“LITTLE MISS WHOOPS Band-Aids? Seriously?” I laughed as I held up the box inside the present and then noticed there was a packaged needle and thread underneath. “Oh my God, you did not… Taking it back to when we met, I see.”

“Best day of my life,” he said, and I raised an eyebrow.

“Really?”

He nodded. “Really.” The megawatt smile he gave me then was blinding, and even after three years, it still made my heart skip a beat. It also reminded me of the first time I’d seen him throw one my way…

“THIS CUT IS pretty deep. Dr. Bennett will be in to stitch you up in just a minute, and then you’ll be good as new.” The nurse placed gauze over the gash above my eye and I held it steady as she left the room, shutting the curtain for privacy.

Way to go, Carter. Getting smashed in the face by a rogue football thrown by one of your students isn’t humiliating at all. At least the only ones privy to my shame were Nurse Kathy and the doctor I’d seen making the rounds when I came in. Though my students would probably never let me live this down…

There was a quick knock on the partition, and then the curtain opened and the most gorgeous man I’d seen in my life stepped inside the room. He was tall, maybe six two, with a head full of thick blond hair and a white lab coat with the name Dr. Vaughn Bennett, MD inscribed above the left pocket. He was looking down at my chart, and—

Oh God. No, no, no, this is not my doctor.

“Carter Pierce?” Dr. Bennett said, and then he looked up, and the breath rushed out of my lungs. Eyes so sparkling blue they didn’t look real met mine, and my face heated instantly. When I didn’t say anything, Dr. Bennett frowned. “Nurse Kathy said you didn’t appear to have a concussion, but do you feel dizzy? Faint?”

Uh, yeah. I felt those things for sure, but it had more to do with the man in front of me than any head trauma.

“No, I… I mean, yes, I’m Carter, and no, I don’t have a concussion,” I said, finally finding my tongue, but the words came out shakier than I’d intended. Looking down at my lap to avoid his penetrating gaze, I noticed the goosebumps standing up on my arm and prayed he didn’t pay any attention to those. Maybe he’d think I was cold.

“I’m just going to take a look at this,” he said, his fingers brushing against mine where I was still holding the gauze, and I shivered. “Are you okay?”

I aimed my eyes up at him, and the concern there made my heart thud a little harder. “Ah yeah, I’m… I’m fine.”

The doctor’s lips twitched, and it looked as though he wanted to say something, but instead, he returned his focus to the gauze he was now lifting from my forehead.

“Ouch, this is a nasty cut,” he said, and leaned in a little closer. I sat still as a statue as his fingers lightly trailed across my bangs where they’d flopped down, and I caught my breath. “How did this happen?”

Of course he had to ask, I thought, as he stared down at me and I tried to remember how to form a coherent sentence. “Umm… I—” As his fingers ran down my temple, my words got stuck, and I wondered if he could hear my heart pounding. I wasn’t positive if it was all in my head or not, but I was sure his fingers lingered a little longer than they maybe should have.

“Are you sure you’re not feeling a little bit”—he paused as he removed his hand—“off?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but he turned away and used his foot to pull over a stool. When it was in front of where I sat on the bed, he reached for a metal tray, pulling it up beside him, and then he took a seat—right between my spread legs.

“So, how’d you say you got this again?” he asked, clearly trying to relax me with small talk. But drawing attention to my inadequacies while I had a super-hot guy between my legs wasn’t high on my things-I’m-dying-to-do list.

“I didn’t,” I said as I looked over at the tray where there was a mean-looking needle, alcohol pads, gloves, and, wait a second— “Are those Little Miss Whoops Band-Aids?”

As Dr. Bennett, a.k.a. Man of my Dreams, picked up the gloves and started to put them on, I had the completely inappropriate thought that I was happy there was not about to be a prostate exam.

“Yeah, sorry about those. They were the only ones left and, well…” He shrugged and I felt a blush hit my cheeks. God, as if this isn’t humiliating enough already. “She’s kinda cute, don’t you think?”

I arched an eyebrow at him, and then shook my head before mumbling, “She’s not really my type.”

Dr. Bennett looked down at the bandaged blue character on the Band-Aid. “Yeah, not really mine either.” My heart leapt into my throat at his insinuation, until he added, “A little too blue.”

I forced myself to chuckle along with him so he didn’t see right through what I really meant. The guy made me nervous, and I clasped my hands together tightly in my lap to stop from fidgeting. And, you know, so I wouldn’t jump him.

He glanced at my white knuckles and then filled a syringe. “The shot’s going to hurt worse than the stitches themselves, I promise. But I’ll make it as painless as I can.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I mean, I’m used to needles.”

“Really?” he said as one of his hands held my head steady. “You’ll feel a sting on the count of three. One…two…three.” The needle pierced my skin, but all I could feel was his skin on mine, his touch sending electric jolts to my heart. It would be well worth any pain if it meant being this close him on a regular basis.

“Are you a tattoo fan?” he asked softly as a numbing sensation spread through my forehead.

“Huh? Oh. Uh, no.” I blushed again as he finished giving me the shot and disposed of the syringe. “Let’s say I have something in common with Little Miss Whoops over there.”

Dr. Bennett laughed then, a deep rumble that reverberated through every part of my body. “So that means I’ll be seeing you often?”

In my dreams, I thought. “That might get a little expensive.”

“Yeah, an ER visit’s not exactly a cheap date.”

Is he flirting with me? Or just being polite? Maybe it’s the drugs…

As Dr. Bennett swiveled on his stool to face me again, needle in hand, I quickly shut my eyes. I wasn’t squeamish, but watching him sew my forehead back together wasn’t anything I wanted to see. Again, he put one hand on my head to keep me steady, and this close I could smell the scent of his cologne and the mint on his breath, and I took a deep inhale, breathing him into my lungs. It was intoxicating—he was intoxicating, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that when I left this room, I’d feel an emptiness like I’d never known. How was that even possible? I didn’t know him, had never seen him before. He could be married with five kids and a pretty wife at home, but the thought of that made my stomach churn.

Did he feel it too? The tug on his heart that wanted to fuse with mine?

“Aaand that’s it. We’re all done,” he said, breaking through my thoughts, and as his hand left my forehead, I opened my eyes.

“You’re right. That was quick and painless.”

Dr. Bennett peeled open one of the Band-Aids and placed it over my freshly stitched brow. “Somehow you even make that work.”

“Why, Dr. Bennett, are you saying I can rock a Little Miss Whoops Band-Aid?”

His eyes scanned over my face, and then he smiled. “Blue suits you.”

Those damn flutters were back, and I was almost grateful when he turned away to clean up the tray and then dispose of his gloves and wash his hands.

I hopped off the table. “So, you think I’ll live?”

“I hope so.”

My breath caught as Dr. Bennett wheeled around and leaned against the counter.

“Otherwise I’m not very good at my job, am I?”

Riiight, that was my cue to leave, when I was thinking too much into what he was saying. I edged my way back toward the curtain and held a hand up. “Uh… Well, thank you, Dr. Bennett.” As I pushed my way through the curtain, it twisted and got stuck around my arm, and when I had to shove it out of the way, he smirked, and my heart totally skipped.

“Please,” he said, shaking his head a little. “Call me Vaughn.”

“YOU TOTALLY LAUGHED at me when I left that day, didn’t you?”

Vaughn lounged back on his elbow beside me and stretched his long legs out by the fire. “You were so endearing—”

“But you totally laughed.”

He held his fingers up a couple of inches apart. “Maybe a little.”

I rolled my eyes and shoved him in the shoulder, and before I could move away, he grabbed hold of my wrist and tugged me toward him.

“I thought you were the most adorably sexy klutz that had ever walked through my ER.”

My lips curved at his apt description. “You literally made me trip over my own feet. You should actually make people take out medical insurance when they’re around you. You’re a total liability.”

“Is that right?”

I nodded and brushed a kiss across his lips. “You were very professional that day.”

He chuckled against my mouth. “If you could’ve read my mind, you would not be saying that.”

“Oh? You never told me that.”

“You never asked.” As I waited there, an expectant look on my face, Vaughn ran his fingers across my forehead where he’d stitched me up. “I wanted to ask you out so badly that day. I had your name, your number, but I knew it wouldn’t be right to take advantage of that, so… I watched you leave and hoped like hell I’d run into you again. Which leads us to your next gift.”

As my eyes lit up, he looked around me to the remaining gifts under the tree.

“The biggest box under there. That’s next.”