She let out a gasp of approval as he bunched the fabric between his fingers, pinning her arms loosely at her sides and brushing his lips against her forehead.
‘That’s good. Jaye...’
He couldn’t resist. Imprisoning her tightly, he kissed her again. Megan’s response was immediate, kissing him back with an almost savage passion that left him reeling.
As soon as he released his grip, she put her arms around his neck, pulling him down for another kiss. He held her tightly against his chest, wondering what he could ever have done to deserve this second chance.
‘This... It’s not right...’ Megan deserved more than this dank, draughty tunnel. She deserved candlelight and soft sheets. Maybe a hot bath, to make her feel good, before he made love to her.
He could hardly breathe. Asking her back to his bed seemed like the biggest risk he’d ever taken.
‘No, it’s not...’ He felt her body pulling slowly away from his. ‘You’re my boss and...it’s too complicated.’
That wasn’t what he’d meant. But suddenly it seemed undeniably true. He pulled his jacket up around her shoulders, wrapping it around her.
He’d thought that Megan was so different. She’d seen past the privilege of his background, and that had blinded him to the one thing that was staring him right in the face. He was her boss, and she couldn’t see past that. She never would, her father had seen to that.
And this was no misunderstanding. It wasn’t right for either of them.
Jaye took her hand, brushing his lips against the backs of her fingers. ‘I’ll take you back. Tonight never happened.’
‘Thank you.’ Her eyes glistened as she looked up at him. ‘I’m sorry that...it couldn’t.’
So was Jaye. But he was beginning to feel as if he’d had a lucky escape.
He took her hand, leading her back out of the tunnel and through the basement to the kitchen. She took off the wellington books, stowing them carefully back into the cupboard under the stairs and slipping her shoes back on. Then she took his jacket off, carefully hanging it over the back of one of the chairs around the kitchen table, her hand smoothing the creases he’d made when he’d pulled her close and kissed her.
‘I can find my way from here.’ Clearly she didn’t want the indignity of being spotted with her boss at one in the morning. Anger surged through Jaye’s heart. Why couldn’t she see that he was different from her father?
‘I’ll see you in the morning.’ His words were a little more abrupt than he’d meant them to be and he struggled to smile at her. This was for the best, and the least he could do was be civil about it. ‘Goodnight. Sleep well.’
‘Thank you. You too.’ Megan turned and walked away from him.
* * *
Megan didn’t dare to go down to breakfast, making do with an oat bar she’d found at the bottom of her handbag and a glass of water. She packed her things, and sat down to write a note.
Everyone was leaving this morning, and she wondered whether it would be more inconspicuous to go with a group of the others or to walk across the entrance hall alone. Deciding that going it alone had the advantage of allowing her to make a dash for it, she crept downstairs into the quiet entrance hall.
‘Not again.’ She’d positioned the envelope, addressed to Caroline, next to the flowers on the hall table, when Jaye’s voice rang out. Megan jumped, letting out an involuntary yelp of surprise.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.’ He was sitting in an armchair right at the back of the entrance hall, behind the stairs.
‘I imagine if you had, you’d be leaving by the back door right now.’ His voice was kind, but his eyes were devoid of any emotion. The Jaye she’d got a glimpse of last night was lost behind the façade of a charming host.
‘I had to come this way, to leave a thank-you note for your mother.’ Megan picked up the envelope from the hall table.
‘That’s very thoughtful. I’ll give it to her.’
Megan hesitated. They were both thinking it, so she may as well say it. ‘So I’m not so much sneaking off as...leaving unobtrusively.’
‘That makes all the difference.’ For a moment she thought she saw Jaye’s warmth in the flash of his dark eyes.
She held out her hand to him, and he took it, his fingers squeezing hers slightly before he let go again. ‘Thank you very much. The last four days have been... It was a really good course.’
If he’d decided to withdraw the job offer after last night, he gave no hint of it. But Jaye was like her father, able to give or take away on a whim, without needing to explain himself.
‘Good luck. I’m really looking forward to hearing how you do in Sri Lanka. I hope we meet again on your return.’
He was speaking in code, but it was one that was easily cracked. Her job was safe, and she was still going to Sri Lanka. And he wasn’t going to do anything crazy, like turn up out of the blue while she was there.
‘Thank you Jaye. I really appreciate that.’
He nodded. ‘May I walk you to your car?’
‘Thank you. That would be nice.’
He lifted her suitcase into the boot for her and stood back, watching as she drove away. As the drive wound away from the house, and he disappeared from view, it was impossible not to feel a sense of relief, mixed with sadness. In the hothouse atmosphere of the last four days, Megan had experienced almost every emotion, most of them connected with Jaye in some way.
They’d done the right thing, though, in keeping things simple. When they saw each other next, they would both have forgotten all about what might so easily have happened, but hadn’t.
And in the meantime... Sri Lanka beckoned, like a golden glow on the horizon.
Chapter Six
Two months later.
Rural airstrip, Western Province,
Sri Lanka.
JAYE HAD PUT all his efforts into getting the precious medical supplies out of the plane’s cargo hold and stacked by the side of the tarmac. The pilot had made it very clear that the only thing he did between landing and taking off again was to drink iced tea and sit in the shade, and the helpers he’d been promised by the clinic hadn’t turned up yet.
It didn’t matter. He’d been sitting down for too long, first on the flight from Heathrow and then in the cramped cockpit of the chartered cargo plane, and it had given him far too long to think about this. A little hard work was more than welcome.
Something was wrong at the clinic. They were short-staffed, having lost a couple of nurses and the doctor in residence in the last month, and Ranjini, the head of nursing services, had reported that morale was very low. Then, out of the blue, Megan had put in an urgent request for medical supplies that they should already have.
Jaye had become increasingly worried. When he’d last spoken with Ranjini, he’d asked her what she needed him to do and she’d answered straight away.
We cannot work this out on the phone. I need you here, Jaye.
There had been no time to contact Megan, and if there had been Jaye wasn’t sure what he would have said. That one kiss had echoed in his memory, along with the promise to himself that it wouldn’t be repeated, and together they’d morphed into a longing that he didn’t know how to handle.
He’d packed his bags and left, hitching a ride with the medical shipment for the last leg of his journey. Ranjini wouldn’t have called him there unless there were serious problems, and getting to the bottom of them was more important than his own feelings, or Megan’s for that matter.
He heard an engine, and stood up, stretching his back. A battered motorbike was speeding towards the plane, kicking up dust on the dirt airstrip. For the first time in the last three days Jaye smiled. No one kicked dust up quite as well as Dinesh.
Someone was on the back of the bike, but since they were travelling at speed and seemed to be wearing the better half of the road
, it was difficult to make out who it was. But when the passenger dismounted, he recognised Megan even before she’d taken off her helmet, shaking her blonde hair in the breeze.
Even now, the familiar pain twisted in his heart. How often in the last two months had he longed for just a glimpse of her? Just one touch of her fingertips.
He watched as Dinesh took a brush from under the seat and flicked it across his beloved machine. Jaye never had got to the bottom of why he rode through every dust bowl and puddle he came across when he was so very particular about the motorbike being spotless when it was stationary. Perhaps he just liked cleaning it.
Megan had turned towards him, shading her eyes against the sun, and suddenly stood stock-still. Jaye began to walk towards her, and she seemed to gather her wits, hurrying in his direction.
He’d run through this moment so many times in his mind. He was here to solve problems, to be an arbiter if one was needed, and that meant that he had to swallow his own feelings and treat Megan exactly the same as he treated everyone else.
Still, all he could see was her hair, shining in the sunlight. All he could think about was her smile, and how her dusty clothes only served to make her cheeks look pinker and her eyes even more lustrously blue. Despite everything, he still ached to kiss her.
Which was impossible on just about every level imaginable. Megan didn’t want it, she’d made that pretty clear. And Jaye still had a little bit of his pride intact.
‘Jaye...’ He’d known it would be hard, but he hadn’t quite anticipated how hard it would be to hear her say his name. ‘What are you doing here? I thought the relief doctor—’
‘Dr Stone won’t be able to fly out until next week. I’m filling in for him. Didn’t Ranjini tell you?’
‘No...no, we’ve been very busy. She left me a note saying that a doctor was coming with the medical supplies and I thought it would be Dr Stone. I came to meet you because...’
Suddenly, a tear dropped from her eye. Megan wiped it away impatiently, leaving a smear of grime on her cheek.
‘What’s the matter?’ Jaye fisted his hands at his sides to stop himself from holding out his arms, ready to comfort her.
‘It’s nothing.’ She shook her head to emphasise the point. It was the death knell to all the vain hopes that had intruded into his waking and sleeping for the last two months. Even when she was angry with him, Megan had always told him why.
‘I mean...yes, there’s something the matter. We have a boy with dengue fever at the clinic. I need you to go to him. Dinesh will take you.’
‘Okay.’ It was almost a relief to think about something else. ‘What’s his condition?’
‘He’s starting to haemorrhage. We’re desperately low on IV fluids. Have you brought some with the supplies?’
Jaye had just unloaded the box, and he started to walk towards it. ‘Over here. You have no IV fluids?’
‘I’ll explain later. You should go.’
Jaye tore open the box with rather more force than necessary. Something was going on, and it looked as if Megan was as likely to tell him as fly in the air. If she wanted him to just be her boss, he’d be her boss, and that meant she had some questions to answer.
* * *
Megan watched as Jaye drove Dinesh’s bike away from the airstrip, followed by the obligatory plume of dust. The horror when she’d first seen Jaye had given way to a sudden joy, a feeling that everything was going to be all right. Which was even more terrifying.
Dinesh had handed his bike over to Jaye with little more than a murmur. The people here trusted him. It was good that he’d come because the clinic needed a firm hand to steer it right now. If that hand happened to be Jaye’s then there was no reason for Megan to start fantasising about all the other things that he could do with his hands.
And she didn’t have time for that, anyway. The truck from the clinic would be here soon and there were medical supplies to load. She’d survived the four days of Jaye’s presence and two months of his absence. She could manage to get through the next week until the new doctor arrived.
An hour later, she navigated the bumpy track that led to the clinic, brick built and shaded by trees that seemed even more lush and inviting after the heat of the road. Her arms ached from lifting boxes and the heavy steering on the truck, and Megan was glad to be back, even if it did bring her in closer proximity to Jaye.
Dinesh jumped down from the passenger seat, making for his bike, clearly intent on giving it a thorough once-over and applying a little man-to-bike reassurance that allowing someone else to take charge of it had been an exception to the rule and wouldn’t be happening again. Megan felt suddenly too weary to move.
A tap on the door made her jump, and as she opened it Ranjini stood back so that the shower of dust didn’t spoil the bright colours of her sari. ‘Jaye’s here?’
Ranjini gave her usual broad smile. ‘Yes. He has seen to the boy and is making a round of all the patients now.’
‘How is Ashan?’
‘We have what we need for him. He will be well now.’
‘Good. Did Jaye say anything...?’ Megan hardly dared ask. But asking Ranjini was a good deal easier than approaching Jaye. ‘Did he want to see me?’
‘When he has finished his rounds. You have plenty of time to go and get cleaned up, he is taking his time.’ Ranjini leaned forward, laying her hand on Megan’s arm. ‘He is here now. Things will be better, you’ll see.’
‘I hope so.’
‘You do not know him as we do.’
Megan felt a tear prick at the side of her eye. This time she managed to blink it back.
‘You are very tired.’ Ranjini was looking at her, concern in her face.
‘We all are. But things will get better. I’m just going to count the boxes off the truck, and then I’ll go and have a shower.’
In the shower, her tears would be unnoticeable, even to herself. She’d towel herself dry and pretend that everything was all right. Pretend that she didn’t want to see Jaye’s smile because, now more than ever, it was impossible.
* * *
Triple-checking each box off the lorry and into the stockroom took longer than Megan had thought. By the time she’d cleaned up and changed her clothes, the word around the clinic was that Jaye was waiting for her in the office that Dr Clarke had recently vacated.
He’d tidied up a bit, putting all the papers that had been left scattered across the desk into a neat pile. A new pile of patients’ case notes had appeared and he was obviously working his way through it, a cup of tea at his elbow. When Megan appeared in the open doorway he looked up.
‘Come in, Megan. Shut the door.’
A chair was positioned on the other side of the desk, and the tray that was on the desk contained an extra cup and saucer. Jaye had obviously prepared for this interview, and Megan still felt completely unprepared.
‘Would you like some tea?’
‘No. Thank you.’ The pouring of tea was only going to prolong this agony. ‘You want to know why we ran out of essential drugs for the clinic.’
‘Yes. I’d very much like to know that.’ His face was impassive. Maybe he felt nothing. It had only been one kiss and he could be forgiven for that.
‘When I first arrived here, I did a thorough stock check. I sent a copy through to the London office.’
He nodded. ‘Yes, I looked that up when I saw your emergency requisition. It indicates that you had good stock levels.’
‘We thought we did. But one of the nurses came to me with a batch of medicines that had a current date on the outer box, but the packs inside were out of date. I investigated a bit more, and found a lot more like that in the stockroom. There were dressings that were covered with mould as well.’
Jaye’s brow was furrowed. ‘You’re saying that our suppliers are sending you old stock?’
‘No, b
ecause I looked up the records, and some of those boxes had been opened and checked before, and they were fine.’
‘So...?’ His gaze suddenly met hers. Searching, as if he wanted to turn over the darkest recesses of her mind. He’d done that when he’d kissed her, and she’d revelled in the way he’d seemed to want to gauge her every response. But now it felt like a searing condemnation.
‘So someone here has taken the new supplies from the boxes and replaced them with old ones. Probably drugs that have been marked out of date and put to one side to be destroyed.’
‘You’re saying that we have a thief. Working here in the clinic?’
‘I don’t know.’ Megan felt suddenly angry. Jaye was probing her but giving nothing back. She didn’t want any special consideration from him, but she’d bet her life he didn’t treat the rest of the clinic staff like this.
‘Make a guess.’ There was no humour in his face as he said the words.
‘Okay... On the same day this all came to light, one of the nurses left early, saying she was ill. She hasn’t been back here since and we’ve gone to her house and she isn’t there. She’s worked here a while and she was good at her job. I have no evidence against her, but it’s a coincidence.’
‘All right.’ He picked up his pen and started to scribble notes on the pad in front of him. ‘I’ll take it from here. Anything else?’
Yes, there was a lot else. The bad feeling in the clinic, the way that Dr Clarke had acted. The fact that this job wasn’t what anyone had promised, and now Jaye was here and treating her like the person he least wanted to see.
Okay. She hadn’t much wanted to see him either. But at least she was trying.
‘I’m doing a thorough stock check. I’ll know exactly how much we have of everything, and have the old stock ready for disposal in a couple of days.’
‘I want to see all the stock before you destroy anything. And your stock check, please.’ Jaye didn’t look up at her.
‘All right.’ Perhaps she should go now. But it felt as if there was nothing but unfinished business here. ‘Is there anything else?’
Forbidden Night with the Duke Page 6