The Celebrity Doctor's Proposal (7 page)

Sam yawned. ‘For goodness' sake, Riggs. Can't you even let a guy buy you dinner?'

‘I can buy my own dinner and this wasn't a date, McKenna. It was an alternative to omelette.'

Sam surveyed the pitiful remains of food on the table. ‘It was a good alternative. Especially given that there were no eggs. And I'm paying.'

‘That's just ridiculous.'

‘No, that's just the way it is.' He handed his card to Ken. ‘Fantastic food, Ken. Great evening. Make that appointment to see me any time.'

‘Has anyone ever told you that you're stubborn and opinionated?' Anna rose to her feet and reached for her bag. ‘Just for the record, your macho, he-man act doesn't work on me, McKenna. If you're expecting it to make my legs go weak, it's only fair to warn you that I'm still walking with no problems.'

‘Really?' He pulled a face. ‘Damn. I must be losing my touch. Need to lift a few more weights. Practise my walk. And for the record, you're more stubborn than me.'

They left the restaurant and walked back to the car.

‘Now, this is when I love Cornwall.' Sam stopped and stared out across the darkened beach. The sea hissed as the waves hit the sand and behind them they could hear laughter from the restaurant. ‘I love it when the tourists leave and the beach is ours again.'

Anna stood next to him. ‘The trouble is nowadays the tourists never leave. Most of these beaches are as crowded at night as they are during the day. Once it gets dark the partying starts.'

They stared at a group of teenagers gathered at the water's edge and Sam frowned. ‘The problem with this place is that the teenagers don't have anywhere to go. And there's no privacy. If one of them makes an appointment at the surgery, everyone knows.'

‘What's wrong with that?'

‘Well, if you're trying to be cool, or if you're trying to hide something from your parents, then making an appointment with us is like taking out an ad in the paper.'

Anna stared at him. ‘You think that's why teenagers don't come?'

‘One reason.' He looked at the group on the beach. ‘We ought to start a teenage health group. Somewhere they can go, mingle and chat to a doctor if they want to.'

It was a great idea. ‘No one would turn up.'

‘They'd turn up if we made it cool.'

‘And how would we do that?'

He turned and gave her a lopsided smile. ‘I'd be the doctor.'

She grunted with exasperation. ‘You are so arrogant.'

‘What's the teenage pregnancy rate here?'

‘It's high, as you well know.'

‘Probably because if they go to the doctor, they broadcast the fact from the rooftops. If there was a clinic for teenagers, we could deal with all sorts of things. Drugs, eating disorders, contraception and the positive stuff, exercise, healthy eating.'

It was a fantastic idea. ‘It would never work.'

‘Let's try it. Send invitations to all the teenagers in the area.'

‘I'll think about it.' She was definitely going to do it. ‘You're afraid I'll be proved right.'

‘You're never right, McKenna. And all our teenagers want to do is party.'

‘Talking of parties, when is the beach barbecue to raise money for the lifeboat? Must be soon.'

Anna laughed. ‘The highlight of our social calendar. I'm amazed you remember it.'

‘It was at the beach barbecue that I finally scored with Daisy Forest,' Sam said smugly. ‘Not likely to forget that in a hurry. What a girl.'

‘Well, it's probably only fair to warn you that Daisy Forest is now a happily married woman with three little girls and a doting husband whose shoulder measurements exceed even yours. You might want to rethink that attachment.'

Sam winced and gave a wry smile. ‘Damn. There go my dreams.'

‘Just for my own interest and research, what was it that wrecked them? The three little girls or the dimensions of her husband?'

‘Both. I'm a man who hates competition. So when is it?'

‘The beach barbecue? Three weeks on Saturday. Usual fund-raising stuff. Ken does the food, there's dancing, several people get drunk and make fools of themselves. We raise some money, we buy new equipment. You know the sort of thing.'

‘Sounds too good to miss.' He stood next to her, broad-shouldered and handsome. Sexy.

Anna scooped her hair away from her face and frowned. Since when had she ever found Sam McKenna sexy?

Obviously since she'd drunk too much champagne on an empty stomach. She was hallucinating. Her judgement was failing. It was time to go home.

‘Do you want to leave the car and walk?'

He turned. ‘Unlike you, I didn't indulge. I'm fine to drive. And I'll need the car in the morning.'

She yawned as they walked to the car park. ‘So tomorrow filming starts in earnest?'

‘Polly has all sorts of plans, but often we just see what comes in. What looks interesting.'

He drove back slowly and Anna closed her eyes, loving the feel of the wind in her hair. ‘All right, you win. This is bliss. Not the engine, just the lack of roof.'

‘Glad I've finally pleased you. Remind me to give you champagne more often,' Sam said dryly. ‘You become more human.'

‘With most people I'm human,' she murmured. ‘It's just you that brings out the worst in me. Always have done, McKenna. Always will do.'

‘We've done all right tonight.' He pulled up outside the house and they walked inside. ‘No bloodshed. No visible wounds.'

They made their way to the kitchen and both of them reached for the light switch. Their fingers touched and suddenly she realised how close they were. She could feel the warmth of his breath near her face, feel the brush of his powerful body against hers. The lights flickered on and his gaze slid slowly to hers. Suddenly they were eye to eye and awareness shot between them like a bolt of lightning.

The breath caught in her throat and her heart bumped against her chest. ‘Do you…want coffee?' Her voice sounded strange. Totally unlike her own. And she found herself noticing things about his eyes that she'd never noticed before. Like the fact that in this light they looked an even deeper blue. And that his lashes were thick and sinfully dark. Lashes that should have looked feminine but somehow made him more male than ever.

‘Coffee?' His gaze slid to her mouth as if he was trying to make sense of something extremely complicated. ‘I thought you were keen to get back to those journals of yours.'

‘That's right.' She fought the temptation to lift her fingers to her lips, but his gaze fixed on her mouth was making her tingle. ‘Journals.'

‘No coffee, then.' His eyes lifted to hers and locked. ‘I'll see you in the morning.'

‘Presumably.'

Their fingers were still tangled together, still on the light switch, and they both pulled away at the same time, their bodies bumping together as they turned for the door.

‘Hell, Riggs…' He hauled her against him and brought his mouth down on hers hard, one hand sliding behind her neck and holding her fast.

She fell into his kiss, drowning in the heat and the fire, a dangerous thrill curling upwards from deep inside her. It was hot and frantic and totally out of character, but for a brief moment in time she didn't
care. She didn't care about the future and she didn't care about the past. She just wanted now.

She grabbed the front of his shirt to press herself closer, and without lifting his head he backed her against the wall, his kiss impossibly intimate, his hands sliding with sensual purpose up the sides of her body until they rested on her breasts. She felt the cool wall against her back, felt the press of solid muscle and hard, sexy male and closed her eyes.

When he finally dragged his mouth from hers and slid hot kisses down her throat, she gasped for air and struggled to rescue the situation.

‘We should stop this.' Her eyes stayed closed and a soft gasp escaped from her lips as he jerked the strap of her dress down and trailed kisses over the swell of her breast. ‘McKenna…' She groaned his name. ‘I said we should stop.'

‘We probably should.'

Her head tilted back as his lips moved lower still. ‘This isn't a good idea.'

‘Feels pretty good from where I am,' he murmured hoarsely, straightening and returning his full attention to her swollen mouth. ‘Never thought you'd taste this good, Riggs. Incredible.'

She dragged her eyes open and tried to summon up some of the old feelings of irritation and exasperation. But all she could feel was heat.

She was in big trouble.

‘We really can't do this. We have to stop.'

‘Good idea.' His tongue slid into her mouth and he kissed her again. Then he lifted his mouth just
enough to speak. ‘We'll stop. Any minute now, we're going to stop this. God, you smell good.' He rubbed his face over her cheek. ‘Have you always smelt this good or have I just not breathed you in before?'

She was aware of every single masculine inch of him, pumped up and virile and so devastatingly sexy that it was almost impossible for her to breathe. The wanting was so powerful that she couldn't think straight.

‘You're going to have to stop this, McKenna.'

His mouth played with hers. Teasing. Tantalising. ‘Not sure I can. You taste as good as you smell.'

‘Then we'll both do it. On three. You move away. I move away.' She felt his tongue coaxing hers and she groaned and curled her fingers into the hard muscle of his forearms. ‘I said, on three. One, two, three.'

She gave him a shove and he stepped backwards. It gave her some satisfaction to see that his breathing was decidedly unsteady. Hers was, too. If she had a patient in this state she'd be considering medication.

‘OK, well, that worked.' She lifted the strap of her dress with shaking fingers and raked her tangled hair out of her eyes. She dreaded to think what she looked like but, judging from the look burning in his eyes, she decided it was probably better not to know. ‘I'll just go to bed…'

He inhaled deeply. ‘Just so that there's no misunderstanding here—on your own, I presume?'

‘Definitely on my own.' She backed towards the
door, her legs decidedly unsteady. ‘And we're going to forget this happened.'

He raked long fingers through his already roughened hair. ‘That easy, huh?'

‘I didn't say it was going to be easy,' she said honestly, ‘just that that is what we're going to do.'

‘Unless we go with Plan B.'

‘Which is?'

His eyes were on her mouth. ‘We take this to its natural conclusion.'

The air stilled and her heart skipped a beat. ‘I can't believe we're having this conversation. We drive each other crazy, McKenna.'

His eyes darkened. ‘I think we've just proved that.'

‘You know what I mean. We don't even like each other and I need to like a man before I take him to bed. It's the barest minimum requirement. And we can't even converse without annoying each other.'

‘Riggs…' His voice was sexier than a man's voice had a right to be. ‘At the moment, I'm not thinking about conversation. I'm just thinking about your body in my bed. And more of what we just sampled.'

His words made her stomach flip. Her body in his bed.
His body tangled with her body.

His shirt was half undone where she'd dragged at the bottom and she saw the haze of dark hair on his chest. He was a man designed to tempt a woman from the straight and narrow.

And she was tempted. So tempted.

‘We'd regret it in the morning.'

‘I never regret anything I do. It's a waste of emotion.'

‘Look…' She scooped her hair away from her face and licked her lips, struggling to be rational. ‘Let's just admit this was a mistake. We had a nice evening and that's rare for us. We both drank a bit too much.'

‘I'm stone-cold sober.'

‘We're going to forget it happened.' She ignored his soft statement and backed through the door, holding onto the wall for support. Ever since he'd kissed her, her legs didn't seem to be working that well.

‘Riggs.' His voice stopped her before she made it to the stairs. ‘What if we can't forget it happened?'

She paused, her hand curled tightly round the banister for safety. ‘We will.'

They had to.

Otherwise they were in big trouble.

T
HE
following morning the surgery was crowded with patients and Anna was relieved that there was no sign of Sam. She couldn't face him at the moment. Not until she'd managed to wipe out all memories of that incredible kiss.

Chemistry.

Damn. Who would have thought it? It just went to prove that the mind and the body were totally incomprehensible.

‘Glenda rang.' Hannah, the other receptionist, looked at Anna searchingly, clearly wondering what was wrong with her usually sharp-minded boss. ‘She's been caught up at home but she'll be in as soon as possible.'

Anna frowned. Caught up with what? ‘Fine. Do you know what's wrong, Hannah? Did she say anything?'

Hannah shook her head. ‘No.' The young girl looked thoughtful. ‘But she didn't sound herself. And she hung up in a hurry.'

‘OK. Any sign of Dr McKenna?'

‘He phoned just before you arrived to say that he was making one call on his way in and to explain to his patients.'

‘Oh.' For a moment Anna was annoyed that he
hadn't thought to call her on her mobile and tell her his plans. Then she remembered that she'd gone out of her way to avoid him that morning. She'd showered early, skipped breakfast and sneaked out of the house before she'd heard sounds from his bedroom. Presumably he'd taken the same approach and that was why he hadn't called her.

Which proved that her plan was the right one. Ignore the whole thing. Pretend it had never happened. They should never have indulged in that kiss and the sooner they both put it behind them and started to act normally again, the better for both of them.

‘OK, Hannah, I'll get on with my surgery. Let me know when Dr McKenna arrives. If he's horribly delayed I'll tuck his patients in between mine.'

Her first patient was Katy, a seventeen-year-old who walked in with her mother. Anna took one look at the teenager's face and knew this was going to be a difficult consultation.

Sam was right. They needed a clinic for teenagers.

‘Hello, Katy.' She offered the girl the seat closest to her and gave her mother a brief smile. ‘Hello, Mrs Walker.'

‘She doesn't want to be here,' Mrs Walker said briskly, ‘but I've told her that if she doesn't come, I'll cut off her allowance.'

Anna winced mentally and glanced at Katy, gauging her reaction. The girl looked sullen and uncooperative but that was hardly surprising given the circumstances.

‘She doesn't eat and she spends her life in the gym,' Mrs Walker began, her mouth tightening in disapproval as she looked at her daughter.

‘At least I don't sit on the couch playing computer games,' Katy muttered, scowling at her mother. ‘And there's nothing wrong with going to the gym. It's healthy.'

Anna thought for a moment and then smiled at Mrs Walker. ‘Would you mind if I spoke to Katy alone?' She rose and walked to the door, leaving the mother no choice but to stand up and walk through it. ‘If you take a seat in the waiting room, Katy and I will just have a chat and we'll be with you shortly.'

Anna closed the door firmly and then turned back to her patient. ‘Would you have come if it hadn't been for your mother?'

‘No.' The girl stared at her. ‘There's nothing wrong with me. I'm perfectly healthy. Mum's just a nag.'

Anna sat back down and started to talk to Katy, asking questions about her eating history and questioning her on her attitude to her weight. ‘How often do you go to the gym, Katy?'

The girl shrugged. ‘Dunno. Most days, I suppose. For about two hours.'

Anna nodded. ‘That's quite a lot. It's great to exercise, you're right about that, but we probably need to reduce it slightly and look at your eating patterns.'

She spent some time discussing normal eating, diet and exercise, as well as the physical consequences of an eating disorder.

‘I want you to try and eat three meals a day, and would you keep a food diary for me and come and see me again?'

She knew that eating disorders could be extremely difficult to treat but she sensed that in Katy's case the problem was relatively new, which meant that she might be successful in preventing the problem becoming entrenched.

Katy shrugged. ‘I suppose so. As long as Mum doesn't come, too. She thinks she understands me.' She rolled her eyes. ‘It's tragic.'

Anna suppressed a smile. Far be it from adults to understand teenagers. A sudden inspiration struck. ‘Katy, you know everyone in the village…'

The girl shrugged. ‘I've lived here all my life,' she said gloomily, ‘so I certainly should do.'

‘Dr McKenna and I are thinking of setting up a clinic for teenagers, and some input from you as to what would work and what wouldn't would be really helpful.' Anna gave a small smile. ‘We'd hate to be seen as “tragic”.'

Katy stared at her and a ghost of a smile crossed her face. ‘If Dr McKenna is involved, it might be cool.'

Anna ground her teeth. Great. The man was going to be proved right again. If she hadn't been so convinced that the teenage clinic was the right thing for the practice, she might have buried the idea.

As it was, her encounter with Katy made her determined to get the clinic off the ground.

She made a mental note to herself to sort it out
at the earliest opportunity and carried on with her surgery.

She'd just seen her third patient when there was a tap on her door and Sam entered.

Her heart skipped in her chest.

Annoyance and another emotion which she chose not to examine made her voice cooler than she'd intended. ‘For future reference I'd like to know if you intend to be late for surgery.'

‘I took an emergency call this morning. A fact I would have shared with you if you hadn't been so desperate to avoid me.'

‘I wasn't desperate.'

He gave a humourless laugh and closed her door firmly behind him. ‘Then you're the lucky one. I was so desperate after last night that my body refused to go to sleep.'

Her heart hit her ribcage. ‘I don't want to talk about last night.'

‘Fine. We'll try it your way to start with. Pretend it didn't happen. If that doesn't work then we'll try it my way. Agreed?'

She stared at him. ‘What's your way?'

‘We're trying it your way first. When that fails to work, I'll tell you mine.'

Her heat skipped a beat. ‘You've got patients piling up outside your surgery, McKenna. You may want to do something about it.'

‘In a moment. I'm just checking you're free at lunch-time.'

She glared at him. ‘I've already told you, I don't
take a lunch-break. And I certainly don't go on dates at lunch-time.'

He strolled across the room, planted both hands on her desk and locked his gaze with hers. ‘Firstly, I didn't mention taking a break and, secondly, I didn't say anything about a date.'

‘But you—'

‘I want to talk to you about Glenda. She has problems we need to help her with. Big problems.'

Anna stared at him. ‘Tell me.'

He straightened. ‘In case you've forgotten, we've got patients piling up outside the door, Riggs. Let's clear the decks and then we can concentrate on Glenda.'

 

‘She called me this morning in a state.' Sam nursed a coffee, trying not to notice Anna's hair. He loved the sleekness of it. The smoothness. The darkness against her perfect white blouse. It was all he could do to keep his fingers out of it. And away from the rest of her. He just wanted to reach out, grab and help himself. Just as he had the night before.

Damn, he should never have touched her. Then he wouldn't have known that she tasted like a dream.

‘A state about what?'

He struggled to keep his mind on the job. ‘How much do you know about her mother?'

Anna sat back in her chair. ‘Not much, I suppose. Just to say hello to her in passing. She's your father's patient. I don't think she's consulted me at all in the
time that I've been here. I only know her as Glenda's mum. You think there's something wrong with her?'

‘It would seem so. Glenda rang me this morning because she was afraid to leave her on her own in the house.' Sam ran a hand over his face, trying to keep his mind on the job in hand. Concentration had never been so difficult. ‘Basically, she's been trying to ignore the problem. Pretend it isn't happening. But yesterday she lost her mother when they were out shopping.'

‘She lost her?'

‘She wandered off. Glenda panicked. Apparently that was the final straw that made her call me.'

Anna stared at him. ‘You're suggesting that her mother has a form of dementia?'

‘I think it's highly probable. We need to refer her to a specialist mental health service for assessment.'

‘There's an excellent memory clinic at the hospital.' Anna closed her eyes and breathed out. ‘Oh, help. Poor thing. And poor Glenda. What a thing to cope with. And she's an only child, isn't she? No other siblings to help?'

‘That's right. And she's really been struggling. Afraid to leave her mother on her own for any length of time, desperate to do her job here and not let us down…'

‘She needn't worry about the job,' Anna said immediately. ‘We'll make whatever arrangements are necessary to cover her if she needs to be at home, but her job is here for as long as she wants it.'

Sam felt something shift inside him. The woman
might be tough on the outside but she was marshmallow on the inside. Loyal and giving. And maybe a part of him had always known that. After all, hadn't she been the one to stay and help his father while he'd chosen a different path? ‘It won't be easy.'

‘It's Glenda that matters, not the practice. Hannah can do extra time and I'll rack my brains to think of who might be able to help her.' Anna frowned and drummed her fingers on the desk, her neat fingernails tapping a rhythm while she thought. Her brow cleared. ‘I know. We'll ask Fiona.'

‘She retired a year ago.'

‘But she was the most efficient receptionist we ever had and she taught Glenda everything she knew,' Anna reminded him, flicking through a box on her desk and pulling out a card. ‘I've got her number here. Once we've spoken to Glenda, we can give her a ring if necessary. But the more important question is how to help Glenda and her mother.'

‘I went round there this morning,' Sam told her, a drawn look on his face as he recalled the visit. ‘Frankly, I can't begin to imagine how Glenda has coped without help up until now. It's no wonder she's been so stressed. I'm amazed she's been making it to work at all. Her mother was really agitated and aggressive. And she clearly forgets everything, which drives Glenda up the wall.'

Anna groaned. ‘I just wish she'd said something sooner. This is all my fault.' She scooped her hair away from her face in a gesture that made him want to groan aloud. ‘I should have noticed sooner that
something was very wrong. She hasn't been herself for ages. And now I see why. And I see why she's always dashing off at lunch-time and arriving late in the mornings.'

With a determined effort Sam shifted his gaze away from her, trying to remind himself just how badly they clashed. ‘She's been checking on her mother—afraid to leave her for too long,' he agreed, ‘but don't blame yourself, Riggs. You've been propping up this place virtually single-handed for too long. And that brings us to another subject we're going to have to tackle. You should have told Dad he was no longer up to the job a long time ago.'

Anna bit her lip. ‘That isn't true.'

‘It's true,' Sam said heavily. ‘You've been covering for him, picking up his workload. The sabbatical idea was genius. It enabled you to get some help without telling him outright he needed to retire. Hopefully he'll get the message himself when he's away.'

Her eyes slid away from his. ‘Your dad is a brilliant doctor.'

‘But his health has been getting worse and you need to be on full power for this job,' Sam said steadily, ignoring the ache inside him. ‘It's hard to acknowledge that he's getting old, but that's the truth. There are things Dad should have been doing that he hasn't.'

‘That reminds me.' She looked him straight in the eye. ‘I want to talk to you about your ideas for that teenage clinic. I want to try it.'

He nodded. ‘Good. What changed your mind?'

‘I always thought it was a good idea.' Her mouth tilted slightly at the corners and she angled her head. ‘It's just that I had to get my head round the fact that it came from you.'

He laughed with appreciation. ‘Well, that's honest.'

‘I had a girl in here this morning…'

He listened while she told him about Katy and about her plan to involve some of the teenagers in setting up the clinic. It was a great idea.

‘I have to hand it to you, Riggs, when you go with an idea, you don't hang around.'

‘Now's the time to get them,' she said briskly. ‘Long, hot summer evenings are the time when they get carried away. A significant number of our teenage mothers give birth in March.'

‘So let's get started. Set up your meeting. What's the problem?'

She breathed in and looked slightly pink. ‘You have to be there. Apparently you're “cool”.'

He grinned. ‘And doesn't that just bug you, Riggs?'

‘Actually, no.' She sat back in her chair and surveyed him with those amazing brown eyes. ‘If you get the teenagers here, I don't care what tactics you employ. Use your movie-star status if it helps.'

He smiled. ‘Any time you want my autograph, Riggs…'

‘I'll try and survive without it. But let's get on with this clinic.'

‘I thought you hated change.'

‘Only when it's done for the sake of change. I can see the benefit of the clinic.'