THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

it just so happens that I believe there’s more to life than marriage and children. Like career. Like making a difference in people’s lives.”
    “Ah, yes, your career.” He sat back in his chair, raking back the strand of hair that fell on his forehead. “I understood it was dealt a serious blow last month when you resigned from the hospital authority under a bit of a cloud. A charting episode?”
    Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Her heart lurched, then thundered. How did he know that? How the hell did he know it? Who had he been talking to?
    She paled as another thought struck her. How did he know about her domestic living arrangements? How had he known she lived alone?
    That eyebrow again, lifting eloquently. “What, no comment on the charting debacle?”
    Anger surged, choking coherent thought. “The circumstances of my leaving the hospital are nobody’s business but mine!”
    “You don’t think a prospective employer should be permitted to investigate a potential employee’s track record?”
    “Who did you talk to?” she demanded.
    “I hardly think that’s relevant.”
    “It sure as hell is relevant. They agreed to give me a clean, if not particularly enthusiastic, reference.” She found the hydraulic lever on the side of the bed and raised the head of it while she talked. “That was the deal, in exchange for my leaving. That’s all they wanted, to get rid of me. The allegations were bogus and they knew it, but they didn’t care.”
    “So you were framed?”
    “Yes, I was framed, dammit!” She paused a few seconds to bring herself under control. When she continued, her voice sounded more like her own. “Okay, I know that probably sounds pretty lame, but it’s true. They saw me as a whistleblower, not a team player. So when these allegations were raised, they jumped at the chance to get rid of me.”
    “I know.”
    “This all happened because I reported an anesthetist’s gross criminal misconduct. But I had to! Those surgeons, or at least some of them, had to have known about his drug problem, yet no one would come forward. Sooner or later, someone would have come to harm, maybe even died, and—”
    “I know. You did what you had to. I wholeheartedly approve of your decision.”
    That brought her up short. “You know about all this?”
    “Of course. When I pay as much for information as I did in this case, it has to be comprehensive.”
    She blinked. “You paid for information on me?”
    “You should be pleased to know the personnel department is keeping up its end of the bargain. Your reference is clean enough, for anyone making a conventional inquiry.”
    “But that wasn’t good enough for you?”
    He shrugged. “As you can see, my research is a little sensitive. I need people whose discretion I can trust absolutely.”
    She snorted. “You found it reassuring to learn that I was a whistleblower? I would have thought that little detail would be a deterrent. What, for instance, makes you think I wouldn’t rat you out? Something tells me your research might not be in strict compliance with the Tri-Council’s ethical standards for research involving humans.”
    He smiled. It started slow, then spread until it suffused his whole face. And oh, Christmas, he was gorgeous when he did that. Which was the absolute last thing she should be thinking. This man had violated her privacy!
    “Okay, what’s so funny?”
    His smile faded much quicker than it had appeared. “You are a fearless little thing, aren’t you?”
    Her neck prickled. “What do you mean?”
    “You’ve been sitting in that bed, thinking what an unprincipled rogue I am, what a disgrace to the healing arts. You’ve wondered about your own safety, about the wisdom of staying here under my care. Indeed, you’ve wondered whether I would let you leave. Even now, I can see you second-guessing whether the hospital might be a better bet, after all. And yet you dare to raise the specter of reporting me to Health Canada for regulatory breaches. You are, Ms. Crawford, quite a piece of work.”
    Dammit, she’d let her mouth run on again. When would she learn? Ignoring the heat that rose in her cheeks, she tilted her chin.
    “If that sounded like a threat, I apologize. I hardly know enough about your research to even speculate about compliance issues. And I would certainly not reward you for saving my life by jeopardizing either your livelihood or your research. As I’m sure your investigation revealed, Dr. Bowen, I have