Her Hometown Hero(14)

"Well, it's their loss, Sage, and our gain," Spence said as he reached across the table and took her hand.

For a moment, she was unable to speak, unable to look away from his  beguiling gaze as his thumb rubbed across her knuckles. Every moment she  was in this man's presence another chink in her armor was chipped away.  If she believed this was all real, she would gladly climb into his lap  and beg him to take her. But how could it be real? All the rumors spoke  of him being nothing more than a playboy, that he liked the conquest and  then lost interest. With how intensely she already felt about him, she  didn't think she would be able to emotionally handle being one of his  castoffs.

"I'm not worried," she finally said, firmly tugging on her hand as she  tried to regain her equilibrium. She couldn't keep having these intense  moments with Spence. If she continued to get lost in his eyes, he'd  never take her word that she wasn't interested in him. His next words  proved that.

"Why fight so hard against it, Sage? It's obvious we're attracted to  each other. We can keep it professional at work and . . . not so  professional afterward. I think we have just the right amount of  chemistry to set off some explosions."

She was melting slightly at his words until he finished his last  sentence. Then she was fighting a grin. "Explosions? Really, Spence?" It  was exactly what she'd needed to hear to clear her head.

"What?" He looked confused.

She finally got her hand free and felt slightly superior. "I have to  admit that you were pulling me in there with your suave talk-just a  little-and then you said ‘explosions.' If that hadn't been such a cheesy  line, with little to no imagination, you might have just had my heart  racing," she said with a saucy smile.

"I wasn't being cheesy."

"Oh come on, Spence. You're a surgeon, for goodness' sake. Your ego is  the size of a small country-no, scratch that, we're talking Russia. I'm  amazed you manage to fit through doorways with such a big head. To top  that off, you're wealthy and gorgeous, and you have a body that should  be illegal to display in public. You can wipe the grin off your face.  I'm in no way complimenting you. I'm just saying that with all that  going for you, you certainly don't need to chase me to get your rocks  off, and you really don't need to use cheesy pickup lines. Why don't you  just go stand on the street corner and smile? You'll most likely cause a  car to crash into you and then be lucky enough to have female  paramedics stripping you down to give you a full exam."                       
       
           



       

His mouth was hanging open as she stood up from the table. She gathered  her packages and leaned down to encroach on his space. It was nice to  feel in charge for the first time since he'd taken the job as her boss.

Shock therapy. If only she'd realized that sooner.

"I have to say that you look even better all wide-eyed and speechless,"  she whispered huskily before turning and walking from the food court  with a self-satisfied smirk. She would give herself ten points for  ingenuity and a hundred points for leaving the oh-so-popular Spence  Whitman dumbstruck. Surely that was a first.

As she climbed into her car, her smile faded just a tad. She'd  doubtlessly face retribution when he had a second to catch his breath.  Still, her moment of victory had been well worth it.

The heater actually turned on in her car, and Sage found herself  whistling as she made the drive back home. And to top it all off, the  roads were clear.





"Sage, can you come in here please?" Mo always had a way of making  things sound like an order, even when phrased as a question. That was  probably why she was so feared and respected at the same time. The thing  was that most of the time the woman was right, and had a killer gut  instinct about people in general. It was either because she'd been a  nurse for thirty-plus years or because the woman was a psychic, or maybe  she was just a freaking genius.

Upon entering the room, Sage noticed that Mo had the new male nurse with  her who had a habit of knowing everything even though he was just  beginning in his profession. He'd graduated top of his class and  therefore didn't think he had anything to learn. Sage almost felt sorry  for the boy, because she knew that Mo was now taking him under her wing  and before long, he would be sobbing at the woman's feet.

"Sage, have you been formally introduced to Brian?" Mo asked with her knowing smirk.

"No, not yet," Sage said as she came closer.

"Nice to meet you, Sage," Brian said as he shook her hand a little  longer than necessary. Then the boy, who in actuality was only a couple  of years younger than her, took it a step too far and began openly  undressing her with his eyes. Her sympathy for him washed away as she  sent a look to Mo that told the woman to give him everything he  deserved. Mo sent Sage a wink.

"If I had known they made doctors as sexy as you, I would have certainly  gone to medical school instead of taking the nursing program."

Apparently undressing her with his eyes hadn't been enough. Sage sent  him a syrupy sweet smile, and then patted his head before speaking.

"Honey, you couldn't have handled medical school." He looked confused  for a moment when the tone of her voice didn't match what she was  saying, and then his eyes narrowed the slightest bit before his lips  turned up in an arrogant smile.

"Ah, I love a woman with a sense of humor," he chortled, making her want to kick him.

"And I love a man who knows his place," she said back, beginning to lose her cool just the tiniest bit. This kid was a punk.

"Brian, this is John Duncan," Mo said, interrupting what soon would have  been an entertaining tirade by Sage. "He's a patient who comes in here  frequently after overdosing on narcotics."

"Looks pretty harmless," Brian said as he looked disdainfully at the guy on the table who was in a narcotic-induced slumber.

"Sage, I was thinking we needed to reverse his overdose with Narcan."

It took a moment for Sage to realize what was going on, and then it took  everything inside her not to give away what she knew what was about to  happen.

"Yes, I agree," she said with a straight face. Any of the staff who had  been at the hospital for even a month knew John well as a frequent  patient to the ER. It was also well known that he was very sensitive to  Narcan, and when it was administered he would wake up suddenly and start  swinging at whoever was closest to him.

Although Sage's disdain for Brian was growing by the second, she felt  guilty about throwing him to the wolves, so the least she could do was  give him a bit of a warning.

"Brian, John is very sensitive to Narcan, and when it's given too  quickly it will reverse his sleeping state immediately and you may get  hurt if you're standing too close." As she was warning Brian she saw Mo  leaning up against the wall sipping coffee to hide her smile. Mo always  did enjoy a good show, especially on a slow night as this one had been.

"Listen, I may be new, but I'm not stupid." Sage had to control her own  temper as he looked down his nose at her before he took the syringe full  of medication, walked confidently to John's bedside, and injected it  into his IV hard and fast. Then he turned to smirk at Mo and send  another leer to Sage.                       
       
           



       

That was his first mistake.

His second mistake was swiveling his head just in time to catch John  Duncan's fist with his face. The sudden punch landed him hard on the  ground and knocked him out cold.

Mo's laughter rendered her useless as she was doubled over, spilling her  coffee. Sage simply looked at the entire scene in disbelief and then  took the next few moments to reassure John that everything would be okay  before she decided she'd better check on Brian.

"Mo, that was mean," she said as she kneeled next to the unconscious nurse.

"He was asking for it. The pompous little twerp won't let me teach him  and acts like he knows everything. Besides, you did give him fair  warning. He ignored you," Mo said between fits of laughter.

"You know, one of these days, you're going to get in trouble," Sage  warned, but her own lips were twitching as Brian slowly began to come to  on the floor.

"Ah, girlie, I don't do it to the good ones," Mo said, not at all remorseful.

"Wait a minute. Did you do anything to me?" Sage asked as she tried to  recollect any mishaps while with Mo in the very beginning.

"That's something you'll never know," Mo said with a wink as Brian awoke fully and sat up, still in a daze.

"You're a terrible woman," Sage said, her words carrying no bite.