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‘Would you like to sit down or are you enjoying the height advantage for a change?’
‘You really are the most annoying man I’ve ever met,’ she bit out. ‘You’ve done nothing but ridicule me from the word go. Just where do you get off?’
A hint of steel entered his voice. ‘Sit down, Dr
Willoughby.’
She stamped her foot on the floor. ‘No, I will not sit down.’
A flash of anger appeared in his eyes as they duelled with hers. ‘Do you want to stay on this unit or not, Dr Willoughby?’ Her eyes burned into his. ‘Are you threatening me, Mr
Blackwood?’
He got to his feet in one slow movement, his increase in height making her feel tiny as he towered over her with only the desk between them. Her stomach did a funny little birdlike flutter as he leant forward with his hands resting on the desk, his eyes pinning hers.
‘You have been late two mornings in a row,’ he said in a cold, hard tone. ‘I do not usually like to run the unit like a drill sergeant but if you keep not turning up on time we’ll have to look at whether you’re suitable for the neurosurgical training scheme.’
‘If you do that I will report you to the CEO. My father and he are golf buddies.’ As soon as Georgie had said the words she regretted them. She was not normally a name-dropper and
she positively loathed hospital politics, but something about Ben’s manner towards her provoked her into totally uncharacteristic behaviour.
His eyes glittered like sapphires, his jaw white with anger. ‘You really take the cake, don’t you, Dr Willoughby?’ he said. ‘You come flouncing into my unit like a princess, expecting everyone to worship the very ground you walk on just because you happen to have a professor for a father.’
‘I do not flounce,’ she said, only just managing to resist a toss of her head.
His lip curled. ‘I’m not impressed with anything I’ve seen from you so far,’ he said. ‘You came to that ward round unprepared and then had the audacity to flirt with the intern.’
‘The intern and I are friends,’ she said in her defence, her cheeks glowing with rage. ‘And I do not flirt.’
‘Is there anything else you do not do?’ he asked with another curl of his lip.
Georgie had had enough. She leaned forward on the desk, the tips of her splayed fingers touching his, her eyes like twin fires as she met him eye to eye. ‘I do not normally feel like slapping my boss’s face but let me tell you right now I am sorely tempted.’
‘Go right ahead,’ he said, eyeballing her back. ‘But perhaps I should warn you of the consequences first.’
Georgie disguised a little swallow as her gaze dipped to his mouth. She was so close to him she could see the pepper of dark stubble on his face as if he had skipped shaving that morning. It gave him an arrantly masculine look that was devastatingly attractive. She tried to edge her fingers away from his but somehow one of his hands had come down over both of hers, trapping them beneath his.
‘W-what consequences?’ she croaked as her eyes returned to his.
Long seconds seemed to pass before he spoke.
‘I’m not going to tolerate this sort of performance, Dr Willoughby. If there is any more slacking off, you’ll be out on your ear. Understood?’
‘Perfectly,’ she said through tight lips.
He released her hands as he straightened, his hands going to his trouser pockets, the deep thrust of them drawing her eyes like a magnet. He had such long, strong legs, toned by hours of hard exercise, his waist lean and his stomach flat and ridged with muscle that was clearly visible through the lightweight cotton of his shirt. His sleeves were rolled back past his wrists, the dark masculine hair reminding her all over again of his potency as a full-blooded male in his prime.
She brought her gaze back to his, her colour rising again at the hint of mockery still lurking in his expression.
‘Everything to your liking, Dr Willoughby?’ he asked. ‘Or are you just checking to see if I need another bandage or two?’
She sent him a fulminating glare without answering but she could feel the heat of her embarrassment crawling like flames all over her face.
‘So who was the lucky recipient of your expert roadside help this morning?’ he asked with another taunting smile. ‘Or did you just make that up to get a few extra minutes in your boyfriend’s bed?’
Georgie clenched her hands by her sides. ‘I do not have a boyfriend and the person I attended to was brought into A and E by ambulance. For your information, I’m going down there right now to check on her progress.’
Ben suppressed a frown as she swung away, her high ponytail swishing from side to side as she wrenched open the door and left.
