He looked approachable.
Uh, yeah, Becca chided her fanciful thoughts. She knew better than most how very unapproachable Seth Andrews really was. The term sleeping tiger sprang to her mind, causing a frown to crease her brow.
The plane’s wheels touched down. His eyes sprang open, and he appeared ready to spring to his feet.
“We’re landing,” she said, her voice rough from her dry throat.
“So I see.” He stared at her, hard. “How are you feeling, Rebecca?”
“About as good as anyone after making such a long flight,” she answered. “What about you, Doctor? Oh, and everyone calls me Becca,” she added, as if he hadn’t known that since the first day they had met.
“Matter of fact, Becca, I feel lousy,” he admitted, to her surprise. “And, my name, as you well know, is Seth.” This statement surprised her even more. “And whether or not you knew it, you were coughing in your sleep.”
“I didn’t know it.” Not about to call him by name, she eyed him warily. The plane was taxiing, somewhere. “Where do we go from here, do you know?”
He nodded wearily. “Yeah. We’ll be ambulanced to the U. of P. hospital.”
“But…” she protested. “I want to go home. I don’t want to go to another hospital.”
“Too bad, because you’re going.” His voice was adamant.
“But…” she began again.
The door of the plane was opened. Hot air rushed into the interior, reminding Becca it was nearing the end of summer in the northeast.
“Save your objections, Becca.” He grimaced. “I don’t want to go, either. But we’re under orders.”
“Orders—whose orders?”
The latest crew was coming for them to deplane.
“The head honcho of the hospital,” he answered, as she was lifted onto an ambulance gurney. “He wants a complete workup on both of us.”
Becca caught the last of his words as she was lowered from the plane.
Damn, she thought, she wanted to go home.
Seth was in a foul mood, not at all happy with the situation. Dammit! He’d screwed up everything. All he had wanted was to get Rebecca out of Africa for her own good.
She coughed as they were sliding the gurney into the ambulance. He frowned. He didn’t at all like the sound of that cough. He should have requested rescue for her sooner, even if he had known the administrator of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital would conclude if Rebecca needed to be sent home, in all probability Seth needed a break as well.
Seth had been on staff at the U. of P. for a couple of years before Rebecca had come to work at the hospital. She was one of the best nurses with whom he had ever worked.
She was one of the most lovely and appealing, too. He had felt an attraction to her almost at once—an attraction both physical and emotional that Seth told himself he neither needed nor wanted.
That being the case, he deliberately constructed an invisible shield around himself, a facade of cool detachment and disinterest. Yet, no matter how hard he fought it, the attraction grew stronger. He even tried blaming her, but that wouldn’t wash, even to himself, because in all truth, Rebecca had always been efficient, withdrawn and every bit as cool, if not more so.
He hadn’t gone to Africa because of her. He was in line to take over for the doctor there within the year she had started at the hospital. But he was relieved when the notice came for him to clear his schedule in preparation for going.
But putting distance between himself and Rebecca hadn’t changed his feelings for her in the least. They had grown stronger; he missed her next to him in the O.R., cool detachment or not.
And then, a month after he had arrived in Africa, Becca had shown up to work with him.
He wanted…wanted… Well, he sighed, it didn’t matter what he wanted.
Rebecca obviously didn’t want anything, especially from him.
So, here he was, back in the States, with her and still so far away.
Life sucked.
Two
Two days later, Becca was still in the hospital, in bed, with pneumonia. Her cough had subsided, and yet she still felt weak. As much as she hated to admit it, if only to herself, Dr. Andrews was right in having her shipped home. And she had no intention of admitting it aloud, especially to him.
Seth.
His name swirled inside her mind, along with an image of him as he had looked the last time she had seen him, right before the attendants had slid her gurney into the ambulance.
He hadn’t looked good. Becca couldn’t help but wonder if he also had pneumonia, or was simply exhausted. Either case was worrisome. It didn’t fit with the image she carried in that secret place in her heart.
To Becca, Seth Andrews was the most attractive and sexy man she had ever met. Over six feet tall, lean and rangy, although not as lean as he had grown lately, he exuded a calm self-confidence and a raw sensuality. Becca couldn’t have missed the hungry glances he’d received from the other nurses, as well as female doctors, merely by walking along a hospital corridor or stopping by a nurses’ station.
And he was the only man she had ever seen with dark-amber eyes. Too bad those eyes never glanced at her with anything other than irritation or impatience.
Becca sighed, thinking it was also too bad she had felt, if not actual love, then a deep infatuation.
She sighed again, afraid the emotion was the former and not the more personally acceptable latter. One hopefully recovered more quickly from infatuation.
Into her disquieting thoughts, Becca was unaware of someone entering the room, until a familiar voice jarred her alert.
“Are you awake?”
Trying to contain the shiver dancing down her spine, Becca reluctantly opened her eyes.
“Yes, I’m awake.” She was rather proud of the calm tone she had managed, considering he looked better if not completely well. He had had his hair trimmed, and the wavy mass gleamed in the sunlight that poured into the room.
“How are you feeling?” Coming to a stop beside the bed, he lifted her wrist to take her pulse.
“Rested, a bit stronger,” she said, thinking she felt strong enough to gobble him up with a spoon. Shocked by the thought, she quickly asked, “How are you feeling?”
Seth was staring at her blood pressure and heart rate monitor. “A lot better,” he said, frowning as he slid his glance from the screen to her face. “Your pulse and heart rate are a little rapid.”
Damn. Becca blurted out the first thought to zip through her mind. “I was dozing. You startled me.” She held her breath, wondering, hoping he bought her excuse.
“That explains it then.” He shot another look at the screen. “Heart rate’s leveling.” With a flourish, he waved a newspaper in his left hand that she had failed to notice because of her focus on him. “You’ve made the headlines.”
Becca blinked. The headlines? What…? She frowned “I don’t understand.”
“You’re a celebrity,” he said, holding the paper up so she could see the article. “At least, you’re one below the fold.” He handed the folded paper to her, the bottom half displayed.
There