EARLY MONDAY MORNING, Felipe strode onto the NICU to find Emilia already at Luis Lopez’s bedside with both her registrar and his. They’d agreed to review the baby’s post-op progress together, but now that the moment had come to face her and act as if Friday night hadn’t happened, he felt an uncharacteristic shudder of apprehension.
‘Dr Gonzales,’ he said, his stare meeting hers across their tiny patient while his heart banged with excitement. She looked beautiful as usual, only now he knew exactly how every part of her body looked and felt and tasted.
‘Good morning, Dr Castillo,’ she replied, her expression neutral, giving nothing away.
Was it just his imagination, or did she seem a little subdued this morning? Friday night, she’d reassured him that she had no regrets, but maybe with the whole weekend to ponder what they’d done she’d changed her mind. He’d considered calling her over the weekend to make sure she was okay, but she’d been on call at the hospital, and they’d agreed to put that one night behind them.
Not that he could blame her if she did feel derailed. The events of Friday night had certainly taken him aback. They’d had a great date, they’d opened up to each other about their pasts, and as for the sex... He hadn’t expected their easy connection to turn so heated, nor had he anticipated how much he’d want to see her again outside of work, like for that walk in the dog park perhaps...
Deciding it was best that he hadn’t succumbed to the impulse to call her, Felipe turned to his registrar, Dr Ruiz. He listened to the latest blood results on Luis, while simultaneously trying to come to terms with that insanely hot night with his new colleague.
Now that they’d slept together, his awareness of her was finely tuned—the subtle scent of her perfume, the length of her dark eyelashes, the visible softness of those lovely full lips. Only he needed to put the amazing sex into perspective and act normally. He didn’t want any awkwardness to ruin their friendship and, as her supervisor, he needed to show discretion at work.
‘Luis has had multiple apnoeic spells this morning,’ his registrar said, thankfully oblivious to the tension between Felipe and Emilia.
Felipe nodded, gently pressing his stethoscope against the baby’s tiny chest, listening to the rapid beat of his heart and the whoosh of air in and out of his lungs.
‘Chest is clear. Heart sounds normal,’ he said, glancing at Emilia for her input.
Apnoea, when breathing stopped for a significant period of time, was common in pre-term infants, but Luis Lopez was only three days post-op. His left lung was still small and underdeveloped because of the diaphragmatic hernia. The last thing they needed was for his recovery to be hampered by a chest infection or some other post operative complication. He watched as Emilia gently palpated Luis’s abdomen.
‘It’s soft,’ she said. ‘No evidence of peritonitis or a collection and the wound looks good.’ Their eyes met as they each pondered the likely cause of Luis’s apnoea.
Felipe’s heart rate spiked with excitement and uncertainty. He wished he knew how she felt after their date. He didn’t want that night to ruin the easy working relationship they’d developed, and he still valued her friendship.
‘We could repeat the scan to make sure the internal repair is sound,’ Felipe suggested, concerned for the smallest Lopez triplet. ‘The chest drain is patent, so it’s unlikely to be a haemothorax.’ Only they didn’t want to miss something.
‘Surgically everything seems stable,’ Emilia agreed, and then turned to face her registrar. ‘Have we run a blood glucose recently? Hypoglycaemia can cause central apnoea.’
Very low birth weight babies often suffered low blood sugar, especially when feeding was interrupted by surgery, as in Luis’s case. One registrar made a note in Luis’s file, while the other organised the blood work.
‘While we’re checking that,’ Felipe said to them, ‘let’s retest electrolytes and blood gases too.’
‘Are you happy to recommence nasogastric feeds?’ Emilia asked him as the neonatal nurse switched out the intravenous saline for glucose. ‘Feeding will help stabilise blood sugars.’
‘Sounds good,’ he said, glancing back down at Luis. ‘Let’s leave our team to sort all that while we speak to Isabella and Sebastian.’
Together, they found the couple in the family room and explained Luis’s progress to them.
‘From a surgical standpoint,’ Felipe told the Lopezes, ‘everything looks good. There’s no sign of complications, but we’re concerned that his blood sugars might be a little low. We’ll test for that, and re-establish the nasogastric tube feeding regime today and wean Luis off the oxygen. Keep bringing in your expressed breast milk.’
Isabella nodded and glanced at Emilia, as if for her confirmation. But of course, the women had met before the babies were born, and mother-to-mother, they shared a bond.
‘The surgery went very smoothly,’ Emilia confirmed, looking to Felipe to include him in the conversation. ‘But to be on the safe side, Dr Castillo’s registrar is going to order some blood tests and repeat the scan.’
After a few more questions, the couple seemed relieved and headed back to the NICU, hand in hand.
‘Can we talk for a second?’ Felipe asked Emilia as they left the third floor and took the stairs down to Theatres.
‘Of course,’ Emilia said, glancing his way as they entered the surgical department. ‘Is everything okay?’ Doubt flickered across her eyes, and Felipe offered her a reassuring nod.
‘Of course.’ He indicated his office and followed her inside, closing the door behind them.
She turned to face him with an expectant smile. Felipe hesitated. Perhaps he’d misjudged her withdrawal. Perhaps she’d put Friday night well behind her and was simply getting her head into another working week after the weekend. Perhaps it was only him who’d been rocked to the core by what had happened.
‘I just wanted to make sure you were okay after Friday night?’ he said, diving straight in to dispense with any awkwardness. ‘You were gone when I woke up. Sorry that I fell asleep. Not very gentlemanly of me...’
Emilia shook her head, a delicate flush on her cheeks as she reached for his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. ‘It’s no problem. I had to sneak home before Eva realised I wasn’t back. I felt like a teenager again, creeping into my own house.’
She grinned and Felipe’s doubts settled, his entire body relaxing for the first time since he’d walked onto the NICU earlier. She was a capable, mature woman who knew what she wanted. There was obviously no awkwardness between them this morning. But a niggle of unease lingered. Was he disappointed to return to just being friends?
‘You called a taxi?’ he asked, a part of him wishing she hadn’t needed to rush off. He usually tried to avoid having women sleeping over in favour of keeping things casual, but she’d felt far too good in his arms, warming his bed.
She shrugged. ‘I didn’t want to wake you.’
The second time, after a shared shower, they’d taken things slower. In his king-sized bed, he’d kissed every part of her body, bringing her to climax with his mouth before pushing inside her once more.
She dropped her hand to her side, and he quickly snagged hold of her fingers.
‘So we’re good?’ he pressed, peering into her eyes. ‘No awkward feelings? No regrets?’
Why was he so invested in making sure she’d had a good time? And why was he still dazed by how hot they’d been together? Emilia was a passionate, experienced woman.
Her smile softened and she inched closer, keeping her fingers entwined with his. ‘I had a lovely night, Felipe, although it went a bit further than I expected for a first date...’
‘Then it’s a good thing it wasn’t a real date,’ he said with a smile, ‘just a practice run.’
She laughed and the sound lifted his spirits, any reservations he had about them sleeping together and working together dissolving. But, despite thinking they were done, that everything would return to their pre-sex vibe, he found himself desperate to kiss her again, if only to make sure it was as good in the cold light of day. Not that he truly needed the experiment. Their chemistry was as strong as ever, which was maybe the main reason he shouldn’t kiss her again. They’d promised each other—just one night.
‘I wanted to thank you, actually,’ she said, a little hesitantly, looking up at him. ‘You can imagine how apprehensive I was to be intimate with anyone else. No matter how illogical it might be, part of me still felt guilty, as if I was...cheating.’
Empathy gripped him. ‘I can understand that,’ he said, a lump in his throat that she felt comfortable enough to confess such a personal detail.
‘But you were so considerate and thoughtful,’ she added, squeezing his fingers. ‘Definitely a gentleman.’
She stepped closer, looking up at him with that open expression, and his body instantly reacted, desire and protective urges flaring, every muscle tensing, his temperature shooting through the roof. He still wanted her, just as much as before. Only they’d agreed to one night. His head should be on their working relationship, not sex...
Only with Emilia, it was more than just great sex. They were friends, too.
‘I had a really good time,’ she went on, sincerely. ‘I want you to know that, thanks to you, I feel as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, somehow.’ She closed the distance between them and raised her face to his, pressing a swift kiss beside his mouth.
Felipe froze, his first instinct to forget their working relationship, forget friendship, to spear his fingers through her hair, crush her body to his and drag her mouth back to his. It was a natural urge after their red-hot night. But Emilia was different to the other women he’d dated, and he needed to stay professional.
‘You’re welcome,’ he said, his stare snagged on her parted lips and the soft gust of her rapid breaths. ‘I had a really good time, too.’ The best time he’d had in years. Maybe that was why he had an uncharacteristic urge to see her again.
For a handful of seconds, they stared at each other, smiling, as if suspended in time. Emotions flitted across her face: excitement, hesitation, that telling flicker of desire.
Felipe snapped. To hell with their working relationship. He’d been denied that goodbye kiss when she’d left his bed in the early hours of Saturday morning. It would be almost rude not to take the opportunity to do it now.
Done wrestling with his thoughts, and because she was still holding his hand, he scooped one arm around her waist, cupped her cheek with his other hand, hauled her close and kissed her. Emilia met him halfway, surging up on her tiptoes to cement their kiss.
As if they’d both been holding back, the first touch of lips to lips unleashed a torrent of arousal. She moaned—he released a low growl in the back of his throat. How was he expected to resist this amazing woman who was now a friend, a colleague, a passionate lover?
Without breaking contact, he spun them around and pressed her back against the closed office door so he could align her body to his in all the places that mattered. She whimpered a sexy little sound that inflamed him further, her fingers tangling in his hair.
He pinned her to the door with his grinding hips, their bodies touching from shoulder to thigh, moving restlessly together as if to deepen the friction and seek out release. Her hands gripped his neck, keeping their lips locked together, their tongues surging, teasing, tasting. Drugged with desire, Felipe cupped her breast through her shirt, his thumb toying the nipple erect until she moaned and dropped her head back against the door.
‘Felipe...’ she gasped, staring up at him, her teeth snagging her bottom lip, which was swollen from their kisses.
‘That’s the goodbye kiss I would have given you if you’d woken me before you left,’ he said, dragging his lips over her throat and sucking in the heady scent of her skin.
‘Then I’m really sorry I missed it,’ she panted, palming his erection through his trousers as she pulled his mouth back to hers.
He needed to stop this. They couldn’t be caught making out in his office. They had a full morning of surgeries about to begin and they were supposed to be done with the physical side of their relationship.
Only his head and his body were in direct conflict.
Finally, with a strength he hadn’t known he possessed, Felipe dragged his mouth from hers and let his hands slip to her waist. ‘Sorry about that. I got carried away. I felt as if I’d been cheated out of that one last kiss by falling asleep.’
She smiled sheepishly, smoothing down her blouse. ‘I’m sorry, too. You’re very good at kissing.’
He smiled and they stepped away from each other, as if physical distance would squash further temptation. While Felipe dragged in some calming breaths, Emilia glanced at the door and sobered. ‘That night was just between us, right? I wouldn’t want anyone here to know.’
‘Of course.’ Felipe brushed a hand down his shirt and straightened his tie, shrugging off disappointment. While he was still reeling over how much he still wanted her, in spite of their promise to each other, she was more pragmatic. ‘But do you really need to ask?’
She was right to reset the boundaries. They were professionals. He was her supervisor. And he respected her as a friend.
‘No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Sorry. Perhaps I just needed to remind myself that we’re at work. You’re kind of irresistible.’ Her stare flicked to his groin, where he was still tenting the front of his trousers. For an agonised second, he couldn’t tell if she was about to kiss him again or leave.
Then she rested her hand on the doorknob at her back, her intentions clear. It was time to shelve their chemistry and put work first.
‘I might need a second,’ he said with a wince, stepping behind his desk to put a piece of heavy furniture between him and Emilia.
Shooting one last almost wistful glance below his belt, she nodded. ‘I’ll um...go and get changed. See you in Theatre.’
It took him a solid five minutes to calm down.