Читать книгу: «In the Doctor's Bed»

Lucien felt his mind and body unleash turbulent emotions that he’d held back for the past eighteen months

Now he was giving in to a hunger to a degree he hadn’t known was possible. There was this ravenousness that was invading his body and obliterating any kind of control. And he was giving in to it. Letting it dominate.

Her tongue tasted just as he’d known it would, with a sweetness that was turning his cells into jelly. There was a faint taste of the spiced coffee she’d drank earlier, but mostly it was all woman and it was so captivating he couldn’t imagine how it would be not to kiss her.

He pushed that thought out of his mind as he continued to devour her mouth, lips, tongue. There wasn’t a part of her mouth he hadn’t invaded and sampled to his heart’s content. And she was kissing him back with a hunger just as greedy as his own.

Dear Reader,

I enjoy doing continuity books where I get to work with other authors. In this particular continuity—Hopewell General Hospital—I got to work with three outstanding authors, Ann Christopher, Maureen Smith and Jacquelin Thomas.

The four of us are introducing you to the staff of Hopewell General and how interns face daily challenges, especially when it comes to love. I’ve always enjoyed a good medical show and admit to being a General Hospital fan. And being a romantic at heart, I love to read a sexy romance story with a sexy hero, and I believe these four stories will definitely satisfy any romantic cravings you might have.

I hope all of you enjoy reading Lucien and Jaclyn’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Happy reading!

Brenda Jackson

In the Doctor’s Bed

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

Brenda

Jackson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To the love of my life, Gerald Jackson, Sr.

To all my readers. This one is for you.

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

—Proverbs 3:3

Chapter 1

The moment Jaclyn Campbell stepped off the elevator she felt her nerves kick in. Tension stirred in the pit of her stomach, and her pulse throbbed at the base of her throat. It was as if she was back in high school and had been called to the principal’s office. The only difference was she wasn’t sixteen anymore, but a twenty-six-year-old woman, an intern at Hopewell General Hospital, and she had gotten summoned to the office of the chief of staff, Dr. Germaine Dudley.

Taking a deep breath and inserting her sweaty hands in the pockets of her slacks, she paused at the desk of Dr. Dudley’s administrative assistant, Mona Wells. The older woman glanced up from the paperwork just long enough to say, “Go on in, Dr. Campbell. They’re waiting on you in the conference room.”

They? The pit of Jaclyn’s stomach nearly dropped to the floor. Who were “they”? She wondered just what kind of trouble she had gotten into. Granted she and Kayla Tsang, E.R.'s head nurse, never saw eye-to-eye on much of anything. Jaclyn had known from the first day of orientation it would behoove her to stay out of the woman’s way.

Nurse Tsang was a stickler for rules and had the attitude of an old sourpuss, which was sad for someone who was only thirty-five years old. Jaclyn smiled to herself upon recalling what her roommate and fellow intern, Isabelle Morales, had told her just last week. “Miss Thang”—as other staff members called the nurse behind her back—needed to get laid.

Quickly wiping the smile off her face and drawing in another deep breath, Jaclyn knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Jaclyn entered the room to find three individuals sitting at a long table. Her gaze first went to Dr. Dudley who was seated at the head of the table, and as usual his gaze raked over her. It wasn’t the first time she’d thought the man had a roving eye. Isabelle also had caught him ogling her and other young female interns the same way. That was probably the only mark against the man. The married, sixty-something father of three was well-respected in the medical field, and he had some political clout as well because he and the governor were college chums.

Her gaze then swept across the length of the table. The woman seated to the right of Dr. Dudley was Camille Hunter, the attractive public relations director of the hospital. Although Jaclyn didn’t know Camille that well, she’d always found the young woman friendly enough when they’d passed in the halls or met in the elevator.

And last but definitely not least was the man who’d captured Jaclyn’s heart her first day at Hopewell. Dr. Lucien De Winter, chief resident.

She wasn’t ashamed to admit to herself that she had a crush on the man and had for months. Her mother had warned her that it would be that way when she met her true mate. Jaclyn wasn’t sure how Dr. De Winter would fit into her future, but right now he was just a nice specimen of a man that any woman would love to lay claim to.

Even while sitting down, Dr. De Winter was tall, and had a muscular build. His black hair was cropped short and he had the sexiest brown eyes any man had a right to have. And that neatly trimmed mustache and goatee only accentuated a pair of sensuous lips.

Their gazes met briefly before she swiftly moved her eyes back to Dr. Dudley. “Nurse Tsang said you wanted to see me, sir,” she said.

“Yes, come in and join us, Dr. Campbell. We won’t bite.”

She nervously crossed the room and sat in one of the chairs that happened to be directly across from Dr. De Winter.

“Now, Dr. Campbell, the reason you were summoned here today was to first thank you for your bravery as well as your loyalty in reporting the drug abuse of one of your fellow interns. I know that wasn’t an easy decision to make, and I want to assure you that you did the right thing and you are appreciated for doing so. We were hoping we would be able to handle this matter rather quietly, but it seems that won’t be the case.”

Jaclyn nodded, trying to follow what Dr. Dudley was saying, but her close proximity to Dr. De Winter was distracting her. Was that heat she felt radiating off the man? She wouldn’t be surprised given how drawn she was to him. It was an attraction she’d constantly tried to downplay, thanks to the hospital’s no-fraternization policy regarding managers and those reporting to them.

“The Matthews family has threatened the hospital with a lawsuit.”

Jaclyn blinked. Lawsuit? That one word pulled her attention back to Dr. Dudley. “I don’t understand, sir.”

“And neither do we, Dr. Campbell. Thanks to you reporting to Dr. De Winter what you knew regarding Dr. Matthews and our own proof of certain events, we’d hoped the matter could be handled discreetly. However, we have been notified that the Matthews family has decided to sue the hospital.”

Jaclyn raised a brow. “On what grounds?”

“That we reacted in the extreme and that Dr. Matthews was wrongfully terminated.”

Jaclyn frowned. “How can they say that?” Although she’d asked the question, in a way she already knew the answer. The Matthewses just happened to be one of the richest families not only in Alexandria but in all of Virginia. It was a known fact they were Hopewell’s biggest benefactors. They even had a wing named after them. Their son Terrence had also been an intern. Jaclyn hated being the reason for Terrence’s termination, but she felt she’d done the right thing when she’d witnessed his attempting to steal drugs from the hospital pharmacy more than once.

“The hospital feels we had sufficient grounds to release him. And although we are faced with a lawsuit as well as the withdrawal of the Matthewses’ support to the hospital, we will deal with it,” Dr. Dudley said assuringly.

He then glanced over at Camille. “As public relations supervisor it will be your job, Ms. Hunter, to make sure the hospital maintains its stellar reputation through all of this. I can just imagine the type of image the Matthewses will try painting us with.”

Camille nodded, her expression sober. “I will.”

Dr. Dudley smiled at Camille, a smile that made Jaclyn’s flesh crawl. She wondered if she was the only one who’d caught on to it. She glanced over at Dr. De Winter and their gazes met, and not for the first time she thought she felt something emitting from the dark eyes holding hers.

Knowing she was just imagining things, she drew in a deep breath and shifted her attention back to Dr. Dudley as a question suddenly burned in her mind. “Now that there’s a lawsuit pending, does that mean I will be named as the person who was …”

“The whistle-blower?” Dr. Dudley finished for her. “You won’t have that to worry about. Your name will be held in the strictest confidence and protected by hospital policy. It has been proven that Dr. Matthews does indeed have a drug problem and it will be up to the Matthews family to prove otherwise.”

Jaclyn was glad to hear that. She knew that once the news broke everyone would wonder who had snitched on Terrence because he was well-liked and had a promising future. It hadn’t taken her long to figure him out and she’d been able to read the signs mainly because her older brother had had the same problem before he’d gotten help. Now he was married with a little girl and volunteered a lot of his time trying to help others kick the habit that had nearly destroyed him eight years ago.

“And because of the sensitive nature of the matter and the Matthews family’s association with this facility, we have decided to hire someone to handle the suit that is not one of our regular hospital attorneys. In other words, we’ve decided to bring in the big guns.”

“But we can assure you again, Dr. Campbell, that your confidentiality won’t be compromised,” Dr. De Winter interjected.

Jaclyn nodded while trying to ignore the warm, husky tone of his voice that seemed to caress every inch of her skin. She glanced over at him, met his gaze, felt her heart rate quicken. “Thank you.”

“That will be all, Dr. Campbell,” Dr. Dudley said, reclaiming her attention.

“All right.” She stood and turned to leave. Although she was tempted to glance back over her shoulder to look at one person in particular, she was fully aware that doing so would be foolish as well as risky, so she continued to move toward the door.

Lucien entered his Georgetown row house at close to eight that night, hours later than his schedule at the hospital dictated. But then when was the last time he had what he considered a bona fide schedule? Certainly not since he’d taken the role of chief resident at Hopewell. At least this group of interns was halfway through this leg of their training. He had high hopes they would become good physicians one day. Some more so than others. There were a few he still needed to work on.

And one in particular he needed to keep his mind off.

Scowling, he paused and rubbed his hands down his face. Jaclyn Campbell would be his downfall if he wasn’t careful. He of all people knew the hospital’s non-fraternization policy and the consequences if it wasn’t obeyed. Yet that hadn’t stopped him from remembering every single thing about her whenever he saw her.

Take today, for instance. A surge of desire had rushed through him the moment she had entered the conference room. And when their gazes had connected it seemed that every nerve ending in his body had awakened.

Drawing in a deep breath, he forced one foot in front of the other as he made his way into the kitchen. Tonight would be one of those nights when dinner would be a guessing game and frankly he wasn’t in the mood. He could have stopped somewhere to eat before coming home, but this was one night he wanted to put as much distance between him and the hospital as he could.

The day hadn’t gotten off to a good start. The moment he’d entered the hospital and been told Dr. Dudley needed to see him immediately, he’d gotten a clue how things would be. Because Lucien had been the one to actually terminate Terrence, his name would come under fire as well. The thought of the Matthewses actually filing a suit against the hospital when they knew their son had a drug problem was ludicrous. It only went to show that people with money thought they could do just about anything.

Lucien opened his freezer and pulled out a microwave dinner. Moments later while waiting for his meal to heat up he decided to switch his thoughts to more pleasant things.

Namely, Jaclyn Campbell.

After the morning meeting with Dr. Dudley, they had met again when one of her patients, Marvin Spencer, had presented with shortness of breath and she needed approval to increase the dosage of the man’s medication. As usual she was precise and right on point. There was no doubt in his mind that she would become an outstanding physician. On her previous rotations she’d received nothing but compliments from patients and fellow doctors alike. Patients felt she listened to what they’d had to say, and doctors remarked on her professionalism.

His thoughts shifted back to their time in Mr. Spencer’s room. They had worked well together, adjusting the intravenous line, asking the patient questions.

Jerome Stubbs, a male nurse who usually worked in O.R., had also been in the room. But even while Lucien was checking Mr. Spencer’s vital signs, the only person he had been aware of was Jaclyn. The first time it happened had been her first day at Hopewell, over a year ago. He’d gotten upset with himself for his immediate attraction to her, and he still wasn’t sure what had brought it on. For some reason the sight of her in her pale blue scrubs had been a total turn-on.

Later that week, when the staff had joined the interns offsite at a nearby bar and grill for a casual get-acquainted session, all it had taken was seeing the way her body had been shaped by a pair of denim jeans and a pullover sweater, and his mouth had watered for days.

And then he had run into her at a grocery store one Sunday. She had been dressed for church and he’d gotten a chance to see the most gorgeous pair of legs any woman could own. She had looked so good in her peach-colored fashionable two-piece suit that he had only narrowly avoided running his grocery cart into a display of canned goods in the middle of the aisle.

Never had any woman been able to dominate his attention like she had, especially in the workplace. And no matter how much he’d tried, he hadn’t been able to lick his inappropriate attention for the female doctor who was reporting to him directly. And that wasn’t good.

The bummer was that the attraction was one-sided. There was not one incident he could cite as being deliberate on her part. She had the type of beauty a woman didn’t have to flaunt. It was just there and he honestly doubted she knew the effect she had on men.

Hell, he’d even seen Dr. Dudley eye her down more than once and had to bite down the jealousy that had consumed him. But then the old man was known to have that bad-ass habit with the female interns. Lucien was surprised no one had filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. Lucien wasn’t blind. He’d seen the looks and heard Dudley’s offhand comments to several of the female interns. He’d even confronted his superior about his behavior, which hadn’t gone over well.

As he sat down to dine alone, his thoughts shifted back to Jaclyn Campbell. He’d assumed he had fixed his problem when he’d sent her to work the nightshift in E.R. for a while. Usually she would have left the hospital by the time he would arrive. But on one particular morning there had been a school bus accident resulting in a number of injured kids. E.R. had been quite busy that day and everyone, even off-duty personnel, had been called in to assist.

And he had seen her. He had worked alongside her that day, and finally admitted to himself that he didn’t want distance between them again. He would just have to learn how to control his attraction. So far he had. However, there were days, like today, that could test him to the fullest.

While they were in Mr. Spencer’s room together, he had looked at her face and thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. He’d seen the long dark lashes and how they’d fanned across her face, her beautiful hazel eyes, her chin-length, straight brown hair and creamy fair skin. Although she’d never confirmed or denied it, he’d heard that she was the product of a biracial marriage. Her father’s family hailed from Scotland and her mother was African-American.

After completing his meal, he stood to stretch his body when his cell phone rang. He smiled when he pulled the iPhone from his back pocket and saw the caller was his sister.

“Yeah, kiddo?”

“Everyone, especially Nana, will be particularly glad to hear you’re coming home for Christmas. Tell me it’s true, Lucien.”

He chuckled. Although both he and his sister were naturalized citizens of the United States, “home” was their birthplace of Jamaica. He, his sister, Lori, and a slew of cousins had all left Jamaica about the same time to attend college in the United States and had eventually made it their home. But for the holidays everyone tried returning for what they considered a family reunion. Due to work obligations he’d missed attending the last two years.

“It’s only August, Lori. Any reason you want to know so soon? You’ve got four months.”

“Four months will be here before you know it, Lu. Besides, we need time to plan and to prepare Nana for the disappointment if you aren’t coming again. It will be three years. I wish you can make it this year.”

Lucien didn’t have to be reminded. His grandmother did that every time they spoke. He hadn’t been home since he’d taken the position of chief resident at the hospital. With the job came new obligations as well as a number of sacrifices.

He smiled. “You’ll get your wish, Lori. I’m going home for the holidays. The time off is already on the hospital schedule.”

Not wanting to risk getting a busted eardrum, he held the phone from his ear when she began screaming in excitement. He was older than his sister by a year and they had always been close, although they now lived thousands of miles apart. She was an attorney working and living in Los Angeles.

He placed the phone back to his ear when he felt it was safe to do so. “Doesn’t take much to get you excited, does it?”

“Oh, you,” she admonished softly. “This is great news, so don’t try to downplay it. Nana is going to be counting the days.”

And he would, too. As far as he was concerned his grandmother was the wisest women he knew and always had been. And she was the kindest and most motivating. Not only had she raised Lucien, but she had also supported everything he’d ever wanted to do and had extended this same support to his sister and his two cousins whom she’d also raised. That’s why one of the first things the four of them had done after achieving their goals in America was to build Nana a beautiful and spacious home in Kingston, Jamaica, that had a picturesque view of the Blue Mountains from every room.

A short while later Lucien ended the call with Lori, looking forward to the two weeks he would be home. But he had a lot to do before he left Alexandria for Kingston. He had to get some normalcy in his life. And the way to achieve that goal was to get a handle on his attraction to Jaclyn Campbell. He’d tried it before and it hadn’t worked. This time, no matter what, he couldn’t fail.

Because he knew if he did, he was headed for deep trouble.

Chapter 2

“Have you given any more thought to my suggestion that we get a puppy, Jaclyn?”

Jaclyn glanced across the stretcher at her roommate Isabelle Morales as they quickly rolled a pregnant woman down the hall toward the delivery room. A Jennifer Lopez look-alike, Isabelle wanted to go into pediatrics when her residency ended, and Jaclyn considered her friend one of the brightest interns at Hopewell.

“I honestly don’t think a puppy is a good idea, Isabelle. With the hours we spend at the hospital who’s going to make sure he’s fed properly?” she replied.

Before Isabelle could respond, the patient, who’d been enduring her labor pains quietly, suddenly screamed. She had been in labor for the past ten hours and, last timed, her contractions were less than three minutes apart. Her obstetrician was already in the delivery room waiting.

“The two of you are talking about puppies and I’m about to die here,” the woman snarled at them.

“You’re not dying, Mrs. White, you’re having a baby.”

Ignoring what Jaclyn said, the woman then added, “And where is my husband?”

“He’s washing up. He’ll be in the delivery room when we get there,” Isabelle added.

“I don’t want him there. He’s the one responsible for my condition.”

Jaclyn cast a glance over at Isabelle and fought back a smile. She pitied Mr. White about now.

As soon as they wheeled the mother-to-be through the double doors, several nurses took over. One of them was Jerome. “It took both of you to bring her here?” he asked grinning. “Better not let Miss Thang see you. She’ll think you’re goofing off with nothing better to do.”

“I was on break,” Isabelle said smiling. “Besides, I needed to talk to Jaclyn about something.”

At that moment Dr. De Winter walked out of the operating room and Jaclyn had to quickly compose herself. The man did things to her without even trying. Not that he would try because he didn’t have the same interest in her that she had in him.

He stopped before them. “Dr. Morales and Dr. Campbell. How are you two doing?”

“Fine,” they responded simultaneously.

He looked solely at Isabelle. “Dr. Morales, Dr. Thornton has requested that one of my interns be ready to assist him tomorrow. He’s performing an advanced surgical procedure on the throat of a six-year-old boy. Is that something you’d be interested in?”

Jaclyn thought the smile on Isabelle’s face was priceless. “Yes, sir. Very much so,” she said in an excited voice.

“Then be here ready to scrub up at eight in the morning.”

“Thanks. I will.”

“Good.” And without saying anything else, or giving Jaclyn a second glance, he walked off.

Jaclyn’s gaze followed him until he was no longer in sight. She then switched her attention back to Isabelle who was grinning from ear to ear. Dr. De Winter’s recommendation that one of his interns be present during surgery was a big thing and every intern under him knew it.

“That’s a good opportunity, Isabelle. Congratulations.”

“Thanks. I can’t believe he chose me.”

Jaclyn chuckled. “I can. He recognizes how good you are and knows you’re planning to go into pediatrics. You deserve it.”

The smile slowly faded from Isabelle’s face. “Not everyone will think so.”

Jaclyn knew that to be true. Not all the interns were supportive of each other. Some were competitive and a few were downright cutthroat.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. A few might bitch and moan, but I doubt any of them will question Dr. De Winter about it,” Jaclyn said.

“You’re right, but—”

“No buts, Isabelle.”

Later, when Jaclyn made her rounds, she turned the corner and collided head-on with Dr. De Winter, sending the charts she was carrying flying across the floor. “Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“Apparently, Dr. Campbell,” he said in what she thought was an ultra-sexy voice. It was the same voice that she’d heard in her dreams last night, the night before and the night before that.

He knelt down and began picking up her charts and she knelt to join him. “You don’t have to do that, Dr. De Winter. I can get them.”

“No problem,” he said, handing her the charts he’d collected.

Their gazes connected the moment their fingers touched and she felt a deep stirring in the pit of her stomach. As she stared into his eyes she thought she saw them darken, but when she blinked he’d already straightened and was standing back up.

She stood as well. “Thank you,” she murmured, clutching the charts to her chest like an armor of steel.

“You’re welcome. And how are your patients? Any problems or concerns?”

Because he’d asked … “There is this one thing. We’re still trying to determine the reason behind Mr. Aiken’s high fevers.”

Dr. De Winter nodded. “I understand he had another one this morning.”

“Yes. We took more blood, but there’s nothing abnormal. The fever means there’s infection somewhere in his body, but nothing is showing up in his blood.”

“So you’re dealing with an FUO?”

Fever of unknown origin. “Yes,” she said, clearly disturbed.

“Any other signs and symptoms, Dr. Campbell?”

“None.”

“Let me see his chart for a second.”

She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and then flipped through the charts to find the one belonging to William Aiken. She handed it to Dr. De Winter, grateful their fingers did not touch this time.

Her pulse thudded as she stood there and watched him peruse the man’s chart. She couldn’t help noticing how his long lashes fanned across his cheeks and how sensuous his mouth looked. He then glanced up and caught her staring at his mouth. Good grief.

“May I make a suggestion, Dr. Campbell?”

“Yes, sir, you may.” The one thing that was different about Dr. De Winter compared to other doctors in an authoritative position was that he didn’t project a brash, all-knowing demeanor. He liked getting input from the interns he supervised and always solicited their opinions.

“Have blood drawn from his toe, preferably the big one, and have it checked.”

She raised a brow. Probably any other intern would have accepted what he said without question, but unfortunately she wasn’t one of them. “Why, if I may ask?”

He chuckled and the sound seemed to whisper across her skin. “Yes, doctor, you may. When I was an intern at a college in Boston, I had a patient with FUO and drawing blood from the big toe was suggested to me by the chief of staff. He explained that often bad blood will find places to settle and can’t easily be detected.”

She nodded as understanding dawned. “Which was the premise behind bloodletting,” she said, thinking out loud and seeing his point. “Which is the draining of bad blood out of a person’s body. And if there’s bad blood not detected, it might be confined in one of the body’s peripheral points. A premise we have now put to sound scientific use.”

“Exactly.”

She smiled. “Thanks, Dr. De Winter. I’ll have that done immediately.” She then quickly walked away.

Lucien watched Jaclyn hurry off and drew in a deep breath. When they had accidentally touched moments ago, it had taken everything within him to control the urge to pull her into his arms and mesh his lips with hers. That encounter had been too close for comfort. Way too close.

No matter how much he tried to control himself around her, he was finding it hard to do so. When they had knelt facing each other and he’d looked into her eyes and gazed upon the lushness of her mouth, heat had flared inside of him. He could imagine them kneeling facing each other, but the setting hadn’t been the hall of the hospital. In his mind they were in the middle of the bed. Naked.

Those were the last kind of thoughts he needed lodged in his brain. He tried forcing them out. The hospital’s nonfraternization policy had been put in place for a reason and he intended to abide by it. But God, he was attracted to her. And if knowing that wasn’t enough to shake his world, then he didn’t know what would. At that moment he thought he could even feel the floor shift under his feet. Yes, he was definitely standing on shaky ground.

Jaclyn nibbled on her bottom lip as she read Mr. Aiken’s most recent lab report. Dr. De Winter had been right in suggesting that blood be drawn from the man’s toe. The report clearly indicated bacteria in Mr. Aiken’s body. Bacteria of an unknown source.

Now she had to determine what was causing it. As she read the report again the main question circling around in her head was why the bacteria hadn’t shown up in a routine lab test.

“You’re too pretty to be frowning.”

Jaclyn glanced up and smiled at Ravi Patel, another intern. With his tall, slender build, long wavy black hair, dark eyes and dark skin, he made a reality of the old cliché tall, dark and handsome.

All the female interns, nurses and patients alike drooled over the American-born East Indian. Even Miss Thang seemed taken with him and would blush like a silly schoolgirl whenever Ravi was near. What Jaclyn most admired and respected about Ravi was that he was quick to let the admiring ladies know that he was an engaged man. His fiancée, a woman from India, was an intern at a hospital in Miami. The two planned to marry in a few years.

“Hi, Ravi. I was going over one of my patient’s charts.”

“His condition is serious?”

“FUO earlier, but thanks to Dr. De Winter I was finally able to find something in his blood. There are bacteria. Now I’m trying to determine the cause.”

“If you need help, this might be something to bring before the others in our group session with Dr. De Winter in the morning.”

Jaclyn nibbled on her bottom lip. She of all people knew when the group of interns would meet with Dr. De Winter in a classroom setting. She looked forward to those once-a-week sessions when he would take center stage at the front of the class. Those were the times when she could sit in the back and ogle him to her heart’s delight and come across only as a very attentive student.

More than once he had glanced her way and caught her staring and she appreciated that he wasn’t a mind reader. He would have been appalled at some of the things she’d been thinking at the time. “I might do that. Thanks for suggesting it, Ravi.”