Page 10 of Tempting the Doctor

“What?” I say as I answer, not caring about being professional.

“Dr. Miller, this is Ann Michaels from the transplant department. We were just informed that a donor heart received this evening from a car accident victim is a match for Ronald Donovan.

Shit. Ronald has been a patient of mine for over a decade, and he’s been waiting on a donor heart nearly as long.

“How long since the heart was retrieved?” I ask.

“It’s been almost eight hours, sir. We already called Mr. Donovan. He’s on his way to the hospital, and we have an OR prepped for your team.”

Donor organs aren’t viable for long. If Ronald is going to get this heart, we have to do surgery tonight. I look back at Mandy, sleeping peacefully in my bed. It kills me to leave her, but I don’t have a choice.

“I’ll be there in half an hour. Call Dr. Reynolds and have him come in to assist me,” I tell the nurse, then hang up.

Moving quickly, I clean myself up and get dressed. I don’t want to wake Mandy, so I leave her a note, asking her to wait for me. With any luck, I’ll be back before she wakes up, and I can take her to breakfast in the morning so we can discuss our future together. I meant what I’d said to her. Mandy is mine now.

***

Two days have passed since I left Mandy in my bed and returned home to find her gone. The success of the emergency transplant surgery I’d performed is little consolation for the fact that Mandy hasn’t answered any of my calls or text messages.

Enough is enough. I deserve answers, and Mandy is going to give them to me whether she likes it or not. After telling my assistant to reschedule my appointments for the afternoon—something I loathe doing—I make my way to the offices ofThe Manhattan Chronicle. Taking a page from Mandy’s playbook, I tell the receptionist that I have an appointment for an interview with Mandy Cline. She gives me directions to Mandy’s office, and I head upstairs, a little miffed at the lack of security in the building.

When I reach Mandy’s office, she’s waiting for me and quickly pulls me inside, shutting the door behind us.

“What are you doing here?” she demands.

“Well, you won’t return my calls. How else am I going to get you to talk to me, if I don’t track you down?” I ask her, struggling to rein in my own temper.

I take Mandy in. Just the sight of her soothes something in me. She looks beautiful as always, though there are circles under eyes that weren’t there a few days ago. The sight of them makes me wonder if she’s had just as much trouble sleeping as I have. “Why did you leave that night? Why didn’t you wait for me to get home?”

“I needed some time to think,” Mandy says, dragging her hand through her hair and turning away from me.

“Think about what? Do you regret what happened?” Just the thought that she might is like a knife to my heart.

“No, I don’t. But…I’m not sure this is going to work, Trey.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I’d thought everything between us was perfect. I’ve never felt for anyone what I feel for Mandy.

“It’s just…you don’t have time,” she finally blurts out.

“What are you talking about? I talk to you every day. We’ve seen each other three times in the last two weeks.”

“Yeah, but you were late the second time and disappeared on me the third time. Between appointments and emergencies, I don’t think you have the time to devote to a relationship. The photo shoot and our date were both planned in advance, and something still came up.”

I can’t deny what she’s saying, as much as I wish I could. She’s right. My line of work comes with a lot of emergencies. Of course, I could back off on some things. I don’t have to be on-call nearly as much as I am. In the past, it was never an issue. I had nothing in my life aside from work.

“You’re right, there were emergencies. But you’re wrong that I don’t have time for a relationship. I’llmaketime. I don’t care what I have to do, I’m not letting you go.”

“Trey, you’re work is too important. I don’t want you to resent me for taking you away from it,” she says sadly.

“Not possible,” I assure her. “Please, let me make it up to you. Go away with me this weekend. I want to spend some time with you, just the two of us, no distractions.”

Mandy hesitates, and I step close, wrapping my arms around her. “Please, baby. Just for the weekend. Let’s see how things go, then we can decide what we want to do when we get home.” Not that it really matters, nothing is going to change my mind. Mandy is it for me.

She sighs heavily and meets my eyes. “Okay, just for the weekend.”

“I’ll send a car to pick you at your place Saturday morning,” I tell her, then brush a light kiss across her lips.

Chapter 9

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