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“And then there’s this one.” Freya clicked the remote again and a close-up photograph of Flo in Nate’s arms, lips locked, was emblazoned across a more reputable local paper with the caption underneath, Love match between heart surgeons.
“We’re not heart surgeons,” Nate joked, trying to defuse the situation. “We have cardiothoracic training, but we only transplant hearts when it comes to cardio care.”
Freya fixed her sternest gaze on him. “Yet the world knows Kyle Francis is waiting for a heart and lung transplant.”
“How did they know that?”
Freya sighed, “A paramedic leaked it. Not someone from our clinic thankfully, but still security and privacy measures at our clinic are now being questioned. Especially in light of a paramedic leaking the information about Kyle Francis’s surgery and then a paparazzo snapping a picture of two surgeons making out on the roof of our clinic. Our reputation is on the line.”
Flo’s stomach twisted in a knot and she felt like she was going to be sick.
How could she have been so foolish? She liked to live for the moment and take risks, but not when it jeopardized her career or the reputation of The Hollywood Hills Clinic.
“Freya, I’m so sorry...”
“There’s no need to apologize, Flo. There’s still a chance to solve this problem.” She smiled at them both. “Which is why I’m so glad both of you are dressed respectably. We’re going to hold a press conference in a few moments.”
“A press conference about what?” Nate asked.
“We’re going to talk about Kyle’s procedure. We have clearance from his management team. It will be good PR for him. We’re also going to talk about a pro bono case that both of you will be working on. We’ll be working in conjunction with the Bright Hope Clinic to help Eva Martinez. She’s a child in need of a kidney transplant. Her mother, a single mom and waitress, is a perfect match and is donating a kidney to her daughter. It’s caught the attention of the media.”
Flo’s heart skipped a beat as Freya brought up the dossier of Eva Martinez. Eva was twelve. Just a couple of years younger than she herself had been when she’d needed her kidney transplant. It struck a chord deep in her heart.
“Of course,” Flo said, finally finding her voice. “Of course I’m willing to work on a pro bono case for a child. That’s no problem.”
“Is that all?” Nate asked.
“No,” Freya said quietly, crossing her arms and leaning back in the chair. “We have to address the issue of two prominent transplant surgeons kissing on the roof of The Hollywood Hills Clinic and being caught doing it.”
“There’s nothing between us,” Flo said quickly. “It won’t happen again.”
Nate was eyeing her speculatively, as if she’d slapped him or something. “Of course. It won’t happen again. It was an impulse after a long surgery.”
“I don’t need to know why it happened. I don’t care if our surgeons date, but I do care about the fact those two surgeons were caught kissing on the clinic roof when we advertise privacy and security to our VIPs. So, I want you two to pretend you’re in a relationship.”
Flo blinked, because she couldn’t believe what Freya was saying. “Pardon?”
“The Hollywood Hills dream team is going to save the life of Eva Martinez and Kyle Francis. The positive PR this will bring to The Hills is too good an opportunity to pass up. We need to restore our reputation. Until that reputation is restored and our clients begin to trust us again, your wagons are officially hitched together.”
* * *
Nate knew he should refuse, get up and walk away. After all, he wasn’t a surgeon at the clinic. He was only here because of his patient and that’s why he couldn’t leave.
He also didn’t want to hurt Flo.
She was a surgeon here at The Hollywood Hills Clinic. Her reputation would be tainted because of this. He really didn’t have much of choice. He might not like it, but it was just a prettiness. It wasn’t like they had to do anything, and he didn’t have plans to surf the local single scene in California. It wasn’t going to put a damper on his style.
“Okay,” Nate said.
“Okay?” Flo asked, shocked, and she fixed him with an are you crazy look.
“I’m fine with the pretense and I’m more than happy to help that little girl. The fact that a match has already been found makes it all the easier. I don’t mind working on a pro bono case.”
Freya smiled. “Good. What about you, Flo?”
Flo was sitting back in her chair, still in shock. “I guess that’s okay. I’m fine with the pro bono case and...yeah, I’m fine with the other angle.”
“Good,” Freya said, and stood. “I’ll let the press into the press room and we’ll get this conference started in ten minutes.”
Nate watched as Freya walked out of the boardroom, leaving Flo and him by themselves. They didn’t say anything to each other. There was lots he wanted to say to Flo; he wanted to apologize to her, because it was his fault they were in this situation. He was the one who’d been unable to control his desire for her.
He’d acted impetuously. Something he hadn’t done in a long time.
This is why I need to maintain control and keep my distance at all times.
If he didn’t maintain that tight control on himself, he acted irrationally and people paid for his indiscretion. Which was why he always tried to remain in control. Control of his life was the most important thing.
“Well, perhaps we should get to the press room.”
“What was that?” Flo asked, her arms crossed.
“What was what?” he asked.
“Why did you agree so easily? I thought you would’ve put up a fight. I mean, you don’t work for the clinic. You could just leave, go back to New York.”
Nate snorted. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Flo rolled her eyes. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Kyle’s surgery.”
“Doesn’t it?” Nate stood and leaned over the boardroom table. “You’ve been trying to get me to go back home since I first arrived. You don’t like another surgeon sniffing around your territory.”
Flo grinned. “You’re right. I don’t, but I had resigned myself to the fact you were staying. Honestly, if it were my patient I would probably do the same thing. What I don’t understand now is why you’re being so accommodating.”
“Look, it was my fault what happened up there. I shouldn’t have done it. I was an idiot and not thinking clearly. If I could go back in time and change the fact that I kissed you I would. It was a huge mistake.”
A faint trace of disappointment crossed her face. “Okay.”
“Let’s just put on our best professional facades out there and play nice. Besides, I look forward to working on a kidney transplant with you. It should be a simple surgery.”
A strange look passed over her face again, one he couldn’t recognize as other than pain, but it was just fleeting as she stood up and straightened her lab coat. “Right. A nice pro bono case. Good PR.”
There was a hint of bitterness to her tone.
“Are you okay?” Nate asked.
“Now you care how I feel?” Flo asked.
“Well, I am supposed to be your boyfriend. I might as well get into the act.”
Flo shook her head and sighed. “Come on, then, Mr. Dreamboat. Let’s get this press conference over with.”
“That’s Dr. Dreamboat to you,” Nate teased.
Flo stuck out her tongue and they walked out of the boardroom and headed toward the press conference, with a lot of gazes fixed on them. A few whispers. So word had got out already about the “dream team”.
Nate took Flo’s hand and she flinched, so he leaned over, the scent of her soap tickling his senses.
“Relax, we’re supposed to hold hands. We’re a couple.”
Flo nodded and then held her head high as they walked hand in hand to the press conference. Though he shouldn’t like it, he did. Her delicate hands, the ones that had so expertly stitched in that left ventricular assist device just yesterday, were strong and soft in his.
And it felt right.
Too right.
The moment they stepped into the press conference they were met by a ton of flashes and questions being fired at them. Flo looked a bit shell shocked. Perhaps she wasn’t used to press conferences, but Nate was.
He often spoke to the board and at conferences about transplant surgery. This was an old hat for him. The only thing that was a bit new for him, and unwelcome at that, was pretending to be Flo’s significant other.
Well, it wasn’t totally unwelcome to pretend to be Flo’s boyfriend. What bothered him was that he wanted to act on it. He wanted another kiss. All the previous night in his hotel he’d thought about her, to the point he’d been unable to sleep and had spent most of the night in the hotel’s swimming pool, swimming laps to burn off energy.
Energy that he’d wanted to spend in a different way.
Don’t think about it.
“It’s okay,” Nate whispered in her ear, reassuringly. “Just smile. This is for The Hollywood Hills Clinic, remember?”
“Right,” Flo said through gritted teeth, and she nodded as they made their way to the podium, taking a seat on either side of Freya.
He could do this. Keep his cool.
He could go with this charade.
He was made of strong mettle.
This was just an act. Just a risky, foolish act. One he should be keeping far away from.
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_761442e9-ea73-5ad2-baea-9e68c15f943f)
FLO’S PULSE THUNDERED in her ears. She didn’t like crowds too much. Crowds like this just reminded her of junior high school when she’d been a sickly girl sitting off on the sidelines but wanting to be part of the action. Her mom had taught her to be strong, but that was usually in a one-on-one situation. There were a lot of people in this room. People who weren’t doctors.
Stand her in front of a bunch of other surgeons, doctors and nurses in a conference setting and she was fine. Press? That was new territory. Especially given the fact that she was on the arm of the hottest man in the room.
And usually good-looking men didn’t get to her, either. James Rothsberg was in the room and Flo had always found him attractive, with his golden blond hair, deep blue eyes and athletic frame. So what was it about Dr. Nathaniel King that made her feel so nervous?
Probably because you’ve never kissed James Rothsberg and have no desire to do so.
Whereas Nate King. Oh, yeah, she’d been fighting that craving since he’d first got off the helicopter.
Get a grip on yourself.
Freya was talking, but Flo really couldn’t focus on what she was saying. She was talking about The Hollywood Hills Clinic and initiatives with the Bright Hope Clinic. Flo glanced over and could see a petite woman with mahogany hair and hazel eyes smiling and nodding at everything that Freya was saying, and Flo recognized her as Mila Brightman, who ran the Bright Hope Clinic, but it was the look that James was shooting at Mila that caught Flo’s attention immediately. There was underlying tension there, something Flo recognized as akin to her own feelings regarding Nate and their shared passionate kiss.
Flo couldn’t help but wonder if there was something going on between James and Mila. James was usually so reserved in press conferences, so detached and cool, but this was different. Something was bubbling just under the surface of James Rothsberg.
Just like something was threatening to bubble out from her.
You can do this. Just stay focused.
All she had to do was keep reminding herself that as soon as Nate found out about her health condition, about how she had almost died from chronic kidney failure as a child because of complications from her premature birth and spending a month in a NICU, he’d turn tail and run. Like all of them did.
“And as part of the Bright Hope Clinic’s collaboration with The Hollywood Hills Clinic, we’re pleased to announce that our dream team of Dr. Florence Chiu and Dr. Nathaniel King, two of the best transplant surgeons in the country, will be taking on Eva Martinez’s case while they continue to provide care to Kyle Francis.” Freya motioned for Flo to get up and approach the microphone.
You can do this.
There was a round of applause and as soon as she got to the microphone she was hammered by a loud din of questions being asked rapid-fire. James stood up and bent over the microphone.
“Please, one question at a time. I’m sure Dr. Chiu would be more than happy to answer all your questions.” His tone was such that his word wouldn’t be challenged. The din quieted down and he stepped away, leaving Flo up there by herself.
“You, sir. What’s your question?” Flo pointed to a balding, pudgy man in the front row.
“Photographs of you and Dr. King have arisen that gives rise to questions about the state of security at The Hollywood Hills Clinic. Patients are wondering if their privacy will be protected and whether their doctors’ focus will be on them, or will it be solely on who to hop into bed with next?”
Flo could feel her cheeks burning with a flame of embarrassment. “I can assure you that my focus is solely on my patients’ care.”
Nate stood up. “Dr. Chiu and I are in a committed relationship. We went on the rooftop after a successful surgery involving Mr. Francis and got carried away. Are you telling me that you’ve never got carried away celebrating with your significant other before?”
Nate then flashed a dazzling smile to the audience, which had them all laughing.
Oh, he was good.
“That still doesn’t address the privacy and security concerns,” the balding reporter called.
“The picture was snapped by a paparazzo from an office window across from the clinic. We can’t control what happens outside our perimeters, but he was not able to get any photographs inside our facility, neither was he able to take photographs of our patients,” Freya said.
“What about the paramedic that leaked the information?” another reporter asked.
“My understanding is he’s been reprimanded and he will not be allowed back on The Hollywood Hills Clinic property in a capacity where he’ll have access to confidential health information,” James said brusquely.
Once they were satisfied another reporter stepped forward. “How long have you and Dr. King been in a relationship?”
“For a couple of months. We met to discuss Mr. Francis’s care while our patient was in California to shoot a movie.”
Nate nodded and touched the small of her back. Just the simple touch made goose pimples break out on her skin. Good thing he couldn’t feel them.
“Can you tell us a little bit about Mr. Francis’s procedure?”
“Of course. Mr. Francis is in congestive heart failure, but because he’s been in heart failure for some time, this has put a strain on his already weak lungs. Mr. Francis had a pre-existing struggle with asthma for many years. Because his lungs are so damaged by the extra strain his heart is causing, he will require a heart and lung transplant. We were hoping to perform a domino procedure, but now that Mr. Francis is on a left ventricular assist device, he is no longer a candidate. We will have to wait for a set of lungs and a heart that matches Mr. Francis’s blood type, but the LVAD will prolong his life while he waits.”
