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She opened her mouth to speak just as Kaspar stepped closer to her. Everything in her head shut down as her body shifted into overdrive. Heady, and electrifying, and like nothing she’d ever known before.
He was dressed smart-casual, a vaguely lemony, leathery scent toying with her nostrils, and he practically oozed masculinity. Enough to eclipse every other male in the room most probably. Even every other male in the county. The world.
Even her childhood crush on him didn’t compare. It made her feel physically winded and adrenalin-pumped all at once.
The indolent crook of his mouth, so sinful and enticing, gave the distinct impression that he could read her thoughts. Feed into her darkest desires. It made her very blood seem to slow in her veins. A sluggish trickle, which her thundering heart seemed to be working harder and harder to process.
He was simply intoxicating. She cast around for something, anything, that wouldn’t betray how at sea she felt.
‘How is the patient? Rick, wasn’t it?’
Not exactly ideal, but it would have to do. Kaspar only hesitated for a moment.
‘He’s in pretty bad shape.’
‘But you can help him?’
‘Possibly.’
He didn’t want to talk shop, she could understand that, but it was buying her some much-needed time. She had to settle down. Katie was right, she was like a beachgoer on hot sand.
‘I think I read last year that you had a patient who’d had a firework go off in his face and you used some kind of layering technique?’
‘You’re in the medical profession?’ Kaspar’s stare intensified.
Archie swallowed. Hard.
‘No, actually I’m in the construction industry. I build the hospitals, you work in them.’
‘You build them?’
‘Well, I work out layout, ease of movement so it isn’t a rabbit warren; service routes such as for heating, lighting and medical gases especially for the operating rooms; whether to connect to the existing back-up generators, or build new ones; medical incinerators, that sort of thing.’
There was a lot more to it, and given how much she loved her job she could probably go on about it all night. Which would be a problem. It was hardly the most seductive of conversations.
‘Are you part of the team building the new women’s and children’s wing for our hospital?’
Pride outweighed her need to change the subject.
‘Yes.’
‘I’m impressed. It’s looking really good and I believe you’re pretty much on time and on budget.’
She was powerless to prevent a grin so wide it might well crack her face in two.
‘Thanks. It isn’t going too badly. There are a few niggles but I built decent float into the programme so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Once we’ve finished on the new wing we’ll start on the new hospice facility across the site. We should be done within ten months, hopefully.’
‘Even more impressive.’
‘Dad always loved what I did,’ she added suddenly.
Waiting, hoping, for Kaspar to add something he also remembered about her father. Then fighting the sense of discouragement when he barely even reacted.
‘I can imagine.’
‘Anyway,’ she caught herself, ‘we were talking about your firework patient.’
She didn’t know why it felt so important that he should answer her. Perhaps because her dad had once told her and Robbie that getting Kaspar to open up about the things he loved was the key to knowing the boy. He kept everything that mattered to him so closely guarded, as though he feared the pleasure could be snatched from him at any time. The way his mother had often cruelly snatched away anything he’d shown an interest in as a kid, from toys, to hobbies, to his only decent stepfather.
