A Weekend With Her Fake Fiancé

“Patient states her abdomen struck the steering wheel hard during the accident. Fetal heart rate was normal during transport, no bleeding, spotting or cramping, though patient did complain of some chest pain post-accident. Patient has a history of three previous miscarriages and one stillbirth.”

“Thank you. I’m familiar with her history,” Carmen said, and she nudged him aside as they pushed the patient into an empty trauma bay where the OB on call, Dr. Tom Farber, raised a hand to Zac in greeting.

“We’ve got it from here.”

The curtain abruptly swooshed closed in his face, and Zac stood there a moment, blinking at it, while Susan chuckled beside him.

“There’s that look again, buddy.” Susan clapped him on the back and chuckled. “Don’t worry. Carmen’s too good for you anyway. I’m going back out to the rig to clean up.”

Zac moved over to the nurses’ station to get out of the way. He didn’t usually hang around after they’d dropped off patients, but things had been slow all day and his shift was almost over. Besides, he wanted to make sure things were all right with the baby.

That was the excuse he was going with anyway.

“You’re still here?” Carmen said when she emerged from behind the curtain twenty minutes later.

The words had emerged snarkier than she’d intended—but darn it. Bad enough that she hadn’t been able to sleep well since their conversation in the cafeteria, her mind whirling with thoughts of him. Now he was distracting her at work too. The only way her plan was going to work was if she kept her wits about her and her feelings out of it. In fact, most things in life worked better that way, in her experience. Caring too much only meant trouble.

She stepped around Zac, who stood far too close for her comfort. The weekend conference was approaching fast. And, as if that weren’t stressful enough, she’d just worked three twelve-hour shifts in a row and now, with this new patient’s arrival, her already long night was about to become even longer.

“Figured you’d have a hot date or something.”

“No dates for me. I’m off the market now, remember?”

She gave him a pointed glance. If Zac had taken offense at her snapping at him, he didn’t show it. He just stood there, grinning and looking smug.

“Just getting into practice for my role this weekend. Besides, my shift’s almost done. And since when do you care so much about my schedule?”

“I don’t care,” Carmen lied. “I just don’t want any rumors starting around here about us. You know how people gossip.”

Zac snorted. “You don’t think they’re going to hear about it from Priya and Lance anyway? The guy’s my good friend, but I don’t tell him anything I don’t want the rest of the hospital to know. He’s worse than social media when it comes to privacy.”

He laughed, but she gave him a dark look. “Don’t remind me.”

“Hey, this was your idea, remember?” he said, leaning closer.

Close enough that his warm breath ghosted the shell of her ear and made her shiver.

“Speaking of remembering—I’ve been thinking about that night we spent together. I remember those soft little sounds you made when I held you close. The way you gasped and sighed when I kissed that sensitive spot on your neck...the one near your collarbone where...”

The sound of a clearing throat had her jerking away from Zac. Good thing too, since her pulse was throbbing in her ears and her skin felt too tight for her body. As if the memories she had of that night weren’t naughty enough, now she had to think about Zac reliving them too. Lord, help her. When had it got so hot in here?

Carmen swallowed hard and looked over her shoulder to see Tom standing outside the trauma bay as she tugged at her collar.

“Sorry,” Tom said, glancing between her and Zac. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“You weren’t,” Carmen answered, too fast. After smoothing her hand down the front of her pink scrubs, she raised her chin. “What’s your assessment, Doctor?”

“I think she’s good to go. No signs of fetal distress. Baby’s heart rate is normal and strong. Mother’s blood pressure is fine too.” He walked over to the counter. “No spotting or cervical effacement on exam. I’d say she’s fine to discharge—unless you disagree.”

“Agreed. Excellent.”

Carmen was doing her best to portray her usual efficient self, even though her insides were still fluttering from Zac’s heated flirtation. Lord help her... If one brief encounter with him had her this riled up, she was in big trouble for the weekend ahead.

“I’ll go in and talk to her for a bit...answer any questions she might have...then send her on her way. Thank you, Dr. Farber.”

“My pleasure.” Tom gave her and Zac one more assessing look before backing away toward the elevators. “You kids have fun.”

“We will, thanks,” Zac said, raising his hand.

“No, we won’t.” Carmen gave him a narrowed stare. “Fun is the last thing we’ll be having this weekend.”

“Remind me again why I’m going, then?” He raised a brow at her, then sighed. “I know... To help out a friend. Got it. Trust me. This won’t be a party for me either.”

It was her turn to snort now. “Really? Why not? Free stay at a luxury resort, all expenses paid? Sounds like a great time to me.”

When he didn’t answer right away she looked up from the paperwork she was filling out and noticed his playful expression had turned serious.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s not important.”

He looked away and she saw the shadow of something cross his handsome face. Before she could ask about it though, one of the nurses came up to the desk and started talking to him.

Carmen felt a quick pinch of unaccountable jealousy before she pushed it aside. She had no claim on Zac Taylor. He was helping her out this weekend. That was all.

She sighed and returned to her documentation, doing her best to ignore Zac and failing miserably. Seeing Tom and Wendy so happy together with their new baby, plus Tom’s daughter Sam from his previous marriage, had given Carmen hope that she’d find the same for herself someday—if she ever found the time to date again in her busy schedule.

Until then she was stuck with fake fiancés and imaginary lovers.

Exhaling slowly, Carmen signed off on the patient’s discharge papers and handed them to the nurse, telling her to let the patient know she’d be in momentarily to answer her questions, then continued scribbling on the patient’s chart.

Zac remained steadfastly beside her, and she gave him a side glance and rubbed her stiff neck. “Don’t you have another EMS run to go on, or something?”

“It’s Tuesday. Things are slow. Susan and I are just hanging out until the clock runs down or another call comes in.”

Her stupid neck cramped again and she winced, cursing softly.

“Here.” He brushed her hand aside, massaging the knots in her neck and upper shoulders with those long, strong fingers of his. Between the heat of his body behind her, penetrating her scrubs, and the heavenly feel of his talented digits easing away her tension, Carmen nearly melted into a puddle of goo at the man’s feet. Good thing she had the desk there to hold her up.

“You shouldn’t push yourself so hard.”

She scoffed. “I push myself because that’s what it takes to survive.”

“Last time I checked this was Alaska, not the apocalypse.”

“You never know when things could fall apart. Slack off and you could lose everything.”

She closed her eyes as he worked on a particularly sore spot between her shoulder blades with his thumbs, leaving her feeling far too relaxed and vulnerable.

Reluctantly, Carmen forced herself to step away from him. “Besides, I’ve got more than myself to provide for.”

“Hmm? Tell me more about that,” Zac said, leaning against the counter once more. “I know we’re exchanging fact sheets, but if we’re going to pretend to be in love I’d like to hear about your family and your responsibilities from you. What’s important to you should seem important to me if we want this to be believable.”

The reminder of the upcoming weekend was like a glass of icy water to her face. Carmen straightened and moved out from under his touch. She had to keep her head and be cool, calm, and rational about this if she wanted to succeed.

“My mother and my sister live with me. My mother is ill and requires round-the-clock care. My sister is trying to get into the nursing program at the University of Alaska after she graduates from high school in May. Both things are expensive. This new job in California pays more money and has more responsibility. That’s all you need to know for now. If you’ll excuse me? I need to go back in with my patient. Unlike you, I still have several hours left on my shift.”

She started to walk away, only to have him tag along next to her.

Damn. Hopefully he’d drop the subject of her private life. She didn’t like talking about herself. She especially didn’t like feeling such a strong attraction to a man who made her want to open up to him, made her want to confide in him and lean on him. All of that was completely unacceptable.

Men were unreliable. Her father had taught her that lesson the day he’d walked out on them, leaving her poor mother to work three jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. Because of that, Carmen had virtually raised her little sister Clara.

Forget childhood. She’d had to grow up quickly. The more self-reliant she was, the better.

Perhaps her upbringing was the reason midwifery suited her so well. Well, that and the fact that her patients needed her. Carmen liked to be needed. She was used to being needed, no matter the time involved or the personal cost. When a call for help came in she shut off her feelings and got the job done.

Which was just as well because messy emotions only got in the way.

Instead of heading back into the trauma bay she continued on around the corner, deciding to burn off a little energy before speaking with her patient again. The nurse would be busy going over the discharge papers anyway.

They reached the stairwell and Carmen stopped, pushing open the door.

“I thought you were going to see your patient?” Zac said.

“I am—in a minute.” Carmen’s phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out. “Need to take this phone call first.”

Not exactly true. But if she didn’t get away from Zac soon she was liable to do something stupid—like push him up against the wall and have her wicked way with him.

He continued to stand there, staring at her, looking far too gorgeous for his own good, which annoyed her to no end. “Anything else I can do for you?”

Zac opened his mouth and then closed it, as if reconsidering his words. He backed away slightly. “It’s okay to let people in sometimes.”

“Seriously?” She laughed and shook her head, doing her best to sound flippant. “Maybe you should take your own advice, then, mister, instead of shutting me down each time I ask a personal question about you. See you later, Zac.”

“Is that a challenge?” he called from behind her. “I love a challenge.”

Carmen chuckled as the door closed behind her, leaving her alone in the stairwell. She leaned back against the wall, her heart still pounding and her mind still racing.

Silly. So silly. Just infatuation. That was all her reaction was.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself—only to have more images of their one night together flash through her head. The two of them entwined in her sheets...him bringing her to release again and again as she cried out his name in ecstasy.

No matter how drunk she’d been that night, a girl didn’t forget something that good.

Weys, dat boy rel bess...

The Trinidadian slang echoed in Carmen’s head. And it wasn’t wrong.

Zac was really sexy. Sexy times a thousand. Sexy times infinity and beyond.

She was in trouble and the conference hadn’t even started yet.

Hands shaking, Carmen pulled out her cell phone and called her sister back as she climbed the stairs to the third floor.

Clara picked up on the second ring. “Ey, wam?”

“I might have done something incredibly stupid. That’s what’s up.”

Before she could stop the words, an explanation of her fake engagement and the upcoming weekend with Zac tumbled out of her. She felt like she had to tell someone or else she’d burst.

“Wait—wait!” Clara said, as the sound of their mother’s favorite soap opera droned on in the background. “You did what?”

“I lied to my potential new employer in California. They’re very pro-family, and they were so impressed with Priya and her engagement to Lance I felt like I had to make something up in order to still have a shot at the job. I need this promotion, sis. We need this promotion. The extra money would pay for Mama’s care and help put you through university.”

Carmen stopped on the landing between the second and third floors, trying to convince herself as much as her sister that she’d done the right thing.

“Look, it’s no big deal, right? Three days of pretending and then it’s over and hopefully I get the job. Easy.”

“What about leaving Alaska? I thought you liked it here. I like it here,” Clara said.

“I do like Anchorage,” said Carmen.

She loved Anchorage the same as Mama and her sister did. She’d hate to leave. But that was beside the point. You did what you needed to do.

“California is pretty too, though. If I get the job it will be like we’re living on the island again. Beaches and sunshine and the ocean. They have good nursing programs at their colleges too.”

“Hmm...” Clara didn’t sound convinced, but it was too late to back out now. “And you think taking this man you had a fling with and having him pretend to be your fiancé will get you this new job? After you two...you know...?”

Yeah, she’d told her sister about the one-night stand. Hard to hide a man staying over in your bed when you shared the same living space. Ugh. Clara was right. Whatever had made her think inviting Zac to be her fake fiancé was the most brilliant decision ever?

In the end, though, what choice had she had? With Priya’s stellar background and experience, Carmen needed to produce someone who could seriously schmooze. Priya’s family was rich, and she’d had the best education and training money could buy. Carmen had worked nights and weekends to pay for her RN degree at the University of the Southern Caribbean.

After that she’d scraped together enough money from tips at the bar and working third shift at a twenty-four-hour convenience clinic to move her family from Trinidad to Anchorage, where she’d interned at Anchorage Mercy and completed her graduate degree.

Then she’d sat for the national certification exam and applied for her Advanced Nurse Practitioner license. The whole process had taken a decade, but it had meant a more secure future for the ones she loved and she’d do it all again, if asked.

Carmen said at last, “Zac knows the score.”

“Does he?” Clara said, her tone skeptical. “I don’t want you to get your heart broken.”

Carmen didn’t want that either. Problem was, she’d never really had a Plan B when it came to this weekend. And, honestly, their mutual attraction might be a good thing if they could keep to the script and use it to their advantage, making their ruse more believable. Lord knew their chemistry was still sizzling hot, despite the fact months had passed since they’d done the deed.

“I’ll be fine—promise,” she said, to convince herself as much as Clara.

She pushed away from the wall and squared her shoulders before walking out of the stairwell again. The hallway was delightfully empty, thank goodness.

“You’re all set to take care of Mama this weekend?”

Clara sighed. “Yep.”

Regret pinched Carmen’s chest. She hated to ask her little sister to care for their mother, but it couldn’t be helped in this situation. She wanted Clara to experience all the things she’d never had at her age—parties and fun and boyfriends and dating and all of life’s good things.

“What time’s your flight?” Clara asked.

“We fly out Thursday morning. Zac’s meeting me at the airport.” Carmen picked at her nails—a bad habit that tended to recur when she was stressed. “On a private jet.”

“Weys! Well, try to have a good time this weekend. You deserve to let loose. Just not too much, eh?”

“Don’t worry. It’s still a working midwifery conference.” Carmen laughed. “Mama doing all right?”

“She’s fine. Watching her telenovela.”

“Good. Okay. I need to go. Tell her I love her and I’ll see her later tonight.”

Carmen ended the call and headed back into the busy ER. She’d hoped her little walk would help clear her mind and sort out her thoughts. Instead, it had only brought more concerns to the surface.

If she was honest, her sister had touched on something she feared herself. Not that she and Zac wouldn’t be able to fool people into thinking they were a couple, but that Carmen wouldn’t be able to stop fooling herself into believing they were...

CHAPTER THREE

LATE THURSDAY MORNING, Zac took a moment to collect himself as he stepped into the ticketing area of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. There were, of course, dozens of people milling about, but his eyes went immediately to a petite beauty with glowing mocha skin and copper-streaked curls, standing on the other side of the security gate, checking her watch.

Dressed in jeans, an emerald-green turtleneck, a black parka and black suede boots, Carmen looked a far cry from the way she looked dressed in her usual scrubs at the hospital. Younger and way sexier, if that were possible.

Whoa, cowboy.

He took a deep breath and reminded himself why he was here. This wasn’t a vacation. This wasn’t about sex. This was work.

After going through the security checkpoint, he strode toward her, coming up on the side opposite to where she was looking.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, setting his leather carry-on bag on the floor near his feet.

She turned and looked him up and down, checked her watch again, then took off for the nearby escalators, calling to him over her shoulder as she went. “You are late. I hope this isn’t a sign of how the rest of the weekend will go. And you’re also overdressed.”

“I wasn’t sure what to wear. We didn’t discuss that,” he muttered, racing after her and catching her up near the end of the concourse, feeling uncomfortable now in his dark jeans and tweed blazer, with the open collar of his white dress shirt suddenly too confining for comfort. “You already have the gate number?”

“Don’t need one,” she said to him over her shoulder. “Private jet, remember?”

“Right.” Zac nodded, feeling even more like an idiot. He knew that. Should’ve remembered from the days traveling with his father.

He forced his attention away from the seductive sway of Carmen’s hips as she walked slightly in front of him and focused straight ahead instead.

Mind on the game, buddy.

A flight attendant waited for them near a side door and escorted them out onto the chilly tarmac, where Zac got his first view of the plane, which was similar to the one his father had owned when Zac was growing up. The knots in his gut tightened.

They approached the small, sleek white aircraft with the fancy logo of the California clinic painted on its tail. Whoever owned that clinic certainly had cash in the bank. These things carried a sixty-five to seventy-million-dollar price tag. Flew like a dream too.

Back in the day, before his father’s betrayal had caused the world Zac knew to crash down around him, he’d logged enough flight hours to become a pilot himself. But that had been another life—a different Zac.

“Here we are,” the flight attendant said, stopping at the bottom of a set of steps. “Enjoy your flight.”

“Thank you.”

Carmen climbed the steps in front of him and Zac did his best not to notice how her jeans cupped her cute butt perfectly. She stopped just before the top and turned to face him. Distracted, he nearly collided right into her. Good thing he had a firm grip on the railing, otherwise he might have had to grab her to keep his balance. And touching her at this point, even for safety reasons, would be a big mistake.

“Ready for this?” she asked. “Did you bring your dossier?”

He squinted up at her in the sunshine and avoided staring at the gold cross necklace nestled atop her bosom. “I am. I did. Did you?”

She inhaled deep, then nodded. “Yes. We can go over them during the flight. I was hoping you’d be on time so we could do it beforehand. I think Priya and Lance have already boarded.”

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