Read Lincoln Hospital (Trauma #1) for Free Online Page B

behind her and tugged on a lock of her hair.  “Hands off, slimeball.” Dick smirked and turned his attention to the group.
    “You’re looking at the first intern to be hand-picked to be at O’Reilly’s side during his bypass surgery.  Sorry, suckers, but you weren’t here two hours before shift like I was to get in on that case.” He drew in a breath through his nose as he hopped up onto the nurse’s desk and looked down at all of them.  “O’Reilly obviously is smart enough to know which one of us is the best intern in the class.” Athena rolled her eyes and turned to walk away from the babbling idiot, only to collide with a hard chest.
    “Oomph,” she breathed out, almost losing her balance.  Strong arms came up to steady her, encircling her waist.  She had a second to breathe in the man’s scent, as her nose was pushed up right against him, and it did funny things to her insides.  He smelled clean, spicy and a little bit...dangerous?  There was something about his scent that set off alarm bells in her head and longing in her pussy.  Whoever it was that she’d nearly plowed over, he was a damn contradiction, that much was certain.
    Chancing a look up, she was horrified to see it was Cian. He stood almost a foot taller than her at 6’4”, why hadn’t she noticed before how tall he was?  His gaze was locked on hers and those dark eyes once again pulled her in, making her forget everything; including her own damn name. The man was a walking felony, it should be illegal for someone to look and smell as good as he did; especially considering he was such an asshole.
    “Uh—I’m sorry,” she apologized lamely, stepping back out of his arms.  She looked around and flushed, noticing that their scene had caught more than one curious eye. Sabine was practically panting, encouraging her with her eyes to continue their display.  She glared at her and looked back up at Cian.
    “I didn’t see you, Dr. O’Reilly.  I’m sorry if I hurt you.”  Cian let out a chuckle that sounded rusty to her ears, but pleasant all the same.
    “You barely come up to my shoulder, Dr. Payne.  You didn’t hurt me,” he looked past her to Dick, pinning him in place with a hard glare.  “So, you think you’re the best in the program, do you?  Tell me, what are you going to do if your patient develops a clot during surgery? Or begins to bleed profusely from the graft site?  What’s your approach going to be, doctor?” With each word he took a step closer to Dick until he was directly in front of him, an inch away from where Dick was beginning to cower.  “Well?  Are you going to sit there frozen like you are now and let your patient bleed to death?  Is that what the best intern in this program would do?”
    The hallway had gone deathly still as passerby’s stopped to take in the scene.  Dick’s shoulders slumped and he rubbed the back of his neck frantically, his blue eyes darting back and forth.
    “Yes.  I mean, no.  I mean, I would of course not let that happen, Dr. O’Reilly.  I’d well, um...” he trailed off looking panicked, his mind clearly going blank under the pressure.
    “You’d isolate the clot and call for a transfusion, examine the graft to see if it could be salvaged and if not, patch it up until another surgery could be booked to save the body any additional undue stress.” Athena found herself speaking out of nowhere, something that was becoming a habit in Dr. O’Reilly’s presence.
    Cian’s head swiveled slowly towards her and he regarded her with approval.  Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest it felt like a set of drums were banging behind her ears.  Had she really just blurted out the answer like that?  Sure, surgery was a cutthroat profession and it was every man for themselves, but had she really just made a fool of one of her own in front of everyone?  It appeared she had as the glances she was receiving were a cross between respect and resentment.
    She