Amy Ruttan - Unwrapped By The Duke

Geraldine was shocked. Frederick would’ve never admitted that to another surgeon or doctor.

“I really think—”

“No. It’s done. More suction, please.” Thomas didn’t look at her as he continued the surgery. “Lord Twinsbury is a friend of my father’s. I’ve known him for quite some time. I get a little overprotective of him.”

“I see. Is your father friends with my father?”

Thomas smiled behind his mask, she could tell by the way his eyes crinkled. “No, in fact they were nemesis...or is that nemeses?”

Geri chuckled. “Rivals?”

“In some respects,” Thomas said. “Although my father was not in the medical profession. I believe they were both rapscallions in their youth. Playing the field and going after the same women.”

Geri’s stomach twisted in a knot and she had a hard time picturing her father as a rapscallion. “Is that a fact?”

“Yes. I was surprised when your father brought me on when I completed my surgical residency. He had the most prestigious cardiology practice in Harley Street and I was willing to give my eyeteeth to work with him. I had to convince him that taking on a surgeon was a good business decision.”

That was more believable. In the short time she’d known her father she’d gathered he wasn’t one to take chances.

“Well, you seemed to have won him over.”

“He never told me about you, though, not until a couple of months ago when he said you were joining us.” This time he looked up from the surgery to fix her with those dark eyes that seemed to see past her facade into her very soul.

“My father and I don’t have the best relationship. Or at least we didn’t. I’m hoping to rectify that now.” She hoped he didn’t know she was lying through her teeth and under his hard stare she felt a bit uncomfortable.

“You’re not even listed in Debrett’s.”

“Should I be?” Geri asked, hoping her voice didn’t rise with her nervousness.

“Your parents were legally married.”

“Briefly. I believe the divorce was finalized just after I was born. My mother left before she knew she was pregnant with me.”

“So you should be in Debrett’s, given that your father has a seat in the House of Lords.”

“You seem to know a lot about me.”

“I know nothing about you and that’s the problem.” He held out a hand while a scrub nurse passed him an instrument. “You’re a complete mystery.”

“Why are you even looking me up in Debrett’s? What does it matter if I’m listed in there? It’s a pretty useless publication, if you ask me.” She crossed her arms, hugging herself, as if that would hide the fact that she was the estranged daughter of an aristocrat.

She’d read this story a million times in the romance novels she cherished. Only those novels were fiction and fantasy. This was real life.

And she was a doctor, a darned good doctor who was specializing in cardiology, and she had no interest, at the moment, in anything beyond medicine and helping her patients.

“It is that,” Thomas agreed. “I mean, who needs to know who is thirty-seventh in line to the throne?”

“Exactly. I don’t know and I really don’t care.”

“So what do you care about?” he asked.

“Medicine. It’s all I care about.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “You should’ve been a surgeon.”

“And why is that?”

“You’re cold. Detached. Vicious.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said.

“I meant it as one,” Thomas said. “But surely you have some interest beyond medicine. Reading, travelling...crochet?”

“Crochet?” she asked, trying not to laugh at the absurdity.

“It’s good for the hands. Keeps the fingers strong and the mind sharp.”

“Do you crochet, then?”

“Good lord, no.”

“Then who told you that crocheting keeps the fingers strong and the mind sharp?”

“My grandmother, but then again she was a bit batty.”

Geri couldn’t help but smile. “So what do you do, then?”

“I paint.”

Now she was intrigued. “What do you paint?”

“Nudes mostly.” And he waggled his eyebrows at her over his surgical mask. She couldn’t help but laugh along with the others in the room.

Frederick would never joke like this.

It was beneath him and Geri found herself liking this laid-back camaraderie. There was a light in the darkness of a serious surgery.

“I read a study once that said patients, although under general anesthesia, are aware of what is going on around them. Subconsciously. Better outcomes when the surgeon is happy.”

Thomas stared at her and she regretted opening her mouth. Was he going to berate her again?

“I heard that too. And I believe it.” He returned to his work and Geri watched him. Thomas was just as impressive as she’d always thought he would be.

Thomas laid down his instruments. “Dr. Fellowes, would you close up for me?”

“Yes, Mr. Ashwood.” Dr. Fellowes stepped into the lead surgeon spot and began to close up the patient.

Thomas moved past her to the scrub room and Geraldine followed him as he peeled off his gloves, mask and surgical gown, placing them in the receptacle, before he began to scrub his hands.

Geraldine did the same.

“That was textbook surgery, if I do say so myself.” There was a smug, satisfied smile plastered across Thomas’s face.

“I’m glad it went so well.”

“Well, the surgery went well. The next twenty-four hours will tell me the entire picture.” Thomas dried his hands. “It’s still touch and go. Recovery will be the key to success or failure.”

“Will I see you tomorrow at the office?” Geri asked.

“No,” he said. “I plan to stay close to Lord Twinsbury tonight. I will be monitoring him in the intensive care unit.”

“Is it because he’s a family friend or do you do that for all your patients?” She was teasing, she didn’t really expect such a high-class surgeon to remain by his patient’s bedside. Especially an elderly one like Lord Twinsbury, who, given his health, probably wouldn’t have much of a shot of pulling through.

“All of them. Every last one.”

She was stunned and was positive her mouth was hanging open by the way he grinned at her.

“Have a good evening, Dr. Collins.”

Geri watched him walk down the hall. She shook her head. Every time she tried to fit Mr. Ashwood into a certain slot in her mind, he completely and utterly didn’t fit.

And just as she’d surmised before, he was a danger.

A very sexy, tempting danger that she wanted no part of.

* * *

“You took the tube again didn’t you?”

Geri hung up her coat on the coatrack in her father’s office. “Well, you didn’t wake me when Jensen took you to work.”

“You got in late. I thought you’d appreciate the lie-in.”

She had actually. “Yes, but today is clinic day. How am I supposed to get to know my new patients if I spend half the morning in bed?”

“Why didn’t you call Jensen to bring you in?” her father asked. He sounded tense, as if he’d been worrying about her the whole time. Which was nice, but unwarranted. She was an adult.

“The Westway is jam-packed or didn’t you hear about that?” she asked.

“Jensen could’ve taken the Bayswater Road. The Westway is always jam-packed at this time of day.”

“I’m quite used to taking public transportation.”

“I know, Geraldine, but your situation is different now.” He returned to his work.

She took a seat in front of her father. “And how is it different? I still am the same person and no one knows me from Adam.”

“You’re a lady of means. An heiress,” he said, not looking up.