Tempted At Twilight. Jamie Pope

like a squeak. Her mother had mentioned him. She had been exasperated. Young, brilliant surgeon who was stupid enough to break his hand while participating in some foolish activity. Cricket knew it had to be a big deal, because her mother rarely spoke of her work. Elias must have infuriated her.

      “Yes. I tried to go back and work in the ER two weeks post-op. I punched a guy I saw trying to drag his girlfriend from the hospital and hurt my hand again. My boss was so incredibly angry with me, I thought she was going to fire me.”

      Dr. Frances Lundy normally would have, but Elias must be that good. Cricket knew her mother wouldn’t give him another chance if he screwed up again. She would fire him if she thought he was a major liability. And she was fairly sure her mother wouldn’t like the idea of one of her doctors picking up her daughter in a bar. She wouldn’t like it all.

      * * *

      Cricket absently picked up Elias’s injured hand and kissed it. “You love your job, don’t you?”

      “I feel a little lost without it,” he admitted to her and bent his head to kiss her shoulder. He loved the feel of her, the way their wet nude bodies fit together. He had been restless this morning after not being able to sleep at all last night. He had been thinking about her, in a way that he never thought about anyone.

      Part of him knew it was because for the past fifteen years, he had been working with single-minded focus toward becoming a surgeon. Even before that, in high school, he had been studying, working extra hard to make sure his grades were good enough. And now he didn’t have any of that. Not the smells of the hospital, not the thrill of saving someone’s life. His days as a surgeon had always been unpredictable, but now his life was unpredictable with nothingness ahead of him. He had spent most of his days trying to figure out what to do with himself. But not now, not when he was with a sweet, beautiful woman who made him wonder why he had gone so long without one.

      He hadn’t planned on being there today. He’d told his brother and sister that he was planning to head back to Miami. But he had found himself at Cricket’s front door instead.

      “What compels one to become a surgeon? And don’t tell me it’s because you want to help people.”

      “My mother gets a kick out of telling people that I’m a surgeon. I like hearing people call me ‘Doctor,’ and I love cutting up stuff.”

      She looked back at him with a slight grin. “All very noble reasons.”

      “My father is the real reason I became a doctor. He once told me it was his dream to become a doctor. He was ready to go to college when his own father died and he had to take over supporting his family.”