I’m on hour six of my twelve-hour shift when one of the nurses named Shondra peeks her head into the examination room where I’m putting a cast on a drunken girl’s broken arm. The girl was dancing on the bar in a club when she slipped on some spilled vodka and then did a spill of her own, right onto the floor, breaking her arm in the process.

It was a closed fracture, so she’ll be fine, although she’ll be waking up with more than a hangover tomorrow.

“I can finish that up for you,” Shondra says as the girl snores on the examination table. “You’re needed in room 312. Mr. Winters is awake.”

“Who?” I ask as I stand up, letting Shondra take my place.

“Mr. Motorcycle,” she says with a wicked grin. “He can rev my engine any day.”

I turn away from her to hide my blushing cheeks. I’ve been thinking about him for the past five hours, obsessively wondering if he was going to wake up during my shift.

He was banged up pretty badly. He had some serious spinal cord compression, which is going to limit his mobility for a while, but he’s really lucky he didn’t break his back. I gave him an epidural steroid injection to relieve some of the swelling and the worst of the pain, but it’s too early to tell if he’s going to need surgery or not.

On top of that, he had a few gashes that needed stitches, a fractured rib, and a slight concussion.

But it’s not his injuries that are on my mind. I can’t stop thinking of how his hard, muscular body felt under my trembling fingertips.

Stay professional, Madison. Save it for Mr. Sparkles.

I take a deep breath and leave the room as a warm shiver flows through me. I better stop and get some batteries for Mr. Sparkles on the way home. I think I’m going to need some backups.

My heart is pounding nervously when I arrive at his room. One of the nurses, Takara, is in there with him. She’s giggling like a teenage girl after her first kiss. So unprofessional…

I take a deep breath, fix my hair, and walk inside. Mr. Winters’ eyes lock on me, and I involuntarily freeze on the spot.

His green eyes take me by surprise. They’re as bright as a patch of grass in the desert, as striking as a jade gemstone atop a pile of dull rocks. Green has never been so sexy. Did you know that green could be sexy?

His sexy lips curl up into a smile, and it awakens something dormant inside of me—something that wants to kick Takara out of the room and do things that will get my medical license revoked. He’s lying on the reclined bed with his naked chest and shredded abs in full glorious view. His two tattooed arms are raised in slings to prevent his back from moving while the swelling in his spine goes down. Somehow, he’s impossibly managing to make slings look sexy.

I don’t know who helped him out of his gown and bunched it up around his waist, but they’re about to get a raise—even if it has to come out of my own paycheck.

“I’ll be back in a bit, Shane,” Takara says as she leaves with a wide grin on her face. I don’t know why, but I have a sudden urge to hit her over the head with my clipboard to put her in the coma ward.

It’s just the two of us in the room now. I haven’t been this nervous around a patient since my first day.

I can’t seem to make my feet work, so I look down at the clipboard in my hands, seeing nothing but blurred words and cartoon hearts floating around me. I narrow my eyes, pretending like I’m reading, but all I’m doing is threatening the blood rushing to my cheeks to try and convince it to head the other way.

Stop turning my cheeks red or I’ll head straight to the blood donor clinic where they’ll put you in a bag and freeze you. Would you like that, blood?

Shockingly, my blood doesn’t listen.

Plan B. Time for a pep talk.

All right, Madison. You’re a professional. Start acting like it. This man is hurt and needs a qualified doctor, not a blushing schoolgirl who wants to run her hands all over those big arms and sexy chest and… I wonder what those abs feel like… God, that chest is pure perfection. I wonder if that bitch Takara gets to give him a sponge bath. Would it be against the rules for a doctor to give a patient a sponge bath? I’ll check the manual once I finish my—

“Hello?” he says, waving his hand at me, ripping me out of my perverted trance.

“Yes,” I say with a cough. “Hello. I’m Dr. Mendes. I’m going to be your doctor.”

“Lucky me,” he answers with a grin.

“No,” I say as I narrow my eyes on him. “Not lucky you. You’re in bad shape with some serious injuries. You almost died.”

He shrugs his round shoulders. “It’s not the first time.”

“Well, it was almost the last.”

He just smiles. His complete lack of giving any shits that he almost died gets to me. Why is he not terrified right now?

“Are you single?” he asks.

Now he’s really getting to me.

“You can’t feel your legs, and the first question you ask your doctor is if she’s single?”

“I want to get the important stuff out of the way first,” he says with a grin.

I just glare at him as my chest tightens.

“The nurse told me it was only temporary,” he says when it’s clear that I’m not going to answer.

“The nurse told you,” I repeat under my breath. The annoyance is clear in my voice. “Was she single?”

“I don’t know,” he says with a sexy smile. “She’s not my type.”

I let out an audible gulp. I’m his type?

“So, is that a yes or a no?” he asks. He glances at my ringless wedding ring finger and smiles.

I can’t believe the nerve of this guy. He has temporary paralysis, a fractured rib, a mild concussion, his arms are in slings, and the only information he’s asking is about my personal life.

“You must have hit your head harder than I thought,” I say as I approach his bed.

“No,” he says with a laugh. “I’m always like this.”

“Well,” I say as I sit on the side of his bed with a straight face. “Good to know that your concussion didn’t hamper your ability to sexually harass women.”

He flashes his beautiful white teeth. “We finally agree on something.”

“Mr. Winters…”

“Shane,” he says, interrupting me.

“Mr. Winters,” I repeat with a little more force in my voice. “You almost broke your back. This is serious. We took an MRI of your spine, and the nerves around your vertebrae showed some significant swelling. We gave you a steroid injection while you were asleep, and you’ll be on anti-inflammatory medication until the swelling goes down. You’re going to be immobile for a while.”

“How long is a while?”

“A few days,” I say. “It depends. You’ll gradually start getting the sensation back in your legs, but until then you won’t be able to walk.”

“So, I’ll be your guest for a few days?”

“You’ll be my patient,” I correct.

“What about these?” he asks, looking at the slings wrapped around his arms.

“Those will be off in a few hours,” I say. “We want to keep your back stabilized while the steroids do their job. Do you have any more questions?”

“When you go home,” he says, staring at me with his mischievous green eyes, “is there going to be a man in your—”

“Questions about your condition,” I say, interrupting him. I roll my eyes. “Forget it. Mr. Winters, I have to examine you now.”

“All right,” he says with a grin. “Finally getting to the good part.”

Is this guy for real?

I want to be mad at him, but I’m too shocked by his boldness. And a part of me kind of likes it.

I’ve been avoiding looking at him too closely, but now I don’t have a choice. My breath starts to quicken as I place my stethoscope in my ears and lean in close to him. His intense green eyes are locked on mine.

His right eye is black from the accident, but the darkness on the skin around it just makes the striking green color pop even more. It’s the first time I’m looking at his face up close, and it’s making me light-headed. His nose is a tad crooked like it was broken in an accident long ago but never fixed. It should ruin his look, but instead, it just makes him look that much sexier. A flaw that adds to the perfection.

“I’m going to check your heart rate,” I say as I look down at his massive tattooed chest. I swallow hard as I press the tip of my stethoscope to his left pec and listen.

His heart is racing. “Your heart rate is up.”

He grins as he watches me. “It wasn’t like this a minute ago.”

Yeah. Mine wasn’t either.

Our eyes meet again, and my heart pounds harder than ever.

You could cut the sexual chemistry with a scalpel.

“You have a beautiful look,” he says with a voice that feels like soft leather. “What are you?”

“I’m a doctor,” I answer curtly.

He laughs, and for some reason I feel like pulling out a notebook and writing poetry.

“I can see that,” he says. “I can also see a hint of what? Puerto Rican?”

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Portuguese.”

“Mom or dad?”

This is going too far. I’ve already violated my hard-fast rule of keeping personal stuff out of the examining room.

“Can we just focus on the examination?” I ask, getting flustered.

“You focus on your examination. I’ll focus on mine.”

I yank the stethoscope back down on my neck and glare at him. “This is inappropriate.”

“Your eye twitches when you’re upset,” he says with an amused smile.

My jaw is clenched, my body tense. “I’m not upset.”

“Look,” he says with a grin. “It’s twitching even more.”

I get off the bed and stand up, staring down at him with heated eyes. “Would you like me to get a sedative to knock you out while I finish this?”

“No,” he says with a shake of his head. “I want to be awake and alert when your hands are all over me.”

“This is your last chance,” I say as every nerve ending in my tense body tingles. “I’m going to examine your lower half now.”

“Does my cock work?”

My head whips around and my eyes lock onto his.

He shrugs as he motions to the slings that his arms are strapped into. “I can’t reach it. I can’t tell if it works or not.”

Finally, something he’s worried about.

“It may not work for a couple of days,” I say. “Or never.”

I don’t know why I lie to him, but I do. I guess I want to get him as flustered as he’s gotten me.

But I may have gone overboard because he freaks the fuck out.

“Never?!?” he shouts, staring at me in panic. “Examine it. Please!”

I shake my head, not knowing what to do. I might have gone too far this time.

“I’m not going to touch it,” I say with a hard swallow.

“Why not?” he asks, struggling to reach it. He’s going to rip his arm out of the sling and do more damage to his back. “Just smack it around a bit.”

“Stop moving,” I say as I tighten his arm slings. “I’m not touching you there. It’s highly inappropriate.”

“It’s a doctor’s examination to see if it works,” he says, staring at me with pleading eyes. “It’s not sexual unless you put those pretty little lips on it.”

My cheeks turn insanely hot.

“I’m sorry,” he says after taking a deep breath. “That was inappropriate. But please. I need my cock. The women of the world need my cock.”

There’s a tenseness in my stomach as I watch him with uncertainty. He is my patient, and he’s making a medical request. I shouldn’t deny him a medical examination just because the thought of his big long package is getting me warm between the legs.

“Please,” he begs.

“Fine,” I say as I roll up my sleeves.

I talk to myself as I reach down and grab his gown that’s bunched up around his waist. This is a medical exam. You’re a professional, and this is all part of your job. You’re definitely not going to relive this moment tonight when you pull out Mr. Sparkles from your nightstand drawer.

I nearly gasp when I pull down the thin fabric and see his long thick cock trailing down his muscular legs.

Wow. He’s a lot bigger than Mr. Sparkles.

I’m breathless to the point where I’m almost panting as I stare at it. It’s beautiful. I’m tempted to take pictures for his file. A file that I would definitely work on at home, probably at the same time as I work on myself.

Arousal begins coursing through my tingling body, settling between my legs.

“I’m going to begin the examination,” I say in a voice that’s much lower than normal.

He cranes his neck up, watching as I poke the shaft with my finger. It moves, and I flinch—jumping back in shock.

“What is it?” he asks. He still looks terrified that his cock won’t work again.

I can’t blame him. If I had a cock as beautiful as that, I would be terrified too.

“Nothing,” I say, taking a deep breath as I try to compose myself. I have an idea. It’s not a good idea, but it’s all I got.

I pull a pencil from my front pocket and poke his dick with the eraser. “Do you feel that?”

“Are you kidding me?” he asks, staring at me in shock. “Just grab it.”

I hold in a breath as I reach down and take it in my trembling hand. It’s so big, and all I can think about is finishing the examination with my mouth.

“Do you feel this?” It’s only four words, but two of them crack. I feel like there’s a frog in my throat.

“No,” he says with a shake of his head.

He may not feel it, but it definitely still works. His shaft hardens in my hand as he starts to get an erection.

I jerk my hand back like I just touched a hot stove and yank his gown back down to cover it. I’ll be thinking about his dick enough. I don’t need to see it fully hard. That will make me become an obsessive crazy woman.

“I’ll be right back,” I say, racing to the door.

“Where are you going?” he asks as I yank the door open, and hurry into the hall. I close the door and lean against it as my heart pounds.

I quickly slip the stethoscope into my ears and check my own heart, worried that it’s going to explode. It’s thumping like a rabbit on speed, but so far, no explosions.

Is that what you call professional? I chastise myself as I hurry down the hall, looking for Ralph.

I grab the resident I’m training and drag him back to the room to finish the examination for me.

Shane frowns when he sees that I’ve brought a third wheel to the party.

“This is Dr. Preston,” I say, presenting Ralph. “He’s going to finish the examination. I have to take care of another emergency.”

Changing my wet panties constitutes an emergency, right?

Shane starts to protest as I head to the door. “Wait!” he says as Ralph steps forward and yanks down his gown. “God, your knuckles are so hairy!”

I hurry into the hall, unsuccessfully trying to settle some of the overpowering arousal taking over my body.

Yup. Definitely going to need fresh batteries for Mr. Sparkles.