Resisting Her Rebel Hero by Lucy Ryder Page B

at him.
    He smiled. He wouldn’t mind letting her try.
    “Look,” she said, shoving the hair off her forehead, “I have bigger problems than your...um, ego, okay?”
    Sam folded his arms and propped a shoulder against the wall, taking in the tousled, appealingly flustered picture she made. She looked about sixteen, and there was absolutely nothing cool or distant about Dr. Mahoney from Boston now.
    His brow rose. “Yeah, like?” He grinned into her flushed face. “Like why bedpans are listed with surgical scrubs?”

CHAPTER SIX
    C ASSIDY   LAUGHED . “ D ON ’ T be ridiculous,” she said, rolling her eyes. Her voice had emerged all breathy and excited, like she was a teenager again, for heaven’s sake. She’d been muttering about bedpans, of all things, while trying not to think about a certain Navy SEAL. Then suddenly there he was—looking like hot sin, bad attitude and way better than she remembered. And if, when she’d been pressed up against all that hard heat, she’d been tempted to get reacquainted with that awesome body, she wasn’t about to admit it out loud. She’d been a little startled, that’s all. She was over her attraction to him. Well, mostly.
    Looking into his darkly handsome face, Cassidy admitted to herself that he was a very dangerous man. He made her forget about good sense, heartbreak and painful lessons. He made her yearn to toss good sense out with her inhibitions. Fortunately she’d come to her senses in time.
    Nibbling nervously on her bottom lip, she kept a wary eye on him and focused on getting her heart rate down from stroke level, only to have it kicking into high gear again when he pushed away from the doorframe.
    “Look, Major,” she said quickly, throwing up a hand when he moved closer and looked like he wanted to nibble on her lip too. “I’m...busy.” His chest connected with her out-flung palm and didn’t stop. “ Really busy.” She squeaked and retreated, annoyed that just a minute in his presence and she was acting all girly and flustered. “Stop. Dammit , I don’t have time for your...um...warped idea of...of foreplay. Samuel, stop !”
    A dark brow hiked into his hairline and his mouth curled up at one corner. Great, now he was laughing at her. She huffed out a breath. Could this get any more embarrassing?
    “Foreplay?”
    Ignoring his question and figuring it was rhetorical anyway, Cassidy scuttled sideways and headed for the door, turning when she reached the relative safety of the hallway. Ready to make a run for it if he made any sudden moves.
    “So what are you doing here, Major?” Besides making my knees wobble and my pulse race.
    He turned, his gaze leisurely moving over her face until his hooded glance met hers, and add making her head spin to his sins. After a long moment, during which Cassidy thought she’d hyperventilate, he finally held up his bandaged hand.
    “Oh.” Her breath whooshed out and a small frown wrinkled her brow. For heaven’s sake, she wasn’t disappointed that he hadn’t come to push her up against any walls. In fact, she was relieved. She was really very busy and didn’t have time for games.
    “Why didn’t you just say so?” she gritted through clenched teeth, before spinning on her heel to head down the corridor at a sharp clip. She led the way through Reception and into the suture room, reaching for a lab coat on a nearby hook, figuring she needed the added protection against that penetrating gaze if she wanted to appear professional. Heck, if she wanted to think .
    She fumbled for a button and was horrified to find that her hands were trembling too much to perform a task she’d mastered at five. Biting back a growl of disgust, Cassidy huffed out a breath, smoothed out her expression and turned to find him leaning against the bed, watching her thoughtfully as he slowly unwound the bandage covering his hand.
    Crossing her arms beneath her breasts, she made herself focus on medical issues and not on how good he