I was feeling more nervous before this operation than I had felt in a long time. It was nothing to do with the fame of the patient. Heck, I had worked on some of the planet’s most famous faces and felt supremely confident of my own skills.

No, my unusual nervousness was mainly down to a desire to impress Janie the first time that we worked together. I felt proud of my plastic surgery skills and wanted to make her proud of them as well.

Of course, I was also very aware that using a new nurse so soon after she had started in her first ever job was risky. No doubt the other nurses in the clinic were gossiping about it and maybe even feeling a bit upset about Janie gaining my confidence so quickly.

However, I was the boss and the decision had been taken. It was my responsibility to guide her through the whole thing and make it the start of something very special between us.

I was already planning how to give her a hug after the operation to say well done. Let’s see where things go from there. I was rushing far too much and was going to have to make a big effort to slow down.

Janie walked into the clinic with her everyday clothes on and headed for the nurses’ changing area. I had never been in there before but the thought of barging in and seeing her get dressed made my heart skip a beat.

I knew she was in there alone so I looked around to see if the coast was clear and quickly walked in before giving myself a chance to let any doubts settle in. This was madness but I was just obeying some wild, inner impulse that this woman had activated in me the first time I saw here.

Janie was just sitting down and hadn’t yet started to button up her uniform so I could see that she had gorgeous white underwear on. The top half of the blue uniform was hanging open while she was bent over fixing her shoes.

I looked her over while she was concentrating on her shoes. I could see the form of her breasts clearly through the flimsy fabric and started to get aroused. My eyes wandered down to where I could just make out the top of her white panties as she slowly fixed her shoes.

“I don’t mean to disturb you.”

“Frank! What are you doing in here?” She wasn’t in any rush to button up her uniform by the looks of it, which was a good sign. I liked women who were confident of their bodies and free of silly complexes.

“Are you feeling a bit nervous about the operation today?”

“Should you be in here?”

She looked around, as though expecting someone to catch us out.

“I’m the boss. I can go anywhere I want to.”

“I really don’t think you should be spying on your nurses getting dressed, though.” She pulled her uniform together to hide her body from me.

Had I made a terrible mistake?

“Come on Janie; is it that bad that I saw your underwear?”

“It’s not very professional, Doctor Sanchez.” She had put me firmly in my place and I felt awful. My hormones had ruled my head for a moment and I might have ruined everything because of my uncharacteristically impulsive behavior.

This was completely unprofessional of me and I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts. I needed to focus on the operation.

My new nurse walked towards the door while buttoning up the last few buttons with a severe look on her face for the first time in my presence. It was time to get down to business.

The operation started off smoothly. I had been doing this for years and could fix someone’s nose with my eyes shut.

I could see that Janie was a bit over-awed by the occasion, though, especially when she finally worked out who was lying on the table in front of her. This woman was a beautiful actress that had also tried her hand at singing, with a reasonable degree of success despite having an awful singing voice.

She still looked upset at me too. The easy smile from yesterday had disappeared and I longed to see her relax with me again.

Janie’s nervousness was starting to affect me and I was getting more anxious by the minute. I asked Janie to mop my brow and felt her hand shaking as it moved along my brow jerkily. She looked uncomfortable near me and probably thought I was some sort of creep who spied on younger women all the time.

Being this close to each other had felt so good and natural yesterday that I had expected it to be the same in the operation theater. However, I now realized that the operating theater wasn’t the best place for simmering sexual tension or for new, awkward relationships.

Things started to fall apart but I had to get through this operation somehow. The reputation that I had taken decades to build up would collapse into the dirt if I messed up this procedure. The whole world would know about it if this actress turned up at a film premiere with a botched nose.

Janie didn’t know what to do half the time. That was my fault for rushing her into this job but I started to get irritable with her. None of this was her fault but I had to take it out on someone, as I was used to being as perfect as humanly possible.

I could see that Janie’s brow was even sweatier than mine. This was turning into a horror story. My hand was shaking so badly that it felt like I was attempting my very first surgery.

Finally, I snapped at Janie and told her to send in another nurse urgently while she took a break. She nodded and rushed out.

With the help of a more experienced assistant, I got through the rest of the procedure safely, although I now had a pounding headache and was feeling very tired. Improving people’s looks usually left me feeling energized and happy but not this time.

After finally getting to the end of the worst operation of my career I got washed and dressed. For the first time in my career, I found myself praying that the patient was going to be happy with the results, rather than being completely sure of my work.

I tried to put on my most serious, professional face as Heidi came towards me. Her face was twisted into the sort of look of fake sympathy that she always wore when she was reveling in someone else’s misfortune.

The only reason I hadn’t fired this unlikeable lady a long time ago was that she was an incredibly organized receptionist who keeps things ticking over brilliantly. Her work lets me concentrate on what I do best and forget about the rest.

“What went wrong, Doctor?”

“Wrong? Nothing went wrong. The patient now has a beautiful new nose to be proud of.”

Heidi put on a look of mock innocence that made my blood boil.

“Oh, I just noticed that Jan ran out to the grounds crying. I thought maybe she had screwed up in there. Being her first time and everything.”

It took all my reserves of self-control to not go running out to look for her there and then. Instead, I walked as slowly and calmly as possible to my office and closed the door behind me. However, we both knew that I would soon be out looking for Janie.

Sure enough, I couldn’t resist more than 10 minutes of pacing up and down in the office before I sneaked out the back door. Christ, what had things come to when I had to sneak out the back door of my own clinic to speak to one of my nurses?

There was an area around the back of the building that I spent a lot of my free time in. The design had been inspired by a trip to one of England’s finest stately homes that I had made a few years ago.

There was a fragrant flower garden that was alive with color and delicious aromas at this time of year. Around the flowers were a series of shrubs that closed off the area, giving it a feeling of complete privacy that was perfect for those moments when I needed to get away from the world.

No-one else ever came out here. In fact, in all the years of running the clinic, the only other person I had ever seen here was the friendly, silent gardener who came along once every couple of weeks to tidy it up.

Janie was sitting on the beautiful wooden bench from Japan where I had spent so many hours thinking about work and life in general. It felt weird to see someone else out here but it also felt right too.

Janie was bent over and I could tell that she was still crying. I felt terrible, as it was completely my fault for rushing her into a job that she wasn’t ready for yet, and for having barged in on her in the changing room earlier.

It seemed like an eternity that I stood there looking at her. Her blue nurse’s uniform was crumpled and her hair had fallen messily over her face.

I can now admit that I was torn in two that day. I desperately wanted to rush over to her and hold her. She needed comforting and I needed to feel the warmth of her body against mine.

On the other hand, I was scared. My life had become very safe and predictable lately. As soon as Janie had appeared in my life things started to spiral out of control. I had made more crazy decisions in the last 24 hours than in the whole of the previous year.

Did I want that? Was I ready to give up my self-control and my comfortable lifestyle for the thrills of forbidden passion with a nurse I barely knew?

The setting was perfect and we were both in highly emotional states.

I had felt a spark between us earlier; there was no doubt about it. But had I ruined it with my recent foolish behavior? Maybe she would deliver the most crushing rejection of my life if I ran to her now.

She looked up at and I felt more confused than ever before. Her soft eyes were pleading with me to go to her and I felt more aroused than I had been in years. Yet, something about this wasn’t right. Should I ignore what the common sense part of my brain was screaming out at me?

What if someone saw us here? What if I scared her off by coming on too strong and too soon?

I slowly took a step towards Janie and saw how she was now completely still, waiting for my next move.

It was now or never.