His Lady Godiva: Lovers and Other Strangers, #1

By L.C. Giroux

There were so many reasons he shouldn't love her...

Dr. Michael Dennison put broken bodies back together so no one would have to live like he did. As many obstacles as he had overcome, he never wanted to burden a woman with his disability. He was safer never to risk his heart.

His hands made her body whole. His touch woke her heart...

Violet Bellows lived a guarded life. The crash had taken so much from her but she still had something to give. For her surgeon she would risk everything to make him hers, body and soul.

Together they will discover facets of themselves they never dreamed of...

RT Reviews Magazine said of His Lady Godiva "Spicy dialogue, enjoyable characters, an interesting premise and good storytelling will have readers devouring this delightful novella like a refreshing Italian ice in the blazing Texas heat -- and yearning for more... readers will enjoy the respite Giroux offers in this entertaining nugget, the first in a series."

Escape to the Lovers and Other Strangers world today. This contemporary romance series travels across the US with stops in Boston, Las Vegas and the Southwest, Seattle, Chicago, and New York. With each new book you'll find characters that feel like friends and catch up with favorite characters lives. Read the entire Lovers and Other Strangers Series by L.C. Giroux.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eris Digital
• Release date: May 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781501406171

L.C. Giroux

Best selling author L.C. Giroux writes smart, sexy, fun, contemporary and new adult romance. She has written over 20 books that are as much about the love of a family as about any one couple. Coming from a big French-Canadian and Italian family, she couldn’t write love stories any other way. Not surprisingly, her stories also include a fair bit of food and men that cook and clean. And no, they aren’t fantasies. Romance might seem an odd fit after an architecture degree and jobs in everything from cosmetics to accounting to molecular biology but five minutes into their first date she knew she had met her future husband. After twenty two years, a kid, their fair share of richer, poorer, sickness, and health later and she still believes in a happy ending.  While romance author is the last in a long line of diverse careers it is by far her favorite. She now likes to say that all that career indecision was just research for her writing career. She hasn’t even begun to tap into the stories from her time in the Air Force.  Being a tech geek, self publishing was a natural fit for her and she dove in head first. Her first book was published in 2010 and only after it was uploaded for sale did she realize that maybe getting an editor might not be a bad idea. She won’t ever make that mistake again! The following book was the beginning of her Lovers and Other Strangers series. When she started it was just to prove that she had more than one book in her. When the best friend character proved too good to pass up and got a story of his own, it became a series of 12 books and 4 novellas. She enjoys writing about imperfect heroes and heroines of all types who grow into themselves over the course of a book.  In 2014 she branched out to historical romance with her Heiresses of Eris series. This series is about difficult women and the men strong enough to love them. She also went back to her writing roots with her Protective romantic suspense series. This series shows that having weaknesses makes you human, not unlovable. When L.C. isn’t writing she is hanging out with her family and dogs who are a lot more fun than anything on television. She has lived in more college towns than is good for anyone over the age of thirty. She finds it fertile ground for more story ideas. You can read excerpts of her work at www.lcgiroux.com

Book preview

Chapter 1 His Lady Godiva

Dr. Michael Dennison nearly ran the nurse in front of him over. Sheila, I need the damned chart. The startled nurse just about flung it at him in her desire to get away. Michael prided himself on his control and detachment, and knew he should be nicer to the staff. It wasn’t their fault he had a new patient.

He shook his head. He dreaded seeing new patients. Their cases certainly interested him but the first meeting was his idea of torture. He had been an orthopedic surgeon long enough to have established a routine when entering an exam room with a patient he’d never seen before.

The dog and pony show he had worked out was designed to put the patient as ease, and maybe salvage a little of his pride. He’d enter the exam room, shuffling his papers and charts to announce himself. He’d feign an air of distractedness that the patients didn’t question, while avoiding eye contact. Then he’d move to the light box to tack up the X-rays and act like he was looking at them. All to give the patient time to get used to the idea that the man in the wheelchair could actually be their doctor.

Their surgeon, more precisely. He maintained this charade for five or so minutes before turning to address them and finally see the pity on their faces along with the awkward attempts to look anywhere but at the wheelchair. No doubt this patient would be much the same as all the others. He sat outside the door as he flipped through the woman’s chart before starting his pantomime.

Patient name- Violet Bellows, Age- twenty-nine, being seen for leg weakness resulting in falls. Her x-rays told him almost everything he needed to know. He didn’t even really need to see her. The woman’s back showed the classic bend of someone with spondy. He was surprised at the degree of slip in someone her age, but he flipped through her chart and yes, there had been significant trauma to the vertebral bodies, speeding up the degeneration. He took a deep breath. This was a situation where he could do the patient some real good. He’d hold on to that thought. Best to get this over with.

He knocked and, hearing her answer, rolled in while looking at his notes. He moved to the light box, hung the X-rays, and began to study them—or at least pretended to.

He was surprised when she said, If you don’t mind me asking, how do you do surgery? Who was she to challenge his skills? The worst most people did was never look him in the eye. She could damned well find another doctor if she didn’t trust him. He turned around quickly, and forgot he was even angry.

In front of him sat the most exquisite woman he had ever seen. Her beauty was from another century. Hell, another age. Skin the color of whipped cream, her eyes were dark rich brown, her lips and cheeks could have been copied from Sistine cherubim. But her hair was her crowning glory. Almost black, it hung nearly to her waist in Renaissance-era curls. She wore it over her shoulders in such a way that even in the johnny coat she reminded him of a temptress from a Vatican painting. Excuse me? He coughed to cover his lack of composure.

I wondered how you do surgery.

The most intriguing thing about her question was she directed it to his face, not over his shoulder, or to his chair. No, she was actually looking him in the eye. He searched her face for some kind of condescension, but saw only intelligence and warmth. He almost managed a smile.

I worked with a group to develop a wheelchair to my specifications that does this. He pressed a button, and the hidden engineering whirled to life. In a couple of seconds he was in a standing position. It’s a simple matter of hydraulics and weights, really. I have enough torso and upper body strength that I can do anything that any other surgeon can. In the process, I can save my patients from a life like mine. He lowered himself back to a seated position.

You mean the life of a handsome and renown surgeon? Now she was laughing at him, and her laughter surprised him. It filled the room like bells. Yes, she was laughing at him he supposed but there was no slight in it. It wasn’t for several seconds that Michael even realized she had called him handsome. He sputtered and finally got some control of himself and the situation.

Yes. Um, right. Let’s see what your issues are then, shall we? If you look at your X-ray here and here, you can see the vertebra have shifted significantly forward. This puts tremendous strain on these discs and compresses the cauda equina, the nerve fibers at the base of the spine. That’s why your legs go numb and you’ve been falling. Have you had any associated pain?

No. The word barely reached his ears. He was surprised by her response and waited for her to continue.

When she didn’t, he turned to look at her, and she had changed. She seemed smaller, as if having to talk about herself was too much to bear.

You’ve had no backaches? No charley horses?

Some I suppose, but that’s life.

No, not in your case, Ms. Bellows. You have a grade four slip of these vertebra. I can think of only one other case with this degree of degradation I have ever seen in someone your age. We will need to get you in for surgery as soon as possible. I’ll have the nurse set you up in my schedule, but it must be soon.

She looked at him through her lashes, her face blank. Was she scared? He couldn’t tell. Will it hurt? she finally asked in almost a whisper.

I can’t lie to you. We have very good pain control available, but yes, I’m afraid the days just after surgery are not pleasant even with a morphine pump. Unfortunately, without it, you’ll be in a wheelchair within the next few months. If it comes to that, I don’t know that we’d be able to get your nerve function back even if we did surgery. Can you stand in front of me, please?

She got off the table and stood facing him. She was about five foot five and fairly slim. Her hips were even, but tipped forward at a severe angle, and she showed the sway back typical of her condition. Now, walk to the door, turn around, and come back. She did as she was told. Yes, you have a classic presentation. I could probably have diagnosed you without even seeing the X-rays. I’ll need a few more images, CAT scans, and an MRI before we bring you in for the surgery, but we should be able to get those done quickly.

He had turned and started to leave when she said, Will I still be ugly? He felt like he had been kicked in the chest. How could a woman this spectacular worry about being ugly? He turned back to her, noticing her lashes were now wet. He was not in the habit of giving compliments to his patients, or anyone else for that matter. He knew for a fact the nursing staff, might respect his work, but they all wanted to avoid having to deal with him.

For this woman, he wished he could be polished, articulate. He searched his mind, his love of opera, food, wine, beautiful art, but could come up with nothing that compared to her. Finally, he tried for honesty. You are already so beautiful, a small thing like straightening your spine will have very little effect. Lost in trying to pay her a compliment, he hadn’t realized he’d placed his hand on her knee. He saw her look down and blush. Her skin flashed hot through the thin cotton of the gown. He pulled his hand away as if he’d been burned.

He had no idea he could make a woman respond to his mere words like that. Well, um, yes… I should go and let you get dressed. You need to stop at the front desk. They have the list of things to be scheduled, and then my nurse will set up the surgery date. Now he was the one who couldn’t look her in the eye, the one who couldn’t get out the door fast enough. His heart rate left him nearly gasping for air. Thankfully, a returning patient was waiting for him next. After getting outside the door, he tried to steady his shaking hands. What had this woman done to him?

Chapter 2 His Lady Godiva

Violet thought that ordeal would never end. She looked at the handful of appointment slips for all the different pre-op tests. Everyone was so worried about the patient experience, but it would be a lot better if the appointment process were more streamlined. She made a mental note to talk to Allyn about it.

Her thoughts drifted to Dr. Dennison again. He was attractive in a buttoned up way, even in his scrubs. What was it about him that made her want to unbutton him? She had become very practiced at no longer looking men in the eye. That way she didn’t see their initial attraction fade when they saw how deformed her back was. Dr. Dennison may think it a small thing but other men didn’t share his opinion.

Thinking of her doctor warmed up the cold day. Her attraction to him surprised her. Could her interest be because in a wheelchair he was safe? He’d understand what it felt like to be stared at for something you couldn’t control. Maybe he was safe. But the silky, sandy blond hair, sapphire blue eyes, close cropped beard certainly called to her. His broad shoulders didn’t hurt either. He had already called her beautiful. Just thinking about him saying it made her light up as if it were Christmas. She’d hang on to his words to keep her nice and warm outside. She hated winter and yet couldn’t really live anywhere but Boston. It made no sense, but she loved the house. And Allyn was there. Living in the huge place together allowed her to feel like she was part of a family still, even if it was just the two of them.

Stepping out of the building, her attention was drawn to the street by the blaring of car horns. The traffic light had changed, and someone crossing in a wheelchair was still in the crosswalk. The chair must be stuck, either with a power failure or snow clogging the wheels. That poor man! she said.

All she saw of him was his overcoat and a fedora. She couldn’t stand around and not try to help him. She waded into the traffic trying to drive around him. Once she reached him she said to his back, Is there a way to release the drive so I can push you?

He growled, I can deal with this myself, thank you very much.

If you’ll just let me help, I can get you across the street, and then you can be on your way, Violet yelled over the blaring horns.

I said I am fine, thank you!

Look, you’re obviously not fine. You’re stuck in the middle of the street. If you don’t tell me how to release the mechanism so I can roll you to the curb, you’re going to get us both killed. Shouts now added to the car horns.

I didn’t ask your help.

No, but I’m here now, and you obviously need it. Stop being so pig-headed and... oh, here is the damn release. Violet flipped the switch and pushed the miserable man across the street. Once they were safely out of traffic she stepped in front of him. It’s all well and good having your pride, but it’s not worth getting killed over, or worse--taking someone else with you. Her cheeks burned as she stared into blue eyes now the color of ice, where before there had been such warmth. The man she was chastising was her doctor. Dr. Dennison! I...well, don’t bother to thank me! She turned on her heel and entered the hospital.

Violet was supposed to meet Allyn at the hospital president’s office, but she was still too angry, more like, hurt, to sit through a boring meeting and called him to catch up with her in the lobby after. They could get lunch at the cafe in the atrium. It took him about twenty minutes to finish up and he found her reading a magazine there.

How did your appointment go? She smiled at the women nearly tripping themselves walking past him. He was oblivious as usual. The little bit of grey at his temples blended into his blond hair and made him look slightly older than his forty-one years. Though in a very handsome, reassuring way. His tan had faded with winter coming but with time on the boat it would be back no matter how much she nagged him to wear sunscreen.

Oh, fine. I need surgery soon, as in I’m scheduled in two and a half weeks. With the number of tests and X-rays and whatever, I should probably just get a bed here now. She threw the magazine on the table with more force than necessary. She glared back at Allyn and then felt bad about it.

Whoa, what is up with you? You knew you were going to need surgery. Why are you so angry now?

She debated telling him about Dr. Dennison, but he would get all protective and feel like he needed to do something about it. Dennison might have the social skills of Attila the Hun, but he was an excellent doctor, and she couldn’t