Flushed, round-eyed, softly feminine and in awe of him—much the way she was looking right now.

He felt his body harden in response and he felt a rush of anger at his own inability to control his reactions around her.

‘I’m in the middle of something so I’d appreciate it if you could make it quick.’

He saw her flinch but steeled himself against feeling sympathy, reminding himself that she wasn’t as gentle and innocent as she seemed.

As he’d discovered to his cost.

‘I just wanted to apologise for earlier,’ she said quietly, her fingers digging into her palms. ‘I was useless out there. I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry…’

He was so utterly captivated by her soft mouth that it took him a moment to understand what she was talking about.

The accident. He shook himself slightly. She was talking about the accident.

‘You weren’t useless.’ He resolutely pushed away memories of all that stunning blonde hair spread over the soft grass as he’d rolled her underneath him on a baking summer’s day eleven years earlier.

‘I wasn’t prepared for the injury to be so severe,’ she confessed shakily. ‘I—I’ve never attended the scene of an accident before. I didn’t know what to do, and I’m sorry.’

He sat back in his chair, suddenly understanding why she was so nervous. Hadn’t he warned her on her first day that if she didn’t perform she’d be out? She was afraid that her shocked reaction to her first exposure to major trauma at the roadside would count against her.

She was afraid that he was going to get rid of her.

And that had certainly been his intention when he’d first realised that she was going to be working in his department.

He hadn’t thought she’d last five minutes.

He hadn’t wanted her to last five minutes.

And he’d been incredibly hard on her. Harder on her than any other doctor in his team.

And she’d surprised him. So far she’d proved herself to be thorough and competent, and he’d observed on several occasions that her warmth had a calming influence on the most fractious patient.

He felt an unaccustomed twinge of guilt as he reflected on the way he’d treated her since she’d arrived in the department.

‘I took you along because I thought you might learn something and because every A and E doctor should have an idea of what the paramedics deal with on a daily basis.’ He saw her soft lips part and was suddenly glad that he was sitting behind the desk. At least she wouldn’t be aware of the effect she had on him. ‘You were there as an observer. I had no expectations of you as a doctor.’

She stood in silence, watching him warily. She was obviously still expecting an explosion. ‘I shouldn’t have reacted like that, but I just wasn’t prepared for how scary it would be, dealing with a patient at the scene of the accident. I’m used to having masses of medical back-up.’