But he wasn’t hers to touch, she reminded herself, feeling suddenly helpless under the pull of emotions she’d never experienced before.

In fact, he wasn’t anybody’s.

Alex was a loner. A man who kept himself at a safe emotional distance from everyone around him.

And he wasn’t going to make an exception for a small dark-haired girl with a flat chest, who worried about his drinking habits and had never even had a proper boyfriend.

Pulling herself together, Jenny fastened Daisy into her car seat and drove to work, trying to think about anything other than Alexander Westerling.

Fortunately work was so busy that she had absolutely no chance to dwell on her confusing response to him.

From the minute she arrived on the unit she was working flat out, and as the day progressed she wondered how Alex was coping. She knew that he must still be feeling rough.

‘I need you in Resus, Jenny,’ Tina said briskly, her face drawn and tired. She’d been coping with a staffing crisis for more than a week and it was beginning to show. ‘They’re bringing in a 64-year-old man who collapsed in a shopping centre.’

The ambulance arrived before she finished her sentence and the man was hurried into Resus.

Jenny glanced up with relief as Alex strode into the room. He looked grim-faced and pale but he applied himself with the same ruthless efficiency as ever.

‘What have we got?’

‘This is Geoffrey Palmer…’ The paramedics handed over quickly and Jenny carefully placed an oxygen mask over the man’s face lifting it slightly as he gestured to talk.

He looked at her with frightened eyes. ‘What’s happening?’

‘We’re going to find that out now,’ Jenny said firmly, her voice steady and her eyes sympathetic as she checked his pulse and blood pressure.

Alex was already examining the man, his gaze flickering briefly to Tom who’d accompanied him into Resus. ‘Two lines in, please. Large-bore cannulae.’

Tom nodded and reached for the equipment while Alex continued his examination.

‘I want him on a monitor, Jenny. Mr Palmer, can you describe the pain for me?’

The man groaned. ‘Round my stomach and my back…’

‘We’ll give you something for the pain right now.’ Alex quickly undid the buttons of the man’s shirt to give him access to the abdomen.

Tom moved away from the trolley. ‘Two lines are in.’

‘Give him some morphine for the pain and cyclizine and then take blood for FBC, U and Es, glucose, base-line coagulation screen, LFTs and emergency cross-matching.’ Alex listed the investigations he wanted and then paused briefly, his eyes on the more junior doctor. ‘And I want ten units of red cells and two units of platelets.’

Tom stared at him and then gave a brief nod as he reached for the necessary blood bottles.

Jenny bit her lip and concentrated on the patient. It was obvious from the volume of blood that Alex had ordered that he thought that the patient was at risk of a major bleed.