Tempted by Dr. Morales Read Free Page A

keep the edge from her voice, but she felt like a secretary running his little black book when Juan was on call—women were ringing all the time ‘...then we’re to put them through?’
    ‘Okay, for all personal calls, just ask the staff to say they are not sure if Juan is working and that you’ll take a message and leave it for him. I am just asking if the staff can be a bit more discreet.’
    ‘The staff are discreet, Juan, but there’s a difference between being discreet and rude. When it’s clearly a personal call...’ She took a breath. ‘Fine, I’ll speak to everyone.’
    Juan got back to his notes and did not look up. It would simply open up a can of worms if he explained things.
    He didn’t want to explain things.
    That was the reason he was travelling after all, no need for explanations, no past, no rules—just fun. Except Cate didn’t want fun. She’d made that clear, even if not quite from the start.
    He was going to do this shift and then go home.
    Juan had just over two weeks to go in the country.
    Had Cate said yes when he’d first asked her out they could have had an amazing few months.
    Instead, she had made it very clear she wasn’t interested in a brief fling with him.
    She was interested, though.
    Juan could feel it, he could smell it, he could almost taste it, but Cate refused to give in to it.
    He wasn’t going to try again.
    Cate was a serious thing, a curious thing, and she was quietly driving him insane.
    ‘Are you coming out for drinks tonight, Juan?’ Kelly asked.
    ‘Not tonight,’ Juan said, and he heard Cate’s small exhalation of relief.
    Oh, well, Juan thought as he carried on writing up his notes.
    She could relax soon.
    He’d be gone.

CHAPTER TWO
    ‘H OW ARE THINGS ?’ Juan came in to speak with Reece soon after he came back from ultrasound. The surgeons had examined him there and had ordered antibiotics and changed his IV regime, and Reece was now being prepared rapidly for Theatre.
    ‘You tell me,’ Reece said. ‘They said that appendicitis was serious in someone with my immune system.’
    ‘That’s why they’re starting you on all these antibiotics. We need to get you up to Theatre before it perforates,’ Juan said.
    ‘I shouldn’t have left it,’ Reece said. ‘I thought it was cancer.’
    ‘Of course you did,’ Juan said, ‘but it is an appendix flare-up nevertheless. I had a pregnant woman just last week...’ He didn’t continue, there was a lot to be done.
    Cate was trying to sort out the antibiotics that the surgeons wanted. It had been incredibly tense during his ultrasound, Reece telling Amanda over and over that she should just go home. Cate had, on her way back from Ultrasound, suggested that Amanda wait in the interview room, just to have a break from the snipes from her husband.
    ‘Cate, can I see Reece’s IV regime?’ Juan asked, and then spoke to the patient. ‘Though you need to be operated on, I want you to have a bolus of fluids before you go up.’
    He was so direct he overrode the surgeons’ IV regime with a stroke of his pen.
    Juan saw Cate’s rapid blink—not many people would have changed Jeff Henderson’s plan. ‘I just spoke to him and discussed some changes,’ Juan said. ‘Reece needs to be better hydrated before he’s operated on.’
    ‘I bet that went down well,’ Cate said, repeating Kelly’s sentiment from a little while ago.
    ‘Jeff was fine.’ Juan shrugged. ‘And, like you, I really don’t care if I offend at times. This is better for the patient.’
    He handed over the chart and then spoke to Reece. ‘I’m going to put another IV in you so that we can push fluids in and then I shall speak with your wife.’
    ‘Can you tell her that there’s no point hanging around?’
    ‘She’s not going to want to go home while you’re in Theatre,’ Cate pointed out as she added the medication to the flask.
    ‘I just don’t want her here,’ Reece snapped. ‘I don’t want to be a burden.’
    ‘Then stop