It was eleven years ago, he reminded himself. And eleven years was a long time. Enough to change a person, and Katy had obviously changed.

The old Katy had been deliciously shy and tongue-tied but the Katy he’d seen in action today was very different from the girl he’d made love to so long ago. Far from buckling under the challenge he’d set her, she’d coped well.

In fact, she’d handled those drunks with an admirable level of skill and tact. There had been every sign that they could have become violent at any minute but she’d reacted with textbook efficiency and had successfully defused any suggestion of aggression on the part of the patient and his friends.

She’d behaved as though she’d been operating totally within her comfort zone, which didn’t make a scrap of sense. When would Katy Westerling, with her over-privileged, protected upbringing, ever have been exposed to drunk, violent men?

His dark brows locked in a frown as he puzzled over her complete lack of concern. She hadn’t even seemed to notice the danger. But some deep-seated instinct told him that she had been all too aware and had known exactly how to cope with it. She’d stood up to them and she’d stood up to him.

He allowed himself a brief smile of admiration as he remembered her gutsy response to his command that she meet him in his office.

She’d remembered his caustic remark about her filing her nails and she’d thrown it back at him.

No, Katy had definitely changed. She’d dropped the innocent act—and they both knew that it had been nothing more than an act—and she was showing a level of courage that frankly surprised him. There were still hints of the feminine fragility that she’d shown at eighteen, but he sensed a strength and determination that hadn’t been there before.

Suddenly he was intrigued.

And he was also impressed. He’d seen numerous colleagues make the mistake of dismissing a patient who was drunk. She hadn’t made that mistake. Even when the patient had vomited on what he assumed to be a frighteningly expensive pair of shoes, she hadn’t allowed it to cloud her decision-making.

She was a good doctor.

And he had to face the fact that the reason he was being so hard on her had absolutely nothing to do with her clinical abilities and everything to do with his own emotions.

* * *

Katy was nearly at the end of her shift the following day when a call came through requesting a medical team to attend an accident.

‘They’ve got a man trapped in a car and they’re worried about his leg. I’m the duty consultant so it’s mine,’ Jago said immediately, reaching for high-visibility jackets and the equipment they’d need at the roadside. ‘I’ll take Charlotte and Katy.’

Katy felt the adrenaline rush through her veins.

She knew that immediate care—tending to the patient at the scene of the accident—was very different from looking after someone in the A and E department where they were surrounded by equipment.