The Surgeon She Never Forgot. Melanie Milburne
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tone as she picked up another file to leaf through.
Kate gave a little gulp. ‘Er...I’d better get back to the ward. See you later.’
Mikki felt the hairs on the back of her neck lift up follicle by follicle. She turned round and met the inscrutable gaze of Lewis from where he stood in the doorway. ‘Apparently you’ve made quite an impression on the female staff,’ she said, keeping her voice even and controlled.
The corner of his mouth lifted but it was still not quite a smile. ‘Not all the female staff,’ he said. ‘Have you been actively avoiding me, Mikki? I haven’t seen you since we ran into each other at the restaurant the other night.’
Mikki felt the pull of his gaze and had to drag hers away with an effort. ‘Of course I haven’t been avoiding you,’ she said, keeping her voice low in case any of the other staff were about.
‘I didn’t see you at the welcoming morning tea,’ he said.
She straightened the already straight papers on the desk. ‘I was busy with one of the patients, that’s why. You know what ICU is like. There is always the possibility of a crisis of some sort.’
He leaned back against the filing cabinet with indolent ease, as if he had been working there all his professional life instead of having arrived two days ago. ‘What have you told people about us?’ he asked.
Mikki gave her head a little toss as she faced him. ‘Nothing.’
One brow lifted in an arc. ‘So no one knows we were once engaged?’
‘Why should they?’ she said.
The corner of his mouth kicked up again. ‘Interesting.’
Mikki felt her lower back tingle as his gaze swept over her, lingering a little too long on her mouth. Again her lips began to fizz with sensation and she ached to send her tongue out to dampen down their sudden dryness, but it seemed to be too intimate an action, a signal of want and need she wasn’t prepared to reveal at any cost. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be professional and mature about this situation, not fluttering with nerves and panic every time she ran into him. ‘Have you told anyone?’ She threw his question back.
‘Not yet.’
Mikki wasn’t sure what she felt about his ‘not yet’. It seemed to contain a threat that he might at some point reveal their past relationship. A couple of people at the hospital knew she had been engaged once but she had never told anyone Lewis’s name or occupation. She didn’t want anyone to connect the dots, and certainly not now with him here in the flesh. ‘What about your girlfriend?’ she asked. ‘Surely you’ve told her about your broken engagement?’
He folded his arms across the broad span of his chest, his eyes still holding hers in a lock-down that was as penetrating as it was unnerving. ‘Abby is not my girlfriend,’ he said.
Mikki only just managed to stop from rolling her eyes. ‘Well, whatever she is, she’s clearly smitten by you. She was hanging on every word that came out of your mouth.’
His eyes softened. ‘She’s rather sweet, isn’t she? I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you but we had a lot of catching up to do.’
‘I’m sure you did,’ Mikki said crisply.
There was a little beat of silence.
‘So how are we going to manage this situation?’ Lewis asked.
‘You mean working together?’
‘Yes. Are you going to be OK with it?’
‘I’m perfectly fine with it,’ Mikki said, but on the inside she was screaming, Of course I’m not OK with it!
‘That’s fine, then,’ he said, unfolding his arms.
Mikki pressed her lips together. ‘Um—what about the other stuff?’
His brow lifted again. ‘What other stuff?’
‘The we-were-once-engaged stuff,’ she said.
‘I don’t see that it has anything to do with anyone but us.’
Just to hear him say ‘us’ was enough to send a shock-wave of reaction through her whole body. To be bracketed with him in such a way was deeply disturbing. It suggested an intimacy between them that should no longer be there. Was it still there or was it just her imagination? It was hard to tell from his expression. Even when they had been together in the past he had revealed little of himself. He had been an island she had briefly visited before pulling up anchor and moving on.
But how soon before the hospital grapevine got its tentacles around their past? The medical world was small, the subset of the surgical world even smaller. It would only take one word out of place for people to make the connection. ‘Well, I’m not about to tell anyone,’ she said. ‘I make it a habit to keep my private life separate from my professional one.’
‘You’ve done well career-wise, from all accounts,’ Lewis said, pushing his hands into his trouser pockets as he crossed one ankle over the other. ‘No one works longer hours, or so I’m told. That can’t keep much time free for a private life.’
Mikki shifted her gaze out of the range of his. ‘I love my job.’
‘You say that as if you’re trying to convince yourself rather than me.’
She threw him a cutting look. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve cut back to working nine to five these days?’
His ice-blue eyes glittered like shards of ice. ‘I’ve been working on the work-life balance.’
Her expression showed her cynicism. ‘I’m sure you have.’
‘Are you seeing anyone?’
Mikki frowned at him. ‘What sort of question is that?’
He gave a light shrug. ‘I’m interested in what my successor is like. Or has there been more than one?’
‘It’s been seven years,’ Mikki said with a lift of her chin. ‘What do you think?’
Something moved in his eyes, a camera-shutter flick. ‘You’re not married.’
She arched her brow. ‘So?’
‘And you’re not living with anyone,’ he said.
Mikki folded her arms, the height of her chin challenging. ‘You seem to have done your homework. The question that begs to be asked is: why? Why are you so interested in my private life after all this time?’
Another beat of silence ticked past.
‘Was it worth it, Mikki?’ he asked. ‘Have you finally got what you want?’
Mikki dropped her arms from around her chest and moved to the other side of the office, her eyes averted from his. ‘Of course I’ve got what I want,’ she said.
‘And yet you don’t seem happy.’
She swung back to face him angrily. ‘You’re overstepping the mark, Lewis.’
‘Am I?’
She tightened her mouth. ‘You know you are. My happiness or lack thereof should be of no concern to you.’
‘Is that the way you want to play this?’ he asked. ‘Just pretend we don’t have a history together? How long do you think it will be before someone finds out? Sooner or later someone’s going to make the connection, Mikki. We worked in the same hospital in London. You know how the system works. Everyone knows everyone in this profession.’
Mikki swallowed a knot of tension in her throat. ‘No one needs to find out if we maintain a professional distance.’
He gave a snort of mock amusement and drawled, ‘You’re fooling yourself, sweetheart.’
Mikki