Banner O'Brien Read Online Free PDF Page B

jawline tightened and a muscle twitched at the side of his neck.
    “I didn’t expect to find you and the—lady—so engaged, Adam. You must forgive me.”
    “Must I? Get out, Francelle.”
    “To be sure,” she replied, and promptly closed the door behind her.
    Adam stood at a little distance from Banner now, and his powerful shoulders slackened as he ran one hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Shamrock,” he said in gruff tones, though he did not meet her eyes. “I shouldn’t have done that. Francelle will have your reputation shredded by nightfall.”
    Banner had no doubt of that. Female doctors tended to engender gossip as it was—especially in small towns. But she didn’t regret the kisses, though she knew she should have. “Do you really disappear at Christmas and then return in an ugly state of mind?” she asked, to change the subject.
    This she did regret, and instantly. Adam’s eyes werefierce when they sliced to her face, and a white line edged his jaw.
    “I only kissed you, O’Brien,” he said. “I did not offer to unveil my soul.”
    He could not have humiliated Banner any more deeply even if he had made a conscious effort. She felt cheap and presumptuous, and her eyes shifted from the strange menace in his gaze.
    To her surprise, Adam sighed raggedly and caught her shoulders in strong hands. “Shamrock, look at me,” he muttered.
    She could not, for there were tears brimming in her eyes and her fierce pride demanded that she hide them.
    Not to be dissuaded, Adam caught her chin in a hand that felt rough and smelled of antiseptic and forced her to obey his order. “I’m sorry,” he told her, and the pain in his face made it easier for her to reveal her own.
    She sniffled. He’d seen the tears, and there was nothing for it. “There is no need to apologize,” she said.
    “There is,” he insisted. “I was rude and I’m sorry.”
    Banner did not know what to say to that, and besides, she’d already set aside her own hurt feelings to wonder what it was that pained him so much. “Adam—”
    He laid an index finger to her lips. “Don’t ask me,” he said. And then he stepped back and released his hold on Banner’s chin and she felt bereft, as though a great distance had risen up between them.
    At the door of the examining room he paused, his hand on the knob. “Will you work with me, O’Brien?” he asked.
    Banner was agape. Dear heaven, what a mercurial man he was, one moment kissing her as though he would consume her, the next wounding her with words, and the next asking her to work with him! “I—I don’t understand,” she said.
    Adam arched one eyebrow and spread his gifted,healing hands wide in a gesture of gentle impatience. “I’m asking you to share my practice, O’Brien.”
    “But, Dr. Henderson—”
    “Henderson,” he scoffed. “If you’re worrying about how you’ll look after his patients, don’t. He doesn’t have any.”
    “But—Mr. Royce expressly told me—”
    “Mr. Royce, O’Brien, doesn’t give a damn whether you tend Henderson’s ‘patients’ or not. Knowing him, he took one look at you and decided that courting you would be an enjoyable diversion. Of one thing you can be certain, Shamrock: he brought you here because he found you appealing, not because he has any stirring need to provide medical care in Port Hastings.”
    Banner felt a myriad of things—confusion, anger, disbelief. “You’re lying! He said Dr. Henderson’s patients needed me—he said—”
    Adam looked maddeningly smug. “No doubt he said you were beautiful, too, didn’t he?”
    She was deflated by the truth in his words. Temple had remarked on her looks as they were leaving the waterfront in his carriage the night before.
    “I thought so,” Adam said, aptly reading the look on Banner’s face. “Don’t be naive, Shamrock. I’m offering you a job. A real job. Do you want it or not?”
    Banner was undecided. The idea of working in such a spacious, well-equipped