all the lethal accuracy of a deadly weapon. As he stepped even closer to her his voice dropped to a low purr, like a tiger soothing its prey before the kill. ‘Does he make you hot inside, Katy? Does he make you so desperate that he has you panting and ripping at his clothes?’
Powerful images exploded in her head and her face burned with shock and embarrassment at his explicit words.
‘Have you finished?’ Determined not to betray just how uncomfortable she felt, she looked him straight in the eye. It was a mistake.
She tumbled into the fathomless depths of his dark eyes and felt her knees tremble.
He leaned forward. ‘That man has no idea how to unlock the real Katy.’
‘And I suppose you think you do!’
‘Of course.’ The lazy arrogance in his voice was the final straw and she lifted a hand and slapped him so hard that the palm of her hand stung.
‘Dios mio.’ His head jerked backwards and he looked at her with raw incredulity, disbelief pulsating in the depths of his eyes.
Stunned by her own behaviour, Katy opened her mouth to apologise and then closed it again. There was no way she was apologising to him!
‘Eleven years is a long time, Jago, and you don’t know anything about who I am any more.’ Her small hands clenched by her sides and she forced herself to breathe normally. ‘I’m more than capable of working in this department and I’m going to marry Freddie.’
They stood, eyes trapped by an invisible force, until the door opened and a male voice said, ‘I’ve found our straggler. She’s still in the common room.’
The consultant walked in and gave Jago a nod before turning to Katy. Fortunately he didn’t seem to notice the reddened streak on Jago’s cheekbone.
‘If you’ve finished in here, I’ll take you out and see which member of staff you’re allocated to. We find that the new casualty officers settle in quickly if they work closely with another member of staff. I’ll just check who that is.’
‘You needn’t bother.’ Jago’s voice was soft and his eyes were still fixed on Katy’s pale face. ‘Dr Westerling will be working with me.’
His colleague looked startled. ‘Oh, right—well, you’ve obviously already met Jago Rodriguez, one of our other consultants. In that case, I’ll leave you in his capable hands. I’m sure you’re keen to get started.’
Jago’s mouth curled into a smile. ‘I’m sure Dr Westerling can’t wait.’
There was a sardonic gleam in his sexy dark eyes that brought a flush to her pale cheeks and a sick feeling to the pit of her stomach.
Working with Jago wasn’t just going to be difficult.
It was going to be a nightmare.
Twenty-four hours later Katy was wondering why she’d ever thought she’d be able to cope with A and E.
She’d seen a never-ending stream of patients, most of them angry at having been kept waiting for hours.
‘Can’t we see patients any faster?’ she asked Charlotte, the sister who had looked after her when she’d been brought in after her car accident. ‘I’m fed up with being verbally abused by everyone I see.’
‘Welcome to A and E.’ Charlotte handed her a set of X-rays to check. ‘We make a dent and then an emergency comes in and takes priority. That’s the way it works. That’s why we have triage. Non-emergency cases go to the bottom of the pile and they stay there until someone has time to see them.’ She smiled sympathetically at Katy’s drawn expression. ‘Don’t worry, you get used to people yelling at you after a while.’
‘I don’t mind people yelling,’ Katy lied quickly, not wanting to risk Charlotte telling Jago that she couldn’t cope. ‘I just wish we didn’t have to keep people waiting.’
‘At least you’re working with Jago. He can be a pretty hard taskmaster, I know, but he’s a brilliant doctor. You’re lucky.’
Katy kept her mouth clamped shut. Lucky? She certainly didn’t feel lucky to be working with Jago. She felt as though she must have done something seriously wrong in a previous life to have deserved such punishment.
Realising that Charlotte was looking at her oddly, she managed a smile.
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ she replied smoothly. ‘I’m looking forward to learning from him.’
‘As a doctor he’s staggeringly gifted,’ Charlotte went on. ‘He has this uncanny ability to spot things that other people miss, but sometimes he forgets that the rest of us are human. Don’t let him get to you.’
He was getting to her.
He made it perfectly obvious that he didn’t think she had what it took to work in A and E and he was watching her every move, waiting for her to make a mistake. Why did he hate her so much?
All she’d ever done had been to fall in love with him, and surely that was her problem, not his.
They hadn’t really talked about what had happened in the past. Maybe she should bring it up. Clear the air.
Feeling totally miserable, Katy sighed and reached for the X-rays but at that moment Annie, one of the staff nurses, rushed up.
‘Ambulance Control just rang. They’re bringing in a forty-year-old man who’s had an accident in a warehouse. He got caught by a forklift truck. Apparently he’s in a bad way. Very weak pulse and virtually no blood pressure. They should be here in less than five minutes.’
‘Find Jago,’ Charlotte said immediately, but his voice came from behind them.
‘I heard. Annie, get the trauma team together in Resus and make sure we have a radiographer. I don’t want to be hanging around for X-rays.’ His gaze flickered to Katy. ‘You can join us in Resus and act as one of the circulation doctors. You saw us in action yesterday—do you think you can cope?’
Katy’s stomach lurched and her pulse rate quickened, but she met his gaze without flinching.
‘Of course.’
She’d cope or die in the attempt.
‘Good.’ His dark eyes locked on hers moodily and then he strode off towards Resus, leaving her to follow.
Charlotte alerted the nursing team and one of them was given the task of informing people in the waiting room that the waiting time was likely to be increased because a major injury was coming in.
‘There’ll be a riot,’ Annie predicted gloomily, and Harry, one of the other consultants, nodded.
‘Very probably, but there isn’t much we can do about it except mop up the blood afterwards.’
Jago was prowling around Resus, checking that the right equipment was ready and everything was where he wanted it.
Moments later the doors crashed open and the paramedics hurried in with the stretcher.
‘This is Dan Walker. He’s a warehouse supervisor. He was caught under the ribs by a forklift truck. No obvious injury but he’s shocked and his pulse is thready. We’ve given him high-flow oxygen and we managed to get a line in at the scene …’
The paramedic outlined the care they’d given and Jago moved to the head of the trolley.
‘OK, let’s move him across, on my count—one two three.’
They lifted the man carefully and he groaned slightly, his skin pale and clammy.
Katy’s blood was pounding in her veins. This was her first real trauma case. What if she did something wrong?
But it soon became clear to her that she couldn’t possibly do anything wrong because Jago was directing the entire operation with an air of cool command which left