Playboy Doctor by Kimberly Llewellyn Read Free Book Online Page B

and a large white, button-down shirt draped over his arm. "I hope this will do as a nightshirt."
    "It will do just fine." She accepted the shirt.
    A quiet moment settled between them.
    "Well, then, I'll be right upstairs if you need anything," he offered.
    After saying goodnight, Willow found her way into the guest room in the lower level of the townhouse. She slipped out of her scrubs and bra, and then donned the white shirt. She relished the fresh scent of the cottony linen. It smelled just like Shayne, clean-shaven and freshly showered. The makeshift pajamas offered the perfect "boyfriend shirt" to wear to bed.
    But she didn't have a boyfriend, now did she?
    Willow was about to crawl under the covers when she noticed a picture frame facing away from her on a small chest of drawers. Next to it sat a partially opened shipping container. Various items lined the top of the chest, from boxed teas, to biscuits, to jam, all with British labels. Apparently, someone had sent him a care package. Probably someone from home. People sure did like to send him boxes with the most interesting things inside. Then again, how else could a person connect with a man who travelled the world?
    She stopped at the askew picture frame, as though cast aside, or maybe placed that way on purpose. Giving into temptation, she turned it around. Three young men took up the entire ornate silver picture frame. Each one shared the same soulful brown eyes. Each one just as handsome as the next. But the one who caught her attention?
    Shayne.
    Willow sat on the edge of the bed. With tentative fingers, she traced the lines of his face, carving out the details of the noble features of the surgeon in the photo.
    He appeared determined and ambitious. Ready to take a bite out of life. The photographer captured his very soul with one click of a camera shutter.
    Willow swallowed hard. An aching need pooled low in her belly. The unexpected response to his picture caught her by surprise. Why did she react so hotly to this man? A man she barely knew, yet a man she knew all too well. A man with no heart when it came to loving and leaving women.
    She'd already been with someone who'd had no heart. A detached man who'd kept his ambivalence toward her under wraps. She'd married someone she thought she knew, when in fact, she had married an emotional stranger.
    So why the reaction to the heart surgeon now? She had no right to the ache of desire for Shayne. What had gotten into her? She needed to tamp down the pesky cries of need. Desire would only leave her vulnerable.
    She squared her shoulders, had to be rid of the picture. She couldn't have Shayne's image in the bedroom with her.
    With frame in hand, she padded into the living room and gently placed the picture on the mantel. But it did nothing to squelch her heightened awareness. She tiptoed into the kitchen for a glass of water. Anything to cool her insides. With only a dim nightlight to guide her, she fumbled for a glass and filled it.
    She was raising the glass to her lips when her eyes met those of the shirtless man taking up space in the kitchen entry.
    Shayne, wearing nothing but boxers, scratched his ruffled mass of dark locks with one muscled arm. The movement caused his immense pecs to flex and broaden. His skin glowed in the warm light, casting shadows on the cut ridges of his abdomen.
    Startled, Willow's breath came in a sharp gasp. She froze. Was she dreaming?
    Shayne's gaze ran along the length of her. His blazing scrutiny fired off a scorching heat to her cheeks. He pointed to her body, like a hot saber to her core.
    "My shirt suits you," he said in a tone, thick and husky.
    This was no dream. Shayne Edwards was real and he'd caught her scantily clad in the middle of his kitchen. She couldn't utter a sound. Couldn't move a muscle. Fumble-fingered with surprise, she let the glass she was holding slip from her hand and smash to pieces on the floor.
    * * *
    The last thing Shayne expected was to see Willow