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The door to the elevator opened, and I couldn’t say whether I was relieved or troubled that it was empty. Standing less than a foot from me was the only man I’d ever let myself get so carried away with that it didn’t matter we’d just met in the bar of the hotel where my conference was being held. My attraction to him was immediate, then and now. Our bodies spoke to one another that night as though we were already lovers. That he had no recollection of me, nearly broke my heart.
The elevator dinged again, and we stepped out into the lobby. Before we exited the building, he took my hand in his. What I should find comforting, only increased my irritation.
“This way,” I said when we walked past the building across from mine. As we rounded the corner, a man standing in front of the medical services building raised his hand; Lynx did the same.
“What happened to you?” the man smirked and asked when we got closer.
“Spilled-water incident, which resulted in Dr. Charles hitting her head quite hard.”
“Come with me. I made arrangements for someone to open the clinic,” the man said.
He was as gorgeous and captivating as Lynx, but in an entirely different way. Where Lynx was a high-handed, arrogant, no-nonsense know-it-all, his cousin…doctor…doctor-cousin…had a glint in his eye that gave me the impression that under different circumstances, he might be a mischievous tease.
We followed him inside, past the unmanned check-in desk, and into an exam room. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”
I let go of the paper towels that I was holding against the cut. As soon as I did, Lynx took them and threw them in the waste can; the other man donned gloves.
“I’m Stephen,” he said as he parted my hair and took a look. “I’m Lennox’s cousin as well as a doctor.”
“Emerson,” I said, cringing when his fingers touched my scalp. “Nice to meet you.”
“You don’t have to fib. You won’t hurt my feelings considering I’m hurting you far more. I should’ve asked before, but any allergies? To latex, for example?”
“No. None.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want you breaking out in a wretched rash on top of bleeding profusely from the nasty gash in your head.” He winked and leaned closer to me. “Tell me, did my evil cousin do this to you? I seem to remember an incident where Lennox convinced me to get on our grandfather’s Penny-farthing, which I promptly fell from. That was a right mess.” The entire time he chattered, he pressed a gauze pad filled with antiseptic on and around the cut.
“I did nothing of the kind.”
As opposed to Lynx’s scowl, Stephen’s smile was infectious. He tossed the gauze into the garbage, took off his gloves, and turned around to face me. “The laceration on your scalp is ghastly, but I assure you, you won’t bleed to death. I do need to close it up.”
“Okay,” I murmured when he appeared to be waiting for an answer from me.
“Be right back,” he said to me and then turned to Lynx. “Try not to do anything to further injure my patient in my absence.”
Lynx rolled his eyes and stood in front of me when we were alone.
“How are you feeling?”
“Embarrassed.”
He smiled. “Are you dizzy? Feeling nauseous?”
I was, but I doubted either had to do with me cutting my head. He made me dizzy—lust-filled vertigo. And the nausea? That related to how humiliated I was both by my over-the-top clumsiness and the fact he had no recollection that we spent an entire night naked in one another’s arms.
“Have you had staples before?” Stephen asked when he returned.
“No, but they sound painful.”
“I won’t lie. They are. But for a scalp wound, they’re the best option, given how thick the skin is. I’d offer to numb the area first, but to be honest, the lidocaine hurts worse than the staples do.” He motioned to Lynx, who took my hand.
“Here we go,” said Stephen. “Try not to move.”
“Ouch!”I shouted, but by the time I did, he was finished.
“All set. Those will stay in for a few days, and then they’ll need to be removed by a doctor.” Stephen looked down at where Lynx still had a firm hold on my hand and then back up at me. I tried to get him to let go, which only resulted in him holding on tighter.
“You may be mildly concussed. Do you have someone to look after you?”
