Page 13 of Rules of the Heart

The week of suspension passed quickly, and before she knew it, Ella was back at work.

She didn’t see Valerie much on Monday morning, but in the afternoon, she was pulled into a surgery with Valerie. The person in question had fallen off a ladder. One of the spokes had entered his chest, and he had banged his head badly enough on a rock to cause bleeding in his brain.

“I need to shock his heart.”

“Not now! If his body jolts now, it’s going to pull my scalpel right through his frontal cortex.”

“Then hurry up,” Valerie growled. “If his heart stays stopped for much longer, he won’t have any brain function left for you to preserve.”

“So put him on bypass.”

“If I put him on bypass in this weakened state, he may never come off!”

Ella knew that she couldn’t afford to argue with Valerie right now, so she put all of her focus into getting the most critical bleeding under control as quickly as possible.

“Ella…”

“There! Shock him quickly. The worst of the bleeding is stopped. He’s still oozing, but that can wait a bit, until his heart has started again.”

Valerie didn’t waste any time. She shocked the patient three times before his heart started, and when it did, the beat was weak and hesitant, but Valerie was on the case. Ella concentrated on what she had to do.

It was difficult to concentrate with Valerieright therelooking like a fucking sex goddess with a scalpel. Ella’s eyes were constantly drawn to Valerie’s hands. She had never thought of hands as particularly sexy before, but just the sight of Valerie performing the delicate movements necessary to save their patient’s heart was such a turn-on that Ella had to take deep breaths and remind herself that her patient was relying on her to be cool and collected, not unendurably horny.

Unendurably horny could wait. For now, she needed to focus on the surgery.

It would be easier to do so if she didn’t notice the way Valerie kept looking at her. Unless Ella was seriously misreading her, Valerie was every bit as interested as Ella was. Her eyes were slightly darkened and her chest was rising and falling a little faster than was usual. That could be explained away by adrenaline, but Ella didn’t think so.

Every time Valerie looked at Ella, she was looking at her as though she was starving and Ella was a big, juicy burger. It made Ella want to put down the scalpel and pounce on Valerie, kissing her like she’d never kissed anyone before.

For what felt like the hundredth time, Ella forced herself to look away from Valerie. She had to focus on her patient, who was relying on her.

Unfortunately, the most difficult part of the surgery was done. It was easier to concentrate exclusively on her patient when they were bleeding to death before her eyes. Less so whenwhat was left was a few simple stitches here and there, things that even an intern could do.

For that matter, maybe an internshoulddo it. This was a teaching hospital, after all.

Ella let her eyes rove over the three interns watching avidly.

“Becky. Come here. Let me see your sutures.”

Becky’s eyes practically bugged out of her head as she stepped forward. She looked ready to explode with excitement, but when she took the scalpel, her hand was perfectly steady.

“Ella, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“It’ll be fine, Valerie. I’ve seen Becky’s work, and this part is a simple fix. I’ll step in if anything goes wrong.”

Ella gave Becky a stern look, hoping to convey her thoughts without words—that Becky had better not do anything to prove Ella wrong about her. She didn’t want to look like a fool in front of Valerie, not to mention not wanting her patient’s brain to suffer any more trauma than it already had.

She watched like a hawk over Becky’s shoulder as Becky did the repair. It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty good for an intern.

“Great job, Becky. You need to work on your speed; if a patient is bleeding out, you’re not going to have time to go that slowly. But you are still learning, and for now, going slow is much better than making a mistake. You did really well.”

“Thank you, Doctor Ashton.”

Becky retreated and started whispering excitedly with the other interns. Ella gave Valerie a self-satisfied smile, and Valerie rolled her eyes. She couldn’t reprimand Ella, because Ella hadn’t done anything against her precious rules. This was a teaching hospital, after all, and the interns all needed to start somewhere.

“Right, I think we’re almost—fuck!”

Everyone knew what Valerie was swearing about. The patient’s heart monitor had suddenly gone wild. Valerie frantically started checking the heart, looking for the bleed.

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