Julie stood back from the gurney, not wanting to get in the way. She watched as Pierre checked the incisions and conferred with the A and E consultant. Eventually he noticed Julie. He seemed surprised to see her.
‘You managed to get Caroline safely home, then?’ he asked, turning peeling off his latex gloves and tossing them in the bin. When Julie nodded he continued.
‘Thank you, but you didn’t need to bring the car back here. I would have collected it tomorrow.’
Although it was after two in the morning and he was developing stubble, which only added to his dark good looks, he didn’t seem tired. Quite the opposite, in fact. He radiated energy and vitality that pulsated through the room. Immediately something clicked inside Julie. Despite his image, here was someone who felt the same way about the job as she did. It was where they belonged—where they felt most alive.
His dark hair had flopped across his forehead and for one heady moment Julie was tempted to reach across and push it away from his eyes. Horrified at the thoughts that were flitting through her mind, she forced the image out of her head. What was she doing? Fantasising about her boss. It was totally inappropriate! Besides, she hardly needed to remind herself a man like this wouldn’t be interested in someone like her.
‘Yup, she wouldn’t let me come in. I hope it was all right to leave her?’ Julie prayed she wasn’t blushing. He was probably used to women getting flustered in his presence but she was damned if she was going let him see how much he affected her.
‘She is a very stubborn girl,’ Pierre replied grimly. ‘Takes after her father.’
He turned to theA and E consultant. ‘I’ll operate tomorrow,’ he said, ‘if he pulls through. In the meantime, I’m off to bed. Unless you would like any more help?’ Satisfied he was no longer needed, he steered Julie away from the resus room.
‘Are you ready to go?’ he said. ‘I’ll run you home.’
‘I’d rather stay and help,’ she said.
He looked at her sharply, narrowing his eyes. ‘If you remember, you are joining my team tomorrow…’ He glanced at his watch. ‘This morning. De bleu! It is almost three. You need your rest.’
‘I don’t need much sleep,’ Julie protested.
‘You do if you are working with me,’ he said firmly.
Julie ignored him and nodded backwards in the direction of Tom. ‘How is he?’ she asked.
Just for a moment Pierre looked tired. He rubbed a hand across his cheek. ‘The next twenty-four hours are critical. If they manage to stabilise him—if he survives—we’ll start doing skin grafts later on today. You can assist, if you like.’
‘I’d appreciate that,’ she said quietly. ‘I would like to see his treatment through. I feel I owe it to him,’
Pierre looked at her intently. ‘I’ll need you alert and under control,’ he said. ‘There’s no room for emotion in the theatre,’ he said.
Julie realised it was pointless to argue. He had completely misunderstood what she had meant. Suddenly the adrenaline seeped away, and she felt exhausted.
‘You don’t have to take me home,’ she said. ‘I’ll get a taxi.’
The last thing she wanted right at this moment was to find herself in close proximity to this man. A good night’s sleep, or at least a few hours—and there was hardly enough time to get more than that now—would be enough for her to pull herself together and get her emotions under control.
‘Of course I am going to take you home. It is the least I can do.’ He held out his hand. For a stunned moment Julie thought he meant her to take his hand, and almost laid hers in his. Just in time she realised he was expecting his car keys but she was unable to prevent the tell-tale blush flooding her cheeks. Pierre looked at her quizzically, then grinned.
‘You will be perfectly safe with me, Dr McKenzie, whatever people might say.’
Julie shot him a furious look before she could prevent herself and felt herself redden from the tips of her ears to the tips of her toes. Was he actually flirting with her? And what was worse, did he actually think she’d be flattered, grateful even?
‘And why should I think I wouldn’t be safe with you, Dr Favatier?’ she asked in the coldest voice she could summon. He looked at her, then as recognition dawned his blue eyes glinted mischievously.
‘Because people think I drive too fast, of course. What other reason could there be?’
Julie felt her skin shrink with embarrassment. Great start, dr mckenzie, she thought. Way to go, girl!
* * *
Julie sank into the soft leather seat of Pierre’s car. Asking her for her post code, he programmed it into the satellite navigation system of his car.
‘It easier than you telling me how to get there,’ he said, pulling out into the road. ‘You did very well back there, at the fire.’
‘I’m just glad you were there,’ she said. ‘I would have hated having to do a tracheostomy on my own.’ She slid him a look. ‘It’s quite different having to do something out of the hospital setting.’
Pierre turned and flashed her a smile. ‘Something tells me you would have coped okay,’ he said. ‘You stayed very cool.’
Julie felt herself glow at the praise. ‘Skiing teaches you that. How to stay focussed, even when you’re terrified. And I was,’ she admitted.
‘Then you hid it well,’ he said. ‘I think I’m going to like having you on my team.’ He drove quickly through the now deserted streets. Julie was acutely conscious of his presence in the cramped interior of his car. Suddenly she felt awkward.
Glancing down at this hand on the gearstick, she noticed that his right hand had been burnt.
‘You hurt your hand,’ she said.
‘It’s nothing,’ he said. ‘I put some cream on. It will be fine.’
He smiled at her again, his eyes creasing at the corners. Julie felt a tingle run up her spine.
‘Are all Scottish women so reckless?’ he asked. ‘You must know you risked your own life staying inside the burning building to help.’
Julie straightened in her seat. ‘I only did what anyone would have done. I couldn’t stand back and do nothing. I wasn’t being reckless.’
‘I know men who wouldn’t have done what you did,’ he argued.
‘How people behave in a time of crisis has nothing to do with what sex they are!’ Julie said crossly.
This time Pierre laughed out loud.
‘Dis donc,’ he said. ‘So you say.’
Julie felt her skin prickle. He was mocking her. Despite finding him unnervingly attractive, she wondered if she actually liked her new boss—even if he was the kind of surgeon she aspired to be. He seemed to have a pretty sexist view of women. Perhaps that was down to the type of women he spent time with. Julie could just see him with a glamorous simpering model on his arm. Someone who hung onto his every word and liked to have doors opened and him order for her. Someone who was unlike her in every possible way.
‘Anyway, you were pretty reckless yourself,’ she said. ‘You took a risk going to help the DJ.’
Pierre raised an eyebrow, his eyes silver in the semidarkness. ‘A chance you were about to take yourself. In fact, you would have taken a greater risk than I. You would have never been able to get him out of there. And somehow I suspect you would not have left him.’
Hearing the admiration in his voice, Julie felt somewhat mollified. But whatever he thought, she’d only done what anyone in her shoes would have done.
Happily,