Free The Rebel Doc Who Stole Her Heart by Susan Carlisle

and coffee. Her breath slowed as his full and mobile mouth pressed firmly against hers.
    Heat flowed through her blue-flame hot. When had been the last time she’d been kissed? Had any kisses ever made her feel the way this one did?
    Her fingers dug into his shoulders. Ty’s tightened his arm, bringing her closer. His other hand rose to circle the back of her neck. He guided her head so that he captured her mouth more fully.
    Just as Michelle began to press closer he pulled away. Disappointment swamped her. She wanted more. Stumbling slightly, Ty steadied her.
    “That should make your mother happy.”
    What? Michelle sucked in her breath. She’d experienced the kiss of her life and Ty had only done so to make her mother happy! Could she be more insulted?
    She jerked out of his arms. “If I didn’t care that my mother was watching, I’d slap your face.”
    With that, she re-entered the house, leaving Ty standing on the porch.

CHAPTER FOUR
    T Y’S GAZE LIFTED away from the blood-pressure monitor to Michelle. She was engrossed in watching the resident remove the cannula running to the heart-lung machine as they took their patient, a sixty-three-year-old female, off bypass in the OR.
    He didn’t understand her reaction two nights before when he’d kissed her. He’d made a mistake somewhere. Not usually so out of tune with a woman, Michelle’s response to his kiss had thrown him. He’d thought she’d been enjoying it. He certainly had been. With her mother watching, he hadn’t been able to take it as far as he wished.
    The ice queen had returned, North-Pole cold this morning. She wouldn’t even look at him and if she did it was to ask a question necessary to patient care only. Normally he’d have shrugged her displeasure off and moved on but Michelle had gotten to him on a level he’d never known before. He didn’t like things not being right between them.
    The resident tipped the heart up to get a look at the suture line on the back.
    “BP dropping. Eighty over sixty. That’s enough,” Ty called.
    The resident put the heart back in place.
    “BP coming up. You guys know that makes me nervous when you do that.”
    Michelle and the resident weren’t really listening to him. They had their heads together, looking intently into the chest of the patient.
    “Where is that blood coming from?” she asked no one in particular. “What is the ACT?” she demanded, without looking at him.
    “Normal range,” Ty answered, letting her know that the activated clotting time was fine. Before he’d started the patient on bypass, using the heart-lung machine, he’d given her blood thinner. When the patient had come off bypass he’d had to reverse it by giving protamine.
    “Do more factors need to be given?”
    “No. Platelets and FFP are in range,” Ty responded. He checked again. Nothing indicated fresh frozen plasma was needed.
    “What does the TEG show?”
    The TEG was a research tool that told him what part of the clotting cascade was deficient. “Numbers are good.”
    “Then we are prolene-deficient,” Michelle announced.
    Ty jerked his head up to look at her. More sutures were required. Her voice was higher than normal. She was rattled for some reason.
    “Let’s find this thing,” she snapped. “We need to know if it’s the suture line or a vessel.
    “Pack it with sponges and see what we get.”
    The resident began to place sponges around the heart. Then they waited.
    For the first time her eyes met Ty’s. Her gaze remained long enough for him to see the terror in her eyes.
    “BP?” she asked.
    “Dropping slowly.”
    “Let’s get them out,” she said, referring to the sponges.
    The resident removed one from behind the heart. It was bright red. “Got it.”
    “The arterial suture line,” Michelle said, with less confidence than she usually showed. “I thought I’d put in enough stitches.”
    He couldn’t see her eyes but her breathing had become more rapid. Ty checked the monitors to make