Шрифт:
The Doctor’s Damsel in Distress
Janice Lynn
www.millsandboon.co.uk
Table of Contents
Dear Reader
While I was driving home one night, the opening scene to Levi and Madison’s story hit me and demanded to be written. Of course I was in the middle of another story, and had to finish that one prior to writing Levi and Madison’s, but I had to get that scene down and found myself smiling with each word written.
Levi stole my heart from the very beginning—a modern-day white knight who rescues the heroine from her misguided thoughts on how to protect her heart. Madison is an old-fashioned girl, but due to having had her heart trampled on has decided she wants to be the ultimate modern girl, to be a playgirl. She chooses Levi as her first walk on the wild side and sparks fly.
Oftentimes in life, love rescues us from our own selves—helps us to be more than who we thought we were or were capable of being. Levi and Madison learn this together as they rescue each other in THE DOCTOR’S DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. I hope you enjoy their romance.
I love to hear from my readers, and can be contacted at [email protected]
Happy reading!
Janice
About the Author
JANICE LYNN has a Masters in Nursing from Vanderbilt University, and works as a nurse practitioner in a family practice. She lives in the southern United States with her husband, their four children, their Jack Russell—appropriately named Trouble—and a lot of unnamed dust bunnies that have moved in since she started her writing career. To find out more about Janice and her writing visit www.janicelynn.com
Dedication
To Methuselah. Just one more “always and forever”.
CHAPTER ONE
DR. LEVI FIELDING wrapped his arms around Nurse Madison Swanson, positioned himself just right, and gave a hard thrust. Then another.
Nothing.
The food that had lodged in her throat didn’t budge.
In the universal choking signal, she grasped at her neck, her rising panic emanating off her tiny body.
She couldn’t breathe.
Knowing the hot July sun wasn’t the cause of the sweat forming on his brow, Levi’s own fear whipped through him. His heart jackhammered against his ribcage, interfering with his ability to breathe. He gave a hearty heave, hoping he was dislodging whatever she’d choked on and didn’t break her in half in the process.
“Oh, Dr. Fielding,” one of the hospital picnic attendees implored, fanning her pudgy red face with all the theatrics of a true Southern belle from more than a century before. “Save her.”
He was trying. Ignoring the small crowd gathering around where he’d rushed to Madison’s rescue, his every cell tuned into the woman he held. He performed the Heimlich maneuver yet again, knowing that if this didn’t work he’d be opening her airway via an emergency tracheotomy.
At a picnic at the local park in downtown Angel Creek, North Carolina.
Which meant he’d be using something rudimentary to jab into her airway. Probably the barrel of an ink pen. Or if he couldn’t find one, he’d have to make an incision with, what? A plastic knife? What he wouldn’t give to have his doctor’s bag. His brain raced ahead, planning to do whatever was necessary to get life-giving air into Madison’s lungs. Somehow, he would save her. He had to.
At his powerful thrust, she sputtered, whatever had been in her throat flying from her mouth.
Levi said a prayer of thanks. For numerous reasons. The foremost being he preferred pretty little Madison Swanson alive and breathing. She was a great nurse. The best. But even if she hadn’t been, a nurse choking to death at a hospital picnic while surrounded by medical professionals—what kind of message would that send to the community where they worked?
Gasping and coughing at the same time, her hand went in front of her mouth. He turned her, assessing that she was indeed taking in air, that she was going to be okay. Tears streaming down her heart-shaped face, she lifted her heavily lashed green eyes to his.
The ground shifted beneath Levi’s feet.
Her expression gutted him, left him feeling as if something had lodged in his throat. Something hard, full of emotion, and unrelenting, something that would require more than the Heimlich to rescue him from.
Damn. That was exactly the same varoom that had hit him when he’d first met her. When he’d thought he’d met someone worthy of settling into a relationship with.
Then she’d come at him like a heavy truck, which hadn’t been at all what he’d been looking for. The last thing he wanted was to get involved with an overly forceful woman. Been there, done that, liked it, but the time had come to grow up.