished the poor sick teenager a swift dose of short-term memory loss and dodged back behind the curtain.

She jabbed her filed-to-a-sharp-point fingernail into Max’s chest. ‘Okay. You. Me. Sluice. Now.’

‘But I’ve got a ward round.’

‘Coward.’

‘Never, ever challenge me like that. Because I have no fear, Gabby.’ His words breathed down her neck as he followed her into the sluice and closed the door.

Trapped. In a small, hot room. Alone. No, not alone—with six feet three of glorious out-of bounds hunk. ‘You want to taunt me some more? Just to see?’

‘I am a professional person trying hard to get a little respect around here. You do not talk to me like that when there are patients close by.’

‘So I can talk like that now?’

‘Absolutely not.’ Her mouth tipped into a smile. She tried to stop it. Bit her lips together, tensed the muscles, but the smile kept coming. ‘And I was not an animal.’

‘I meant it in a good way. Uncaged, wild.’ He leaned against the steriliser, folded his arms, his legs crossed at the ankles. So relaxed that clearly the one-night thing was a common occurrence for him. She’d probably been just a notch in his magnificently handcrafted bed. She’d bet anything his heart didn’t pound and skip and jitter like hers did.

His eyes pinpointed her, fixed her to the floor. He started to lift his shirt up, inching very slowly over that fine line of hair that pointed straight down towards his zipper. She swallowed through a dry mouth. Watched as centimetre by centimetre his abs then pecs were revealed.

His voice was hoarse and inviting. ‘I’m sure I’ve got scratches on my back. You want to check?’

‘No, I do not. Put yourself away.’ Before I jump your bones. ‘We’re not going to talk about this again. Okay? That person you met last night? That’s not me. That was a different Gabby.’

‘Not the real you? You seemed very real. You felt very real... Oh. No...the animal thing...’ He hit his head against the steriliser. ‘Please, God, don’t tell me I’ve woken up in some sort of paranormal universe? You’re not going to go all weird or hairy and shapeshift on me?’

Laughter burst from her throat. ‘No. I was just drunk, which is a rarity. Thank God.’ She’d been bewitched by Max, or the mojitos. Either way, she wouldn’t be giving a repeat performance. And she would never ever drink again. No matter how much she wanted to forget. She pointed to her scrubs. ‘This is the real me. This is the only Gabby you’re going to know. At work. Charge Nurse Radley.’

‘Which is a damned shame all round.’

Yes, it was. ‘And now we go out there and pretend we don’t know each other at all. At least, not in the biblical sense.’

‘Right.’ His teasing grin told her he could pretend all she liked. But he knew her. Knew her.

‘Right.’

‘Excuse me...’ The door swung open and Max Maitland walked through it. She did a double-take. Talk about a paranormal universe.

Max leaning against the steriliser, all cocksure and oversexed.

Max standing at the door in pyjamas, wheeling a drip that was attached to his arm, pale and tired-looking.

The in-patient one was minutely shorter, had longer hair and an air of worry around him. Unlike the doppelganger in the corner. He was just downright smug. Or had been. His jaw tightened.

‘Whoa.’ She’d heard they were brothers, but no one had mentioned identical twins. How could there be two such beautiful men in the world? It made her head spin.

And did Max Two have the same freckle just above his...? Could he make her gasp and moan?

Stop.

She banished such thoughts as she held up her palms. ‘This is weird. Can—?’

Her Max was by Max Two’s side in a second. Her Max? What the...?

His cocky demeanour evaporated into concern, his voice lowered. ‘Are you okay? Who said you could leave your bed, Mitchell?’

‘I did.’ Max Two glowered.

‘I was going to come and check on you. You should have waited until the ward round.’

‘I was told you hadn’t even started it. I