Page 27 of Pulse

“Talia?”

Her eyes were dazed and pain-filled, but they widened at the sight of him. “Pulse?” she whispered with a tremor of obvious fear. “Am… am I…”

“Shh, shh, shh.” He picked up her hand and squeezed gently. “You’re gonna be all right, hon, okay? Promise we’ll get you all fixed up.”

She couldn’t nod because of the head restraint, so she whispered, “O-okay.”

“Are you in pain right now?” he asked as he wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm.

“Yes, m-my chest hurts, and my head. My face.”

“Okay, the paramedics gave you some medication through the IV to help with that, but I’m going to bump it up, okay?”

“T-thank you.”

He winked, maintaining his usual calm and friendly expression. Patients in shock or panicking responded best to him if he was almost playful when talking to them. This helped distract them from their fear and pain.

“Okay, Talia, don’t mind me here. Promise I’m not getting fresh,” he said as he held up a handful of sticky pads. “While the docs are checking everything out to make sure you don’t have any obvious injuries, I’m going to get you hooked up to anEKG so we can monitor your ticker. Is it okay if I unbutton your blouse?”

Despite everything she was going through, her face flushed. “Uh, yeah. That’s fine.”

“After we’re done here, we’ll get you up to radiology for some head and neck scans. Easy stuff. You won’t have to do a thing but lie there and answer a few questions,” he chattered as he slipped the first button of her silky blouse through the hole.

Then the next.

And another.

When he had them all free, he parted the fabric, and there were her tits. Right in front of his face, full, lush, and encased in a bright pink lace bra.

Never, not once, did he have a physical reaction to a patient in this kind of situation. Hell, he barely looked at his female patients as women. They were just parts he needed to assess for damage. Ninety-nine percent of the time, someone could offer him a million dollars five minutes after evaluating a patient, and he’d never be able to recall what color bra they wore. There was nothing sexual or attractive about trauma care.

Never.

But, of course, someone had drummed up that stupid phrasenever say neverfor a reason.

And goddamn, those were some phenomenal tits.

His dick twitched beneath his scrubs.

A single tear leaked from the corner of Talia’s eye. The sight of it shocked him back to reality faster than a slap. He hardly knew the woman, but his gut told him she’d deny that tear to her dying day if anyone asked. Talia was not the type of woman who wanted to show an ounce of what she would consider weakness.

“Hey,” he murmured, taking her hand in his. Her palm was clammy and cold despite the seventy-five-degree night. “We got you now. We’ll get you fixed up good as new.”

“I’m s-sorry,” she said, sounding like she was fighting sobs. “I’m j-just a little nervous.”

Nodding, he squeezed her hand. “Understandable. But I promise we’re gonna take the best damn care of you. Is there anyone you want me to call?”

She bit her lower lip and then sighed. “No. There’s no one.”

Why did those words have him wanting to press her hand over his heart?

Focus on your damn job.He refused to think of her as anything other than a patient. This was work. Same thing he’d been doing for the past few years.

He cleared his throat. “The paramedic said you got a doozy of a gash on your head as well, so after your scans, we’ll get that all stitched up for you.” He placed the electrodes for the EKG with quick, clinical precision, having done it countless times. Once he clipped on the wires, a familiar beep sounded as her cardiac rhythm registered on the monitor.

“O-okay.”

“Gabe, radiology transport is on the way.” He nodded at the nursing assistant before focusing on the telemetry monitor. Everything looked good. Her blood pressure was elevated but not to critical levels and not unsurprising due to the circumstances. The EKG showed a normal heart rhythm, and her oxygen saturation was within normal limits, which meant she was breathing normally and hopefully hadn’t broken any ribs in the crash.

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