Kitabı oku: «Tempted By Dr Patera»

CHAPTER ONE

THE CRUSH OF people in the inner sanctum of the clinic made Leanora Risi wince. Just over a month since the earthquake and the flow of those emotionally and physically wounded had not completely abated.

Many were drawn to the steady presence of the clinic and its outside garden. It had gotten so it was hard for her to find a quiet corner in which to hear from those who were still having problems dealing with the after-effects. She was well past the end of her vacation and her savings were slowly dwindling. She was going to have to make a decision about whether to leave or not...soon.

But not right now.

A man with dark shaggy hair and a jaw shadowed with what had to be a three-week growth of whiskers made his way to the front desk. There was an exhaustion about him that went beyond physical tiredness. It was in the way his eyes shifted slowly from one person to the next. He greeted several of them, shaking their hands, but it was a rapid clasp and release. Not the hearty greeting most of the islanders gave each other.

He reached the desk, but didn’t take the pen to sign in. Instead he flipped over the top sheet with his right hand and started studying the entries.

An internal alarm went off inside her. While it wasn’t against the rules for patients to glance at the list of other patients to see how long the wait would be—at least she didn’t think it was—the way he was acting was odd, making her gut tighten.

The number of patients they’d had right after the earthquake was staggering, and they had ended up just stacking new sheets on top of the old ones, since they hadn’t had time to sit down and collate the data and put the sign-in times on charts yet. Even though things had evened out quite a bit, there were still things they hadn’t completely caught up with.

When those long fingers flicked another sheet over, it was Lea’s signal to move. Murmuring an apology as she accidentally brushed shoulders with an older woman, she hurried forward, arriving beside the man and firmly placing her hand on the first couple of sheets, trapping his beneath them.

“Can I help you with something?”

His gaze swiveled from the stack of papers to her face. Up went dark brows, a hint of irritation marring his rugged features. “You can let me see how many patients have been treated today.”

That inner alarm became less certain. Those low growled words didn’t sound apologetic. At all. No sign of the nosy-neighbor-caught-with-binoculars-up-to-his-eyes syndrome. Instead he acted as if he had a right to look at those pages. But she didn’t recognize him. She would have remembered those high cheekbones, that bump in an otherwise straight nose.

Although...wasn’t there...?

What?

Despite the whiskers, his strong jaw was clearly visible. This was a man who wasn’t easily deterred from something he wanted. She just wasn’t sure what that something was.

She blinked to bring the room back into focus. Still filled with people. A few of them were on the list, waiting to be seen, but many just needed the solid presence of the clinic to ground them.

She lifted her hand from the papers, although she probably shouldn’t. He still hadn’t explained who he was.

“May I ask what you’re looking for, specifically?”

“I believe I already explained that, Ms....?”

Her chin tilted. “It’s Dr. Dr. Risi.”

“I wasn’t aware the clinic had hired a new doctor.” His voice downshifted, becoming a little less gruff. “Where is Petra?”

“Petra’s mom hasn’t felt well since the earthquake. She’s been going home during her lunch break to check on her.”

How did he know the clinic receptionist’s name? Although most of the islanders in this area seemed to know each other.

And now he was flipping through those patient sheets once again. “I don’t see a list of symptoms or injuries.”

“There isn’t one. Things got too chaotic, trying to separate them out, so we just did triage, taking the critical patients first. We put the ones who were stable but needed a specialist in a secondary waiting area in the Serenity Gardens.”

Facing the ocean, the courtyard led to a spacious garden that faced the sea. Lea’s tiny treatment area had been carved out of a dead-end path, shielded on two sides by vine-covered trellises.

It was the perfect place for her to see patients who needed to work through what they’d experienced during the quake. It was wonderful, and restful, and despite the tragedy she loved what she was doing there. More than she’d ever dreamed possible.

The people in the waiting area weren’t the only ones who needed to be grounded. She’d come to Greece to do just that. And had ended up on the island just as the quake hit. She’d stayed to help.

Her attention came back with a bump when the man in front of her made a slight scoffing noise.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

It was then that she realized she still didn’t know who he was. He could be a psychiatric patient for all she knew. “Do you need to leave a message for Petra?”

He frowned. “Is Theo—Dr. Nikolaides—back yet?”

Theo had just gotten engaged. His whirlwind romance with Cailey had been a bright spot for the clinic, and probably one of the reasons why there were more people than normal here. It was as if folks wanted to catch a glimpse of the couple—live vicariously through those who had been able to find happiness in the midst of tragedy. Cailey was also nearly two months pregnant, and the baby had become a symbol of hope.

“He’s taking a much-needed personal day. Did you have a consultation scheduled with him?”

Maybe he actually was a patient.

“Not exactly.” One side of his mouth went up in a half-smile that sent her pulse tripping over itself. “He called me. Basically said I was an emotionless so-and-so if I didn’t come home as soon as I could.”

Home...

Home?

Then she swallowed—hard—an awful suspicion crashing like a boulder in the pit of her stomach. “You live here?”

His smile widened and he let the papers fall back into place as he turned toward her. “I don’t live in the clinic, if that’s what you mean.”

“No, I don’t mean that, I just...” She was at a loss for words—which was unusual, since talking was what she was paid to do. What she loved to do. No, it wasn’t the words. It was the listening...the empathizing...the helping that she loved.

Although she couldn’t help everyone.

Her eyes closed as a shot of pain punched through her chest.

No, don’t think about that. Not now.

Something touched her hand. “Hey. Are you okay?”

“Yes.” She forced herself to smile. “I’m just tired. And I forgot to ask who you are.”

“Of course. Sorry, I just always assume that everyone knows who I am.” Something dark slithered through his brown eyes. Then it was gone again as quickly as it had come. “I’m Deakin Patera. I’m one of the four founding partners of the clinic.”

Ack!

God, she should have realized. Theo had said Dr. Patera was due to arrive in the next couple of days. She just hadn’t expected someone who looked like he’d stepped straight off the cover of a wilderness backpacking magazine. He could have told her who he was sooner. Emphasized his medical title like she had.

She wasn’t even sure why she’d done that. Maybe because she’d expected him to talk down to her like a few colleagues had over the years. But those people had been few and far between.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize you.”

He dragged a hand through his hair. “It’s okay. It’s been a long flight, and it’s not like our portraits are on the walls or anything. Thank God.”

What an odd thing to say. She smiled. “Maybe they should be. Your reputations seem to be known far and wide.”

The softness to his eyes disappeared. “I’m sure they are.”

Those four words might have come across as arrogant boasting if not for the strange tone in which they were said. It was as if he despised that fact.

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s nothing.” His glance turned to the occupants of the room. “Where do we begin?”

The words to a famous old musical song came to mind, but there was no way she was breaking into song. Not around this particular man. Besides she couldn’t compete with the likes of Julie Andrews.

“A lot of these people are just meeting friends and family here.” She nodded at the foursome who were even now passing through the wooden and glass doors off to the left. “The clinic seems to have become almost as much of a meeting place as Stavros’s taverna. And, since the bar is within walking distance, it makes it ideal.”

With its traditional white stucco exterior and well-manicured gardens to the side of it, the clinic was a beautiful building, combining old-world charm with all the modern amenities of a medical facility. The Serenity Gardens boasted many nooks and crannies, ideal for intimate conversations, and benches were sprinkled along a curving walkway which was wide enough for wheelchairs and yet rustic enough to invite exploring. A white sea wall and a boat dock were newer additions.

“I can see that. Theo always did want this place to be more than just a medical clinic. Hence the so-called Tranquility Gardens.”

“They’re called the Serenity Gardens, and it doesn’t sound like you approve of the addition.”

He shrugged, his dark shirt pulling tight over muscular shoulders. Shoulders her eyes had no business lingering on. She hauled her attention back to his face.

“It’s not that I disapprove,” he said. “I just don’t believe a manufactured place can bring tranquility. Serenity,” he corrected. His smile came back, although the left side of his mouth didn’t quite lift as high as the other. “Although Theo is convinced it can.”

“I think it can as well. It’s where I see most of my patients.”

“How does that work? Did Theo put an exam room out there?”

The image of a hospital bed nestled between the flower pots made her smile back. “No. Not yet, anyway. I use the exam rooms, obviously, for physical investigation, but the garden is much more conducive to talking things through.”

“Things? Such as unfavorable diagnoses?”

“Not exactly. I guess this is where I should say that I’m a psychiatrist.” She held up her hands. “No couch jokes, please.”

His head jerked back, a muscle in his jaw twitching for a second before going still. “Couch jokes are the farthest thing from my mind at the moment. Theo hired you?”

She bit her lip. Maybe the Serenity Gardens wasn’t the only thing Dr. Patera would disapprove of. “I just happened to be on the island when the earthquake hit. I stayed to help. It’s on a volunteer basis at the moment.”

“The quake happened over a month ago. What about your own practice?”

It was her turn to shrug. “I’d already given notice at my hospital, so I’m kind of between jobs.”

“And where was that? In Athens?”

Ah, he thought she actually lived in Greece. One of the perks of having parents who had immigrated to Canada from Greece when she was a kid was that she was bilingual. The fact that he hadn’t heard any trace of an accent made her happy. As did the ease with which the islanders seemed to have accepted her.

“No, I lived in Canada. Toronto.”

“Your family is Greek, though.”

It wasn’t a question. “Yes. They moved there when I was young.”

Someone came up on his right and said something to him. Dr. Patera turned his head to give the man his attention and Lea’s breath stalled in her lungs at what that shift of position revealed.

Scars. Big ones.

Wickedly thick, they began at the lower half of his strong square jaw and formed twin streams that coursed down the side of his neck, disappearing beneath the collar of his shirt. Continuing on to those shoulders she’d just been admiring? Probably. The scars were paler than the rest of his skin. So they were old.

How old?

God. Those wounds must have been agonizing when they were fresh. Debriding. Skin grafts. Therapy to allow for movement. All part of third-degree burn treatment.

What had caused them? An explosive device? Some kind of caustic agent? Maybe he’d been in the military or something. She had a feeling that what she’d thought was an attractive lopsidedness to his smile might be due to the contracture of skin and muscle drawing everything down. Her gaze traveled to his chest. How many more scars were hidden beneath his clothes?

Her mind tossed an image of a very naked Dr. Patera at her—one who aimed that scrumptious crooked smile right at her and sent her brain into overdrive. She swallowed hard, feeling a weird shifting sensation burrowing through her midsection. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip.

Oh, Lord, what was once seen could not be unseen.

Except she hadn’t really seen him naked. She’d just—

His attention shifted back to her with a suddenness she hadn’t expected. She released her lip in a hurry, but it was too late. She knew it the second his eyes flickered to her mouth and back up.

* * *

She’d seen them. His damned scars.

He gave an inner grimace. They were kind of obvious. His tendency to keep his right profile to a person was ingrained from years of trying to keep the damage to his skin out of sight. Hidden, but not forgotten.

Along with his sense of shame?

Probably. The two things seemed to go hand in hand. It was one of the things that had kept him from wanting to come back to the island. Almost every person on Mythelios knew what he’d done. Or at least they thought they did.

Except Dr. Risi, here. And now even she had seen the evidence—she just didn’t know the reason for it.

He wasn’t even sure why he’d participated in the founding of this clinic. He’d wanted to leave after medical school and never come back. And for the most part he’d done exactly that. But his three best friends in the world had been determined to take their parents’ tarnished legacies and turn them into something good. And as long as he could give his input from a distance he was good with that. His traveling did the trick for the most part. He was able to give his nods of approval from afar, except when they absolutely needed his physical presence.

Like now.

If he’d expected to see a quick show of pity on this new doctor’s face, though, he was sorely disappointed. She met his gaze with steady green eyes that gave nothing away.

That was probably the psychiatrist in her. She was trained to listen without judging. Not to seem shocked or horrified, no matter how ugly the story. Or how hideous the outward appearance.

His dad—after a rare crack had appeared in his chilly demeanor—had once sent him to a shrink in Athens, six months after the accident. But Deakin, his scars still fresh and painful, had refused to say anything. After four sessions of sitting there in sullen silence they’d given up. All of them—including the psychiatrist.

He tried to recall what Lea had been talking about moments earlier, working to forget the way those white teeth had captured that full bottom lip in a way that was far too sexy for a psychiatrist.

He switched to English so those around would be less likely to understand them if she tried to ask about his scars. “So, what part of Greece were your parents from?”

“Athens—like you thought. My dad was a welder and went to Canada to help with the building of one of the Orthodox churches. He ended up staying.” She sent a lock of long dark hair spinning over her shoulder with a flick of her wrist. “He sent for me and my mom a few months later, and we went, sight unseen. But we love it there now.”

The switch in language hadn’t thrown her for a loop. In fact her English was as flawless as her Greek. He knew himself well enough to know that his Greek accent was still fairly strong, even after years of speaking English in other countries.

“You don’t ever get homesick for Greece?”

“Not really. I was a kid when things changed.”

That he understood. He didn’t get homesick either. And he’d also been a kid when things had changed. Only, unlike for her, the change hadn’t been a good one for him.

She went on. “Besides, you can find Greeks on almost every street corner.”

“You can, indeed.” Deakin had found pockets of Greek communities almost everywhere he’d gone. “Well, shall we get started? Are you only seeing patients who need counseling?”

“No, we’ve been kind of short-staffed, as you can imagine, so I’ve been helping wherever I can. The immediate injuries from the quake have been taken care of, but there are still issues—broken bones, lacerations that have become infected... Burns. But I have been seeing patients who are struggling to cope with the after effects of the earthquake. It’s what I specialize in. People dealing with PTSD.”

He tried to ignore the way she’d hesitated before saying the word “burns.”

“PTSD from time served in the military?”

“No, civilian for the most part. Trauma comes in many forms.”

Yes, it did. He wasn’t sure if she was subtly trying to dig into his past struggles, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. He didn’t need someone probing where they didn’t belong.

Time to get to work.

Just then Petra came back from wherever she’d been and glanced his way. She did a double-take, her eyes widening.

“Deakin!”

She rushed through the door to the waiting room and grabbed him in a strong, matronly embrace.

Her graying locks were scraped back into a bun and dark-rimmed glasses were pushed on top of her head. The combination gave her a no-nonsense appearance. One that was well-deserved. She could be formidable when she wanted to be.

“It’s about time you came home.”

He stiffened at that word. This wasn’t his home. Not anymore. But at least her presence took Dr. Risi’s attention off him.

“I’m sure you’re keeping the clinic running like a well-oiled machine.”

She dropped her glasses onto her nose and peered at him over the top of them. “It’s not easy, let me tell you.”

“I’m sure. Did Chris or Ares make it home yet?”

“No. Not yet. But I’m hopeful you will all be reunited soon. It’s been too long.”

“Yes, it has.”

While he didn’t miss the island, he did miss his friends.

“So, Theo has been handling the crisis alone?” He’d thought maybe the others would have made it back sooner than him.

“Well, he has Cailey now. She’s been a huge help. And Lea has been aprosdókito kaló. She’s very organized. And beautiful, don’t you think?”

Color bloomed in the psychiatrist’s face. Petra had called the doctor a godsend. And beautiful.

And Petra was right. She was very attractive. Dark-lashed eyes gleamed with purpose beneath arched brows. And with each upward curve of her lips high cheekbones appeared.

And yet there was something lurking just beneath the surface. He’d caught glimpses of it when she’d talked about PTSD. Did her patients’ pain affect her on a personal level? He knew from experience that as much as you tried to maintain an emotional distance there were some patients who touched something inside you.

His own throat tightened whenever he was called on to treat a child who’d suffered horrific burns or who had lost limbs from incendiary devices or from IEDs. It was why he did what he did.

“I think you’ve embarrassed Dr. Risi, Petra.”

“It’s okay. I’m fine. And please call me Lea. We all tend to be informal around here.”

The way she said that make him take a closer look at her. She didn’t sound fine. Did she think the older woman was trying to set them up somehow? Well, she needn’t worry. He wasn’t about to start a romance with anyone—especially not someone with ties to this island.

But she didn’t have ties—had said she didn’t get homesick for Greece. She was a temporary visitor, that was all. She wasn’t staying on the island for long.

The image of those teeth gripping that lip in a tight embrace sashayed across the backs of his eyelids, playing peekaboo with a neglected part of his anatomy. He could think of a way to make her do that all over again. For very different reasons.

He stopped that thought in its tracks. Not happening. She could be leaving tomorrow for all he knew.

His job didn’t lend itself to relationships. And that suited him just fine. Theo might have found true love, but that was something Deakin neither wanted nor needed. Because relationships meant exposing the worst of yourself to someone else.

Lea pushed that errant strand of hair over her shoulder once again and glanced out over the waiting room, which was gradually clearing out.

“It may not look that way, but this is one of our slower times.” She looked at the sign-in sheet. “It’ll stay that way until after lunch.”

Deakin was having a hard time understanding why exactly he was even here. Could he fly out before Theo realized he had arrived?

“Are you still seeing new injuries?”

“Some. There are a few buildings that still aren’t stable. So we’re seeing crush injuries. And with those unstable buildings come gas lines and electric wires, so there’s a chance of electrocution and burns—”