The Doctor's One Night to Remember

by Charlotte Hawkes

  ‘You don’t want to join us?’ Lisa grinned at Reginald, who grinned back.

  ‘No, thank you, my dear. Very kind, though.’

  Isla recalled some of the trainers on her familiarisation course telling her that the hierarchy on a ship was one of the most important anywhere. It dictated whether you were confined to the hot, smelly bowels of the ship, or whether you got to tread the immaculate hallways of the glamorous passenger decks.

  She couldn’t imagine Dr Reginald Turner frequenting the crew bars or being part of the bed-hopping culture that she’d been assured existed. Although, given the glint in his eye, she imagined he might have had some fun in his free and single youth.

  Well, she might be single but she had no intention of being part of any bed-hopping. Last night with Nikhil was the only action she intended to have for the next few months. As a minimum.

  ‘Did you have your interview with the Captain?’ Lisa asked as the three of them began to stroll down the passageways.

  ‘Yes.’ As necessarily brief as it had been. ‘He seems decent enough.’

  ‘Yeah, he’s okay.’ Jordanna nodded. ‘Generally fair and runs a good ship. But wait until you see his right-hand man.’

  As both nurses let out a low, appreciative whistle, Isla didn’t know how she kept putting one foot in front of the other. There was no question they were talking about Nikhil.

  ‘That is one seriously hot male specimen.’ Jordanna swooned as Lisa nodded vigorously.

  ‘Seriously hot.’

  ‘Practically every woman on this ship has thrown themselves at him at some point,’ the American continued. ‘Crew, staff and passengers.’

  Isla tried to bite her tongue. She didn’t want to get sucked into the gossip and yet she couldn’t seem to stop herself. It was a terrible compulsion—the likes of which she’d never suffered before.

  ‘He’s a player then?’ she heard herself ask.

  ‘You’d have thought so—’ Lisa grimaced ‘—but the guy never bites.’

  ‘Maybe he does, in secret?’ She didn’t know what made her say it, but both nurses laughed out loud.

  ‘Not a chance,’ scoffed Lisa, turning to her colleague to back her up.

  ‘You can’t have secrets on a ship. It’s impossible; we all live in each other’s pockets. No matter how discreet, someone is always watching.’

  ‘And talking,’ Lisa added. ‘Fair warning.’

  ‘Heeded.’ Isla forced herself to smile, though now her cheeks felt tight with the effort. ‘So he has never slept with anyone? Ever?’

  ‘Not on board ship,’ Lisa confirmed. ‘Though I imagine there have been women. How could there not have been, the way he looks?’

  ‘You’ll understand it better when you see him,’ Jordanna agreed. ‘People like to gossip, of course. And there are always stories of people who know someone, who know someone, who heard he’d slept with someone. But in five years on board the same ships as him, I have never known anyone who could actually substantiate it. And, like I said, ship life has no secrets.’

  ‘Plus there are rumours that he once hooked up with a colleague who was leaving the cruising way of life to set up a café in Spain,’ added Lisa. ‘But as she was leaving, no one knows for sure.’

  Jordanna nodded again. ‘You can imagine there have been several girls that desperate to get with him over the years they’ve applied for transfers in the hope that he would then look at them.’

  ‘And has it worked?’ Isla couldn’t seem to stop herself from asking.

  Lisa snorted scornfully. ‘No. They were airheads if they thought it would.’

  ‘Right.’ Isla shrugged. It really shouldn’t matter to her one iota what kind of a reputation Nikhil Dara had. ‘Well, as one of the senior officers, I doubt we’ll see much of him anyway.’

  ‘Certainly not enough.’ Jordanna pulled a rueful face. ‘Part of his job includes safety and security so he does come down here now and then to do his rounds, but certainly not enough.’

  ‘We’d all like to see a lot more of him,’ quipped Lisa, her insinuating wink driving home her pun. ‘If you know what I mean.’

  ‘We know what you mean, Lisa.’ Jordanna rolled her eyes good-naturedly. ‘The whole of Chile probably knows what you mean.’

  ‘Says the girl who threw herself on him the first night she was ever on board.’

  Isla watched, intrigued, as the stunning American flushed slightly.

  ‘Yes, well, he turned me down without even blinking an eye.’

  ‘The only guy who ever has.’ Lisa threaded her arm through her friend’s in solidarity, before turning to Isla. ‘Makes me feel better about the fact that he’s never looked twice at me either, though. If he can turn down Miss USA here, then what chance do the rest of us stand? Although you’re pretty striking too, Isla. You both make me feel dowdy by comparison.’

  ‘You’re beautiful,’ Isla and Jordanna chorused instantly, and both nurses turned to look at her approvingly.

  ‘Yeah—’ Lisa grinned ‘—you’ll do fine, Doc. Hard worker, knows her medical stuff and nice to boot. We’ll definitely keep you over your condescending predecessor any day.’

  ‘Thanks—’ she laughed ‘—I think.’

  And though she didn’t mention it, she quietly filed away the fact that the previous doctor apparently hadn’t been a good fit for the medical team, and they were glad to have her on board. Somehow, that made the idea of having to face Nikhil that much easier.

  Although, with any luck, she wouldn’t have to.

  The smells and sounds of the crew bar reached Isla’s senses long before they reached the room itself. Even so, she wasn’t prepared for the sights as she rounded the corner and stepped through the doors.

  It felt as if there were hundreds of crew in the place already mingling with raucous laughter, although it couldn’t even be half of those crew on board. And the place was gargantuan. There were TV screens and arcade games, a bank of computers on one wall and a bowling alley on the other. There were even several pool tables, ice-hockey tables and football tables in there. And still there would be room for more.

  ‘Come on.’ Jordanna grabbed her hand as the three of them weaved through the people to the bar. ‘It’s a bit of a shock to the senses, I know, but Lisa will get the drinks, we’ll get the seats and you’ll soon start to settle.’

  Obediently, Isla followed, circling the room twice before Jordanna spotted a small group getting ready to leave a table and pounced.

  ‘Impressive,’ Isla commented.

  ‘Yeah, well, in here you have to be faster than a passenger grabbing the last chocolate éclair off the dessert buffet.’

  Isla didn’t bother to say that passenger would probably have been her mother.

  ‘So this is your first cruise?’ Jordanna asked as they shuffled into the seats.

  ‘Yes, I was supposed to be joining the Jewel of Hestia tomorrow but...’

  ‘Thank God you’re with us,’ Jordanna cut in. ‘Do a good job and you could probably put in a request to stay here permanently. If you carry on the way you’re going, the rest of us would definitely stand character for you. And Reginald holds a lot of sway.’

  ‘The previous doctor was that bad?’

  ‘Worse.’ The nurse squeezed her eyes shut as she shook her head. ‘Not with the passengers, of course. He was the epitome of a caring doctor to them. But with the crew, and with us...? No, he was horrid.’

  For a moment, Isla hesitated. She was desperate to hear more, but starting the job bad-mouthing a colleague who she’d never met wasn’t her style. Instead, she opted to change the conversation.

  ‘So what are the patients like?’

  That easily, the conversation flipped to medical scenarios, both the routine and the unusual, and when Lisa made her way over with their drinks they indulged in the inexorable
horror scenarios.

  It was perhaps a good half hour of free-flowing conversation before the two nurses abruptly fell quiet, leaving Isla to look up from the straw of her drink and see a disapproving Nikhil looming over their table.

  ‘Dr Sinclair, drinking already?’

  Isla flashed hot then cold, shock and unwanted excitement coursing through her like petrol, and with the sheer unfairness of his accusation as the match.

  She drew in a deep, furious breath. ‘I don’t think...’

  ‘I’m not asking what you think, Doctor.’ He cut her off instantly. ‘A word, please. Now.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  NIKHIL BARELY WAITED for Isla to join him before striding out of the bar and back along the corridor to the bank of crew-only elevators, trying not to think about where they’d been heading the last time they’d been in an elevator together.

  And wasn’t that the problem?

  Seeing her sitting there in the bar, already so at home with his crew, was like a punch to the gut. Not least because he’d been glad to see her there.

  What the hell was that about?

  He never liked to mix professional and private. Yet, in that moment, the only thing he’d really wanted to do was get her alone and pick back up where they’d left off that morning.

  He simply hadn’t been able to help himself from heading over to her. The woman was like some kind of opiate, and he seemed hell-bent on getting a high. If he’d walked away, no one would have known any different. Instead, he’d marched up to her in front of half of the rest of the medical staff and made some kind of damned scene.

  All because he wanted Isla Sinclair, with a ferocity that he’d never experienced before.

  Stepping inside the elevator beside him, she turned around and folded her arms over her chest, a hint of mulishness about her delicious mouth.

  ‘I didn’t ask for this transfer,’ she announced.

  ‘Not here, please,’ he clipped out swiftly.

  ‘You think someone’s going to overhear us?’

  ‘Not here,’ he repeated simply. A command, not a request.

  And possibly more to keep his own charging, roaring emotions in check than anything else. Still, Nikhil wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d made a point of non-compliance. But, even though she exhaled deeply, she didn’t try to say anything more, and Nikhil was left to his own thoughts.

  The overriding one being that he should feel more aggrieved than he did that she was here, on his ship.

  He’d received the call from Head Office a few hours ago informing him that, to expedite handovers, they’d opted to transfer a Dr Sinclair to his ship because she happened to be in Chile.

  She might never have told him her surname, but his gut had known instantly it was her. If he hadn’t been caught up with a safety boat issue on the crew decks he probably would have been the one to conduct her interview in place of the Captain.

  He was glad he hadn’t. It had taken all this time for him to get his head straight. If he even had it straight now.

  Deep in the logical side of his brain he knew it made sense. She was in Chile waiting for the Hestia to arrive, once the Cassiopeia had left. So assigning her to this ship meant that they wouldn’t be late leaving port. Apparently, another doctor who was, even now, airborne and on their way to this port would be better placed to join the Hestia instead.

  But it wasn’t the efficacy of the transfer that concerned him the most. This thing that was worming its way through him wasn’t annoyance or aggravation. It was something far, far more dangerous. More inappropriate.

  It was altogether too much like pleasure. A sort of thrill that she was here—on his ship. And as much as Nikhil tried to punch it down, it wouldn’t go.

  He, who had spent his entire career zealously avoiding blurring the lines between his personal life and his professional one.

  He’d known he had a problem last night when they’d had sex—maybe even before that. He’d wanted it—her—too much. With a ferocity that he couldn’t explain. And when he’d left that morning it had taken all he’d had not to turn around and stay, just that little bit longer.

  And longer, again.

  So what did it say that the urge to pull her into his arms, right here and now, and take up where they’d left off that morning was so damned strong?

  He clenched his fists tightly and thrust them into the pockets of his uniform. He could smell the light hint of coconut in her shampoo from here, pervading his nostrils and conjuring up images he was a desperately trying not to see, his mind echoing with memories of her gasps and cries as he’d licked her to ecstasy.

  What would she do if, right now, he pressed her against that wall, slid his fingers into her waistband and indulged in all that soft, wet heat that was, even now, making him hard, aching, in a way that no one else had ever made him feel?

  God, how he wanted to.

  Clenching his jaw until it was locked so tight that it was actually painful, Nikhil glowered at some abstract point on the metal doors in front of him. He was grateful when the elevator drew to a halt and the doors finally opened, finally releasing him from the temptations of that enclosed space.

  Marching down the corridor to his office, he didn’t even stop to see if Isla was following. Opening the door, he held it open and wordlessly ushered her inside.

  ‘Like I said,’ she began, even before the door had closed behind them or he’d made his way around the other side—the safe side—of his desk, ‘I didn’t ask for this transfer, but what was I supposed to say when they contacted me? No, sorry, I can’t. I just slept with the ship’s First Officer, and he won’t like it?’

  ‘So you did realise that I wouldn’t welcome your arrival?’ he managed curtly, wondering why the words that were coming out of his mouth sounded so awkward. So hollow.

  ‘No, actually, I didn’t consider you at all.’

  She met his eyes for a brief moment, then let them slide away. She was lying; they both knew it. Although why it should make him feel so victorious was a different matter.

  ‘Then now is the time to start.’

  ‘I’m not quitting.’ Her head snapped up in an instant.

  ‘I’m not asking you to. I’m well aware it was a Head Office decision.’

  ‘Really? Because you’re acting like I’m at least partly to blame.’ She sighed, raking her hand through her hair.

  He remembered too clearly how soft it felt. That vaguely coconut scent. His traitorous body twitched in response, but he quashed it furiously.

  Then...what?

  ‘We can’t change what happened,’ he said grimly, making himself sit down behind the desk, and gesturing for Isla to do the same. ‘But I want to establish the rules from here on in.’

  For himself, as much as for her. Since the sight of her standing there, her uniform lovingly fitting her curves—too pristine and perfect—was making him think of all kinds of ways to sully it.

  He felt like some sex-crazed kid. Worse, he kind of liked this new sensation.

  ‘I told you that I don’t do relationships.’ He wasn’t sure if he was reminding Isla or himself. He’d never had to remind himself of anything like that before.

  ‘So I hear.’ Her eyes narrowed at him, too sharply for Nikhil’s liking. ‘You like to keep yourself single and available.’

  It was about as far from the truth as it was possible to get. And yet, as reasons went, why not go with it? It would be more likely to put her off than anything else, and Lord knew he needed help to stay away from this woman.

  There had been no reason for him to speak to her at all, and yet he’d found himself in that bar, having sought her out.

  For what, exactly?

  ‘I never promised you exclusivity, Isla,’ he bit out, though every word tasted bitter in his mouth.

  Did they sound as hollow as they f
elt?

  ‘No. And I don’t recall asking for it, now,’ she pointed out evenly.

  He might have expected her to appear more manipulative. They usually were, which was why he generally liked to be able to walk away. Only right now he seemed to be the one having the most trouble with that concept. If he’d been a lesser man it might have dented his ego.

  What the hell was wrong with him?

  ‘You think you’re the only one? That you’re somehow special? That we’re going to pick up where we left off now we’re working on the same ship together?’

  He’d intended the words to score a hit, but when she blanched he actually felt it like a physical blow. He opened his mouth to apologise, but something stopped him.

  Wasn’t this what he’d intended? Still, he waited, needing to hear whatever it was she was going to say.

  ‘I understand that your one-night stand suddenly being transferred to your ship is a shock.’ Isla eyed him contemptuously. ‘But trust me, I’m no less thrown by it than you are.’

  ‘Good, so long as you don’t have...expectations of us now embarking on some great love affair.’

  He was acting like a jerk. It was so unlike him, and yet he couldn’t seem to get a grip. Yet another example of how she made him feel like some untried kid.

  ‘I told you, this is a fresh start for me. I certainly don’t need to get tangled up with any jackass men,’ she added pointedly. ‘Talking of love, which never really exists.’

  Something he couldn’t identify, or didn’t want to, caught at him. Whether she’d intended it or not, he found himself hooked, reeled in—wanting to know more. Keen to uncover whatever her opinion of love was, in the puzzle that was Dr Isla Sinclair.

  But he hadn’t brought her here to piece her together in his head. He’d come here to remind them both that there could be no repeat of what had happened between them in Chile.

  Only the previous night?

  It felt like a lifetime ago—could it really have been that recent? Could it only have been hours ago that they had shared a bed? That he’d held her body against his, and around him?

  Despite all his brain’s objections, something slammed inside his chest. He might have thought it was his heart picking up pace, if he’d actually had a heart. If it hadn’t been killed years ago, when he’d plunged that knife into his raging father.