Her Kind Of Doctor. Stella Bagwell

never seen him in this area of the building before, he must be determined to rake her over the coals before she left the hospital.

      “Nurse Winters, are you on your way home?” he asked.

      She tried not to sound wary, even though every muscle in her body had suddenly tightened into knots. “Yes. As soon as I collect my things from the locker room.”

      He cleared his throat as though he was nervous. Which was a ridiculous thought on her part. Luke was a man of steel. Nothing made him uneasy.

      Drawing to a stop in front of her, he said, “Before you leave I was wondering if you might have a cup of coffee with me—in the doctor’s lounge. You do like coffee, don’t you?”

      If the slightest puff of wind had passed through the hallway, Paige would have fallen face-first on the polished tile floor.

      “Uh, yes—I like coffee.”

      A faint smile curved his lips and Paige suddenly wanted to grab the front of his lab coat and give him a hard shake. She wanted to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing. Was he trying to play some sort of mind game with her? If so, he was succeeding. For reasons she couldn’t imagine, she was seeing things about the man she’d never seen before. Like the tempting curve of his lower lip and how his eyes were as cool as a green glade in early spring.

      “Good,” he said. “Since the shift is changing, I’m sure we’ll find a fresh pot. Shall we go?”

      He gestured for her to precede him and though Paige wanted to turn and race out of the building, she forced herself to nod.

      “We had an extra busy shift tonight,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t sound as strained to him as it did to her. “Coffee would be nice.”

      The two of them started walking back in the general direction of the ER until they reached an intersection of connecting hallways. Beyond it on the left wall, Luke pushed open a door marked Doctors’ Lounge. Which basically meant, barring an emergency, no nurses or orderlies were allowed. In the seven years she’d worked at Tahoe General, Paige had only been in this lounge once and that had been long before Luke Sherman had been hired to attend the night shift.

      Compared to what she’d seen of the doctors’ lounges located on the upper floors of the hospital, the space allotted for the ER physicians was tiny. Yet this one made up for space with a comfortable couch and matching stuffed armchairs, along with a TV and a small cabinet area stocked with beverages and snacks.

      Currently the room was empty. Which was hardly a surprise since Dr. Bradley was already at work on the floor and one doctor handled the whole shift on his own—unless some sort of catastrophic situation occurred and the hospital had to summon more doctors to handle the crisis.

      At the moment, Paige would have given half her paycheck for another doctor to suddenly walk through the door of the quiet lounge. Being alone with Luke Sherman was not a situation she was accustomed to.

      He gestured toward the seating area. “Sit down, Nurse Winters. I’ll get the coffee. How do you like yours? With a bit of cream?”

      He must be a good guesser, she thought. She doubted he even knew her first name, much less how she liked her coffee. “Yes, cream would be nice.”

      By the time she’d made herself comfortable on one end of the couch, he was standing in front of her, holding two red mugs.

      Murmuring her thanks, she took the one he offered her, then waited until he was seated before she took a cautious sip. As he had predicted, the brew was fresh. She breathed in the rich aroma and tried to relax. But that was so very hard to do when his presence was taking up practically every inch of the small lounge.

      Before he’d poured the coffee, he’d taken off his lab coat and hung it on a hook on the wall. Paige tried to remember a time when she’d seen him in only a shirt, but couldn’t, and the sight of his broad, muscular shoulders and trim waist was disturbing her peace of mind. Not to mention the hard, masculine line of his jaw, the thick sandy hair falling in a boyish hank over his forehead and those piercing green eyes focusing directly on her face.

      What was the man up to? In all the years she’d worked with him, he’d never so much as asked her to share a drink of water with him at the water fountain, much less join him in this private doctors’ domain. All she could think was that he was about to give her a lecture about doctor/nurse protocol and warn her to never talk down to him again. Or else. Well, she had news for him. She was darn good and ready to deal with the “or else.”

      “I suppose you’re wondering why I invited you here,” he said, as he settled himself in an armchair positioned in front of her.

      Because I looked sleepy and you thought I needed a jolt of caffeine before I drove home. Or you wanted to make a point of reminding me who’s the boss around here.

      Although the thoughts were shooting through Paige’s mind, she managed to keep them from rolling off her tongue. Instead, she said, “I am a bit curious. It’s not like the two of us are...chummy.”

      His brows pulled together in a faint frown. “We aren’t? I always thought we were a team.”

      A team? She was so jolted by his remark it was a miracle she didn’t spill coffee across her lap. Maybe they did work in tandem, but that’s all it was, she silently reasoned. One professional working with another. She could probably count on one hand the times he’d spoken to her about something other than a patient’s treatment.

      “Yes, we do work together,” she said primly. “I meant...we’re not, uh, chummy off duty.”

      The slow, intimate way his gaze was slipping over her face gave Paige the sudden urge to clear her throat. Instead, she took a quick gulp of coffee and very nearly burned her tongue in the process.

      He said, “I don’t exactly know what made you decide to return to the ER, but I’m grateful you did.”

      Was she dreaming? Her hands tightened around the mug and though she tried to look away from him, her eyes refused to obey. That’s what happened when a person went into shock, the nurse in her realized. Everything about the senses stopped working. And hers had definitely come to a screeching halt.