Sunday Smooch

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a sweet doctor-and-nurse kiss from When One Night Isn't Enough by our guest, debut Medical Romance author Wendy S. Marcus, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is -- Virginia!


Congratulations, Virginia! Can you please contact Michelle at

michelle (at) michelle-douglas (dot) com

and she'll send you a signed copy of Christmas at Candlebark Farm.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from When One Night Isn't Enough by Wendy S. Marcus ...

Confessions of an E.R. nurse…

Nurse Ali Forshay has swapped dating disasters for nights out with the girls. But after spending more time than is strictly necessary discussing the man she loves to hate—the notoriously delicious Dr. Jared Padget—Ali's horrifying realization is that she's one hundred percent crazy in lust with him! Her conclusion: spend a feverish night together. After all, it would just be a onetime thing and it would cure her obsession…wouldn't it? 

[Set up: Nurse Ali Forshay breaks out in a full-body flush of embarrassment when Dr. Jared Padget shows up at the hospital’s New Year’s Eve party. Five weeks earlier, a few hours before his departure from town, in an unfortunate drunken encounter, Ali had done things she’d rather not remember. But she’d put that night behind her and had no desire to re-visit it. Or him.
In her effort to escape his notice, she gets her dress caught on a filing cabinet and requires assistance from the very man she’d hoped to never see again. And when Jared takes his sweet time releasing her, then tries to shield her from view when they’re discovered alone in a dark office, Ali’s co-workers jump to their own conclusions about what the two of them were doing there. 
He’d planned to leave and never return to Madrin Falls. But for Jared, one night with Ali just wasn’t enough.]


Jared watched Ali try to hold the sides of her ruined dress together, while she glanced nervously at the door. The urge to help her, care for her and protect her surged within him.  

He shrugged out of his tux jacket and placed it on her shoulders. “Here. Wear this.”  

She looked up, her eyes so big and blue he wanted to dive in and swim around. “Thank you, Dr. P.” 

“Dr. P? After everything we’ve been through together you won’t call me by my name?” 

Her lips curved into a hint of a grin. “Nope.”

It amazed him how many people ‘just happened’ to be standing in the hallway leading from Mr. Crenshaw’s office back to the lobby. Men, some colleagues he recognized from the hospital, others Jared had never seen before, smiled and nodded in approval at what they thought he’d done. Some had the nerve to give him a thumbs-up. 

Allison walked with her head high, looking straight ahead as if no one else existed. To an observer it would have seemed like she was unaffected by the incident. Only he could feel the slight trembling in the ice-cold hand she had clamped around his upper arm with a grip he would have expected from a person twice her size.  

They were almost to the doors at the main entrance when the countdown began. Allison stopped short. “Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!” The crowd cheered in the distance. Paper horns sounded and noisemakers buzzed. The DJ played “Auld Lang Syne.” The two of them stood alone in the lobby, away from the celebration. Allison looked up at him; vulnerable, her spirit depleted. A tear trickled down her left cheek. He wiped it away with his thumb. 

“My new year is off to a terrible start,” she said sadly. 

 “That’s funny,” he replied, lifting her chin with his bent knuckle, lowering his lips to meet hers. “I was just thinking my new year is off to a great start.” 

 She tried to say something. He silenced her with a kiss.

Wendy S. Marcus’s debut Harlequin Medical Romance, When One Night Isn't Enough, is currently available in bookstores and online.

To be in the draw to win a signed copy, tell us about one of your special New Year’s Eve kisses. Where did it take place? And who was it with? Can’t think of one? Then describe a medical romance hero who you’d like to be kissed by on New Year’s Eve!

Currently Wendy is running a contest on her website -- www.wendysmarcus.com -- where you can win signed books and an amazon gift card. For details visit her website!

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from Stone-Cold Lover by Mel Teshco will be posted!