He knew at that moment he had no business bringing her to his office. The space was tight as it was and having her in it would make it even more confining. And as he stepped into the cramped room behind her and closed the door, he knew he was in trouble.
Deep trouble.
Jaclyn glanced around the office, remembering the first time she had been here. That had been her first week at the hospital and Nurse Tsang had reported to Dr. De Winter that she hadn’t turned in her end-of-the-day report on time. Jaclyn had argued that her report had been turned in on time, but Nurse Tsang’s watch had been set two minutes early. Dr. De Winter had calmly suggested that to eliminate confusion in the future she get her report in five minutes early. What he hadn’t said and what she clearly understood that day was that the head nurse enjoyed making everyone’s lives miserable and she’d have to avoid getting caught in her trap.
Jaclyn took a deep breath when she remembered the last time she’d been in his office. It was last month when she had reported Terrence’s drug use. She had done a lot of soul searching before requesting a meeting with Dr. De Winter and now it looked like the decision she’d made that day might be coming back to haunt her.
“Please have a seat, Dr. Campbell.”
“Thank you.” She sat in the chair next to his desk and she watched as he sat down as well.
“If you’re here regarding the remark I made earlier today in the group session, it wasn’t made to call you out or to make it seem as if you didn’t know what needed to be done.”
She shook her head. “Yes, I know, but that’s not why I’m here,” she said softly.
He nodded. “Then why are you here? You said whatever you needed to talk to me about couldn’t wait until tomorrow.”
She inhaled deeply again, wondering why the man had to look so heartthrob sexy. She’d been around good-looking men before, but there was something about Dr. De Winter’s looks that could literally take a woman’s breath away. She wondered if he knew the effect he had on women and decided yes, he had to know.
“Dr. Campbell?”
She blinked, realizing he was waiting for her to say something. “They are talking.”
He raised his brow and a guarded look appeared on his face, and she wondered the reason. “Who’s talking?”
“Everyone. They know. Or they think they know and those who don’t are trying to figure it out.”
He leaned back in his chair and simply stared at her, but it was a stare that made tiny flutters appear in her stomach. “I think you need to tell me just what you’re talking about,” he said in a gentle tone, so gentle it made her want to tell him everything, especially her misgivings about letting him know about Terrence and how everyone was trying to figure out just who told. But she wanted to go even farther and spill her guts about how she felt about him, how she dreamed about him at night and how she often envisioned him naked. Most important, how her desire and love for him kept taunting her day in and day out. However, she knew she couldn’t tell him any of those things. She wouldn’t dare.
“I’m talking about the Matthews lawsuit,” she finally said. “That’s all everyone has been talking about all morning. They’re determined to find out who snitched on Terrence.”
“They won’t.”
“Can you be absolutely sure of that, Dr. De Winter?” she asked in frustration, fighting back tears that threatened to fall any minute. When she’d come to him to report Terrence’s problem she had hoped that in addition to protecting the hospital in the long run she would be protecting Terrence as well. He needed help. She knew firsthand what drugs could do to a person and didn’t want an addiction to rule his life like it had ruled her brother’s, Kevin’s.
“Yes, I can be absolutely sure of it, Dr. Campbell. You are protected by the privacy act. What you told me was in confidence and that is equivalent to doctor-patient privilege. I don’t have to reveal my source to anyone. Besides, it doesn’t matter. He didn’t pass the random drug test that was given to him that day.”
“I know, but what if their attorneys force the issue? Then what? I thought I was doing the right thing in telling you about it, but now I—”
“You were doing the right thing. You knew one of your fellow interns was involved in something unethical and you brought it to my attention. I repeat, you did the right thing.”
There was something in his gentle and understanding tone that pushed her to the edge. There were so many emotions she was trying to deal with. The issue with Terrence was just one of her problems. But beside all that, her feelings for the gorgeous doctor was another issue all together. She’d always been pretty level-headed when it came to men, but she felt way out of her league with Lucien De Winter, mainly because she knew she’d fallen in love with him the moment she’d set eyes on him. She was too old to consider it merely a schoolgirl crush. She’d stop thinking of it in those terms months ago. She was experiencing the wants, desires and needs of a woman with the man she loved.
Now there was no telling what would happen. Once word got out she was the snitch, the hospital would probably have to send her away to downplay all the negative publicity. That meant she wouldn’t see Lucien ever again. She would leave without his having a clue how she felt about him. But what did it matter? she asked herself. Her feelings weren’t reciprocated.
“Look, maybe I should not have requested this meeting today,” she said standing, unable to fight the tears any longer. The do-gooder didn’t always save the day, she reminded herself. Not all the time. “I have to go,” she said swiping at the tears falling from her eyes.
He stood as well. “No, not this way. Not with tears. I don’t want to see you cry.”
In a move that surprised her, he stepped around his desk and pulled her into his arms. The moment he wrapped his arms around her, giving her a shoulder to cry on, she took it and began sobbing.
“Shh, things are going to be all right. You’re going to have to trust me. The Matthewses will eventually discover that money can’t buy everything.”
Jaclyn knew for her to be standing here sobbing her heart out in her supervisor’s arms was inappropriate, but she couldn’t pull away. He smelled good and the way his hand was gently stroking her back felt wonderful.
And then, as if he realized where they were and what he was doing, his hand stilled. She swallowed and lifted her head from his chest to take a step back. But instead of letting her go, he reached out and tenderly cupped her chin in his hand and forced their gazes to connect.
The look she saw in his eyes had her senses reeling. At the same time sexual tension, as thick as it could get, began surrounding them, capturing them in a mist that was saturated with desire. She felt it and knew he had to feel it as well. If it wasn’t for the beat of her heart marking the passage of time she would not have known how long they’d been standing there, staring at each other with deep hunger entrenched in their gazes and heat radiating between them.
He moved closer and slowly began lowering his head until his warm breath fanned across her lips. She wanted to blink but couldn’t. His hot, possessive gaze was keeping her eyes wide open and glued to his. Her pulse quickened with every inch closer to her mouth that his lips came.
The room was charged with something she’d never experienced before, a kind of static electricity that increased the flow of blood rushing through her veins, made her world turn upside-down, then right-side up. His hand on her chin began moving, allowing his knuckles to tenderly caress the side of her jaw. Her vision blurred when a heated sensation took over her senses and every part of her body.
He lowered his head still more and his mouth came within a breath of taking possession of her lips. Suddenly the alarm on his desk sounded and they knew what that meant: 911 in E.R.
Without