The Dangers Of Dating Dr Carvalho. Tina Beckett
while the injured arm dangled awkwardly, the sling bunched along his forearm. Amazingly, the troublemaker had gone totally limp once subdued, moaning as if mortally wounded. He looked like the victim, rather than the guilty party.
As she put a hand to her throat and struggled to catch her breath, one of the guards glanced expectantly at her. “Which one did you call us about?”
“The one on the left.”
Poor Lucas looked like he’d been through the wringer. His hair stood straight up where the other man had grabbed it and his gown had twisted sideways, revealing quite a bit of one taut thigh.
Releasing him, the guard said, “What happened?”
“That man attacked Paulina, yelling about some kind of infection.”
Just then a woman exited a second elevator and rushed toward them, followed by one of the emergency room doctors.
“Please don’t hurt him. I’m his sister,” she said. “He’s schizophrenic. I didn’t realize he was off his meds until this morning when I found him covered in blood, saying someone was after him. I lost track of him in the emergency room.”
The doctor nodded. “He wasn’t particularly agitated when he arrived. I stepped out to call his psychiatrist, who’s on his way. It’ll take him about ten minutes to get here.”
His sister spoke up. “I’m so sorry about all of this. My mother called and I left the room for just a second to talk to her.” She glanced at Lucas and then evidently spied the scalpel on the floor. “Oh, no. Did he hurt someone?”
“No, we stopped him in time,” Sophia said. The woman seemed so genuinely upset that she didn’t have the heart to tell her just how serious the situation had been. And from the look of the man now, you’d never guess he’d just gone on a rampage. She could understand why they’d let their guard down.
Besides, even with all the precautions in the world, you couldn’t always stop bad things from happening. She knew that for a fact. Look at Marcos and Lucas. Or even her own childhood, for that matter.
The doctor turned to the guard who’d been holding Lucas. “Could you accompany us back to the emergency wing? I’d appreciate it.”
Within minutes they’d bundled the patient, whose name was evidently Ronaldo, into a wheelchair and got back into the elevator, his sister holding his hand.
Sophia sent Paulina a shaky smile. “Are you okay?”
The nurse chuckled and pressed a hand to her chest. “Other than wondering if he was going to carve out my heart and eat it, yes. Thank you for coming when you did.” Her gaze went to Lucas, who leaned against the counter. “And thank you for wrestling that scalpel away from him.”
Sophia realized Lucas wasn’t just leaning against the nurses’ station, he was propped against it as if he’d fall to the floor if he let go. “Hey. Are you hurt?”
“You mean besides my pride?”
His pride. What did that have to do with anything?
“You made him let go of the knife.”
“And if those guards hadn’t gotten here when they had, that’s about all I would have done.”
Shock whistled through her. He acted like he’d just let the opposing team score the winning goal of the season.
She moved over to him and laid a hand on his arm. “What are you talking about? You disarmed him, Lucas. You saw how he threw me across the room like a toy. If you hadn’t stepped in to help, who knows what damage he could have caused?” She frowned. “Speaking of damage, how are your stitches?”
“They’re not happy, but they’re still there. I’ll be glad when the damned things come out.”
Paulina wheeled an office chair around the desk and put it behind him. “Sit, before you fall down.”
“I’m fine.” Despite his words, he carefully lowered himself into the chair. Was he really okay? Or just saying that for her and Paulina’s benefit?
“How about your side? Did he get you?”
“No. Believe me, I was keeping everything of value as far out of the reach of that scalpel as I could.”
Paulina giggled at the words, although it took Sophia a second or two to get his meaning. Then her face heated in a rush, and her glance instinctively dropped to his lap. “Oh.”
“Yeah. As it was, no harm done.” He dragged a hand through his hair, pausing to rub the area of his scalp where the patient had pulled his hair. “I’ll give you this, Nurse Limeira, you sure do run an exciting ward here.”
She laughed. “All in a day’s work, Dr. Carvalho.”
He sighed and leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes for a second or two.
Hmm, the man really did look a bit shaky. Maybe it was time to get him out of there. “Are you still feeling well enough to be discharged today? Or do you want to stick around for one more night?”
“And risk another scene like that one?” He shook his head. “I think I’m more than ready to leave. A nice—quiet—apartment is sounding better and better.”
She glanced at Paulina, who seemed positively starstruck by Lucas, even going as far as to twirl a strand of her bleached-blonde hair around her index finger as she watched him.
Even injured, he had the same effect on other women that he’d had on her when she’d been little. A tiny part of her wondered if she was the only one he’d forgotten. Maybe he didn’t remember any woman he’d had contact with. He was handsome enough that he could have his pick—just look at Paulina. And maybe he did just that. Maybe he went through them so fast that none of them made a lasting impression.
Her mood took a sudden nosedive. She needed to remember her earlier admonition to steer clear of him as much as possible. Not that it was going to be possible as she’d volunteered to sleep over. If it weren’t for her longstanding friendship with Marcos, she wouldn’t have offered in the first place. But she had, and she felt obligated to go through with it.
Well, just because she had to sleep near him, it didn’t mean she was going to sleep with him.
She blinked. Why had that thought even come up?
Maybe because she’d gotten a good glimpse of rock-hard thighs and a nice tight tushie during the struggle with Ronaldo.
Yep, visions of sponge baths were now dancing through her head.
Well, there’d be none of that. Not here. Not at Marcos’s apartment. She was simply there to make sure the man didn’t fall and suffer a concussion.
Although if he didn’t wipe that knowing smirk off his face, a concussion wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities. And she’d be the one inflicting it.
She stepped in front of Paulina in an effort to snap the woman back to reality. “Well, I guess that’s settled. Before we have any more mishaps, maybe we should find you something to wear and get you out of here.”
CHAPTER FIVE
AT LEAST HE didn’t have to wear his brother’s clothes.
Lucas knew it was a strange thing to be thankful for, but he was borrowing his brother’s apartment, sleeping in his brother’s bed, and making use of his brother’s friend.
No. She was their friend. At least, from what Marcos had told him.
Damn, if only he could remember.
Right now, Sophia was brewing coffee in his brother’s kitchen as if she’d done it a million times. That thought made him uneasy and he wasn’t sure why.
He should be grateful for all she was doing for him. And he was. After all, she’d gone to his hotel and