“I would never smirk at you or anyone else who’s in pain. I’m a doctor, for heaven’s sake.” While he knew all the reasons she didn’t like him, he hadn’t realized she thought he was the kind of colossal jerk who would delight in someone’s pain. “Come here and let me see.”
“What?” She jerked back as he stepped close. “No.”
“You can’t function as well in the OR if your shoulder is stiff and painful. And since it’s important for everyone to be at peak performance during surgeries that last for hours, I’m going to give you a deep-tissue massage that should help.”
“I don’t want or need a massage.” Her expression was more alarmed than a simple shoulder massage should have warranted, displaying a vulnerability at odds with her stern words. “It’s fine. Really. And frankly it’s a bad idea for colleagues to go around touching one another, especially when anyone could be watching.”
“Anyone watching would see it as impersonal physiotherapy done in a very public place, right outside the hotel front door. Are you always so stubborn? Or are you worried that I’m coming on to you? I know that probably happens a lot but, believe me, I have no interest in you other than that you do your best tomorrow during the long hours we have to work.”
“An interest in me other than to ruin my career would never cross my mind, Dr. Ferrera. And the feeling is mutual.”
“Good. So quit arguing and turn around.”
WHY SHE ALLOWED him to turn her around, then press his fingers deeply into her shoulder muscles, Annabelle had no idea. But even as she told herself it was weird to do this, that she should just turn to head for the hotel doors and disappear to her room before the man started criticizing her again, she found herself standing stock still instead as she absorbed the feel of his hands.
Lord have mercy. Was this why people spent their hard-earned money to get a massage? She couldn’t believe how incredibly good it felt, as though his palms and fingers were magical instruments, kneading and pressing until the tightly knotted muscles began to loosen. His warm breath skimmed her neck as he worked, and it all felt so wonderful, every other thought in her head disappeared, and all worries along with it. Slowly tipping her head from one side to the other, she nearly moaned with the pleasure of those talented surgeon’s hands firmly moving on her neck and over her shoulders, working their way down to press against her spine.
“Take a deep breath, then blow it out. Then again.”
She obeyed, her eyelids fluttering closed at the sensations, even as a tiny part of her mind managed to ask why she was allowing annoying Daniel Ferrera to give her this amazing massage, professional and impersonal or not.
“Good?” he asked, his voice a low murmur in her ear.
“Mmm... Yes. Good.” That breathy word didn’t begin to cover it, but her brain wasn’t functioning well enough to come up with something else. His cheek almost brushed hers, so close she could practically feel the warmth of it radiating against her skin. Each time she drew breath his delicious scent filled her nose. Just as she was sinking so deeply into the sensory overload that she nearly forgot where she was, he abruptly removed his hands and stepped back.
Nearly swaying at the suddenness of it, she blinked and slowly turned toward him, surprised to see he looked oddly grim instead of satisfied that he’d helped the knots unkink. “Um, thank you. That did help a lot, I have to admit.”
“Good.” He ran that wide hand of his through his hair as he seemed to concentrate on something over her head. She glanced over her shoulder, and when she saw nothing there, turned back to see Daniel, now standing with his hands in his pockets, staring at her. “Listen. I want to talk to you about the phone call I got a little while ago.”
Something about his tone set an alarm clanging in her head, though she couldn’t say exactly why. “What call?”
“There’s a clinic near Huancayo that hasn’t been staffed and ready to see patients in over a year. A surgeon friend of mine wants to open it while we’re here so he can do things like hernia and gallbladder surgeries that are urgently needed by people in the area. He needs an anesthesiologist. I told him you’d probably be fine with going there.”
“I don’t understand. You can’t do surgeries here without me.”
“Alan Velasco, an anesthesiologist friend from Lima that I’ve worked with a number of times before, is going to come here to take your place. So we’ll be able to take care of a lot more patients than we’d originally thought, with both clinics open. Which is good news.”
Cool and impassive was the only way to describe his expression, and there was something peculiar about it. Something that didn’t quite fit with this new opportunity. “When would this happen?”
“Alan said that he and the surgeon, Eduardo Diaz, could be here the day after tomorrow. So, soon.”
Her heart lurched as she pondered how that could possibly work. She absolutely had to get the meeting she’d missed in Lima rescheduled before she went back home. Before the school she wanted to save closed for good and got knocked down by a wrecking ball, which would happen in just two months if she couldn’t pull her plan together in time.
What if the doctor and CEO at the hospital in Lima who were interested in partnering with her wanted her to be there a specific evening after work to hear the details? She needed to be close enough to go running if they found time to squeeze her into their schedules.
About to ask more questions and explain why going to Huancayo might not work for her, she paused to study him. Really looked at his chiseled jaw and handsome features, the deep brown of his eyes that she’d thought were beautiful and mesmerizing when she’d first met him in Philadelphia long ago. Every woman in that hospital had swooned over Dr. Daniel Ferrera. And, yeah, she’d secretly been one of them until she’d learned his amazing attractiveness on the outside was the polar opposite of his personality.
Reading people and their body language, carefully listening to verbal cues and paying attention to their eyes, their expressions, had been an essential survival skill for Annabelle growing up. Studying him now, her antennae went on red alert, telling her something was really off here. She let herself absorb it, think through whatever subtext there might be between the lines of his actual words.
Then the Aha! came like a sledgehammer to her chest. The shock of it, along with the intense burn filling her gut and the heat scorching her head, finally had her seeing right through the jerk.
“You arranged this, didn’t you? You hate working with me so much that you’ve arranged for me to go to the other clinic so you could work with this Alan guy.”
“I don’t hate working with you. I simply saw this as an opportunity to have more patients get the surgeries they need.”
“That is such bull! I’m not stupid, Dr. Ferrera, even though you clearly have always thought I am. You worked all this out, no doubt smug as hell as you did it, convincing yourself it was perfectly fine and somehow win-win because more patients will be seen, no matter how wrong your motivation is.”
“It is a win-win. Alan has a lot of experience with heart surgeries, and you’ll be helping people who need medical procedures and advice near Huancayo. That’s it.”
“That is so not it. Do you spend your life manipulating everyone and everything around you? Always able to convince yourself you’re doing it for your patients, instead of out of some nasty need for complete control?” Shaking now from the top of her head to the soles of her feet, Annabelle jabbed him hard in the sternum, wanting so much to punch him instead, just as he’d offered to let her do earlier. The only time she could remember being this upset and