know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“How absolutely gorgeous you are.”
Now he was being silly. “What I don’t know is how you can say that with a straight face. I’m plain.” It was safer to be ordinary. At least that’s what she had always thought. Safer than letting a man get too close. But Liam was already closer than anyone else had ever gotten.
Ridges appeared between his eyes, his expression altogether too serious. “You’re not plain.”
Her chest constricted. Why was he talking like this? “You’re much too kind,” she said, her smile dying.
He leaned down to kiss her, lingering as if savoring every moment. “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever been paid.” He kissed her again. “Beautiful.”
Panic threatened to rise from a deep, dark place in the pit of her belly, but she ruthlessly tramped it down. No, she wouldn’t let her fear rule her ever again. He’d done nothing wrong.
“So,” Willa whispered, running her hand down his back to squeeze one muscled buttock. “Any chance of an encore?”
His easy smile returned full force. “Oh, yeah.”
Chapter Eight
Willa worked through the next two days with her mind running in circles. Sex with Liam was amazing, wonderful and scary. She liked him way too much, more than was safe, but she couldn’t make herself turn away from the sheer joy she felt whenever they were together.
They were together a lot.
Most of Tuesday had been taken over by an emergency in Summerset Inlet. Willa and Liam responded to a call from a patient with abdominal pain. A young woman who’d been suffering all weekend but had put up with the pain until early Tuesday morning.
Willa was certain she was looking at a case of appendicitis, and given the girl’s fever of one hundred and five, elected to fly her straight to Fairbanks for emergency surgery.
None too soon.
The girl’s appendix had ruptured and an abscess had formed. The surgeon told Willa that had the young woman not been brought in promptly, she probably would have died.
There had been no time for Willa and Liam to talk about anything outside the job. He questioned her about the young woman’s case and why Willa seemed so certain she needed surgery. After handing off the patient and hearing the doctor’s concerns, Liam had even more questions for her on the trip back to Summerset Inlet to see her regular clinic patients. He seemed genuinely interested in all aspects of the emergency, and she was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly they worked together.
They were acting like a real team.
Then, as soon as she got back to Stony Creek, the mayor, Stan Utomyuk, was waiting for her at the clinic. With bad news. The council had voted down her request for a larger building and a doctor, saying it was too much money. And they hadn’t received any new applications for the nursing aides she needed. They had, however, decided to increase her equipment and materials budget. Lovely—she’d have more stuff to try to fit into her already full storage but no extra people to help administer any of it.
Crap.
Well, she wasn’t giving up. She would nag them until she got what she needed, no matter how long it took.
Today, with the Stony Creek clinic filled to overflowing, she stared down a red and inflamed throat and tried not to think about Liam. Half the town had come down with the flu. Both her receptionist, Elizabeth, and her aide, Joanne, had it, forcing Willa to handle the load alone. Which wouldn’t have been too bad except for the two kids who’d vomited all over the floor next to the bathroom door. In the fifteen minutes since, she had yet to find time to clean it up.
The smell was hardly appetizing.
Noise and yelling from the waiting room disrupted her concentration. A crash, more yelling and heavy pounding like several people jumping up and down with steel-toed boots on had her handing her otoscope to her patient and running out front.
Two grown men wrestled in front of the reception desk.
“Know what?”
“How absolutely gorgeous you are.”
Now he was being silly. “What I don’t know is how you can say that with a straight face. I’m plain.” It was safer to be ordinary. At least that’s what she had always thought. Safer than letting a man get too close. But Liam was already closer than anyone else had ever gotten.
Ridges appeared between his eyes, his expression altogether too serious. “You’re not plain.”
Her chest constricted. Why was he talking like this? “You’re much too kind,” she said, her smile dying.
He leaned down to kiss her, lingering as if savoring every moment. “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever been paid.” He kissed her again. “Beautiful.”
Panic threatened to rise from a deep, dark place in the pit of her belly, but she ruthlessly tramped it down. No, she wouldn’t let her fear rule her ever again. He’d done nothing wrong.
“So,” Willa whispered, running her hand down his back to squeeze one muscled buttock. “Any chance of an encore?”
His easy smile returned full force. “Oh, yeah.”
Chapter Eight
Willa worked through the next two days with her mind running in circles. Sex with Liam was amazing, wonderful and scary. She liked him way too much, more than was safe, but she couldn’t make herself turn away from the sheer joy she felt whenever they were together.
They were together a lot.
Most of Tuesday had been taken over by an emergency in Summerset Inlet. Willa and Liam responded to a call from a patient with abdominal pain. A young woman who’d been suffering all weekend but had put up with the pain until early Tuesday morning.
Willa was certain she was looking at a case of appendicitis, and given the girl’s fever of one hundred and five, elected to fly her straight to Fairbanks for emergency surgery.
None too soon.
The girl’s appendix had ruptured and an abscess had formed. The surgeon told Willa that had the young woman not been brought in promptly, she probably would have died.
There had been no time for Willa and Liam to talk about anything outside the job. He questioned her about the young woman’s case and why Willa seemed so certain she needed surgery. After handing off the patient and hearing the doctor’s concerns, Liam had even more questions for her on the trip back to Summerset Inlet to see her regular clinic patients. He seemed genuinely interested in all aspects of the emergency, and she was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly they worked together.
They were acting like a real team.
Then, as soon as she got back to Stony Creek, the mayor, Stan Utomyuk, was waiting for her at the clinic. With bad news. The council had voted down her request for a larger building and a doctor, saying it was too much money. And they hadn’t received any new applications for the nursing aides she needed. They had, however, decided to increase her equipment and materials budget. Lovely—she’d have more stuff to try to fit into her already full storage but no extra people to help administer any of it.
Crap.
Well, she wasn’t giving up. She would nag them until she got what she needed, no matter how long it took.
Today, with the Stony Creek clinic filled to overflowing, she stared down a red and inflamed throat and tried not to think about Liam. Half the town had come down with the flu. Both her receptionist, Elizabeth, and her aide, Joanne, had it, forcing Willa to handle the load alone. Which wouldn’t have been too bad except for the two kids who’d vomited all over the floor next to the bathroom door. In the fifteen minutes since, she had yet to find time to clean it up.
The smell was hardly appetizing.
Noise and yelling from the waiting room disrupted her concentration. A crash, more yelling and heavy pounding like several people jumping up and down with steel-toed boots on had her handing her otoscope to her patient and running out front.
Two grown men wrestled in front of the reception desk.
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