Read Online Ecstasy Wears Emeralds by Renee Bernard - Free Book Online Page B

decided to forgo convention and destroy my own peace of mind by actually hiring a woman.”
    â€œReally?” Ashe’s astonishment was genuine, and he sat down next to his friend, staring at him as if he’d just spontaneously sprouted a unicorn horn. “You? How is that even remotely possible?”
    â€œI’m not even sure. One minute I’m nursing a headache and so tired I can’t feel my tongue anymore, and the next . . . I’m losing arguments with the devil’s own daughter. Miss Gayle Renshaw is a force to be reckoned with.”
    â€œI like her already!”
    â€œNo, you don’t. You aren’t allowed to like her, Ashe.”
    â€œWhy can’t I like her? I love a good argument, and if she’s providing you with a nice debate or two, what’s not to enjoy? So, you’ve hired a nurse to help with patients. Is that what you’ve done?”
    â€œShe wants to be a physician! Can you imagine such a thing? I have a female apprentice.” Rowan relaxed his grip on a pillow and tried to sit back. “I’m in real trouble, Ashe.”
    â€œHa! Where’s the trouble? Every man in England would probably happily volunteer to see a doctor if he had the choice of a woman over one of the dour old men you tend to stand about with! Hell, that’s probably why you’ve kept women out of the profession!” Ashe leaned in with a mischievous grin. “Can’t stand a bit of pretty competition?”
    â€œWho the hell said she was pretty?” Rowan snapped back.
    â€œYou certainly didn’t, but there’s no denying it now after the face you just made! Damn, Rowan! Did you hire her because she’s beautiful? Has my saintly friend fallen prey to his desires?”
    â€œYou, sir, are an idiot—and should be extremely grateful to have friends who will tolerate you.” Rowan abandoned his seat to pace in fury. “I happen to loathe Miss Renshaw.”
    â€œYou don’t have it in you, West. I’ve seen you spare a kind word to the worst sort of people. Hell, even in that dungeon I don’t remember you ever say—”
    â€œI hate this woman!”
    â€œCareful.” Ashe smiled. “That’s a trap any man can lose his heart in.” He poured himself a generous brandy from the small cabinet under his writing desk. “If you were indifferent, I wouldn’t worry, but you sound like you’re a bit too emotionally involved, Rowan.”
    â€œThat’s nonsense! You never hated Caroline!”
    â€œHave you forgotten my fantasies of murdering her in her sleep?” Ashe jested, reminding Rowan of his own lost battle to guard his heart from the woman who was now his unconventional American bride. “I was besotted and didn’t even know it.”
    â€œThis is completely different!” Rowan had to keep his hands clenched behind his back so that Ashe wouldn’t see the fists that itched to punch his friend’s handsome face for hinting at the impossible. “Trust me. This. She. Never.”
    â€œWell, if she’s gotten you so spitting mad that you’re making incoherent social calls, I’m not going to complain. Usually we’re the ones invading your home and putting up our feet on your desk—and since I am now a devoted husband, my wife has informed me that the practice may have been quite rude. What a revelation!”
    â€œIt wasn’t an invasion. Carter misses you dreadfully, though he’d hang himself before he said it. And you know the Jaded have never to ask. My home is open to all of you. You’re family.”
    â€œYou’re growing maudlin these days, Rowan. Are you sure your lovely apprentice hasn’t tied your tail in a knot?”
    â€œShe’ll be gone in a week. Medicine can seem a romantic art until she’s scorched her hands in the lab a few times and caught a glimpse of the pile of reference books I’m going to