CHAPTER 1

           She looked at him like she was about to strangle her brother. All her pep talk from earlier served to nothing. He was still against going to Los Angeles. He wasn’t willing to participate in the most important medical conference of the year! 

“What do you mean, you're not going? Phoenix, you promised you would go! It’s for the best of this clinic! You've been working non-stop for nearly one year and a half without taking a break, without enjoying Christmas or Easter. You worked even on the 4^th of July... If you don't take a few days off, you'll end up in a hospital bed!”

“A few days off… Really, Nicky? Surely you must know that what you’re asking me to do is to attend a medical conference, not a spa,” Phoenix replied.

“Ok, it might be all work and no play for the first half of each day. But then I expect you to come out of your boredom-induced coma and socialize for the second half,” Nicole said trying sweetening the pill.  

“Which is exactly what you need,” Phoenix got back in the conversation.

“What do I need? To be bored to death?” she asked bemused.

“In a way… But I was thinking more of the socializing part.”

“Ok, we were talking about you, Dr. Beaumont, so leave me out of it, please. What on earth is Erika going to say when you tell her?”

“Erika is exactly the reason I'm not going to L.A.”

          Genie grimaced from where she was sitting at the reception desk, trying to get on with her work and not listening to the private conversation that was, unfortunately, coming loud and clear from Dr. Phoenix Beaumont's office.

          ‘If only Nicole had closed that damned door properly, I wouldn't be in this embarrassing position,’ Genie thought eggily.

“Explain yourself, Phoenix!” Nicole demanded in an imperative tone.

“What's there to explain? I simply decided I didn't want to take Erika. Listen, this kind of medical conference has been designed around couples, and I didn't want to stand out, so, I've decided not to go at all. Simple as that!”

“But why have you decided not to take Erika, for heaven's sake?”

“Look, Sis… Erika's no different from any other woman I've been crazy enough to become involved with over the past few years. After a couple of months, they start imagining that our relationship, such as it is, should develop into something… deeper. Meaningful, even.”

“Oh, this is so unimaginable! Wanting more than sex from you is so out of this world!”  

          Genie winced at the caustic tone in Nicole's voice. Not that Genie was on Dr. Beaumont's side. Nicole's brother was just a player, a ruthless playboy, something his older sister obviously knew only too well!

“Spare me the sarcasm, Nicky,” he drawled. “I never promised Erika anything more than a night here and there. She told me that this was what she wanted too. She also told me that after her divorce, all she was asking of me was a ‘no strings attached’ relationship, but as I can see, Erika was lying. I should have known better.  Now all she wants from me is eternal love, and a marriage proposal as soon as possible.”

“Silly girl,” Nicole mocked drily. “Maybe you should have a warning tattooed on that handsome forehead of yours, sweetie. You could write: ‘allergic to love and especially marriage!”

“Not allergic, Nicky. Just pretty cautious. As I am of all beautiful women like sweet Erika. Most don't have love on their minds when they look to marriage, only money and social status.”

          Nicole's sigh echoed through the quiet rooms.

“You still haven't gotten over her, have you, Nix?”

          That nickname was a sign that she wasn’t that angry anymore. Phoenix knew that his sister would stop yelling at him after 5 minutes. But she was digging out things already dead and buried in his past.

“Who?” he asked in a dismissal tone.

“Oh, Nix, you know very well who I’m talking about. The awful Whitney.”

“I really don’t wish to discuss the past once again, Nicky. And I’m done having this conversation also. If you don't mind, I still have a few letters to dictate here for Miss Mitchell to type up before she leaves.”

          Genie's eyebrows rose in a sardonic arch. Almost a year she'd worked for Phoenix ‘Nix’ Beaumont and he still called her 'Miss Mitchell'. Not that she really cared. It suited her fine to keep the disgustingly handsome orthopedist at a safe distance. Romance wasn’t on her agenda this year. Or any other year from now on. She'd had enough of romance to last her a lifetime!

          Still, his cold indifference to her as a living, breathing human being did bother her just a little from time to time. He'd never asked her one single question about herself during that year. Not a single one.

          Genie smiled ruefully as she recalled their first meeting. He had been sitting behind his desk with his head down when Nicole had ushered her in for an introduction. Apparently, Phoenix Beaumont had given his older sister carte blanche in hiring someone to take over from her on Fridays.

           Nicole decided that after years of slavery to Phoenix as both his housekeeper and full-time receptionist, she wanted Fridays off. Her dear brother's only instruction had been that she was to train her Friday's replacement thoroughly so that there would be no problems in her absence.

          Genie wasn't sure what she'd expected after having met Nicole. Someone older, she supposed. And less... striking. Nicole was around forty, curvy, witty, and very protective of her brother.

          So, when Phoenix Beaumont had lifted his darkly handsome head and set his startlingly emerald eyes on her, Genie stopped breathing for a second. Her involuntary surprise at his unexpected gorgeousness, plus his age, late thirties at the most, hadn’t gone unnoticed. A scornful coldness swept over those arrogantly handsome features, changing their chiseled beauty into a forbidding concrete.

          His ‘how do you do, Miss Mitchell,’ had the effect of a bucket filled with iced water poured over burned skin. And it never changed, not once in twelve months. Genie found his coldness almost amusing at times. What had he thought during those first moments of their meeting? That she'd been bowled over by his brooding sex appeal? Did he believe that she might be having a secret crush on him and that if he gave her an inch, she would take more than a mile?

          Well, it would take more than tall, dark, and handsome to sweep her off her feet these days. Her experience with Jared almost crashed her but also had taught her well. Oh, yes, the handsome Nix had made her silly heart flutter for a split second, but that was all.

          She'd quickly learned to control any further involuntary sexual responses when she looked at him. Just as she'd quickly learned what kind of man laid behind his smoldering good looks.

          Phoenix Beaumont was a robot, not a man. A cold-blooded, cold-hearted robot who worked twenty-five hours a day, operating at not one or two, but three hospitals. He was doing surgeries every day of the week, several times a day.

          Genie sometimes wondered why was he so requested. It had to be because of his skills, not his bedside manner. He had consultations every Friday afternoon while she was there, giving her plenty of opportunities to study his personality, and she'd never seen him so much as smile at a patient.

          He would come out of his rooms and call each successive one in with that same cold, still expression on his face. They were just cases to him, not real human beings. She wouldn't mind betting that he had never become emotionally involved with a single person he'd operated on. Obviously, he never became emotionally involved with anyone, from what she'd just heard.

“Stop bothering me with this nonsense, Nicky,” she heard him saying to his sister in a vaguely bored tone. “I'm not going and that's final.”

“Stubborn ox! Any other man would just find someone else to take.”

“Really? And whom should I take?”

“Oh, I don't know…”

          Nicole was beginning to sound again very angry with her brother.

“You could hire one of those escorts, I suppose. Like they do in the rom-com.”

“Seriously, Sis?! One of my closest colleagues will be there with his wife. Do you honestly think I would show up with a call-girl on my arm?”

“How would they ever know?”

“Well, I'd know,” Phoenix bit out.

“Are you telling me you've finally developed scruples where women and sex are concerned? Frankly, I think it's a perfectly splendid idea, and perfectly suited to your requirements. For the right fee, you'd get exactly what you want from a woman and no more,” Nicole threw at him tartly. “You certainly wouldn't have to worry about her dreaming of a relationship with you afterward either. You'd know right from the start that she was only screwing you for your money!”

          Genie's eyebrow raised while hearing this. Nicole must really be mad to come up with the last part of her sentence. Still, it was rather good to hear Nicole telling her brother the truth in his face.

          Clearly, that sudden remarque left him speechless. Suddenly there was only silence.

“Say something, Phoenix Beaumont!” Nicole demanded after a short while. “Don't you dare ignore me! I won't have it, do you hear?”

“And I won't have you telling me how to run my private life,” her brother returned in an ominously cold voice. “Now, go home and leave me be. I have work to do and you’re standing in my way.”