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‘Nice work, Christian. If you ever want a job, just pick up the phone.’
They stabilised the patient sufficiently to move him and then Lara went to find Penny. There was no sign of her but she found Jane instead.
‘Have you seen Penny? She looked a bit sick. I wanted to check on her.’
‘I’m not s
urprised she looked sick,’ Jane said calmly. ‘I just put my head round the door in Resus and it looked as though you’d slaughtered a goat. Not very tidy, are you?’
Lara bristled. ‘We saved that man’s life—well, so far, anyway.’
‘Next time try and keep at least some of the blood inside the patient.’ Jane gave a faint smile. ‘You did well. You and Christian are an amazing team. And don’t worry about Penny. I’ve already seen her. I talked to her and then sent her home.’
‘You did?’
‘Yes. She thought you were very kind. But she was very traumatised, as you rightly guessed.’
Lara sighed. ‘I don’t think the pace of the ED suits her. She finds it all too stressful.’
‘It is stressful.’ Jane gave a philosophical smile. ‘I’ll talk to Christian about her at some point, see what he thinks.’ She picked up a pile of files and handed them to Lara. ‘Do you mind taking these to Christian? He’s in his office and he was asking for them earlier. It’s the next job on my long list. And tell him that Penny has gone home. I’ll give him the details tomorrow.’
Lara opened her mouth to say that she didn’t want to go and see Christian in his office, but Jane had already left the room.
Gritting her teeth, Lara clutched the files. Apart from the inevitable demands of Resus, she’d been avoiding him all night. She really didn’t want to see him outside the clinical situation.
But delivering files was hardly a problem, was it? She’d just put them on his desk and leave.
Trying to ignore the banging of her heart, Lara walked to Christian’s office. The door was open but the only light came from a flickering computer screen.
Why was he sitting in the dark?
‘Jane said that you’re waiting for these.’ She put the files on his desk. ‘And she wants you to know that Penny has gone home.’
‘Why has she gone home?’
The sound of his voice sent wicked, sensual heat curling through her pelvis. ‘Because she wasn’t feeling a hundred per cent. I think she was feeling a bit off colour when we were in Resus.’ The darkness created a dangerous intimacy and Lara started to back towards the door.
‘I wondered why you were sending her out of the room. I didn’t notice that she was off colour.’
‘You were opening a patient’s chest at the time so you have a decent excuse for not noticing. But that probably won’t stop her thinking that we’re cold and unfeeling.’
He was silent for a moment. ‘Are we cold and unfeeling, Lara?’
‘You just saved a man’s life, Christian,’ Lara said softly. ‘How can you even ask that question?’
He studied her, his eyes glittering in the semidarkness. ‘Working in the ED distorts your view of life, don’t you think?’
‘Yes,’she said honestly, ‘I think it probably does.’
‘Is that why you’re going to Australia? Because you want to return to normal life? Are you tired of living your life along the edge of other people’s disasters?’
Her heart banged against her chest as she searched vainly for the answer to his question. She didn’t know why she was leaving anymore.
‘It seemed like a good idea at the time, but that was before—’ She stopped in mid-sentence and he rose to his feet and walked across to her.
‘Before what, Lara?’
Silence enclosed them and then he reached behind her and shut the door, turning the key in the lock with a purposeful movement. ‘Before—what?’
