He turned his head to look at her properly. Her shiny curtain of hair fell smoothly down each side of her face, framing it perfectly. Dark chocolate-brown eyes, the colour of which contrasted sharply with her creamy complexion, looked back at him and as he watched he could see two crimson patches of heat appearing over her chiselled cheekbones.
The only other contrasting colour on her face was the soft, plump swell of her pink lips. She held his gaze and he could see the challenge in her brown eyes demanding he convince her of the merits of this project.
Yep, he reckoned, she would have told him straight to his face if she’d known he was standing behind her within earshot. He got the impression she wasn’t one to hold back.
Well, challenge accepted, he thought. He needed her on side and he wouldn’t rest until she came on board.
Along with the television project he had his own reasons for coming to Mount Gambier. He’d suggested Blue Lake Hospital as a potential location because it suited him and he wasn’t about to sit here and see the project fall apart now. It needed to go ahead and in order to work it really needed the support of the existing hospital staff. And not just one or two of them, he needed them all.
The television network hadn’t brought anyone other than him across from the previous series. The budget, with the hospital board’s permission, was being used to bolster the hospital coffers, and there wasn’t any money to pay extra doctors. The project needed to use the doctors and nurses that were to hand.
He would do whatever it took to convince Dr Simpson of that. He just needed to find out what she wanted. And work out how to give it to her.
He smiled at her, giving her the smile he’d always used on his older sisters when he’d wanted to get his own way, but this time there was no answering smile. No response at all from Dr Simpson, unless he counted the turning of her head to look away. Not the outcome he’d wanted, he had to admit, but there was still time. This had to work.
Annie couldn’t get out of the meeting room fast enough once Gail wrapped up the session. She had no desire to hang around under Caspar’s inspection. No desire to be coerced into signing consent forms. And she wasn’t prepared for further discussions about why she was so against the idea of appearing on television. Her reasons were none of his business. All he needed to know was that she wasn’t interested. In any of it.
She dragged Tori to the staff cafeteria, desperate for a coffee fix after the stress and strain of the meeting. She couldn’t think straight while he was watching her with his heavy-eyed green gaze. Her mental picture of him tangled in his sheets was proving hard to shift and even though she knew it was entirely a product of her imagination she was mortified that her mind had taken her there, and she knew she had to put some distance between them if she was going to be able to keep those lustful thoughts out of her head.
She needed some distance if she was going to be able to focus on her job. But if she’d thought she was going to escape discussing the hottest topic in the hospital, she was mistaken.
The cafeteria was buzzing with the news and even Tori, despite bringing Annie to task for staring at Caspar earlier when she should have been listening to Gail, couldn’t resist bringing him into their conversation now. ‘What have you got against him?’ she wanted to know.
‘It’s not him per se,’ Annie tried to explain. ‘I just don’t want cameras following my every move. I’m here to do a job. I owe it to my patients to give them my best. I don’t want people in my way. And that includes him.’
The idea of cameras watching her terrified her. Twice in her life she had been the subject of media attention and neither time had the experience been pleasant, but the thought of working in close proximity to Caspar St Claire, of having him watch her with his bedroom eyes, was even more terrifying. She didn’t know if she’d be able to concentrate under his gaze and that made her feel vulnerable. And feeling vulnerable was not something she enjoyed.
‘Well, I think he’s here to stay,’ Tori told her. ‘At least for the next eight weeks. And you’ll probably be working quite closely with him. He’ll be responsible for the care of all those little newborns you deliver. I don’t see how you can avoid him. Or why you’d want to.’
Annie sighed. Tori was right. She was going to have to come up with a solution. She was going to have to work out how to cope with the situation, as unpleasant as it seemed. ‘I suppose I can’t avoid him,’ she agreed, ‘but I should be able to avoid being on camera. They’ll soon get sick of taking footage of the back of my head and then hopefully they can leave me alone to get on with my job.’
Tori was laughing. ‘You’re amazing. You’d have to be the only female in the entire hospital who would complain about having to spend time with Dr Tall, Dark and Handsome. Enjoy it. You’ll be the envy of all the women in town.’
Annie couldn’t imagine being able to enjoy one single minute of it and she’d happily swap places with Tori. With anyone, for that matter. ‘I’m sure you’ll get your turn, he’s bound to need your services while he’s here,’ she replied. ‘You can make sure you have yourself on the roster when they’re filming. You can show your face on camera and then they won’t need me.’
‘I’ll be in Theatre with a mask over my face,’ Tori grumbled, as she picked up her coffee and moved away from the counter. ‘Hey, maybe you could just start wearing a mask for your consults—that would solve your problem.’
Annie didn’t bother to respond to that comment. She just glared at Tori as she stirred milk into her coffee but Tori wasn’t finished.
‘Caspar St Claire.’ She sighed. ‘He even sounds like a movie star.’
Annie snorted. ‘He probably changed his name for television. I mean, really, who has a name like that?’
‘You don’t like my name, Dr Simpson?’
Damn it. Annie closed her eyes and groaned silently. He’d sneaked up on her and caught her out again. She was going to have to be more careful. She opened her eyes to find Tori trying to stifle a smile. Great. She turned round and came face to face with Dr Tall, Dark and Handsome.
He wasn’t trying to stifle a smile. In fact, he was smirking. At her expense. How she’d love to wipe that look off his face but the only way she could think of doing that was by telling him she didn’t like his name. And that wasn’t true. It was a name that rolled smoothly off the tongue, a name that wouldn’t be easily forgotten. Smooth and unforgettable. Much like the man himself, she guessed. Real or not, his name suited him.
‘You have a very nice name,’ she admitted grudgingly, ‘but it’s unusual enough to make me wonder if you made it up.’ She had to tilt her head back to look up into his face. He was several inches taller than her, an inch or two over six feet, she guessed, and from her viewpoint the strong angles of his jaw, darkened by the shadow of his beard, were even more obvious.
‘I admit it’s unusual but I assure you it’s the name my parents gave me. I can’t practise medicine under any other,’ he replied.
Annie shrugged. He’d made a fair point.
‘I seem to be needing to assure you of a lot of things, Dr Simpson.’ He was standing close enough that Annie could see where his day’s growth of beard was beginning to darken his jaw and she could feel his breath on her face as he spoke. She looked down, away from his inquisitive green eyes, but she was still aware of the little puffs of soft, warm air that smelt of peppermint and brushed her cheekbones when he spoke to her.
‘Is there anything else that’s bothering you?’ he asked. ‘I’d really like you to be on board with this project. As the hospital’s obstetrician and paediatrician our paths will cross often, and if we can find a way to work together